[ a l i t t l e s u r p r i s e ]
♥ louisa ♥
"DAMN LOOK AT his booty. Quick Louisa, you're gonna miss it! Ma cherié! To your left. Non, that's your right! No, he's about to turn around. Quick! Dammit, you missed it, well done."
I took a sip from my creamy cappuccino, narrowing my eyes in false anger after having to whip my head side to side ridiculously thanks to Pierre's terrible description skills.
"I'll have you know that I can distinguish my left from my right. It's just that you're sitting opposite me so your left is my right, idiot."
His mouth formed into an O shape as I laughed gracefully, taking off my rain mac and putting it on the back of the chair. "Sorry, Madame smarty-pants."
His dark brown eyes were still lingering behind me and I found myself raising a dark eyebrow. "What now? Found a replacement?"
Without tearing her eyes away from whatever they were transfixed in, Pierre pouted his thick lips in consideration. "Actually, the same man's girlfriend seems to have a pretty perky one too. I guess if I get turned down by one, there's always a seconds optio-"
My jaw slackened in disbelief, although I most definitely should have become accustomed to it by now, as I lifted a perfectly manicured hand and slapped him in the arm. "Gosh, stop it Lafayette! I should have known 'let's go to Le Cinq for lunch today' was code for 'I found a new place where there's a tonne of eye-candy.'
A fierce flicker full of life tangoed in his eyes as his cocoa skin seemed to glow a little bright. "I can't help it. Those raging Scorpio hormones, ma cherié."
"Astrology? Really?" I questioned, shaking my head and feeling my half caramel half liquorice curls tousle down my back. "Honey please, I'm sure the other 6 million Scorpios are controlling themselves just fine, thank you very much."
He grumbled something under his breath as my eyes fluttered away from his crisp white shirt to the untouched tart in his plate, expertly digging in and stealing a bite without him noticing.
It was a lovely day in Spring, with a clean blue sky casting a bright glow upon the streets of the town. There's been a break in the seemingly continual shower of rain and Pierre and I had taken this opportunity to grab a window seat at the lunch place he'd been nagging me about for too long.
I wasn't complaining. Going to a nice restaurant during my break hour seemed like an easy way to take the mind of my Economics exam next period. There was a thick carpet adorning the floor that looked so soft I was half tempted to run my fingers along it. A vanilla and toffee colour theme ran across the setting from the good seats to the exquisite architecture.
It was grand enough to remind diners to be grateful for what they had but so down-to-earth that it ensured they were also humbled. That was why I'd already taken a liking to it. Having two feet grounded in the floor what better than floating in the air.
Only then did Pierre realise his plate was half empty. I blamed my soft spot for all things sweet. Pastries were too good to be ignored and Pierre was too busy tying up the waitress. "Hey! Ma cherié, what is this? Ce n'est pa juste! That's not fair."
I have him an overly sweet smile that he knew was fake, my crimson lips pulling upwards. "Sharing is caring, don't you think? That's one of the Espirits glorified mottos. Unus spiritus, unus mens, una somnium."
"Louisa, the rule doesn't apply to food," he said fiddling with the gold hoop earring that was in his right ear.
"Zip it or I'll tattle to Mama bear."
He gave me a humourous glare but fell silent. I'd quickly realised that that one always worked the trick. After a few beats, he began chattering again.
I was still adjusting to his constant talk. It was a complete contrast to the tense and proper conversations that always flowed around our lunch table at Forteaux.
Of course, I didn't regret those days but only in moments like now did I really understand just how much I'd think through my every sentence before it left my mouth. Everything was always double-checked, thought through, rechecked to ensure it couldn't be used against me before finally leaving my mouth. Constantly paranoid yet failing to realise it.
"Actually, that reminds me," Pierre interjected, rubbing the flat part of his chin. "Who's Lexi?"
"A good friend from Forteaux," I answered naturally with a shrug of my shoulder, shifting in her chair slightly and pulling my floral skirt down. I'd paired it with a satin mole coloured blouse. A frown knitted in my face as I thought through what he said. "Why?"
I took another sip from my frothy drink. To date, I'd deliberately kept Forteaux and Espirits in different bubbles. I wasn't so keen on the idea of them mixing.
"No reason," Pierre answered. The response left his mouth far too quickly to be genuine. A silent curse flickered through his eyes as he proceeded to dubiously dig into the rest of what remained of his food.
