fin de siècle ; mixte 1963

chapter 9 ; girls just wanna have fun

Christmas passed quickly and the days after did as well. Gisele and Jean visited the Vergoux family for dinner, spent some time with their friends and mostly were just lazing around. In the blink of an eye, it was New Years' Eve already and the twins found themselves preparing the usual, small gathering at their house with the people they knew.

Joseph and Charles were going to be there, obviously, as well as Annick, since she agreed when Gisele asked her to come. Additionaly, the last time Gisele saw Nicole, the girl had said that there was no way she was going to let Dupin get away with spending the night without herself, so she was also going to come, which meant that Yves, Pierre, Thierry and Armand would be there too.

With that arose a problem that Gisele did not even think of before. Last time she's seen those people, her and Joseph pretended to be together just to fuck with them. Charles and Jean had no idea about that, Annick of course didn't either and some misunderstanding was surely bound to happen. She had no idea how to deal with that though, so she decided to just wait and see what Joseph would do. Maybe it would turn out that she was wrong and the others wouldn't even notice the difference.

"What time are they coming, again?" asked Gisele, walking down the stairs and fixing one of her earrings. She has been getting ready for about an hour already, putting extra care into her appearance - if not for the New Years' Eve, when else would she dress up?

She put on a black turtleneck, a shorter-than-usual chequered skirt and wine-coloured tights along with a pair of black, knee-high boots. The outfit was bolder than what Giselle usually wore, especially the skirt, because ones of such length were only starting to become a thing, but she didn't really care; she was only going to see people she knew tonight, people that she felt comfortable around. There was no reason for her to be nervous about the way she dressed.

Gisele also put some more time into her hair. Instead of going for the usual updo, a ponytail or a braid, she's decided to style them into the waves that have been so popular recently; they reached only her collarbones though, because ever since she cut her hair during one of her breakdowns, it just refused to grow quickly.

"Dunno. Any time now, I suppose," replied Jean. "Looking good, Gigi. Who did you dress up for?"

Gisele sent him an annoyed glare.

"For Nicole and Annick, fucker," she said. "Stop being stupid or I will kick you out, for real. And don't you dare and try to bother Annick."

Her brother raised his hands innocently, as if trying to show that he had no bad intentions. Gisele only sighed in response and then she heard the sound of the doorbell and of the opening door. That meant it had to be either Charles or Joseph - they were the only ones who knew where the twins kept the spare key.

"Jean, Gigi! Where are you?" The two of them heard Vergoux before they saw him, just as he peeked into the living room. Seeing them, he smiled brightly, like he usually did.

Right behind him stood Joseph, smirking at the twins playfully. In the bag he was holding Gisele could see the outlines of the bottles of alcohol - he was usually the one to take care of it when any of the four organised a party.

"I just know that it was you, Dupin, who butchered that poor tree," said Joseph, approaching the two. Jean rolled his eyes at his friend' words, in response squeezing his hand way harder than he should,

"Shut the fuck up, Descamps. It was Gigi."

"No, it wasn't!" objected Gisele, looking at her brother, offended.

"No, it wasn't," agreed Joseph, chuckling, "Gigi would never."

"Thank you, Jo," replied the girl, tiptoeing to kiss him on the cheeks in a greeting. And then she snatched the bag with the bottles from him. "I will take that now. Unless any of you wants to start before the others are here?"