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I hate rushing! I got up late so now I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to get ready for Renee coming to pick me up. I usually wake up about 10 but today I slept into 12.30 which is obscene but I'm a teenage girl so what can be expected? I quickly throw on a cute skirt I got last week and a white sleeveless blouse and make my way down stairs whilst brushing my hair.
"Hey Renee! So sorry I'm late, I slept in and had to rush…"
"Christine you're not wearing any shoes!" Renee told me whilst trying not to laugh. I quickly look at my feet and realise that yes, I did indeed forget about shoes. I swear my head is like a sieve sometimes.
"Oh right, I'll be two minutes!" I say as I drop my bag and run right back into the house and up the stairs but not before tripping on the stairs. I quickly grab my cream wedges and run down stairs, putting them on as I go.
"I'm ready" I cheer with a big smile on my face as I jump in her brother's car. Her Brother Hugo is really nice, he's always giving us lifts here and there and he doesn't mind sitting in traffic waiting for us.
"Hi Chrissy" Hugo says with a big smile, he knows how much I hate that name!
"Renee tell your brother I'm ignoring him" I tell Renee who then proceeds to repeat it to her brother who just laughs and ways "Whatever you say Chrissy"
Fifteen minutes later we arrive at the shopping centre which is absolutely packed with tourists but I don't really mind, might get a creep on a cutie if I'm lucky. Renee says she needs some new moisturiser because the stuff she has is 'not right for her oily t zone and irritating her combination skin' I know I didn't understand her either. After spending twelve minutes looking at moisturisers… twelve long minutes, Renee finally buys one that's obscenely expensive but I don't say anything. I did one day and got a rant about how my skin was 'perfect and that I didn't understand the dilemma of having skin where you could literally connect the dots' needless to say I didn't comment again!
As I have previously stated the shops were packed so it was a little frustrating at times, especially when we were in H&M and this guy stood on my foot and didn't even apologise! If I wasn't so polite and afraid his wife would crush me I would have said something! So after three hours of intense shopping Renee and I agree that it was time for something to eat so we both went too Quick for a well-deserved burger and chips. After we engulfed the meal, we didn't even talk just stuffed ourselves, I was sent to get the ice cream whilst Renee 'settled her stomach'. I quickly got the ice creams and went back to sit at the table to find it was occupied by not only Renee but two guys.
"Christine this is Ethan and Raoul, Ethan's brother went to school with Hugo" Renee introduced me, the guys were hot in a surfer dude kind of way. Ethan had brown hair and hazel eyes with a light tan whilst Raoul had sandy hair with baby blue eyes.
"Christina Daaé?" Raoul said whilst looking at me, he did look kind of familiar but I couldn't really place him.
"Yeah?"
"You probably don't remember me but we went to summer school together a few years ago?" I honestly was trying to remember him but it just wasn't happening.
"Clara Bell pushed you over and you hurt your wrist and I helped you up again?" Ah Clara Bell, my mortal enemy, we went to school together when we were little and she was always doing nasty things to me, I remember this particular incident because I had hurt my wrist and had to go to the hospital for a cast. The next week her father's really successful business went bankrupt, he had to be institutionalised because he couldn't cope with it and kept claiming a man had ruined his business on purpose as a way of getting back at his family for hurting someone dear to him. Crazy I know.
"Oh yeah I remember you now" I didn't have a clue but I felt bad for not remembering him so what was one teeny tiny little white lie?
"You've grown up" Raoul said whilst looking me up and down. Delightful.
"Thanks I could say the same for you" That technically wasn't a lie as he naturally would have grown up. See? And people call blondes stupid.
"So what have you been doing?" Raoul looked so eager for conversation that I couldn't deny him and even if I wanted to Renee was utterly useless, she was currently laughing at something Ethan said.
"Oh just school, singing and Ballet, what about you?" Exciting life I know.
"School and sports" Raoul said as he edged closer to me.
"So a…yep um…what sports do you play?" I asked after a few moments.
"Oh football, a little rugby and if I'm forced Cricket" Raoul said with a dashing smile. I will admit he has nice teeth, his orthodontist must be proud.
"Oh I never understood cricket" Random I know but I had nothing else to say. Raoul then spent the next ten minutes explaining Cricket to me, I nodded in all the right places and laughed when he told an, I'm assuming amusing anecdote. He then asked questions about my singing which I told him was going well and about my ballet. He then asked if I'd ever done a 'grand plié' with a guy before, something about the way he asked it made me incredibly uncomfortable so I just smiled and took a drink of my juice.
After the whole ordeal was over the guys offered to take us home which I was about to decline when Renee all but shouted yes. I was thankfully left home first. Raoul left me to my door which was completely unnecessary and unappreciated. He asked if we could met up again and I told him that we could as it would be nice for the 'four of us' to go out again, he looked a little disappointed but quickly covered it up but it didn't matter; I'd seen it. He then proceeded to wait until I'd got out my key and wait until I opened the door. I gave him a small wave and quickly closed the door. I then got on my hands and knees and crawled to the window to make sure they drove away.
"You okay there Christine?" Uncle Alexei asked me looking rather amused at my current predicament.
"Perfectly fine thank you" I answered as I rose and walked out of the room with as much dignity as possible.
Do you ever get those days that dragged? Well today was one. I spent an entire hour on the phone with Renee; who told me of how her moisturiser had affected her skin, she also talked about Ethan and Raoul. She told me how cute they both were, how nice they were yesterday for leaving us home and Raoul said I was 'hot'. I tried to keep up but at this point I didn't particularly care. After my phone call with Renee I spent two hours at the Ballet studio practicing. By three o'clock Monday I was exhausted and I still had my singing lesson to do…lucky me!