I couldn't help but start laughing, a soft melodic sound leaving me as my dark chocolate eyes glinted curiously. "Pierre give it up. We both know you can't lie for shit. Go on. Spill."
A frustrated sound left him. Despite his annoyance, it still carried a small French accent and a smooth richness that could only be associated with a Lafayette.
His put his head in his hand, his fingertips massaging his the small curls of his hair. "Knew I shouldn't have bought it up. Je l'ai ruine maintenant. I've ruined it now," he mumbled inaudibly under his breath.
Frowning. I tucked strands of hair behind my ear. "I haven't the faintest idea of what you're talking about. What do you me-"
"Voulez-vous essayer des crêpes au whisky renommées, Madame? Would you like to try our renowned whiskey crepes, Madame?"
"Non, merci beaucoup," I briefly tilted my head left toward the waitress, keeping my eyes trained on Pierre. Had something happened to Lexi? I knew things were tough at Forteaux.
Oh God, you haven't spoken to her for two days either.
"But how do you know her Pierre? I know I've mentioned her but you've never spoken to-"
"Et notre banane confite? How about the candied bananas?" The same voice asked again encouragingly.
"No merci," I said half politely half dismissively before laughing when Lafayette pulled a mysterious face. "Pierre stop being so suspenseful. I'm just asking how you k-"
What if it was- What if it was to do with Gabriel? My heart began racing as I began thinking the worst.
Meanwhile, a weird expression had fallen on Pierre's face; he looked as if he were trying to stop himself from opening his mouth. What was wrong with him? "Are you alright? Do you-"
A high pitched irritating voice interrupted me yet again. "Si vous plait Madame, les crêpes au whisky dont spectaculaires! Please Madame, the whiskey crêpes are spectacular!"
Finally losing my patience, I cocked my head to the right, angry scowl forming on my face. My upper lip twisted as I began a rambling in French in irritation.
Le cinq was no longer my new favourite place in Paris.
"Vous pouvez clairement voir que nous sommes au milieu d'une conversation. Je comprends que vous essayez simplement de faire votre travail, mais pouvez-vous gentiment- You can clearly see that we're in the middle of a conversation. I appreciate you're simply trying to do your job but can you kindly-"
I blinked hard. One second. Two seconds. Three sec-
"Lexi? What the hell are you doing here?"
My mouth fell open as I tried to make sure that this wasn't some delusional episode of some sort. The wicked flicker in those ever so familiar baby blue eyes and the typical figure-hugging dress - this time a pale pink, dead straight hair and tiny stature were unmistakable.
She collapsed into that trademark nasal laugh, scrunching her nose up at me. "Jesus, Louisa! I had genuinely begun to think that by the time you realised it was me, I'd actually be employed here as a full-time waitress."
I stopped pushing my lips and still found myself blinking hard a few times. That was until I felt a sharp pinch in my hand. Hiding in surprise, I looked at the culprit Pierre who broke out into a huge smile. "Surprise!"
Lexi's two arms wrapped around me as I stood up, instinct finally kicking in as I returned the embrace tightly. She's been the first person from Forteaux that I'd seen in the flesh since leaving. "Oh God, hey! How are you?"
Still clutching my arms, she leant back and looked at me properly as if checking for anything suspicious or to worry about. Seemingly satisfied, she leant back and sat down on the spare seat beside me. "I'm lovely, thank you. How have you been?"
A soft thud filled the air as Pierre hit his hand in the table. "Come on, let's skip all these pleasantries. I bet you're dying to know what Lexi's doing here."
He was right. My mind was ticking like clockwork trying to figure out how it had all planned out. I shook my head after seeing the victorious smirk on his face. "Start talking then. I can tell that you can't wait to gloat."
Of course, I'd been right and Pierre launched into his story.
My red Louboutins tapped rhythmically against the floor as he explained how he'd noticed how often I'd begun talking to Lexi, sneakily decided to take my phone and contact her and encourage her to come down to visit.
A huge smile grew on my olive skin as I looked at the two of them, feeling the happiest I'd felt in a while. Nobody had ever really gone to so much effort to make me happy in the past. This, however, meant so much.
"We both thought I'd be nice to give you a little surprise." I glanced at Lexi just in time to see her eyeing up Pierre. "It turned out that I managed to meet a fellow Scorpio too, thanks to you Louisa."
The brunette raised her eyebrows suggestively at Lafayette who cast her a wink in return. Tilting my angular face to the side, I surveyed them both for a split second.
