✔ Statistics » Timothée Chalamet

N i n e

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Manon sat by the stone fountain located a few minutes away from her apartment as she read the book the production was based on. To say she didn't connect to the book would be a lie. Experiencing young love, losing it, and feeling all the pain afterward was something Manon had truly mastered, same as transitioning from childhood to adulthood and realizing that things are just not as easy as they seem.

The girl knew that she would deeply regret not having slept in the morning if she continued to read, but found her eyes glued to the artwork in her hands. 

She also found herself enjoying the silence of the town at night. It felt as if it was just her, the water, the street lights, the beautiful architecture, and the stars above. She much preferred it over the dark apartment that brought up the demons within her and figured that if sleep had to be sacrificed in order to feel at peace, so be it. 

The town was a maze of narrow twisting streets, secrets hidden within its many paths. Timothée found himself taking his time instead of hurrying to Armie's place. He wanted to explore, to uncover the secrets hidden within the town's core. He had his headphones in his ears as he ran his fingers across the walls of the houses spread across the town, getting lost in the architecture that was built long before he stepped into the world, belonging to a different era he could only dream of experiencing.

Manon heard the sudden sound of footsteps and quirked her head up. She had been sitting there for quite a while and had yet to stumble across another soul. She waited for another sound, in hopes she could try and figure out where the original one came from, but upon meeting with nothing but silence, assumed it was a citizen passing one of the alleyways and focused back on the book. 

Moments later, she heard the echos of footsteps yet again. She clutched the book she was holding to her chest, feeling the fear as it began coursing through her blood. Her mind suddenly felt at ease as she heard the sound of someone's humming echoing through the fountain and coming from an alleyway to her left. She swore the melody was familiar, but couldn't quite associate it with anything she'd ever heard.

As the humming and footsteps grew louder, her anticipation grew stronger, just to be met with the boy she had known so well. Timothée emerged from the shadows of the alleyway, taking her breath away in an instant. Manon recognized his face immediately, as he did hers. 

Before letting her emotions take control of her, she looked down at the book in front of her and remembered the plot. The girl decided there and then that she wasn't going to let her story with Timothée end as it did for Elio and Oliver, that she wouldn't let her fear take ahold of her, that she wouldn't let herself succumb to her darkest thoughts and stop her from doing what she knew she craved more than anything.

Suddenly, it was as if nothing mattered anymore, but him, as she opposed to her many thoughts, ignored the many warnings and lifted her delicate, shaking arm with a soft smile, sending her childhood best friend a wave, hoping he'd appreciate the gesture that had seemed like such a big step for her at that moment.  

Timothée took his headphones off, unable to comprehend that he had just found Manon all alone in the midst of the night, all alone and communicating with him. There were so many things he wanted to think of that moment, so many things he wanted to assume, to feel, yet he suppressed it all, telling himself that if he talked to Armie about it, Armie would tell him to grow a pair and dive in. There was no better option than talking to Manon. The boy was done with living in his own mind, with ruining things because his mind told him to.