AN: I truly appreciate all the reviews!
The streets of Villette were bustling with all types of people, as G made her way towards Quai de la Loire on a Vélib bike through the darkness, despite her mother having offered a ride. She loved the freedom the bike gave her in this city.
Astrid's building was definitely one of the more modern ones in the neighbourhood, overlooking the canal. She decided to risk getting fined, but brought her own bike lock to lock her rental bike to a lamp post, to make sure she'd have a means of transportation by the end of the night. This also meant that she had no intention of getting hammered - she just wanted hang out with people her own age instead of her parents.
She walked into the two bedroom apartment Astrid apparently shared with her older sister, as 'Goodbye' by Fedre and Lyse was playing in the background. The place was nothing too fancy, like an average student home really - the furniture attempting a theme but mostly consisting of hand-me-downs or budget IKEA furniture.
G was dressed in skinny jeans and a simple black V-neck crop top - she wasn't aiming for 'wow' effects or hookups tonight, but she knew that in these parties people tended to try a lot less hard to get noticed - people were just themselves a lot more and that was something she turly appreciated about the City. It really felt good to back here, in a crowd like this - she felt more similar to them than her year-older friends in New York, somehow more carefree, less stiff and all this interaction just felt so much more natural to her - people were approachable, not bothering with fake small-talk if they weren't actually curious. G greeted numerous people she knew from old times, most of them with either hugs or cheek-kisses, and was introduced to many more.
G poured herself a glass of red - some cheap but decent Cabernet Sauvignon, and just hung out, joining the other's in their conversations.
"So I was like waiting at Saint-Mandé and like I couldn't physically get into the number 1 train. I was seriously worried I'd get trampled," Mariam, a gorgeous willowy Ivory-Coast teen model, who was one of Astrid's best friends these days explained dramatically.
"Oh yea, the airport was in complete chaos when I got her," G commented in passing.
"Oh? Where did you fly here from?" Théo, a not too tall, but sturdy-looking red haired guy who also went to school with Astrid and Mariam spoke in a slightly more French-sounding English.
"New York," G exhaled. "I know - how unoriginal of me," she joked.
"Why did you move there anyways?" Théo asked her, recalling her from their class from those times.
"Umm..," she took a moment to reply. "My dad lives in the States, but I'm living with my sister now," she added. It was strange - nobody had really asked her that before. And while she could see some logic behind the move to be closer to her dad or get into the fully English-speaking prep-school to get into a good university over there, she didn't really recall the discussion itself. At that moment before the actual decision, living with her dad in Boston had seemed cool somehow, an adventure, and she hadn't really had anything against it. But she couldn't really recall any really good reason for that decision. It wasn't like she'd been to a bad school, quite the contrary, enabling her to skip a grade in the States.
"Right," the guy replied.
As they continued to talk a little about Mairam's plans for the New York Fashion week, some of the girls swooning over her early career, and the guys zoning off and only really sticking around for the hotness of the girls in the group, at some point one of the louder guys, who apparently was a year older or so let out a loud whistle getting everyone's attention.
"Nous avons décidé qu'il était temps pour la vérité, l'action ou shooter!" he announced, saying they were starting a game of truth, dare or shot as an ice breaker game.
"Quentin, regular or the naughty kind?" Léa asked, wanting to be sure everyone in the party understood.
The guy, named Quentin apparently, only chuckled at the question answering it by itself.
"Oh, this is going to be fun," Mariam grabbed G's arm. "Last time Léa ended up changing clothes with Kevin, underwear and everything," she added in a chuckle, nodding towards the tall and dark haired Finn Wolfhard look-alike.
G didn't really think too much of it, it wasn't like she hadn't done this type of party games before and as an icebreaker it was certainly a good activity to get people to open up more. Most of the partygoers stood or sat on various chairs and couches in a circle, and Quentin went over the ground rules briefly - mostly in French but adding a few explanations in between in English as well.
"Christine? Let's start with you," Quentin suggested, pulling a blonde curly haired petite girl into the circle. To G his body language was obvious - he liked the girl or perhaps even was involved with her. "Truth or dare?" he asked her. "Or shot," he added, clearly hoping she wouldn't pick the latter.
"Truth," the at first timid-looking film replied boldly, pushing her chest and chin up.
"What's the favourite sext that you've ever received," someone from the audience asked, the floor being left open for questions, causing Quentin to glance around the group for who'd asked it, as if expecting some competition.
"Emm..," she pondered, demonstratively letting her index and middle finger tap her lip in the process. "Something along the lines of 'everytime I close my eyes, I see you naked'?" she replied slightly hesitating in her response.
Someone let out a howl causing some commotion and laughter in the crowd.
