CHAPTER 3

~ 11:23 AM ~ Boulevard Suchet & Avenue du Bel Air, Paris ~

"Hey!" Caleb greeted his girlfriend over the phone. He immediately felt a twinge of guilt when he heard her concerned voice. "

"Hey you. Where are you? Still stuck on a train with Mr. Gilbert?"

"No, I'm with the Thibaults now. Don't worry, Han. I got here safely. I would have called sooner if I could've," he tried to lighten up her mood.

It helped for the time being, and Hanna soon found another topic to dwell on. "How's the family? Did you get nice host parents?"

"I can't tell; they're not here yet. Their son Sèbastien and I, we're alone for now." Caleb proceeded to check out the interior of the living room, pausing every so often to take a look at the paintings that hung on the high walls.

Hanna was back on high alert again. "What do you mean? Alone for now? They left you alone on your first day?"

He chuckled lightly, trying to sound as unconcerned as possible. "It gets even better. Apparently, Mr. and Mrs. Thibault have mixed up the dates and thought that I was coming on the fifth. They're out of town visiting family. Guess they won't be back until tomorrow."

"Wait? Slow down. How could they have mixed up the dates? Who's gonna take you to school tomorrow?" She rambled.

"Sèb could take me, I guess. He's nineteen, he's got a license."

"I'm not going to get up that early, man. We have a driver, he's going to take you." Sèb's voice sounded through the room as he came back carrying two glasses, which had a very pink drink in them. "Tell Hanna that I call and ask my parents to fly home earlier. I'm sure they can be here later tonight."

He handed one of the glasses to Caleb, who instantly furrowed his brows. "What's this?" He murmured to Sèb.

"It's lait grenadine. You don't know?" He grinned at the American. "Go ahead. Try it!"

"Who are you talking to? Is that your host family's son?" Hanna made herself heard again after realizing that Caleb had been talking to someone else. "Is he nice? Bet he's nicer than the one I'm sharing a bathroom with."

"Uhhh, yeah… he is." Caleb faltered, unsure of what he should tell her about him now. Then, he carefully lifted the glass and smelled its contents, cringing slightly in reaction. He took a small sip and instantly cringed even more. "That's disgusting, Sèb. Seriously, what is this stuff? It tastes as bad as it looks."

"What are you drinking?" Hanna was desperate to keep the conversation going. Anything was better than having to leave her guest room and have Thomas trailing behind her.

"Uh, lait grenadine," Caleb scoffed as he answered her question.

"Oh, I had one just now, I loved it," she told him innocently.

Of course, she did. Of course, his pink loving girlfriend would also love something as hideously sweet as this, he thought as he handed the glass back to Sèb. "Do you have orange juice or something?"

"You still living off orange juice, man?" Sèb laughed as he moved closer to him and leaned in to talk into the receiver. "Salut, Hanna! Bienvenue à Paris!"

"Salut," she replied to his welcome address, but then she immediately switched back to English again and asked Caleb, "Why haven't you called me?"

"Hanna, I've only been here for like twenty minutes." Caleb had heard the sad undertone in her voice and felt immediately distressed. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Sèb quickly got the notion and muttered, "I'll leave you two alone. If you need anything, I'll be in my room. Third door to the right." And at that, he walked out of the room.

"Save me!" Hanna moaned into the phone.

"What? Why?" Caleb watched and mouthed a silent 'thanks' to Sèb as he wordlessly came back into the living room and put a coaster and a glass of orange juice on the end table before disappearing back into his room.

"Because this thirteen-year-old Justin Bieber knockoff keeps creeping me out. He won't leave me alone and he's constantly staring at me and my boobs." Hanna whined. "I don't know what to say to him. I don't think he gets outside a lot. When he's not staring at me, he's staring at his computer screen."

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Caleb offered.

"That's not a good idea, he knows who you are." She sighed.

"What? How?"

"He eavesdropped on me and Spencer when we were talking on the phone earlier," Hanna explained the situation.

"And you were talking about me? What were you talking about?" Hanna had piqued his interest; he smiled as he waited for her to elaborate.

"Oh, you know, a little of this, a little of that. Random things," she tried to brush it off, "Anyway, I don't think this family likes me very much. They're just so different… so uptight."

"I can't imagine anyone not liking you, except for maybe really early in the morning. But how can you tell so soon?"

"When I unpacked my suitcase earlier, Marielle helped me put my stuff into the closet and I swear she was gasping at every piece of clothing that she laid her hands on," Hanna groaned.

"Well, don't let it get to you. You should make the best of your time while you're here. Just think of it this way, you're in Paris. You're gonna get to see some sights, do some shopping and spend plenty of money on French fashion. And don't forget, we'll be seeing each other soon for our day off together. We're still on, aren't we?"

