Smoke Screens

Chapter Sixteen

"You know none of the others would judge you for not being able to read." Enjolras said as he poured more tea into his cup while Aurélia sat beside him tracing letters. He looked to see if she needed more tea but the cup remained untouched. "If you don't drink your tea it will get cold."

"I don't care about my tea, I want to be able to write the first letter of the alphabet correctly." She said, slamming her pencil down and putting her head in her hands.

"Take a breath, Aurélia. It's going to take a while to learn this, but you're making great progress." She kept her face in her hands but shook her head. He gently removed her hands from her face and put the pencil back in her hand. "Try again." He said a small yet reassuring smile on his lips. She tried to write the letter again but it still didn't look right. Before she could slam the pencil down, Enjolras reached over and grabbed her hand.

"I'm never going to learn to write."

"You insult me as your teacher." He thought for a moment how best to help her. "Here." He wrapped his arm around her so he could hold her hand as she held the pencil. He carefully guided her hand to write the letter. "There. It's a bit messy but that is without a doubt the letter 'A'." She turned to look at him, only now realizing just how close his face was to hers. She didn't know why she felt like the air had been ripped from her lungs. She knew it was a result of their close proximity but she didn't know why. What she understood even less was the disappointment she felt when he unwrapped his arm from around her. She had to be ill. That was the only explanation. The only one that made sense to her that was. "Now try it by yourself a few times." He said as he stood and began shuffling the papers on his desk.

Aurélia's hand felt terribly cold with his not holding onto it. She tried again and was both proud and disappointed that it resembled the first letter of her name. She was one letter closer to being able to read and one letter closer to him not helping her anymore. For a moment, she let herself be grateful that there were still twenty-five more to learn. Pulling herself from her trance, she looked quickly at the grandfather clock by the door, realizing she was almost late. She quickly stood and pulled on her thin coat.

"I need to go. Thank you for your help today."

"It's not even six yet, do you plan on skipping the meeting this evening?" Aurélia let out a quiet sigh.

"I'm not sure yet. I want to be here, you know I do. There's just some things I need to do."

"I understand, but I hope to see you later." With a small smile, she was off. What Enjolras noticed was the redhead only disappeared as if she were made of smoke if she felt like she needed to. But as he looked out the window, she walked down the street just as anyone else would. Seeing this gave him a terrible idea. He knew he was on thin ice since his switching the book covers stunt. And yet, his every waking thought was consumed by her. He had to know everything there was to know about her. He knew it was an awful idea to follow her to see where she was going but it was as if he were under a trance. He wanted to stop and return to the café but his silent steps led him farther and farther from familiarity. He followed her down a street he had never been down until he watched her enter a building and decided to wait for her to emerge before going to see what the building was.

He wasn't expecting her, however, to return with company. A young girl stood beside the woman, holding her hand with a large grin across her lips. She was almost exactly what Enjolras imagined Aurélia to look like when she was younger, the only difference was the girl's honey eyes instead of blue and the freckles spread across her cheeks. He knew instantly this was the sister that she spoke of earlier.

"Amélie, I can't believe you got kicked out! They were generous to not make us pay full price and you got yourself kicked out." The older redhead sighed, running a hand through her hair.