It took quite a while for everyone to get their turn, most of the questions or dares having some kind of sexual innuendo, some more innocent than others. Some, who had just arrived at the party took the tequila shots that were places on the coffee table.
"Gigi?" Astrid said, having been just confessed having once had a sex dream about a teacher.
G had just taken a sip of her wine, and took a moment to swallow it before replying.
"Dare," she bravely said, having just heard the last five people confess to various things, she just felt this was somehow less emotional to do.
"We have a brave one amongst us!" Quentin cheered, switching to English for a change.
"Spin the bottle and kiss whomever it lands on. With tongue of course," Théo said, and G shot her a scolding look. She wasn't oblivious enough that he had been testing the ground with her, but not quite outright flirting just yet. But for real - it was just a kiss, she'd survive this.
"Hand me the bottle," she exhaled, accepting her faith.
The empty wine bottle spinned on the coffee table, pushing over an empty beer can in the process.
Astrid, Théo and a few others were howling along as the bottle's speed was beginning to wear down.
"Mariam? Vous n'avez pas d'objections?" Quentin asked, at this stage still taking consent seriously.
Mariam shrugged.
G hadn't ever kissed a girl before, but she didn't think it was a big deal, believing that it was good to try out new things sometimes. The audience clapping, mostly guys, and a few whistled as she approached her - this being the only real annoying part of it.
Mariam smelled sweet, roses and lilies - or something like that, way too sweet to her liking, but she was definitely a beautiful girl - slim and leggy with interesting features. Hesitating just for a second she just closed her eyes and brushed her lips with hers, in the softest manner letting Mariam's tongue into her mouth, before slipping her tongue between Mariam's lips in return. There was even a hint of electricity there, definitely not bad, but nothing close to how she'd managed to forget herself with Brody.
The kiss broke and the crowd clapped and cheered, and G took a little bow, appearing all confident - something like that really didn't shake her. She was beyond embarrassment and awkwardness about things like this.
"That was some kiss!" Théo commented as she returned to her position in the circle.
G simply raised her eyebrows slight at him, almost as if judging him for his childishness.
"Théo, you're up, I believe," G patted his shoulder with a hint of vindictiveness. In the meanwhile someone came with a bottle of wine and filled up everyone's empty glasses.
"Umm…," Théo pondered worriedly. "Dare," he said. "Can't be less brave than G here," he chuckled, for a second actually proving to be something more than just a childish coward in G's eyes.
Before anyone had a chance to respond, G called out, "I got one!", the sentence giving her a few more seconds to think of something and the other's humoured her seeing they had a bit of a bone to pick.
"Do your best sexy crawl!" G eventually said, not quite as satisfied with the dare she'd come up with.
"With pleasure," Théo put up a brave front, grabbed one of the roses someone had brought as a gift to Astrid, placed it between his teeth and got down on all fours. Someone quickly put on a sexy soundtrack for him - 'Streets' by Doja Cat, making Théo almost lose character. He did his best - curving his back and making 'come hither' eyes to several people in the room, G included.
"Bon travail!" G praised him laughingly as he finished, several others clapping along.
Next Mariam got a dare to do a body shot with one of the other guys, who G didn't know that well.
After the next round, and G having ended up admitting how she had indeed had a crush on someone who was older than her by more than 15 years, getting the memory of Finn to sting once again, the game, however, lost its appeal to her, and she excused herself to go to the bathroom and didn't return to the game after that.
"It's stupid- they're like a bunch of horny brats. Just have an orgy already, they clearly want one!" a low voice added jokingly, letting out a snort.
The guy was perhaps 6 ft 5 in, dark-skinned and definitely looking quite handsome in the dark slim button-up that showed off his toned body in the shape of an inverted triangle. She couldn't remember seeing him in the game circle earlier, and frankly she found that attitude rather refreshing.
"They are definitely not drunk enough for that, give them a few years," G chuckled in response, and went to get herself an olive from the buffet that had been set up in the kitchen, licking her fingers clean after putting it in her mouth.
"I'm Jephté," he introduced himself.
"Georgia, or just G," she replied.
They talked casually for a while - where they were from and how they'd ended up at the party in question. To G's surprise the discussion actually ended up going over the reasons for the transportation strike, Jephté showing very good knowledge of the social and political aspects of this.
"I can't believe you're still in high school - you don't sound like it. You don't sound like the rest of them," G commented at some point.
"That's because I'm not," Jephté replied.
"Let me guess..," she began. "PSL?" she suggested, referring to one of the most well known universities in town.
"Universities are too restrictive… never quite liked that concept. I have taken a few classes, but… I don't need it. Want to guess again?" Jephté replied, with a broad smile, quite appreciating the guessing-game.
