carpe diem ⊶ joseph descamps

23 | killing me slowly

—
[twenty-three]
his name starts with j
—

There were a lot of things someone could buy with one hundred and fifteen francs: a week of groceries for her family; enough gas to get to and from Paris; a whole new winter wardrobe. Sadie wasn't quite sure what she had done to be worth all that; was it her makeup? Maybe her dress? Or maybe even her mother's tamales? They were exceptionally good, but she wouldn't quite price them so high. Whatever had worked to draw in this boy in front of her, she could only hope it lasted throughout the rest of the night.

"I-I-It's nice to meet you," Sadie stuttered, holding a hand out to the brunet boy as he finally stood in front of her.

He'd just left his friends and come up to the front with the three other winners, and he had the widest grin on his face. Sadie ignored the wolf whistles his friends gave when he grabbed her hand, placing a delicate kiss on the back of it as he said something that shocked her to her core.

"I wish I could say the same, but I'm afraid we've already met before. Quite a few times, actually," he stated.

Sadie tilted her head, wracking her brain to see if she could remember the boy at all. She could see his eyes peer into hers as if trying to find the answer in them himself, but it wasn't so.

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember," she swallowed, feeling terrible for being unable to recall any interaction with him after he'd spent so much of his money on her.

But he merely laughed and shook his head. "Well, of course not! You'd taken a nasty elbow to the nose the first time!"

Sadie's eyes widened as she stared up at the boy's mischievous eyes, finally starting to recognize the third year boy who had walked her to the nurse's office all those months ago.

"Oh god," Sadie croaked, jaw dropped as his smile widened at the realization on her face.

"And that was only the first time," he said, "The second time, you were kind of having a panic attack in the middle of the hallway. Hope you don't repeat that tonight, by the way."

She scoffed at the boy as he winked at her.

"I don't even want to know what else I've done," Sadie groaned.

"This next one, I do blame you for, considering it happened just tonight!"

"What?! How?"

"You nearly killed me when you rammed me into some other guy holding a giant meat platter! I had to go back home and change so I could stop smelling like sausages, which is why I was late to bid, by the way," he explained, causing Sadie to bury her face in her hands.

"That is so embarrassing, I sound like a psychopath," she groaned.

But the boy grabbed her hands and pulled them away to have her look at him again. "Hey, you're not as psychopathic as me, who chose to throw a hundred and fifteen francs on you anyway," he said.