The six-month housemate

Nineteen

NINETEEN

When the bell finally rang at the end of class, I was relieved to get out : maths is an interesting subject, but I struggled to understand what the teacher was saying, as things in mathematics aren't spelt/said the same way (or nearly) in French and English. I really needed to get help with that.

Jane needed to go, so I gave her my number, so we could compare our timetables. I stayed behind, just to check everything was okay with Alex.

"Hey." I said as he walked passed me, his bag slung carelessly on his shoulder.

"Hey." He answered coldly, not stopping.

I followed him to the entrance of the building, not talking since it seemed like he didn't want to. I didn't get why he got so worked out about one little thing, but hey, I wasn't going to be the one who tried to make things work between the two of us. The only reason I would was if it affected in any way my relationship with the Dalton family members, which it didn't, so I left Mr Bipolar alone.

The sun was shining outside, and a nice autumn breeze was blowing. I stopped a minute, waiting for my eyes to adapt to the bright lighting, enjoying the warmth of the sunrays.

"Better enjoy this kind of weather, it won't last very long... And then, goodbye sunshine for the next six months."

I opened my eyes lightly to see who owned the voice who'd spoken.

"Henry!" I hugged him, to his and my own surprise. The frustration linked to Alex's behaviour and the good feeling I got from the good weather probably explained the fact I was so happy to see him: at least he was somebody I had a feeling I could talk to. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was hoping I could give you a lift home. And perhaps have a coffee or something before that." He said, scratching the back of his head.

I thought for a second. The coffee part seemed nice, but my twisted brain wasn't too keen on getting a lift back home, since I'd refused Alex's offer. You know, the weird guilt feeling you get sometimes, like when you've been dreaming to get a Haagen Dasz ice-cream all day but then for whatever reason you go to Amorino, and when you're on the verge of buying your Amorino ice-cram, you feel guilty towards Haagen Dasz, like you're cheating on it.

Of course, that kind of thinking was totally stupid in my case since I wasn't cheating on anybody by getting a lift home. But I knew it would make my relationship with Alex more complicated if he knew I'd refused his offer and gone with another guy, especially Henry, whom he didn't seem to like.

Whoa. Wait a minute. Why am I basing my answer to Henry on Alex's possible reaction? And more generally, recently, why have I been putting what Alex would prefer before what I, Emma de la Tour, would? It dawned on me that I had some kind of Gatsby syndrome: I was trying to repeat the past, which I knew was impossible. To further convince myself to stop being so stupid, I just considered what would happen if I ever repeated the past. And the answer was: I'd get rejected again.

"Yeah, sure that seems great!" I told Henry with a warm smile.

"Okay, let's go then!"

--

Time flies when you're having fun. That's something that, if I hadn't knownalready, would've revealed true that afternoon. Henry took me to an ice-cream shop next to Green Park, and we then wandered between the trees. The leaves had already started to change colour, which made the scenery beautiful. Green, yellow, orange and brown mixed perfectly; there were a couple of piles of leaves, announcing the end of the summer, but not enough to actually show the beginning of autumn.

As we walked in the park, I realised that the atmosphere was amazing. One could easily forget they were in a big city, and that a few metres away, there were traffic jams. Henry and I talked, and I felt like I could tell him anything. Well not anything, but we just had so much in common. He understood my distress when it came to my relationship with Alex, he even gave me advice to make things better.

We talked about University, the ice-creams, rugby, London, France, Paris... I felt good. I was slightly aware that, sometimes, he was flirting with me, but hadn't he since the beginning? Plus, it felt good having someone who did seem to find you attractive, and not only physically. And I wasn't going to deny I was attracted to him too.

Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I took it out, and saw it was a message from my dad asking how me how my first day had been. I looked at the time, and saw it was past 6pm, knowing my last class had ended at 4pm. I'd spent more than two hours with Henry, and it had felt like only one, or less.

Henry saw me to the gate of the park closest to the Dalton's home.

"Thanks a lot." I said. "I really enjoyed it."

"My pleasure." He answered, smiling. "We have to do it again some other time."

"Definitely." I grinned. "Though, from what you said, it's going to be rainy till May, no?"

"Well, yeah, but that doen't prevent us from hanging out, right?"

"I was joking. You were just so negative about the weather when you picked me up."

"Oh, right." He smiled. "So see you... Next week? I'll come to pick you up?"

"Seems good to me." I smiled.

And that was how I started dating Henry. At first we just hung out after Uni, casually, but soon we started to go out at week ends, to the cinema, to exhibits... And finally, we became a couple. We hung out with Alex's friends, but Alex always seemed to find a way to excuse himself. I got closer to Johannah during that time, and also to Jane. We hung out just the three of us from time to time, which was nice. Autumn went on peacefully.

But winter was coming, if you know what I mean.

END OF PART 1

Hi!

I feel terrible for not updating as often as I used to (and that was already slow compared to other writers on wattpad...)

I've decided to separate the book into parts, so that we get out of the week I've been writing about in the last 19 chapters. Winter should be more exciting, with a little more drama :)

Other than that, thank you so much for reading, this story has know more than a THOUSAND reads, which is just unbelievable, and more than a hundred votes which is equally amazing (I mean, when I started writing, there was like one vote and five reads per chapter, and now it's more like a hundred reads per chapter) so THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, if so don't hesitate to vote and/or comment, and if you didn't don't hesitate to tell me why! :) feel free to comment on what might happen next, what you'd like to happen in the next chapters...

I hope to see you soon! :)

the_rugbywoman