Chapter 4 03 N2

03 PART 2

- "Amethyst Clark , 2/10, I guess you answered randomly, you are lucky you managed to get 2 points!"

I didn't mind getting bad grades in math anymore, after all, that was just the way it was and I couldn't change it, or so I thought.

- "Ethan Parker, 10/10, very good, congratulations! You have the best grade in the class!"

I looked at him with round eyes, and snatched the paper from his hands.

- Hey, you're really good at math, didn't you tell me?

- Yes, I'm doing fine.

- " 10/10 ! I would like to do well like you, when I do well, it's like 4/10.

We laughed and then he proposed me:

- Would you like me to help you in math? That way you can come to my house, and your parents will be forced to accept!

- You know, I'm a hopeless case in math," I said, laughing, "but you can always try!

The morning passed quickly enough and it was finally time to go to lunch. On my way out, I saw Alicia coming out of the room next door. I called out to her:

- "Hey Alicia!"

She turned around, saw me and I ran into her arms. Ethan kissed her and she introduced me to her new friends. There were two girls and a boy: the first one was quite small, with brown hair and blue eyes, the second one was quite tall, with short black hair. They looked really nice. The boy had short black hair and hazel eyes. We greeted them then left all together to eat. We took a table of 6: I was next to Alicia and her friend who was called Simon, while Ethan was in front of me, sandwiched between Valentine, the small one with the brown hair and Laura, the big brunette. They were both looking at him with admiring eyes. It's true that Ethan was really beautiful.

We started to discuss and laugh together while I discovered little by little the character of the 3 new friends of Alicia. In front of me, Ethan was really embarrassed, Laura and Valentine were shooting him with questions, and I looked at him laughing and said:

- "Come on, girls, give the poor guy a break!"

The two girls laughed and we changed the subject. We talked about everything and nothing, we really got along well! We exchanged our numbers to keep in touch and Ethan hesitated to say that he didn't have a mobile to the two girls to be quiet but finally gave them his number reluctantly. We walked out, he took my hand, pulled me aside and said:

- "You saved me! I couldn't take it anymore!"

- "Maybe it's because they think you're cute, there's a reason after all!"

I winked at her and left to join Alicia. Ethan ran after me, looking happy.

At the end of the day, I invited Alicia to come to the park with me, I wanted to tell her about Ethan. Moreover by speaking about him, he asked if he could come, I answered him that I wanted to spend a little time with Alicia and that promised tomorrow, I would invite him at home. He seemed offended and disappointed, but he would rather spend an afternoon at my place than a few hours in the park with Alicia and me. We left all three on our way and we separated when we arrived at the park: Ethan kissed us and continued his way. We sat down in the grass back to back and started to talk. I told her about Ethan and she understood why I had refused to let him come. I told her how I felt about him:

- "I don't know if I'm in love with him actually, it's true that he is really nice...

- ... and very beautiful!" added Alicia.

I resumed:

- "It's true that he's really nice AND very handsome but well, I think he's disgusted with love and then given that I'm not sure of my feelings."

- "Do you feel things sometimes when he talks to you or I don't know...?"

- "Oh yes! Every time he takes my hand, or when he talks to me sometimes, I feel happy but my heart speeds up. When he takes me in his arms too..."

I told him what happened at home with the pillow fight, and the story with Ondine too, and this morning when I twisted my ankle. I briefly explained the story with Lucie, I knew I could count on Alicia, she had never repeated what I told her to anyone. I then added:

- "Sometimes I feel like he loves me, after all he's always the one who hugs me, who takes my hand, who wants to spend the afternoon with me, but I'm so afraid of making a false step or going too fast. After all, we'll see when it happens, don't you think?"

- "Yes after all, it's only been a short time you've known each other, I don't think that's enough to fall in love!"

We finished with that and returned each one to our place. On the way, my head was filled with thoughts that contradicted each other:

"But what if it was love at first sight?" "Maybe I'm not in love with him" "Maybe he loves me" "In such a short time, you can fall in love, can't you?" "If he makes his declaration to me, what do I answer?" "Oh, but I'm stupid, he doesn't love me anyway! When I got home I did the little homework I had left and logged on to Facebook. 3 requests to add to the list of friends: Laura, Valentine and Simon. I quickly looked at their pictures when Ethan started talking to me:

- "So how did it go with Alicia?"

I answered completely off the cuff, consumed by my thoughts:

- "Say, we're friends, right?"

I immediately regretted what I had just written but it was too late, I had sent the message. I imagined all sorts of crazy things, like that he had had a power outage that prevented him from reading my message, or that his computer had shut down and deleted the message, or that he simply hadn't received the message because of the power of my thought. It was when I saw the "Maël is writing..." that I lost all hope. I put my head in my pillow and wondered why I was so stupid and clumsy. I heard the little "tululu" of when you get a message and got up to read it:

- "Yes, why? Do you have something to ask me?"

I improvised an excuse:

- "No, nothing, sorry I'm going to eat!"

and immediately logged off.

It was 6pm, it was the worst excuse I had ever had. I was bored and wanted to see his reaction. I logged back in and read his messages.