"Declan, you're here finally," Pierre greeted me as he opened the door of his house. He gave me a big bright smile and I eyed him from up and down. He was wearing a mickey mouse apron.
"Hello, beautiful," I told him, a smirk coming on my face as I folded my arms over my chest. He rolled his eyes and pushed me playfully on the shoulder.
"Don't ever call me that again," he stated and he stepped aside to let me in.
I chuckled and then walked in the house. That place did not change at all since the last time that I came here. It was still cold and not so welcoming to me, or at least that was the feeling that I got each time I came here. My love was the only flicker of warm of the house.
"You did not come to church today," Pierre said as he closed the door behind me. "You did not inform me that you were not going to come."
"Yeah, well, I woke up late and I did not think of texting you as I knew that I was going to come at your house later," I replied to him and he nodded slowly.
"Oh, I thought that something had happened to you," he said quietly and I smiled at him.
"You always think of the worst," I told him with a brief shake of head. "Don't worry, next time, I will warn you about any absences, love." I grabbed his hand and he looked at me curiously as I placed a soft kiss on it. His cheeks turned a light shade of red and he quickly pulled his hand away.
"Don't do that. My mom is here," he scolded me and I mentally sighed. "She's currently taking a shower but still, don't risk it with her." He took a few steps before stopping to look back at me. "Come with me. I was just about to go prepare our lunch."
"Hmm, what's on the menu?" I asked him as I followed him to the kitchen.
"Macaroni cheese," he replied and he frowned at his own words. "Not really something incredible."
"I don't mind. I wanted something simple anyway," I told him and he went to grab a stool before giving it to me so that I could sit. I did so and I noticed a tablet on the counter. Pierre took it and started touching the screen.
"I was searching for a recipe to make on the internet but I realized that I don't have the necessary ingredients," he said. "Though, I have an idea for the desert. You are okay with that?"
He turned the tablet around to show me the screen and I licked my lips.
"Totally," was my positive reply. I loved brownies.
"Perfect," he said and he placed the tablet aside and glanced at the ingredients in front of him. Everything happened to be already placed on the counter in front of him, he just had to start the preparation, and he did soon enough.
I remained quietly on my stool, my eyes on him. It was weird for me to be here with him cooking a meal for me. He could protest as much as he wanted but for me, it did seem like a date. It would be the first time that him and I would be face to face, alone, while eating. It would be like having a romantic dinner, or in that case, a romantic lunch.
While watching him, my mind drifted off to some dreamy thoughts. I imagined him and I living together, I imagined him and I being married in the future. Our house would probably be different from this one, probably more colorful. I would also stick some of the photos of him and I to the walls. Pierre wanted to travel and souvenirs from our numerous future trips would most likely be found in the house. That only thought brought a smile to my face.
"Are you dreaming?" Pierre asked me, snapping me out of my thought and I blinked. His attention was on the food preparation but he was throwing some glances at me. "You seem to be dreaming."
"I am living a dream with you," I told him and he rolled his eyes, though, I could tell that he was amused.
"You're quiet," he said, "Don't you want to talk? Or, do you want me to make conversation again?"
I let out a light chuckle and shook my head. I then sighed after a moment, averting my eyes, "Actually, to be honest with you, I'm kind of sad today."
"What? Why?" he asked me instantly, stopping what he was doing to look at me with a worried look in the eyes. "Did something happen?"
"No, nothing happened. I just woke up in a sad mood," I replied with a shrug, "I can't even explain why I'm sad. The feeling is just consuming me entirely."
True, when I woke up this morning, one hour passed with me just staring at the ceiling. I felt depressed at my awake and a lot of sad thoughts came to me. I felt angry, impatient, sad and I had an uncontrollable want to break something. I couldn't really explain it, things just turned out that way.
"Hey, did I do something?" Pierre asked me as he quickly walked to me. He grabbed my hand without hesitation. "Tell me, did I say something wrong?"
"No, you didn't do anything bad, love. Like I said, I just woke up with sadness inside, there's no particular reason to explain it," I told him and he seemed to be more worried than before.
"What can I do to make you feel better?" he asked me quickly and his hand tightened around mine.
"You don't have to do anything, it's okay," I assured him. "It's just a little phase. The feeling will go away before the end of the day."
I gave him a small smile but he did not seem to appreciate it. With a bit of obvious hesitation, he leaned forward to press his lips against my cheek. I was startled by his sudden action and I was even more surprised when he kissed me on the forehead and then hugged me. I immediately wrapped my arms around him. Damn, he smelt so nice and it just made me feel good to be so close to him.
I did not know why I told him about how I was feeling. I planned on not telling him anything about it as I did not want to ruin our lunch together as well as his mood but I ended up telling him the truth. His hug was the only thing that I needed and I never wanted him to go away.
I pulled him closer and he ended up sitting on my legs. I could tell that our new position embarrassed him due to the fact that I felt his whole body heat up. He wrapped his arms around my neck and me around his waist so that he did not fall off me. We locked eyes and I slowly leaned forward to kiss him. It was not a kiss on the lips but it was close enough to his lips to make him shiver.
