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Aurora had been unusually quiet all morning, and it was starting to drive me crazy. She'd barely spoken a word, and her usual witty remarks were replaced with flat, one-word answers. Whatever was bugging her, she wasn't about to share it with me.
So, me being the genius I am, decided midway through French class that I had to break her out of her funk. We were halfway through Miss Laurent's lecture, something about conjugating verbs that I wasn't really paying attention to. I glanced over at Aurora, who was slumped over her notebook, her pen doodling aimlessly in the margin. Her usual spark was missing, and that bothered me more than I wanted to admit.
That's when the idea hit me.
"Gerard, are you paying attention?" Miss Laurent's sharp voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah," I deadpanned, trying to act like I hadn't been caught zoning out.
She raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. "Oh, really? What did I just say, then?"
Panic set in. I hadn't been listening at all. My brain scrambled for any French phrase I could think of, and then it clicked—the one line I knew from Lady Marmalade,one of Aurora's all-time favorite songs. She'd play it at least a million times, swearing she dedicated that one infamous phrase to me.
Without thinking, I blurted out, "Ah... voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"
The class went dead silent. Miss Laurent's face froze in disbelief, and behind me, I heard a snort. I glanced over at Aurora, who had her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh. Her eyes were sparkling for the first time all day, though, and for a second, I forgot how badly I'd just screwed up.
"Jesus Christ," she muttered, shaking her head but clearly amused.
Miss Laurent, however, was not. She narrowed her eyes at me and sighed. "Gerard, do you even know what that means?"
I shrugged. "Something romantic?"
She closed her eyes for a second, probably praying for patience. "It's not appropriate for class. I suggest you learn something that won't get you detention next time."
Before I could dig myself into a deeper hole, the bell rang, and Miss Laurent sighed with relief. "Class dismissed for today," she announced.
As students began packing up their bags, I turned to Aurora, who was finally looking at me properly, a half-smile playing on her lips.
"Lady Marmalade?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What can I say?" I grinned. "You've played it enough that it's stuck in my head forever."
She shook her head, but there was something softer in her expression now. "You really have no idea what you just said, do you?"
"Uh... I thought I did," I said, still playing dumb, even though the chuckles from around the room told me I'd messed up royally. "But at least you're smiling now, so... mission accomplished?"
