To Be a Hero | MLB

16: The Boy... Again

I'm back in the park, scrolling through my practically nonexistent contact list on my phone. I only have four contacts: Jakob, Jaxon, my mom, and my aunt back in America. My phone keeps lighting up with calls and texts from my mom, and I keep swiping them away.

Come home. Swipe.

Now, Victoria. Swipe.

I'm sending Jakob. If you don't come home with him, I'm taking your phone for the rest of the time we're in Paris. Swipe.

I sit back on the bench and close my eyes, trying to identify all the causes of my anger. Ladybug, Chat Noir, my mom, Jakob, Jaxon, the triplets, Paris in general.

I'm about to let loose and just scream when I hear someone slide onto the bench beside me. "Antoine?" I'm too tired for any other greeting.

"Hello, Tori. I was hoping I would find you here again." He pauses, then adds, "Yesterday, you were sad. Today, you are angry. Are you sure you are okay?"

I crack open my eyelids and feel something in me release. I never got the chance to tell him how I was feeling yesterday, so maybe this is my second chance. "No, Antoine, I'm not okay. I'm tired and mad and sad, and my mom doesn't trust me, and everyone uses me, and no one sees me, and..."

"I see you."

I open my eyes fully and raise an eyebrow at him.

"Tori, we... we may have just met, but there is something about you that made me come back here today, hoping I would see you again. And I don't see that 'something' every day."

I swallow as all my feelings for him rise once again. My face warms, and I look away, unsure of what else to say.

"I may not know you very well, but... I want to."

I glance back at him and smile softly. "I want to know you, too."

He offers me his hand. "May I?"

I take it, and he leads me out of the park. He refuses to tell me where we're going, and eventually, we arrive on a bridge. Antoine guides me to a small ice cream cart run by a man in a blue-and-white striped shirt and a blue apron.

"This is André," Antoine tells me. "He is known as Paris' matchmaker of sorts. Legend has it that couples who eat his ice cream together are bound to fall in love and stay together forever."

My eyes widen. "Is that... do you..." Is he saying he wants to fall in love with me?

Do I want to fall in love with him?

A red flush creeps up Antoine's neck. "I... no, that is not why I brought you here. It is just... I know ice cream always helps to cheer me up, and André's is the best in Paris." He smiles sheepishly, and my heart melts a tiny bit.

He does care. He really does.