Uncle Alexei dropped me off at Miss Marcel's on time. The whole place was quite which didn't really surprise me, what did surprise me was that Mr Destler answered the door looking furious about something. He ushered me in without a word and like déjà vu I was taken into the sitting room where I first met him. I sat with my back facing the door whilst he sat down opposite me before standing and pacing by the fireplace.
"Did you practice your scales yesterday Christine?" Mr Destler asked quietly, something in his voice made me gulp but I didn't dare not answer him.
"No Sir I forgot" I admitted, at this point it would be utterly useless to lie.
"And why was that?" Once again was the eerily calm voice, like the calm before the storm.
"Well I woke up late and then I was rushing because I was going shopping with my friend so I didn't have the time" It was pathetic I know, the one thing he asked and I forgot?
"You went shopping with your friend?"
"Yes Renee" Why the hell would he care? I only just noticed that he'd stopped pacing and was now rooted to the spot with a tenseness to his shoulders, his hands were behind his back but I knew his fists were clenched.
"Did you meet anyone interesting?" The look he gave me was like he was daring me to lie.
"Yes…well no…I mean I met someone…actually two people" God I was such a bumbling fool!
"Do tell Christine" Mr Destler still hadn't moved an inch or even blinked for that matter.
"Um well Renee knew one of them, it was two guys. Ethan and Raoul, apparently I knew Raoul before but I can't really remember him to be honest" At this point my mind and mouth weren't even co-operating with one another.
"Raoul" Mr Destler just hissed the name after a few moments of silence. I couldn't even look at him anymore, so instead I stared a hole into the floor.
"Yes he said we sent to summer school together a few years ago and he told me about this girl who used to bully me called Clara so I must have known him or how else would he have known?" Seriously why was I even telling him this?
"So you conversed over Miss Bell and what else?" Weird I don't think I said her second name?
"Oh this and that"
"This and that?" He really wasn't letting this go was he?
"Yes sports and other things, I think we will be going out again" I'm disowning my mouth.
"You will be? How delightful" Call me stupid but I didn't think he actually meant that.
Mr Destler then stood there for another few minutes before ordering me to go to the music room and to do my scales. I quickly got up and practically ran to the music room.
A little while later Mr Destler entered the room looking a little calmer than before. I watched as he sat at the piano and starting playing a beautiful melody that I had never heard before. I moved quietly to stand beside him, something about the way he played entranced me, he didn't just play music, he became music. It wasn't until I looked at his hands I noticed blood seeping from his knuckles and onto the pearl white keys.
I gasped and reached out for his hands. He didn't stop me but I could feel him tense under my touch.
"What happened?" I asked quietly, the cuts were deep with bits of glass in them, like he had punched a mirror. He gave me no reply, just continued to stare at me with a look that I couldn't explain.
I decided that I couldn't very well let his hands go in that state so I quickly left the room and went to the kitchen to find something to clean up his hands. I looked in all the cupboards and couldn't find a single thing to help. I then went to the downstairs bathroom and once again came up short. I had only been gone for a few minutes so I quickly went up the stairs to the Miss Marcel's personal bathroom. I had known where it was because one day she asked me to help her move some boxes upstairs and I commented how big the place was, she pointed to a bedroom and stated that it was the only room on the second floor she used. So I went into the room to see if there was anything in the En-suite that would be of assistance.
I figured Miss Marcel wouldn't mind as this was an emergency and I wasn't looking through her things or anything. The room itself was tidy but the odd thing was that her clothes were all still there on a rack in the corner, with her shoes placed neatly on the floor. Her hairbrush was on the night stand along with her watch; the only piece of jewellery she ever wore. What really struck me was her passport sitting on a shelf by the door. If she visited relatives in a different country wouldn't she need a passport? I shook my head and chastised myself for my nosiness, there was probably a reasonable explanation for everything. I finally found a first aid kit, grabbed it and dashed down the stairs.
Mr Destler was right where I had left him; sitting on the piano bench quietly. Blood was still seeping out of his hands but not as badly as before. I moved to sit beside him on the bench and gently picked up his hand and began wiping the blood from them. I didn't bother looking up but I could feel his eyes on me.
For the next twenty minutes I sat there quietly cleaning his wounds; taking out small shards of glass and wiping away blood. Not one word was spoken between us; just a comfortable silence. After I cleaned up his hands I got bandages and carefully wrapped them, his hands looked so sore and the last thing I wanted to do was make them hurt any more.
After they were both cleaned I chanced a look at Mr Destler, he was looking at me with what can only be described as tenderness and something else that yet again I couldn't place.
"Thank you" Was all he said, it was expected but his tone wasn't; thick and deep. Like something was stuck in his throat.
"It's what anybody else would have done" I ducked my head, I dare anybody to stare him in his eyes for longer than a few seconds. It's utterly impossible.
"No they wouldn't have" He wasn't arguing with me but simply stating that someone else wouldn't have done that. There was a sadness to his voice, I didn't know why he was sad about such a thing, why he was sad at all really. Didn't he have someone to look after him when he was hurt?
"Well I don't want to see you hurt, I don't like it" I wasn't really thinking about him specifically, more about people in general. I hate to see anyone in pain or suffer.
He didn't reply just sat in silence. We didn't continue with our music lesson today. After a while I was left home by Mr Destler, we still didn't speak just sat in silence. I couldn't help but think that maybe today changed things between me and Mr Destler, I hoped so. It would be nice to be friends with my singing instructor and there was nothing wrong with that…
Raoul will not be a major character in this story, he might be in one or more chapters but that's about it really.
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