"Yeah, of course we are." She nervously bit on her lower lip. "I just need to break the news to Aria, Spencer and Emily."

"I'm sure they'll understand," he soothed.

"Yeah, hopefully," came her mumbled response.

"So… Are you feeling any better now?" He shifted in his seat and leaned over to the end table to reach for his glass of juice.

"A little." She didn't sound convincingly.

"Okay, let me think of something that might cheer you up… like… What do you wanna do with me on our day off?" He took a sip of juice and put the glass back onto its coaster.

Hanna tilted her head back and closed her eyes in order to picture exactly what she wanted to happen, "Oh, I've always wanted to kiss somebody under the Eiffel Tower…" She mused before getting a little carried away, "…in the rain… at night…on a vespa."

Caleb laughed out loud at her cinematic fantasy. "Anything else I can do for you, Mademoiselle?"

"Are you mocking me?" Hanna frowned into her phone. "What is it you wanna do? Huh?" She didn't have any idea of what kind of thing Caleb would want to do while they were there. He didn't seem like a guy who would enjoy going on sightseeing tours or visiting museums.

"I just wanna see you… and be able to kiss you whenever I feel like it… In private… No teachers, no other students around, just you and me. You can even take me shopping, if that's what it takes for us to be together," he tried to explain in a soothing voice.

It didn't fail to make her smile. "Really?" She wanted him to keep going with the romantic talk. But then, instead of Caleb speaking, she heard Thomas' voice cut in. "Hanna? Viens-tu? On déjeune maintenant." [Hanna, are you coming? We're having lunch now.]

She sighed. "Shit, I have to hang up now… Caleb?"

"Yeah?"

"I… I… I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"Definitely." He had tried to sound as positive as he could in order to give her something to hang on to during the time in which they would be apart. He felt bad for her, knowing that she wasn't feeling a tiny bit at home with the Girards yet.

The beep in his ear told him that Hanna had ended their conversation.

~ 12:06 PM ~ Boulevard Suchet, Paris ~

Caleb let his cell phone sink and sat down on the couch, thinking hard. He didn't like it when Hanna was sad about something or felt left out. He wanted to go to her place right now and take her into his arms so badly. But he knew that this wasn't the right moment to do so, and that she'd probably be preoccupied with her host family for the remainder of the day. And judging by what Hanna had told him about them being uptight people, he was convinced that they would not let him come inside if he told them he was there to console his girlfriend.

He felt like something had to be done in order to make her feel better. He just didn't know what that thing was. His every thought revolved around a grand gesture which he was planning for their last day together in France.

Sèb came back into the living room and instantly noticed that Caleb seemed somewhat absentminded. "Hey! Everything alright with your girlfriend? I kind of got the hint that she wasn't feeling very welcome here in Paris."

"She's a little unhappy about the people she was hooked up with." He sighed and took another sip from his glass.

"Tell me about her. What is your Hanna like?" Sèb asked him in order to try and steer the conversation in a more positive direction.

"How much time do you have? She is one special girl." Caleb smirked in response.

Sèb came closer and sat down right next to him on the couch. "I've got time."

Half an hour later, Caleb had told Sèb everything about his relationship with Hanna and was leaning back on the couch, waiting for a reaction from him.

"You sound like you're really in love with her. I've never heard you talk about a girl like this." Sèb patted him on the back, expressing how sincerely happy he was for him.

"I've never known a girl like her. She cares about me, she listens, she invited me to stay at her place without telling her mom." He smiled, "She's the best person that ever came into my life."

"Dude, you love this girl, admit it!" Sèb let his fist bump into Caleb's chest.

Caleb turned away, a little embarrassed. After all, nobody had ever talked to him about love. That word had become extinct in his personal vocabulary. It was only now finding its way back to him.

"Yeah, I… I think I do," he finally admitted.

Their gazes met and for a moment, neither of them dared to move. Then, suddenly, Sèb stood up without a word and left the room. Caleb stared after him. "What are you doing?"

"Come on, let's go." Sèb returned and threw Caleb's leather jacket at him before he put on his own coat.

"Where?" Caleb quickly gulped down the rest of his juice and stood up, sensing he shouldn't ask Sèb any more questions when his friend was up to something.

"Run some errands." He said without any further explanation. "And we're going to buy some food. I'm starving, man."

The two young men simultaneously slipped into their black boots, and Sèb grabbed his backpack before locking up the apartment after them.

As they stepped outside and started walking through the quiet residential area, Sèb started another interrogation. "Have you told her?

"What?" Caleb looked at him, furrowing his brows.

"That you love her?" Sèb rolled his eyes.

"No." The other boy looked down at the pavement, feeling no urge to elaborate.

"Why not?" Sèb looked at him curiously and continued to hurry along on the sidewalk.

"I wanted to tell her here in Paris. It's her favorite place in the world," Caleb explained. He had trouble keeping up with him.

