Chapter 10: Paris News

"You have to get rid of her!" Mason hisses over breakfast the next morning.

Thankfully, we're in the café with Brenda and Odelette and my Mom is at the apartment.

I sigh, sipping my apple juice.

"Mason," I start.

"No." He says. "She is breathing down my fucking next, and she's up your ass! I can't have sex in my own place! Get rid of her."

"Mason, will you stop being selfish for two seconds and realize she's here so I don't get disowned from my family?" I snap.

I throw my food in the trash and go storming out of the café, an angry expression on my face.

The door slams shut behind me.

Class starts in ten minutes anyways. I'll just go early.

I stomp across campus, but somebody grabs my wrist.

I whip around, opening my mouth to rip up Mason, but I close it when I see it's French Fry.

"Do you really think your Mom would disown you?" She asks.

I shove my hands in my pockets as she walks on my left. I look down at her and sigh.

"I'm not sure." I say, kicking a ball of ice. "I never thought she'd threaten it..." I bite my lip. "I don't know." I repeat.

"That's..." she frowns. "Would you miss them if they did?"

"Yes. I miss them all the time. I have an older sister and a younger brother..." I trail off, looking at my feet as I walk. "I would miss them so much."

"I miss my family." She admits. I look at her.

She never dared talking about her family.

"Where are they?" I ask. She presses her lips together.

"Can we not talk about it?" She asks.

"You-" I start to remind her that she brought it up, but then I sigh. "Sure."

We walk in silence for a little while, and then I speak up.

"What are your other friends like?"

"Uh..." she coughs. "I had one friend while I lived in the states. We were friends for ten years but..." she bites her lip. "She's a drug dealer now, so we don't talk anymore. I don't have any friends."

"Well...you have me. I'm your friend, right?"

"Yes." She says. "I guess so. My ami."

"Ami?" I repeat. "That means friend?"

"Yes." She smiles. When we reach the BKER building, I hold the door for her. She walks in and I walk in too, going up the stairs with her.

When we reach the door to the class, I turn to her.

"Shouldn't friends have each other's phone numbers?" I ask.

She narrows her eyes.

"No so fast, Natalie." She smirks. I roll my eyes, opening the door for her.

When we walk in, the only other person in here is Professor Gaillard. She looks shocked that we're together, but she doesn't question it.

"What are we doing today?" Odelette asks her.

"We are going to watch the Paris news." She says. "Get them a feel of what it's going to be like with people surrounding them that they can't understand." She looks at me. "Are you nervous to go to France?"

I frown.

"No, I'll just stay near her. She can be my travel buddy."

"What about Madison?" Odelette asks. I hesitate.

"He can come too."

She nods, and we sit down at our seats. I start going through my phone, and around ten minutes later, the class is fully. Mason is next to me and he doesn't say anything.

So Professor Gaillard starts the news and we all just sit there and watch, and it's really hard to understand it, so I just watch what they're doing. Right now they're talking about weather, and I get out a piece of paper and start taking notes, writing down words in French and then writing what I think that they mean in English.

I'm in the middle of writing the word weather in English when Odelette speaks up rather loudly behind me.

"Turn it up!" She gasps. Professor Gaillard turns up the volume, and Odelette gets out of her seat, rushing to the front of the class.

What's happening?

They're showing a courtroom, and then a dark room with a table on it. I see the two people talking, a camera panning over the front of a building that looks like a prison, and I hear the word 'Exécution' which I'm assuming is French for execution. Odelette's hands are literally shaking.

Professor Gaillard asks her something in French and I mentally curse myself for not learning the damn language long ago.

When it goes to commercial, Odelette stands there, not moving, hardly breathing. Professor Gaillard walks up to her, shaking her shoulders.

She says something to her in French, and instead of responding, she turns around and runs out of the classroom, leaving her bag, her phone, and everything else she had, including her coat and the keys to her motorcycle.

"What was that about?" Mason asks loudly. "What were they talking about?"

"I..." she looks at the slamming door and then at the class. "They were talking about executing two prisoners, they're on the lookout for one more."

"When?" I demand, shoving my shit into my bag.

"Uh..." she hesitates. "The day we get to France."

"What were their names? The prisoners?"

"Uh..." she rubs her temple, struggling to remember. "They were-I don't know. One of the prisoners was female, the other was male, and they're looking for a female."

"Well is she the female they're looking for?" Some girl across the room pipes up.

"No." She says. "No, it wasn't her name."

"What if she changed her name?" She asks.

"Nobody would willingly change their last name to the name of an execution machine." I snap, grabbing her things, I go rushing out of the classroom.

I sprint across the hall and down the stairs, lugging her bag with me, and my bag, and her jacket.

I see her form running to the parking lot, and I jog after her.

When she reaches her bike, she crouches down, resting her forehead on the seat.

By the time I reach her, she's sobbing.

I stand there, hesitating, and then think, what would old Nathan do?

I set her things down on the ground and walk over to her with her coat, draping it around her shoulders. She looks up at me, tears streaming down her face.

"Gaillard filled us in." I say.

"Don't ask about it." She snaps. "Alright? We had sex, that's it, that's all. I don't have time to tutor you, Nathan, and we can't be friends, so please, please, I'm begging you, please leave me alone!"

"Odelette," I start.

She grabs her things off the ground and starts the bike.

"Don't try and figure out why I'm upset, don't try to figure out what I'm doing, we're not friends, so go away."

She goes flying out of the parking lot, and I stand there, panicked.

Why the hell would she be crying over three criminals?

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