Actually, I think I may have just accidentally made a match. Hm, I'd work on that later.
"But shouldn't you be at school?" I questioned, resting my chin in my palm. "I know here at Espirits l, we finish later at 4.30 - later than Forteaux. But still, even with the time difference and the fact that it's-"
"Shh, you don't need to go all detective on me," Lexi joked, as I pulled away my cappuccino that's she'd just attempted to steal. I looked at her in expectation causing her to finally relent. "Fine. It's Friday so I bunked off-"
I sighed, twisting to the right to face her. "Lexi! We've been through this. You've already missed enough school. You should have just come tomorrow.
"It's fine-"
"Lexi, you know that-"
Pierre seemed to pick up in the change of conversation tone. "Wait, why have you missed school?"
A smile grew on Lexi's face as she rolled her eyes at Pierre and lied. "Because I'm a bad influence." My steady and intense gaze remained on her as I tried to search for any signs that things had changed.
None at all. I'd have to speak to her properly later when Lafayette wasn't here.
The minutes ticked by as we talked about random stuff. I'd already known that talking to Pierre and Lexi individually often led to conversations going off track but I soon realised that attempting to talk to them both simultaneously led to chaos.
But it was a good chaos that I didn't mind.
Flicking my hair over the shoulder, I grabbed both of their hands squeezing them lightly and feeling my eyes crinkle at the sides due to the genuine grin on my face. "Thank you so much. This is the best thing I could have ever asked for."
"Oh don't go all sentimental, ma cherié. You know I'm a sucker for tears and I'll end up giving you all of this 'whiskey crêpe' that this waitress was so keen on buying," Pierre rambled, nudging Lexi who looked totally unashamed on buying four crepes in the last ten minutes.
Funnily enough, my eye had begun to water with happy tears and I found myself blinking them back so that those two wouldn't smile and call me a cry baby.
"That's not all though."
I lifted my head directly opposite me to see Pierre giving me another thrilled look.
Lexi's confusion mirrored mine, "That's not all?"
"That's not all," he repeated, gold eyes twinkling.
Throwing my head back and laughing, I adjusted myself on the chair. "Aren't I a lucky woman? The way I'm being spoilt I feel like it's my birthday or something. Go on then. What is it?"
He brought his latte up to his lips, the white top swirling round and round like a clock going backwards in time.
"Of course, we had passed the sign-up deadline but I guess believe it or not, once in a while being the headmistresses son does have its perks-"
"Hey you, monsieur," Lexi spoke in a heavy French accent, her curiosity clinging to her words. "Hurry up to it."
I smiled at him noticing how his mocha skin began to glow even more in excitement. "I managed to secure us both a place on the Forteaux Academy and Espirits exchange trip."
My heart dropped to my stomach and the usually talkative, now silent brunette to the right suggested that Lexi was going through the same thing.
Silence.
"What? Did I do something wrong?" Pierre cautiously asked, the brightness that was on his face fading and a wave of disappointment rolling over him. "I saw how happy you were whenever you spoke to Lexi and I-I just thought that you'd probably be missing all your other friends too."
Other friends? What other friends? I had more enemies than friends like there.
I let out a sound of distress, torn between wanting to cry and wanting to throw up. Despite this, I knew the priority was letting Pierre know that he hadn't done anything wrong. He didn't know much about what happened at Forteaux.
"It's okay, Pierre. T-Thank you. That was a lovely thought and I appreciate it very much. It's just that-" I broke off not knowing what else to say.
Feeling my heart begin to race, I put my head in my hands feeling my hair cascade around my face. Lexi was still speechless. I rubbed small circles around my forehead, well aware that that wasn't going to make a damn difference to the situation.
Sure I'd wanted to sort out the things that I'd left behind but I didn't need the stars to give me a bloody kickstart. I was planning on proceeding whenever I was ready to face it all.
Procrastination and fear at its utter finest.
Fate had probably got fed up with waiting and decided to push me, no shove me, through the bloody door. Hoisting my head, I gazed out the window, finally finding the words I'd been searching for.
"Oh God, this is not going to be good."
Definitely not the surprise that Louisa really wanted, haha. But maybe it's what she needed deep down? What do you all think?
It felt so good to write from Louisa's point of view again! I really missed her.
If there is any errors in the French/Latin translations please do comment them next to the mistake - I won't mind and it will enable me to make edits :) Thanks for reading and I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to vote, if you liked the chapter. Thanks again!
♥ 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫! ♥