All I Needed To Know 4

Le Quatrième Chapitre

My head was limply tilting to the right atop my neck as I gazed at Travis. His guitar subtly swung from its strap as he made his way out of the park, his thick, dark hair blowing off his forehead in his own personal breeze, forced by his hasty-yet-relaxed stride. Suddenly, my Aunt, who I didn’t notice had sat back down beside me, whispered in my ear, “Well he was cute, wasn’t he?” I jumped.

Composing myself again, I replied, “Sure, Lucy. He couldn’t have gone far; you wanna go chase him down? I’m sure he’d make a great addition to your list of boyfriends…” She slapped my arm playfully and snickered.

“Well I didn’t mean for me, silly. I meant for you.” Her tone was so casual, and when I looked up, I envisioned my great aunt as a gossipy teenage girl. I sighed, trying to appear dramatically annoyed.

“I already have a boyfriend in America, remember?”

“So you can only have one?” She pouted.

“Yes, Aunty. One is enough for me.”

She touched my shoulder. “Well, a whole summer is quite a long time. Brian would understand-“

“It’s Bryce,” I interjected. “And I wouldn’t do that to him. I can wait. He loves me.”

“He loves you? So you don’t love him?”

I let out an irritated “Ugh,” knowing I wouldn’t be able to win this argument my way. “Look at it like this- I’ll probably never even see Travis again, so why does it even matter arguing about it?” Lucy still didn’t look satisfied, so I threw in “If I was ever going to date a guy in this country, it would be him, and that’s not happening, okay?” She smiled, pleased.

“Okay. Now how much longer do you think you want to stay in this park? I made reservations to have dinner at five o’clock. We can do anything until then.”

I grinned, answered “Awhile” to her initial question, and got up to take more pictures.

We ended up staying at the park until about 3:30, went home to take a nap, and then went out to eat at five, like planned. It was a tiny family-owned restaurant with about three tables inside and six out front. Good thing we had reservations, because there was always a group of people sitting on the bench by the front counter, waiting to be seated. The food was fantastic. I ordered steak au poivre, Lucy had steamed mussels, and for dessert, we split a piece of chocolate fondante. We sat out front, so we could hear a small acoustic band in matching red berets play from just down the street.

After we arrived back at Aunt Lucy’s apartment, I pulled out my phone for the first time all day and fell onto my bed to check it. There were eight missed calls, one from Ashton and seven from Bryce, sprawled out between 1:00 and 5:50. It was just a little after six, so I decided to call him. He picked up on the first ring with an enthusiastic “Hey!”

“Hi.” I replied softly, warmed from the sound of his voice.

“How’s it going over there? Was your flight alright? What does your room look like? What time is it in Paris?” He immediately flooded me with questions.

I laughed. “It’s about 6:12 over here.” Bryce sucked in a long, sharp breath.

“Wow.” He exhaled. “That’s really far away.”

“Well, yeah, just a ways.” I giggled, but he remained serious.

“I mean, that’s really, really far away.” I paused to consider what brought on this sudden realization that I was in Paris, France, and yes, it was very far away. Then I suddenly realized what I had said that brought it on.

“What time is it over there?”

“… 12:12.” He muttered. A few drawn seconds of awkward air followed.

“Six hour time difference. Not so bad, don’t worry about it.” I said optimistically. He sighed, and was hushed for a few more seconds. I heard his mom call him in the background.

“Jolie, I have to go take my little sister to a birthday party.” He said morosely.

I nodded, but after realizing he couldn’t see me, muttered “Okay.”

“I’ve been thinking about you all day, Jolie. I can’t get you out of my mind.” A startling feeling of déjà vu and discomfort washed over me at that typical boyfriend line. I tried to shake off that feeling, but kept quiet when it lingered. “Bye. I miss you, and I love you.”

“I miss you, too. Bye.” I murmured, and hung up the phone.

After sitting in silence for a few moments, waiting for the uneasiness to pass, I called Ashton. She was just as eager to hear from me as Bryce was, just in her own sort of I-never-get-excited way. We talked for what must have been a half hour or so about her entire day as well as mine, ending with the story of Lucy pestering me about Travis Dupont. We both giggled at my romantic-minded great aunt.

“Don’t you go telling Bryce about him.” She joked. “He’ll swim across the Atlantic to track him down and beat him up!” I laughed, and then remembered my strange phone conversation with him earlier.

“Ash, I was talking to Bryce earlier and it was really weird.” I told her. She hummed, encouraging me to go on. “Like, he said something about thinking about me all day and that he couldn’t get me out of his mind. And I just suddenly felt all… uncomfortable. It was like, familiar, though, at the same time. It was weird.” Ashton paused.

“Well, is that anything like he said before… you know.” She said carefully.

“Before what?” I had no idea what she was referring to.

“You know. That thing with Bryce… last December…”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

“Joles, just… nevermind. You’ve obviously repressed it, and I shouldn’t bring it back for you. It wouldn’t be fair. You have a big day tomorrow. I think I should let you go.”

“Ashton…”

“Really. If you don’t remember another time, I’ll tell to you. Some day when it’s not right before your first day at your big, fancy academy.” She forced a light tone. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, kay? Bye.”

I sighed. “Bye.”

That night, I lay in bed awake for a long time, repeating Bryce’s phrase over and over in my head. What could that have triggered? I thought. What happened that I don’t remember? I’ve been thinking about you all day, Jolie. I couldn’t get you out of my mind… My conscious thoughts slowly blurred with the unconscious, and I was dreaming. In the dream, I stood in a dark room, where all I could see were my own hands in front of my face. There was a whisper echoing around me. It spoke no words, just a demanding hiss. I argued with the voice, at first calmly, but when it grew more anxious, I found myself growing fearful, yelling urgently. All I said was “No. No. Not today. Not now. Please.” Suddenly, I felt as if I were no longer standing vertically, but thrown onto my back. I rolled over onto my side, my heart pounding in my ears, scared and desperate. I screamed at the whispering voice that had grown louder until my throat was raw. Hot tears were streaming down my cheeks, and I felt an invisible force pressing down on my body. My hands were shaking, but felt as if they were made out of lead- I couldn’t lift them. I was being pressed further, the force eventually cracking my ribs and right before I was completely flattened, I woke up to my alarm clock.

I sighed with relief that the dream was over, and dashed into the bathroom to take a shower, eager to get my day started. Picking out my outfit was no chore, since I had planned it weeks ago. I wore a white, short-sleeved, turtleneck top that buttoned down the front, the buttons concealed with lace. With that I paired some dark blue skinny jeans and gold gladiator sandals. I was going for a professional-without-trying-too-hard look, topping it off by letting my thick hair fall over my shoulders in its natural wave. After inhaling a bagel and packing my tote bag, Lucy and I climbed into her car and I was on my way.

The academy that the program was taking place in was large and built to look like a castle, constructed of red brick and grey tiled roofs. Moss was uniformly creeping up the sides of the building, giving it a certain old-European charm. There were two lion statues on either side of the dark brown double-doors, which were just on top of a stone and concrete staircase. Lucy kissed both of my cheeks and urged me out of the car, wishing me luck. I climbed up the steps slowly as other students bustled around me. When I got to the top, I took a deep breath and followed the boy in front of me in. He had dark hair, was wearing a simple white t-shirt over long blue jeans, and carried a large instrument case. As soon as he got through the doors, he stopped and held the door open for me.

I had to resist gasping when I saw his face, and instead forced a gracious smile. He returned it and laughed to himself. “Bonjour, stranger.” Travis Dupont joked, and followed me the rest of the way in.