Peintures vivantes - Joseph Descamps

Invitation à la fête

The days pass slowly, and each passing hour seems to fadparty memory of the meeting in the café. The maths exam is fast approaching, and along with me, Annick and Henri are visibly under pressure.

Taking advantage of a short break from the library, I go out the back of the university and make my way to the room where the landline phone is located. I dial Vincent's home number and wait in silence as the ringing tones punctuate the seconds.

"Yes?" replied Vincent's low, quiet voice.
"Vincent! It's Romy."
"Oh...hi Honey! What a pleasure to hear from you!" he replies with infectious enthusiasm. After a few minutes of chatting, I decide to tell him the thing for which I initiated this call.

"Listen Vincent, I hope you don't take offence. But tonight it would be better for me to stay at home and not go out and about. I have my exam in two days, and I'd rather stay quiet at home and revise with Annick."

"No problem sweetheart! I understand, don't worry. Maybe, if I can, I'll drop by your house tomorrow to say hello."

I blush slightly as I clutch the phone handset between my fingers. He is so attentive to every little detail, he is kind and terribly loving.

"I would love to, yes." I answer, gratefully. The call ends, as does my little break from studying. I walk back to the library with slow steps, and after entering, I join Henri and Annick.

As soon as I sit down, Henri hastily pulls his notebook closer to me, and points to a passage in an exercise with his finger. "Did this come to you?" he asks me, and recognising the exercise, I flip through my notebook to the right page, and show it to him.

After a few hours, spent in the library, immersed in a tomb-like, almost ritualistic silence, surrounded by so many other students with upcoming university exams, Henri closes his notebook and looks at Annick. A very clear look, from my point of view.

"Annick..." he calls her in a low voice, before receiving a finger to his lips in sign of silence. "I'm finishing something." She takes him back seriously, and Henri, with his eyes to the sky, turns to me, smiling.

"Hey Romy. Have you heard about the New Year's party?" he asks me in a very low voice, afraid of annoying Annick. I nod: not so many days ago Marion told me about it.

"Are you going?" he asks me. I reflect for a moment, closing the notebook and the book in my turn. I slip the black pen into the case and tighten the zip. 'Yes, I'll come with Vincent. Most likely my sister will be there too." I reply, giving him a quick glance at Annick, still deep in thought.

"Oh good!"
Something inside me would like to ask Henri something very specific, about his sister Helene, but I hold my tongue in time.

After a few hours spent in the library, all three of us decide to finally go home, and during the whole drive, Annick fills my head with desperate speeches about the upcoming exam. "I won't pass it." She dramatises my friend, while I silently open the door to our flat.

"Why do you always have to take everything so dramatically?" I ask her with a laugh, but after receiving a glare, Annick locks herself in her room. Probably moaning in books, or crying.

I decide to take a moment of peace and quiet. I make myself a nice hot blackberry and raspberry tea, and sit by the window, hot cup in hand. I silently watch the cars whizz down the street, as the street lamps slowly come on, welcoming the dark evening.

Tomorrow I will spend the day at home, as will Annick. We'll study the last things and I'll go over the things I already know. Sooner or later there will be a knock on Vincent's door, and there I will be able to take a nice break from books.

The night passes in a flash, and I wake up a few minutes before the alarm clock, just in time to turn it off. I hate that rattling sound that wakes me up every morning; sooner or later I will throw it out of the window, from the third floor.

The day started well, with a nice breakfast of complaints and despair from Annick. "I keep getting those exercises wrong. I hate them!" she rants, almost spilling her coffee on the table.

I watch her without uttering a word as I eat my breakfast and finish drinking my beloved tea. After tidying up the small kitchen, we settle down on the large table in the living room with all the relevant books and notebooks for the next day's exam, and set about studying and revising.

Towards mid-morning, I hear someone knocking at the door and I leap up from my chair. "Who is it?" my friend asks me confused, still busy writing down the result of the exercise. "Vincent, he warned me that he would come by today to say hello." I say enthusiastically, and after receiving an annoyed look from Annick, I run to the door and push it wide open.

In a split second, I realise that Vincent is not alone. On the contrary, at his side, with an embarrassed smile on his face, is Henri. I look at him confused, without even giving (my) boyfriend a smile.

"Henri?"
"Romy! Hey. I was on my way here and I bumped into Vincent on the street, who also happened to be coming here." he smiles back at me, but I notice a certain tension in his face.

"That's exactly what happened." Vincent adds, approaching me and giving me a kiss on the cheek. I seat them in the house, and as the two boys greet Annick, I pinch Henri's hip. "Why are you here? I see you anxious." I ask, observing him.

"Should I tell you something?"

"About?"
"Descamps..."

As soon as he mentions that name, I violently put my hand in front of his mouth, and Vincent turns to look at us. "Who is Descamps?" he asks smiling, unaware of who he really is.

"An old friend of ours." Annick answers him, saving me at the last, and keeping Vincent occupied by telling him about tomorrow's exam. I drag Henri, who remains silent, rather startled by my reaction, into the kitchen.

"May one know why you mention him in front of my boyfriend?" I hiss. "Is Vincent your boyfriend?" a confused Henri asks me, raising an eyebrow.
"About." I answer dryly, and for a few seconds we both remain silent. Henri starts to get more and more agitated.

"Will you tell me what's going on?" I ask him impatiently.

I look at him more and more confused, and after promising him what he wants, I back away slightly.
"He will be at the New Year's Eve party. With my sister." He confides in me. Immediately I stiffen and become pensive.

"There, I knew it. Now you won't come to the party." Says Henri sadly, intent on leaving the kitchen.
"I will come to the party, don't worry. I won't let Descamps ruin my night."

"Are you sure?" asks Henri, in obvious agitation "What if she meets Vincent? No, that mustn't happen!" he continues, almost ranting.

I look out the window, and without realising it, I smile slightly. "He will finally understand that I was never his property." I hiss. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

author space:

hello!♡♡

I can only anticipate that something will happen at the party🙃