Touch of Stranger

The Stared

Descamps have been feeling sick in his stomach since yesterday evening. He was sitting in the classroom studying, writing the notes the teacher wrote on the board, but his mind goes back to the night of the party and yesterday evening.

He leaned back against the back of his seat, pressing down firmly on the pinch pen. He sighed angrily, raised his hand to his chin, bit his nails, and wondered why every time he saw her he felt the urge to tease her, looking at her conquering eyes and expression.He just wanted to tease her, but every time he spent time alone with her, he felt strangely attracted to her.

The time she reached out to him at a party. His heart was pounding out of rhythm. He had to try to get rid of this feeling, he had to win over this.

    The bell rang saved students from the torture of another paragraph. Descamps sprang up from his seat, heading towards his friend, Dupin who was looking at Applebaum's note.

    "Your eye suits you," Dupin commented. He was late today, so he didn't notice the change.

    Applebaum looked up at Descamps, noticing it now too. "Didn't know you finally got an artificial eye, Descamps. Wearing glasses suits you well."

    Descamps nodded, feeling better to be able to distract his own thoughts. He tucked his hand into his pants, "Copy that later, let's go to lunch"

    Dupin packed his stuff quickly. Descamps waited, shifting his eyesight to look at her at the back of the classroom, explaining the math equation to Pichon.

"Twat" said Descamps, staring at Pichon in the yard with Annick and Celine.

Dupin looked at his friend confused, "What?"

"That Pig Pichon always talked with girls," Descamps inhaled the toxic smoke from the cigarette, flicking the end of it to the floor.

"Yeah," Dupin agreed, squinting his eyes to look. "I thought he didn't talk to Annick anymore,"

"Pichon resist a girl? I don't think so,"

"Would you be able to resist if a girl that pretty talked only to you out of the whole class," Dupin asked curiously because Descamps hasn;t talked to any girl, or talked about any girl for a while.

"I'm not weak like Pichon, and Annick isn't that pretty,"

"You are really blind, Descamps!" Dupin laughed loudly, "There is no boy in the school thinking anyone is prettier than Annick? Why? Or you fall for the new girl"

"Laurent?" Descamps scoff, trying to hide his facial expression by looking down at the floor, smoking his cigarette. "She is just smart like Annick."

"Probably smarter," Dupin commented, "She didn't just explain math to Pichon, but to Annick too. I guess that's why they get along."

"Is she really good at math?"

"Thought you didn't care, Descamps" Dupin teased, but then his smile stopped, as Descamps stared deadly to him. "Just joking!"

"So is she good?" Descamps distracted himself from looking at Celine, rubbing his glasses that he finally got it back.

"What? Math? Yeah, she helped me once. She's many good tricks to calculate faster. 'must be the school in paris. That's why they are smarter than us."

Descamps wore his glasses again, inhaling the smoke, staring at her under the break.

She is good at math.

Descamps thought quietly on his own, when the rest of the class stared at the little competition on the black board.

Celine, in her usual outfit, white long-sleeved shirt, black trouser, and  burgundy boot that kept stepping sideways from left to right, right to left, solved the mathematical problem on the board without pause.

Next to her, stand Felbec in his usual suit, glancing at Celine's answer, and quickly write his own down.

"That is great, Miss Laurent" Professor De Goff complimented her, when she stepped away from the board, heading back to her seat.

Descamps unknowingly watched every step she took. Her boot made an echo noise in the classroom, yet it's not annoying. Her black eyes darted away from his eyesight, avoiding eye contact. Descamps heard she cough a little while walking past him, back to her seat.

"Great job to, Mr. Felbec,"

Finally the class resumed taking notes. Descamps chin himself, copying the board. Secretly, he glanced at her, sitting looking at the view through the window. She wasn't interested in writing down the content the teacher was teaching at all.

She is really good at math.

He didn't mean to give her peace, but he couldn't start a conversation with her when most of the boys in the class lined up to ask her about math.

Why is she good at math?

Why is she good in the subject that everyone is bad at?

The worse is not because he is frustrated about not having time with her, but the fact that she doesn't even think of him at all, while he is crazy about how she whimpered under him, or how she used to touch him gently, removing his glasses.

Descamps raised his hand and took off his glasses in frustration. He walked to the end of the line and Dupin was already in line, waiting to get help like the others.

"Like your fake eye now?" Dupin asked, pointing out to his eyes, the one with a scar.

Descamps made a slight noise in his throat before nodding. "Studying with glasses is better."

"It's look like old Descamps is back"

Descamps smiled at his friend and walked away, heading outside of the classroom.

She didn't even notice that he doesn't wear his eye patch now.

He has to talk with her today.