Episode 34: The France Trip: Paris
17th July 2010, there she was, as if she was waiting for me.
I’ve always hated bus rides. They were too long for my liking. The seats were uncomfortably and it was too compact. Though we hired a coach, the same feeling of bus rides was ever present. I sat next to Corey, near the front of the coach and just sat there thinking. Angelina had officially destroyed me. It was eating every part of my insides and it showed inevitably. I had nostalgia for her. It was annoying and it was a huge burden to carry. We were making our way to Paris and I tried to distract myself. I looked towards my left and Jasmine, Jennifer’s friend was looking outside her window, half asleep. I stood up and sat next to her.
Jasmine was fairly good looking. She was mixed-race (half British, half Tanzanian). She had really curly brown hair and was a bit curvaceous. She seemed interesting. She had a short stubby nose and spots all over her. As I said, quite interesting.
‘Hey what’s up?’ I asked her as I made myself comfortable and she smilled so much that her gums showed.
‘Hey. Nothing!’ she replied. ‘Howcomes you moved away from Corey to sit with me?’
‘Well, I wanted to get to know you better and I took advantage of the opportunity.’
‘That’s sweet. So what do you wanna know about me?’
‘Well… how’d you meet Jennifer?’
‘I’ve been friends with her since kindergarten!’ she exclaimed. It made sense, they were two peas in a pod. Our conversation went on and on and it was starting to get boring. I was exhausted and we seemed no closer to Paris.
‘I’m just gonna take a small nap, alright?’ I said and she nodded. I closed my hands and as usual as my consciousness flowed away I had a dream.
I felt happy so I knew it couldn’t be a nightmare since my nightmares always have the feeling of suspense. It was Paris, I just knew it and I could see the Eiffel Tower with its neck raised into the sky. It was a magnificent display and I admired how the Eiffel Tower stood there looking brave and tall, looking down on us and the whole of Paris. The Eiffel Tower looked better than I thought it would and it was quite amazing to be in the scenery with the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower while you take several pictures. Suddenly, I was warped to the top of the Eiffel Tower but I was no longer in my body but I was watching myself gaze at the horizon. I seemed sad and it was as if I was sobbing. The whole dream turned to black and white. Then, this girl wearing a horizontally striped shirt approached the day-dreaming me.
‘Excuse me.’ She said in the sweetest voice ever. I was entranced. It was too sweet to bare. My avatar was sort of slow to respond but he got their in time. She was a bit taller than me and she had long black hair and she was mixed-race. I wondered why mixed-race females appealed more to me. Maybe it was because they were unique. The girl was beautiful in my opinion and the expression on my face showed it.
‘Do you speak English?’ she asked slowly as if to give me time to comprehend what she had just said.
‘Yeah. Yeah I do.’ I replied with a slight hint of me trying too much to sound cool.
‘Oh. Good. Would you mind if we talked a bit? I haven’t been able to talk to anyone here. It seems no one here knows English.’
I looked at her in amazement. I knew how this small movie played out but my heart still pumped faster just hearing her voice. It was too sweet to be true. She was too curvaceous that it was just mouth watering. Angelina couldn’t compare to this girl. But as thoughts of Angelina invaded my mind, the dream slipped through the tiny gaps in between my fingers. I was slowly regaining consciousness.
‘And to your right, the symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.’ A woman said. I sat properly and craned my neck in order to get a good look at her. She had blond hair and, as it seemed, a strong jaw. She also suffered from a overbite. I knew that she was the tour guide and we had already arrived in Paris but what surprised me is that when my view spanned towards the right. I saw the four feet of the Eiffel Tower touch the ground with a sense of elegancy. As I said in my dream, it was a magnificent display. I stepped outside the bus with my camera and started to take pictures of the tower. On the ground floor, a lot of black men were selling goods. These ranged from fun things to things that seemed a bit too dangerous. I guessed that they were from Sierra Leone.
We took an elevator up to the second floor and enjoyed a nice view. As always, people were gasping in amazement. But the second floor wasn’t enough for me and even though we were advised not to go to the top, I still went. I needed to look at the whole of Paris. It was something that I would of always wanted to tell people. I made my way into a crowded elevator and off I went to the top floor. As the doors flung open, I was the first to walk off and take a good look at Paris and I was not disappointed. The view was stunning and the atmosphere felt great. I felt alive and I hadn’t felt that good since the days when I was dating Angelina. I looked towards the horizon and marveled at its beauty.
‘Excuse me.’ I heard a sweet voice call. I couldn’t believe I heard it. My heart was thumping hard as I turned around and faced her.