"What are we doing?" he whispered and he seemed to not believe the situation.
"I don't know," I replied back and I bit my bottom lip. "You are just so close to me right now. Am I really dreaming?"
"I don't think so," he let out a small laugh and he pulled his face away a little bit, "But are you feeling a tiny little bit better?"
"Yeah," I replied honestly and he nodded before burying his face in the crook of my neck.
Why was he acting like this so suddenly? He was surprising me more and more by each passing day. His actions and words were troubling me lately. I breathed in his scent and placed another soft kiss on the top of his head. He hummed softly.
"Love," I said quietly. "Can this be a date? I want it to be one."
He did not reply right away, he did not move at all at my question. I thought that he was just going to avoid the question but he finally replied.
"It can be a date," he said surprisingly after much thought. "Just for this time. Just because it's you."
Yeah, he was really confusing me.
"I love you so much," I told him.
"I know," he said and he added in a whisper. "And that's everything to me."
Really, what were we doing right now? The current situation was so different from what it was before. It felt different and I couldn't believe that Pierre just agreed that it was a date. It was so unlike him. Was he saying that just to make me feel better? Yeah, that must surely be it.
"I should probably go back to the preparation," he told me slowly and I nodded. Giving me one last smile, he got off my legs and went back to his food. I offered to help him then but he refused my help, so I continued to watch him in fascination. After some time, he asked, "Hmm, Declan, I have a question."
"Which is?"
"Well," he cleared his throat awkwardly. "If right now, we are on a date, do we need to do something special?"
Before I got the chance to reply to him, we suddenly heard someone approaching and soon, Mrs. Lois entered the kitchen. My eyes directly went on her and I realized that she was wearing clothes which were a bit too formal to be worn in her own house.
"Oh, you are already here," she stated, disappointed, as she looked at me. Just like she seemed to be displeased with my presence, I was displeased with hers.
"Mom, are you going somewhere?" Pierre asked her with a frown. I guessed that he too thought that her clothes did not fit her staying at home.
"I'm going to meet with your dad, he needs my help," she said and she glanced at me. "I came to tell you to cancel your lunch as I won't be there to look after you, but it seems like he is already there. I can't send him home now."
I frowned. As far as I knew, we could have lunch alone without her supervising us but I did not think that she could understand that.
"It will be okay. We won't do more than eating and talking," Pierre assured her and she huffed.
"I trust you but I don't believe in him," she clarified and I wasn't surprised.
"I won't do anything to him. I came here to eat not for something else," I made it clear to her and she folded her arms, staring at me for a few seconds.
"I need to have a small talk with you," she said and I blinked. "A private chat. Follow me to the living room."
I was confused by that. I glanced at Pierre and he simply shrugged, the same lost expression as myself on his face. Sighing, I stood up from my stool and followed Mrs Lois. I did not want to talk to her. I did not want to end up saying something that I shouldn't say. When we arrived in the living room, she mentioned for me to sit, which I did, and then she sat in front of me, crossing her legs and folding her arms.
"So," she started without losing any second, "It seems like my son passed in Maths. Not the greatest results ever but still, it's better than his other performances."
Oh, so that was what she wanted to talk about. Pierre's Maths results. If I remembered correctly, she said that if Pierre did not pass with flying colors, she would make me fail in Maths. What grade did she define as 'passing with flying colors'? I did not know but something told me that I would find out soon.
"Aren't you satisfied with Pierre's performance?" I asked her and then I added without hesitation. "Personally, I'm pretty proud of him. He did great."
"He got a B," she precised and I rolled my eyes.
"So what? It's still good," I told her and I was kind of annoyed at her. "It would be great if you stop asking too much from him. Give him a break. A little bit of support from you would do him some good."
She did not seem to appreciate that.
"You don't know how it is to raise a child so don't you dare speak to me with that tone," she snapped at me and I huffed. "Really, I don't know why my son continues to be around you. You're troublesome and also one of the worst kind."
"You should probably ask him in person," I advised her. "Only him can tell you why he wants to be with me."
Okay, maybe I did not choose my words so well. Her gaze hardened but I did not avoid her eyes. I just looked back at her with the same hard look.
"Somehow, as irritating as it is, you are important to him," she said as calmly as ever. "I'm curious to find out why you are that important to him. There is something odd about him lately. I have a feeling that my son is hiding something from me and that's really bad."
Hiding something? What was she trying to say by that? And why would she think that he was acting odd? My love was completely normal...well, him and I did get closer and I realized that he was acting more like himself around me, he was also more opened with me on various subjects but there was nothing to be worrying about.
"I don't know what you are talking about," I told her at last and she chuckled.
"Of course you don't," she said quietly and she added more loudly, "Well, the main reason why I called you here is to inform you that you will continue to tutor my son in Maths. I want him to have one of the best results at the end of the year, am I clear? Or else, you know what will happen to you?"