"You don't think she's waiting for you to tell her?" Finally, Sèb slowed down a little. "Do you think she loves you, too?"

"I kinda think that she wanted to tell me after our last date, but I cut her off and kissed her goodnight," Caleb sighed.

"Oh man! Why?" Sèb was starting to lose it with him.

"Because I kinda wanna be the one who says it first." Caleb immediately felt embarrassed about how stupid this actually sounded when he had said it out loud.

"And then you wait until the very last day?" The French boy scoffed indignantly before shooting him an incredulous look. "Americans! I will never understand." At that, he turned and hurriedly crossed the street.

"Yeah, I've made plans for that day, you know… Grand gesture, Eiffel Tower, all that stuff?" Caleb ran after him and quickened his pace to keep up with Sèb's steps.

Upon reaching the other side of the street, Sèb stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face him. "You want to cheer your girl up and make her happy?"

"Yeah… of course." Caleb still didn't understand what he was getting at.

"Then why wait?"

Caleb stared at him, unable to answer his question. Sèb suddenly turned on his heel and walked back across the street, now mumbling instructions in French.

Caleb yelled after him, "Hey? Where are you going?" But then, he started following him anyway.

"We're going to Decathlon," his friend called over his shoulder. "I have an idea."

Caleb stopped walking yet again and watched Sèb hasten away. Slowly, a small smile crept upon his lips and he bit down on his lower lip. He stood, shaking his head in disbelief about his friend's determination to help him.

Eventually, Caleb was torn from his reverie when he heard Sèb calling out to him from a distance. "You coming?"

~ 8:40 PM ~ Rue du Montparnasse, Paris ~

Somewhere in yet another part of the city, Lucas Gottesman was being examined head-to-toe by his host family's daughter, Aurelie, who was sitting on his guest bed. He was standing in front of the closet, arranging his clothes after putting them onto hangers, sorting them by color and suitability for all kinds of weathers. He could feel the probing gaze of the eighteen-year-old girl on his back, and imagined her rolling her eyes at his perfectly organized wardrobe.

She was pretty, with her long blonde hair and blue eyes; without a doubt. Lucas inwardly prided himself on probably being the envy of every other guy in his class.

If only she didn't look like the girl that he secretly had a crush on, the girl who he thought would have been a better fit for the Dubois family.

He tried to control his breathing as he began to find her presence in his room very unsettling. Every now and then, he heard her scoff in reaction to another hanger being placed on the hanging rail; she was beginning to take note of his wide collection of striped shirts… vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, the whole nine yards.

Lucas quietly worked his way through his suitcase. He had stopped talking a few minutes ago, after Aurelie had interrogated him about the purpose of bringing Wellington boots for a two-week school trip. His explanations had made her giggle, and that had led to him going as red as a beet, and turning his back on her in order to continue unpacking. He had yet to find his flannel pajamas and couldn't wait to flee from the awkward situation in order to go to bed. Best to stick to his usual routine despite the jet lag, he thought.

When he was done emptying his suitcase and composing his neatly folded striped sleepwear on the bed in his guest room, Aurelie stood up, and walked over to his still open closet. She let her hand glide over the succession of shirts, sweater vests, and turtlenecks, feeling all of the different materials with a hint of disgust on her face. After a beat, she slammed the door of the closet shut, and turned around to face him. "Ok, we are going shopping tomorrow. No back talk!"

Her thick French accent stirred something inside of Lucas, and he couldn't help but think that maybe, the next two weeks wouldn't be as bad as he had first expected.

~ 9:13 PM ~ Boulevard Suchet, Paris ~

Later that evening, Caleb raced down the stairs of his host family's house taking two steps at a time. As soon as he had reached the ground floor, ready to step outside, his phone vibrated, announcing that he had received a new text message. Caleb pulled it out of the back pocket of his black jeans.

I have everything ready until 11:30. Hope it will all work out best. Bonne chance! Sèb.

He closed the message and jerked up his head, looking up to where the stairs above him ended before turning his attention back to his phone and opening the menu to type a new text.

Ready to earn some bad girl stripes? Sneak out! I'll pick you up in 45 minutes. Bring a warm jacket. C.

The smirk on his face grew as he imagined his carefully constructed plan coming to life. He checked the time again and stepped out onto the curb, looking left and right as he tried to remember his way to the nearest Mètro station in the now darkened street of the posh neighborhood in Paris' west.

to be continued…

Thanks for all the kind words for the first two chapters. I know there wasn't much Haleb action in this chapter either, but please bear with me, we're getting there soon!

The next update will be on Monday. Since I already finished writing the entire story, updates will take place regularly every other day.

Please leave a review if you liked it. It would make my day! Thanks, Zip

Thanks to Sam, Jenna and Marion for helping out!