She was gorgeous, just as I had dreamt her. But this time she was real. She was right in front of me. The same round and full face was there. I wanted to reach out and grab her long black hair but I hesitated. It would seem awkward.
‘Do you speak English?’ she asked. I was astonished. How were my dreams coming true? It was amazing. It felt ‘out of this world’.
‘Yeah. Yeah I do.’ I replied. I was marveling at her. From head to toe she was, this might sound corny, beautiful.
‘Oh. Good. Would you mind if we talked a bit? I haven’t been able to talk to anyone here. It seems no one here knows English.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ I asked her. ‘There’s a whole school here that speak English.’
‘Really? Oh. I never noticed. So what’s your name?’ she asked.
‘Levi. How about you?’ I had just realized that that was the moment I had been waiting for. I always wanted to know her name. I looked at her in amazement. She was smilling and she just looked gorgeous. I wanted to cup her face in my arms and just kiss her.
‘Erika. Erika Shaey.’ She replied. I finally got to know her name. Erika just sounded so nice. We stood quiet just staring into each other’s eyes and I couldn’t hold it anymore. Her dark eyes just made me give in. She was just beautiful and mesmerizing. I came closer to her and held both of her hands.
‘You’re beautiful you know that?’ I asked her rhetorically. She smilled awkwardly. We hardly knew each other but I was already getting this close.
‘I guess so…’ she replied.
She was blushing bright pink and I honestly did not know what to say. My mind was all over the place. I really wanted to kiss her but it seemed wrong. I didn’t even know the girl but yet it felt as if I had known her for so long. I looked at her up and down as if she was a piece of meat. She was perfectly curvaceous. She was voluptuous.
‘Are you going to do anything? Or are you just gonna hold my hands?’ she taunted. I now was sure that she wanted to kiss me too.
It was weird for me. I wasn’t the type that fall for people that quick. The major reason I just had to go for it was so that I could just get over Angelina. I needed the sense of closure towards our (Angelina and me) relationship. I had to, call it corny or not, seal the deal with a kiss. And the girl was right there, just waiting for me to plant one on her.
I caressed her hair slowly. She hesitated but her eyes slowly closed allowing me to edge in. Allowing me to kiss her. And so I did. Our snogging went on and on and on. It became more passionate as time went by. It was impossible to open my eyes as the emotion was circulating around me.
‘You like that?’ she teased as we slightly pulled away from each other only to get back into kissing immediately. For some strange reason I grabbed onto her arse and she chuckled. It was getting a bit too sexual. Then an idea came into mind. I had a camera in my pocket so I whipped it out. Then I raised it into the air and took four pictures. I was going to put them onto facebook. Thinking back, I shouldn’t have. It just proved that I wasn’t 100% over Angelina. I just had to get back at her.
I pulled away from the kiss and my eyes slowly opened in sync with hers.
‘I liked that.’
I had never kissed a total stranger before.
‘Give me your number.’ I demanded. I gave her my phone and she wrote her number in.
‘Where do you live?’ she asked me. My face came from being exited to being disappointed. How was I ever going to see her again. I didn’t know where in Paris I was staying.
‘I honestly don’t know. But when I do, I’ll tell you.’ I said. She was disappointed as well.
‘Oh shit! I’m late. I’ve got to go! I think I’m going to call you Lee.’ She said and she was on the elevator. I ran towards her and entered as well.
‘Stalker.’ She said as she chuckled.
‘I have to find my school.’ I replied. We parted.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was too good to be true. How did I dream of her before I even knew her? How did I half-expect her to be there? Was it all a coincidence? It couldn’t be. That we would be impossible.
I met my Paris parent. She was a divorced woman with a punk daughter and a nerdy son. She had red hair and a black shirt with blue jeans (she would wear this everyday from then on). She was an outgoing woman and very happy. When Corey and I got to her house, I quickly asked if she had internet, to which she replied positively. She gave me her laptop and to my surprise, facebook was the first thing I saw as I opened up her laptop. I connected my camera and posted the pictures.
‘When did that happen?’ I heard a voice call from behind me. I turned to see Corey. He was referring to the pictures that I was just staring at.
‘Today.’ I said with a smile all over my face.
‘You shouldn’t of posted them. It looks like you’re trying to get back at Angie.’ He replied. I looked at him with disgust. I felt that it was none of his business.
‘Yeah... well I already did.’ I snapped.
As I went to sleep, I checked my facebook profile. I had fifteen new notifications, all of them being comments on my picture. But at the end of all the comments there was one thing that swept me. Because the last notification read:
‘Angelina Meyer likes your photo.’