A Light in the Dark

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 Gustave's POV

As I was preparing for school the next morning, I put on my new navy suit and wore it with pride. I slicked my hair back. As I looked in the mirror, I covered the right side of my face with my hand. I was really starting to resemble my father, and truthfully, I was okay with that. My father was the most beautiful man that ever lived rather anybody else realized it or not.

I slipped my new ring on my little finger. I could see my reflection in the stone. It occurred to me that I would have to seriously take care of it if I wanted to last as long as my father had made it last. I was so proud to have something of my mother's. As far as I know, nothing was salvaged of hers the night of the accident. All of her belongings had been taken in as evidence. I kept her picture on my night stand though. I acquired it from a reporter who had taken her picture during her final performance. He gave it to me because he felt so sorry for my loss. I would probably never get to thank the man, but I was forever grateful for it.

I grabbed my satchel and put on one of my old newsboy caps. I didn't want to go to school with too much of a sudden change. I did not like to stand out to the other kids, and I was obviously going to in my new suit. I really did not care what they thought though. My father had bought me this suit, and I was going to wear it.

Before I left, I made a quick comment to father that I would be having to stay for choir practice from now on, and he should expect me home at eight-thirty (just in case I got caught up with Elaina again). My father agreed to the terms, and I headed out for school. The city was not as busy as usual for a Monday morning. I had gotten all to way to school without running into Elaina. She had become my only friend, so I had made it a point to myself to try to talk to her at least three times a week. Surely, even I could uphold these standards. I made this promise to myself because school would be out for the summer in only two weeks, and I knew that if I did not make myself promise to do something, it would never get done.

When I got to school, several of the boys noticed me immediately. A couple of them asked me where I got my suit. More of them asked how I could have ever afforded it. Most of the boys had never even talked to me before. It's funny how the beauty of appearance catches someone's attention before the beauty of a person's attitude. I was trying to ignore their remarks and speed my way through the school yard when I ran into a boy, and we both fell to the ground. He stood up and offered to help me.

"Hey, Yousefi," he said, "Looks like you need to calm yourself down before you hurt somebody. Say, what's got you so worked up anyway?"

I recognized the boy's face. It was Lucca Giovanni. He was in my class. I had never talked to him before, but everybody seemed to know Lucca's life history. His parents were immigrants from Italy. They owned a restaurant downtown. It must have been pretty popular because Lucca always wore nice clothes. He always kept his hair combed back except for one black strand that fell in his face. He spoke fluent Italian and had an entrancing accent, and supposedly just about every girl around had their eye on him. He was tall, tan, and had a chiseled physique. I must say that out of all people in school, I didn't expect Lucca Giovanni to talk to me, but he did that day.

"Nothing," I said.

"Hey, come on, Yousefi! I don't bite! Hey, nice suit by the way. I saw one in a store window the other day. Looked almost just like that one. I thought about buying it, but I changed my mind. I should have. We could have been the two most handsome guys in school."

I just rubbed the back of my neck like I always did when I was nervous.

"Geeze, Yousefi, I knew you were shy, but I thought you knew how to speak."

"I do," I said defensively, "It's just nobody ever really talks to me."

He threw his fist into my shoulder like a lot of guys did to their buddies. "Gee that's a shame, Yousefi. You seem like a decent guy," and with that he walked to class with a bunch of students trailing behind him. I tried to understand what had just happened. I was getting a lot of attention all because of a suit. I liked the suit, but I didn't like that it was the reason people noticed me. I liked staying in the background of things. I decided to ignore it and just go to class.