"Umm…," G pondered studying his appearance more carefully now, her gaze pausing on his hands. Those were definitely some fine looking hands and G from her own experience definitely knew what people said the hands spoke of, and having had a bit of a dry spell for the past three weeks, she was definitely intrigued. But besides the size of his hands, she could also notice numerous bandages around his left hand fingers.
"Are you a chef or something?" G made an educated guess.
"Oui, mademoiselle," he chuckled in a low tone, approvingly. "Well, almost. I'll graduate this spring," he added, more humbly.
Soon enough they noticed the crowd scattering from the living room, deciding to either pause or end the game and flooded the kitchen and hallways to line up for the bathroom. New bottles of wine were opened, Astrid filling up some more bowls with chips and cookies, keeping things simple. The music was turned up, playing some slightly alternative dance music that G didn't quite recognize, most likely some newer French groups, despite the songs being also in English.
He didn't ask, but just took her hand and led her to the dancefloor, despite some of her initial confusion. And it was fun, he was a good dancer and G was enjoying herself, definitely appreciating the way his fingers already contoured parts of her body. G was beginning to feel the relief of being in France - she wouldn't even be doing anything illegal if she were to sleep with him. She let the physical flirt play out and ended up kissing him in the middle of dancing, before pulling apart with a sneaky smile. This was definitely making her feel good.
As a part of the local New Year's Eve tradition they kissed for the second time after the countdown for New Year. His strong arms wrapped around her waist tightly, almost making her knees weak.
"I'd ask if you'd want to come back to my place right about now," Jephté whispered to her ear after that, making her stomach flutter. "But I'm sort of the designated driver for my friends, I can't really leave right now," he added, G only then realizing that he really hadn't had much else to drink than perhaps one glass of wine and mostly soda.
She whispered something in return, definitely showing her brave and confident side. After another slow and teasing kiss they made their way towards Astrid's bedroom, G having gotten the 'okay' from her.
The guy was nice enough not to disappear on her after they'd done it, finding a comfortable position in one of the armchairs, and invited her to come sit on his lap, as there were no other seats around, the two of them definitely getting a few looks from the crowd. But she just didn't care, feeling great having gotten what she wanted.
The discussion had now moved to something school related, Jephté not really caring awfully much about this either, so they ended up speaking about G's plans for college mostly amongst the two of them.
At perhaps 1:30 AM, Quentin, who G hadn't realized had gone anywhere, emerged loudly through the front door with a loud howl showing a bag of weed in his hand.
"Shit," G muttered. This was not something she wanted to be around, having learned this much from her past experience. She knew there's be at least some peer pressure to do it, and even if she didn't, being in the same room with it wasn't really avoiding it either. She didn't want to relive the gala evening's experience here.
"You okay?" Jephté asked. "You've never done it before or something?" he added.
"I don't really have a good relationship with it - my body acts really weird to it. Not a good fit," she shook her head.
"We could go for a walk or something?" Jephté suggested, actually seeming like a polite and thoughtful guy.
"You know, I've enjoyed this, but I think right now it's just my cue to leave," G replied with a sigh. She wasn't up to developing this into something more than it had been, having already enough to deal with.
"That's too bad," Jephté commented. "Maybe I could text you sometime?" he asked for her number.
G followed him on Instagram instead, leaving him the option to text her, adding that she wasn't really in country for very long, which definitely made him look at her a little disappointedly.
G said her goodbyes to Astrid and Léa, and a few others, the girls in question letting out a whine of disappointment. But G just shrugged, already smelling the pot from the other room. Leaving was the right thing to do.
She headed downstairs feeling only very mildly intoxicated by the wine. She texted her mom she was going home, and despite having at first figured she'd just stay the night, looked up the best route to bike home. Biking home didn't seem to be a problem as she found her Vélib bike, and unlocked the chain around it. No fine charge on her phone at least for locking it up, thankfully. She biked down Rue de l'Ourcq and then up the Avenue de Flandre aiming to take a fairly straight route home along Boulevard Félix Faure. She was just about to reach the latter, when she realized that she had a flat tire.
"Crap," she muttered to herself. Biking with this was going to be more effort than walking. The area was a little sketchy but she quickly pulled up her phone letting her mother know where she was and what had happened. She also checked the map and realized it really only was like a 20 minute walk to the gallery her mother was at, and considering she didn't get a reply from Sherry straight away, she figured it was better to keep walking rather than to be confused for a hooker standing by the side of the street or something. She tracked her walk by Walk Safe, something she'd learned from Rory to use in New York when she was out on her own late, which had rarely happened, but in this neighbourhood she figured better safe than sorry. There were a few moments along the way, sensing some eyes on her, when she didn't feel quite safe but she simply hastied her step, thankfully reaching the gallery in one piece and unharmed, through slightly panting.
