Leon, Leon (BoyxNB romance)

Chapter 4

“Alright, and for the next passage, I’ll need a volunteer to read it out. Leon, what about you?”

I could feel him flinch next to me, and I wondered what he was actually feeling. How much he was hiding. He was good at it, if there was anything beneath the surface.

“I stand?” He whispered over to me. “I need to stand and read?”
“No, you don’t have to stand up, don’t worry. But yeah, it’s your go to read. You have to uh... commencer... here.” Bursts of confidence make me do the weirdest things. Am I supposed to impress anyone by knowing one word?

He smiled, but it didn’t seem too snarky or ‘at me’. He looked back over to where I had pointed, and began.

“I looked down the road, the mist making my legs dis... dis-appear.” He put the stress on the word strangely, making it sound something like ‘this-happy-are.’ It earned a few snickers from around the class, but he kept his head down and continued, though I could tell he was taking them into account.

He mumbled the next few lines, occasionally slipping up on a word’s pronunciation or grammar. I could tell it was wearing him down, after a while, even though I think he was doing better than he thought he was. And the teacher wants him to do this for the whole chapter? He’ll never want to come back.

“From across the road, he was just about... au-deeblé-“
“Audible,” I said, hoping to sound sympathetic and helpful but scared that it would sound like some bratty kid being on a high horse as soon as it left my mouth. But he smiled, anyway, which made me feel warmer inside.
“He was just about audible,” He repeated, still putting too much emphasis on the ‘e’, but apart from that, saying it pretty much as normal.

And the rest of the lesson worked that way – for the first part, he would read, and when I noticed he had stopped a word I would whisper how to say it, and the same when we were writing analyses. He asked for words a lot less than I expected – a lot less than I would – and, it was over, eventually, and overall, I thought it could’ve gone a lot worse. Still, I wanted to catch him before the day was over – just to say hey one more time, I guess, and to make sure he hadn’t died inside as a result of the other people in the class – or me.

“Hey,” he said, slinging one strap of his backpack over his shoulder. “Good afternoon.”
“Yeah, how are you? Managed to survive English?”
“Oh, I, ah...” he smiled, hoping I’d just take that as enough of an answer.
“Oh, sorry, I just tried to say, like, English was fine? It seemed difficult, for you. I probably couldn’t do that on my first day.”
“Oh, yes,” he smiled more widely. “It was difficult, but it is good, now. I am good. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I grinned back. “I’m happy I could help you.”
“And I am happy you help me also, you are kind. I can say a secret?”
“Oh, um, sure! If you want to tell me something, I’ll listen.” That bubbly feeling again. God, it was the worst, but also sort of the best in a weird way.
“Thank you. Well, um, it will be stupid, maybe, to you, but um... I am not really French.”
“You’re... not? Wait, what?” And this is where we learn this has been some whole big joke on me the entire time by the boys and they knew I was stupid enough to believe it? At least he’s being kind enough to tell me now and not let it go on any longer, I guess.
“No, ah, I am... une personne belge. I am Belgian.”
Oh. Never mind then. “Oh, really?”
“Yes, haha, and in fact I believe that my father will kill me if he will know about it,” he laughed. “He hates people that say that he is French. But I say that because it is more easy, a lot of people do not know about Belgium, you know? C’est toujours comme, ‘Ouais, je suis belge, non, La Belgique ne se trouve pas en France, ouais, c’est un endroit vrai, ouais, nous avons bon chocolat, ouais ouais ouais,’ tu sais?”
“I, uh... I think I lost what you were saying after a while, but yeah, I understand. It must be annoying... ennuyeux.”
“Ouais, Ouais, it is. Also, for, ah... for a trade, I suppose, I can give to you advice?”
“Yeah ?”
“In this situation, I think that I would use énervant as the word. Ennuyeux is more... boring, dull, you understand?”
“Oh, ok, fair enough. That’s so stupid though, ennuyeux sounds just like annoying! I hate French so much.” He laughed, a little. “That was a joke, by the way.”
“I understand. I suppose it is silly, too. C’est ennuyeux, n’est-ce pas ?”

I smiled, and I meant to just say goodbye, maybe a ‘See you tomorrow’ or something similar. But I didn’t. I guess my brain and my mouth didn’t feel like working together today.
“Can I tell you a secret, too?”
“Oh, ah, bien sûr, mon ami.”
“I am... not like the other boys.”
He smiled, and shook his head, a little. He chuckled, and looked up at me through thick eyelashes and messed up hair. “I know, Callum. I know.”

xxx

(A/N 25/3/18: Decided to upload two in a day. Why not.)