Excuse my French

vingt. oh là là

There was an upcoming test in chem class, and I knew, the moment I glanced back through my notebook, that I definitely was going to fail it. It turned out that Lila had exactly the same sentiments as I did when we exchanged a glance. I elbowed her when Bredbenner turned to his computer (slowly, since he'd finally figured out how to use it properly about a week ago). "Hey, a study session, my place later, okay?"

Lila opened her arms to me like she wanted to hug me, but I held her off by shoving her away gently. "He'll think we're in a romantic relationship," I whispered not so quietly. "And please don't hug me. I can't stand physical contact."

The pout Lila sent me looked exactly like one of the smolders that her brother put on whenever I refused to give into his whims (which, incidentally, involved a lot of touching, especially around the face area). I blinked several times. No, I was not going to link my best friend to my...whoever he was.

Luckily for me, Lila didn't seem to see my lapse in interaction. "You know you love me," she whined, her pout becoming even more prominent.

"Push that lip where it's supposed to be, L." I jokingly shoved her arm, and she huffed, flipping her hair as she turned back to her notebook.

"You've been mentioning romance a lot, you know," she commented casually, innocently looking up at Bredbenner when he glanced back at the class. I followed her lead, plastering a grin on my face (but I probably looked like the Joker who was about to kill people in their sleep since Bredbenner turned back to the board rather quickly).

My heart stuttered a little, and I could feel my hands clamming up a little. Oh shit. This was the day that I knew would be coming all along. I bit my lip. "The hell're you talking about?"

She sent me a flat look. "You know I've never been oblivious to your antics, A. Like, I'm not stupid even though my brother might be a whole lot smarter than I am."

I hoped that my warm cheeks were part of a reaction to her discovery rather than her mention of Luc. If it was to the latter, Lila would probably figure it out in about three and a half seconds, and there was going to be no way for me to delay things again. "Um..."

"Come on; you know I've got your back, girlfriend." Lila ducked down and scribbled some nonsense in the margins of her page when she saw Bredbenner approaching. I glanced up at the board (to take my own notes, rather than Lila's, for once!), sneaking looks at Lila to check if she was considering me suspiciously in any way.

No, she wouldn't do that. Lila was much more subtle than that. I'd have a lot more luck with Olivia, who was in pre-calc right now.

Once Bredbenner's eyes were on some poor kid, I said to Lila, "There might be something."

Lila perked up then, immediately. "Is there a guy?" she asked brightly under her breath.

Damn, she was perceptive. I shouldn't have underestimated her like this because I could have planned ahead all the responses to the questions she would surely ask while I was too wrapped up with her brother. Fuck Luc Mercier.

Actually, that wouldn't be such a bad idea.

The heat in my cheeks intensified. Really, I needed to stop thinking like this. Lila was looking at me then with her eyebrows raised and her hazel eyes sharp. I pretended to rub my right contact to avoid eye contact with her (to be fair, my right eye was twitching, but probably because of some pollen from outside or something, not my contacts).

"Well?" Lila said. She was looking much too excited to find out about my love life (which, thanks to Luc, was no longer non-existent) as she bounced in her seat (to her credit, almost imperceptibly). "Come on, Audrey. I've waiting for this moment for years."