"There you are!" Sherry hugged her daughter as she saw her. "I'm sorry, I just checked my phone," she apologized for not reacting sooner than when she'd already been nearly there.
"It was fine," she replied.
"You didn't want to stay over?" Sherry asked.
"Nah, they were smoking pot, not my thing..," G replied honestly.
"Good girl," Sherry replied, hugging her sideways and kissing her temple. Sherry didn't know of her experiences with it, but nevertheless she felt proud of her making good choices.
"Any hope of going home anytime soon?" G asked.
"I'll need to lock up, and these guys … well… I don't really see them tiring before morning unfortunately," Sherry explained, gesturing towards the loud bunch of guests they had over at the other end of the gallery, talking to Remi.
"I'll guess I'll maybe just look for another bike nearby or hang out or something then," G exhaled, feeling a little disappointed.
"No, stay - check the show and I'll find a moment to slip away for a bit at some point, I promise. I'll take you," Sherry replied, not wanting her daughter alone on the streets more than she'd already been.
Sherry headed off to make sure everything was fresh at the buffet table, making sure the guests, some of which were high profile gallery owners and buyers, were content. G didn't like seeing her mother wait Remi's hand and foot like this, and she knew it wasn't all that - but that evening it just showed so evidently - Remi was enjoying himself, indulging in wine and food, while her mother was essentially working. She felt bad for her.
G humoured them by walking along the gallery going over painting after painting. She knew Remi was good at what he did, actually making a decent living on it. On occasion she noted Remi glancing at her, as she looked at the paintings, but tried not to notice.
As she killed time, a few other artists exchanged a few words with her, either discussing the art scene in general, which she knew little off or the current exhibitions. She didn't mind, it helped the time go by faster.
"I'm going to pop over to the Total Bonjour," Sherry then announced to her. "We're out of toilet paper and napkins, apparently," not quite believing this was the errand she was running at 2.30 in the morning.
"Can you take me home?" G asked hopefully, knowing the gas station was five minutes in the same direction as their home.
"I'm sorry, honey - I need to get back here. There's more people coming," she added. People seemed in no hurry to leave, many having just joined the show after the New Year hit, she felt she had no choice but to make the trip.
"I'll just stay here then," she sighed, gesturing at the leather couch in the corner. Her phone battery was good, she had no problem keeping herself occupied.
Sherry cast another look towards Remi, again that look catching G's attention, and said, "No, you're coming with me," with seriousness she'd never really seen from her before.
"Okay," she replied, reluctantly and trailed after mother towards the car.
The ride to the gas station passed in silence, only to find the one they'd wanted to go to closed for renovations. Sherry quickly googled the next closest and they drove there instead.
"Mom, is everything okay?" G asked, seeing her mother worry way too much about some toilet paper, as she eventually returned from the next station two packs of napkins and a big pack of toilet paper in hand.
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Sherry responded, turning on the car and driving off.
"I don't know - you seem on edge, like you're scared of something, or him?" G inquired a little naively.
"He's not at his best when he's had this much to drink," Sherry replied, tilting her head slightly. She sounded a little worried.
"And what's with dragging me along…?" G felt she needed to ask, having sensed it a couple of times during the week she'd been in Paris this time.
Sherry didn't reply, but G could read from her face that there was something.
"Is he the reason why I needed to move to the States?" G suddenly asked, only then really having connected the dots as a possibility.
"He has a weird sense of humour... He's just him - he's eccentric, physical…," Sherry listed with a sigh. "I didn't like the way he looked at you sometimes, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear?" Sherry said, the calm voice changing into an upset one as she saw that G was seriously asking her that.
"Why are you with him then? If he's so sketchy..." G shot back, already beginning to worry that perhaps there was more to it - maybe he was hurting her, maybe there was something more going on - if she seemed so afraid of her.
Sherry simply shook her head, continuing to drive, adding "It's not that simple, Georgia", treating her like a child for a moment.
They got back to the gallery and Sherry let out a sigh of relief, seeing Remi talking to one of the wealthiest buyers he had, clearly being occupied by that discussion. She clearly hadn't been missed much.
G had decided to just wait in the car, not wanting to deal with either of them. Suddenly, with her mother having said those words out loud, a lot of things were beginning to make sense. It seemed she had been sent to live with Christopher to protect her from him, even if nothing had really happened. She didn't recall anything more happening at least. But what she didn't get was why her mother was with him - if he was such a creep, next to his better qualities, how could she stay with him? Was this her choosing him over her?
A few hours later the three drove home in silence, or at least silence amongs the women, while Remi, clearly intoxicated, blabbered something in the back seat. G wanted to talk to her mother, she wanted to understand - but clearly that was not going to happen that evening.