Wallflowers

16 mai

i still spend most days at the cafe, which quickly became my favorite place in paris in a more intense way than it ever had been. now i had memories and emotion peeking out from behind every letter in the coffee-stained, one-page menus.

i waited for jean and nina to wake up and somehow make it out of the front door of the apartment building. miraculously, they were only ten minutes late today. i honestly don't know how they can even hold their jobs.

jean updated us on the "strange pustule between my right shoulder blade and the mole on my mid-back" (it's healing quite nicely) and nina told me about the phone call she shared with her older sister in america yesterday. nina had two brothers and two sisters, but her brother christopher was stillborn and her sister esperanza passed away in a car wreck when she was seventeen. her older sister was getting married after a two year engagement to her boyfriend. nina was upset she couldn't afford to go back home but wished them well. i began to daydream about what it's like to have such a large family. all i've ever known is grandfather and aunt marguerite. only small doses of my parents are dotted throughout my oldest memories, my first memories. what it must be like to have siblings is almost beyond my reach.

"and what's been up with you, adrien?" jean shook me out of the clouds and back down to my rusty chair on earth.

"hm?"

"yeah, you don't talk about yourself much at all. how've you been?" nina added.

"oh. um, okay, i guess. normal. i'd kind of like to move out my grandfather's home, it's getting a bit suffocatingly crowded lately."

"you're looking for an apartment?"

"uh, yeah. sure."

"there's florian's old place on côt-" jean began, only to be interrupted by nina.

"you should move in with us!" she burst excitedly, words spilling from her mouth like a fountain.

"really?" i ask.

"yes! it would be so much fun. we have a spare room that we've been using as an extra closet slash movie theatre slash dancing room slash giant junk drawer."

"well i kinda like our giant junk drawer," jean contested. seeing nina's look of concern and i guess something on my face that exclaimed dismay, he quickly corrected himself. "but, we don't need all that mess, right?"

"are you sure?" i ask again.

"of course! it'd be lovely, right, jean?"

"right."