"Yes," I replied right away. I was not against her choice. I liked to tutor Pierre so I was not going to complain. Though, I couldn't accept the fact that she was still expecting too much from him. I wanted to give her a piece of my mind on the matter but I decided against it. I did not want to create a fight with her.
After all, only idiots like her didn't accept change.
"Perfect," Mrs. Lois said and she stood up. "I'm going to go now. I may not be there to look after Pierre but don't take it as your chance to try anything. It will be the first time that you two will be alone but also the last time. It won't happen again, and I'm going to come back as fast as possible."
Great.
I did not reply to her and she walked away. I sighed and thought for a few seconds. I heard the front door open and close soon after and after a few minutes, I finally got off the couch and went back to Pierre. The latter smiled at the sight of me, though I could see the worries in his eyes. He asked me why his mom wanted to talk to me and I gave him a simple reply before sitting back on my stool to watch him cook.
Much later, the brownies were in the oven and the macaroni cheese was already made.
While Pierre put his final touch to our plats, I was instructed to take some fresh juice from the refrigerator and I took two big glasses to pour the juice in. Then, my love and I went in the dining room and sat down to enjoy our meal together.
"Bon appetit," he told me, grabbing his fork and I smiled at him.
"No prayers this time?" I asked him and he looked suddenly embarrassed.
"Oops, I forgot," he said and he let go of his fork to grab my hand at the other side of the table. "Do you want to do it?"
"It's not really my thing to talk to the Lord above," I replied and I added before he could speak, "Though, I will do it for once." He smiled and nodded. He closed his eyes and I took in a deep breath. "Well, thank you, god, for the food in our plats. Make sure to give food to the less fortunate and I hope that my love and I get to share together another such meal soon. That's all."
Pierre let out a chuckle and opened his eyes. I shrugged innocently and started to eat. I did not let go of my love's hand and he did not try to pull it away. Instead, he started eating his food quietly. At the first mouthful, the cheese immediately melt in my mouth and I moaned at the taste. Damn, it was good. I made sure to tell Pierre about it.
"Thank you," he told me then excitedly. "I prepared it with all my love just for you." He realized what he had just said a few seconds later and he quickly tried to explain himself. "I-I-I mean, it was my pleasure to make the food. I was happy to make it for you. I don't mean the thing that you are probably thinking. It's just-"
"Hey, it's okay. I understood what you meant," I reassured him, amused by his reaction and he let out a sigh of relief before lowering his eyes in embarrassment. I tightened my hand around his. "I'm glad that you did it with all your love."
"Oh, it's-it's not much," he said and he added after some seconds, "We can do that again if you want."
"Absolutely," I agreed and I glanced around, "But I don't want it to be here. I don't like having your parents spying on us at every second and even though, they are not there today, I get the impression that their presence still remains in this cold house."
"Cold house?" Pierre repeated and I hummed.
"That's the feeling that I get when I come here," I admitted. "It's not so welcoming to me. There is no sweetness nor joy, just simple misery."
"That's kind of dramatic," he let out a laugh which did not last long, "You make it seem like my house is an old prison where no happiness lives."
"Is it the case?" I asked him and he took some time to reply.
"Sometimes," he admitted thoughtfully. "I do have some good, great even, memories in this house, but now they seem so far away that I can't remember clearly when was the last time that I had a good laugh with my parents. I wonder how it would have been if I had sisters or brothers."
"Having siblings is not always so great," I told him and I took some sips of my juice.
"Maybe," he replied. "But it's sometimes lonely here. I have me, my parents who dislike most of my ideas of conversations. It would have been great to have someone of my own blood who share some of my interest."
I guessed that I understood his point.
"But," he continued, "I'm not going to complain. Despite everything, I still love my parents and I still love my house. They are important to me and honestly, I don't know what I would have done if they weren't there."
On that point, I did not want to agree with him. Personally, I thought that he would be better off without his parents but that was selfish of me to say. For my love, the good and happy moments that he had with his parents overcame the bad ones but for me, they didn't.
We continued to eat and Pierre shared with me his personal want for this school break and I listened to him attentively. He was so captivating. The conversation went back to him and I being on a date and even though, the topic seemed to embarrass him a little bit, he kept on a cool face. I made sure to tell him that he did not need to do anything special. He just needed to be himself and let me possibly cuddle with him later on. That only made him laugh.
"Love," I started after a few more topics had been conversed and he looked at me curiously. "Earlier when I talked to your mom, she said that you were hiding something from her. Can you lighten me on the matter?"
He seemed to be confused by my words and I tried to help him.
"She said that you are acting odd lately and then she started talking about mysterious secrets," I informed him and he shook his head slowly.
"I have no secrets at all. There is nothing hidden," he replied after much thought and he continued to eat his food quietly. I frowned.
Somehow, while looking at him, deep down, I just knew that he was lying to me.
***
Here's chapter 39 ^^
I hope that you like it. Don't hesitate to comment and to leave a little vote. Also, sorry for the errors in the chapter.
Have a fantastic day/night!