Last Kiss in Paris

Chapter 10 - The Other One

Suggested Song: How Long by Charlie Puth 

She said, "Boy, tell me honestly
Was it real or just for show?", yeah
She said, "Save your apologies
Baby, I just gotta know"How long has this been goin' on?
You been creepin' 'round on me
While you callin' me "baby"
How long has this been goin' on?
You been actin' so shady (shady)
I've been feelin' it lately, baby

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Amrisha couldn't explain why she cared so much about that text. After all, what else had she expected? She had been anticipating this, every morning after that night, to see if Ben had responded. Now she knew why he hadn't. Ben had moved on. Pierre tried to take her hand in his again, but she pushed him away. She didn't know why, but she felt uncomfortable, guilty, of moving on to another boy so quickly. They walked back to the hotel in silence, Amrisha still pondering over Ben's words. Could they even get back to the way they were, before that kiss on Friday night?

Amrisha ate her dinner quickly. It was only her and Pierre, as everyone else had dinner almost an hour ago. She found her hotel room empty, so she headed over to the games room. The place was quite crowded, and Amrisha had to push past Mel, Emanda and the Underscore group, who ignored her completely, immersed in a game of truth or dare. She saw that the main commotion was coming from the centre of the room, where a group of kids from both classes were watching some boys play snooker. Sophie spotted her and immediately ran over, tugging at her sleeve. "Amrisha, go say hi to Saige!" She pulled Amrisha past Alexander, who was preparing to strike the cue ball very professionally, and into a corner, where Saige was sitting, watching the game.

"Saige!" Amrisha ran forwards and engulfed Saige in a hug. As she pulled back, she noticed that Saige looked more pale than usual, but otherwise seemed alright. "Are you ok now?"

"Yeah," Saige smiled feebly. She was gazing with a distant look at Alek, who was at the next table playing table tennis with Luc.

"Hmm," Amrisha thought of the past few days. "Saige, do you like Alek? And then you felt betrayed by him last night when he gave you that dare?"

"Uh," Saige turned around looking speechless, then shook her head slowly. "Even if I did it would be hopeless, he's been talking about some Marcelle girl this whole afternoon."

"Oh yeah, that's been annoying," Sophie said. Amrisha nodded.

"But yeah, what I did was dumb," Saige sighed, and put her hands in her head. "It's just, bad memories from ages ago." Amrisha touched Saige's shoulder.

"It's ok, it's not your fault."

"Yeah," Sophie added. "Just ignore that jerk Pierre for the next week or so." Amrisha bit her lip.

"Um, he asked me out again this afternoon."

"What?" Sophie shrieked.

Saige looked unruffled, and replied coolly, "and you accepted? I'm not surprised Amrisha, I know how Pierre can be all nice and charming. Just look out for...other girls." Amrisha nodded, and ignoring Sophie's shocked expression, headed over to the snooker table.

"Can I play?" she asked Sadipoh.

*

The following day was fairly uneventful. Amrisha tried to keep her mind off Ben throughout the school day, however this was slightly difficult as Pierre constantly stopped by to make conversation with her in the hallways, which reminded her of the events of the previous afternoon. Ben called several times throughout the day, but Amrisha dreaded answering, and finally decided to switch her phone off. She hadn't told any of her friends about this, and decided not to. After all, it wasn't a big deal, was it? Amrisha didn't want to worry her friends any more. They had also started to receive homework now, but it was minimal. Amrisha tried to act normal for the rest of the afternoon as they finished their homework before heading to the city for dinner and visiting the République Square, which was buzzing with commotion and tourists.