The six-month housemate

Six

SIX

Vanessa and Patrick took us to a fancy restaurant, telling us that it was a kind of compensation for baby-sitting 'the kids' on Friday night. There were some awkward moments, like when Oliver noticed that Alex and I had a similar bump on the forehead, but other than that, dinner was fantastic. The parents told us the story of how they'd met (at King's University), how they got married, their honeymoon... The guys quickly spaced out, I guess because they'd heard the story many times before.

Personnally, I thought it was fascinating. I mean, what are the odds of finding your husband/wife within hundreds of students? I knew people who'd crossed the entire world to find their pair, and they were lucky enough to just go somewhere not too far away and find each other.

I told them a bit about my life back in Paris. My sisters, Isabelle, 23 years old, and Charlotte, 20 years old, had both left to study abroad. But they weren't like me, who'd stayed in a reasonable perimeter when it came to applications; one of them was studying in California, and the other in Toronto. I loved them both very much, but we struggled to get along when we were kids, because we didn't have the same interests at all; Isabelle was a great gymnist, and Charlotte, had she been a little more competitive, could've become a professional ballet dancer. They just didn't believe in themselves enough to make something out of their talents.

I on the other hand, had to fight to do what I wanted. My father was always totally behind me when it came to rugby, but my mum was against it. She said it was a brutal sport, and that I'd end up wrecking my face, and what girl plays rugby, especially with boys? She wanted me to follow my sisters' footsteps, but there was no way that was going to happen. There was always a comparison being made between both of my sisters, which prevented them for a long time from getting along when we were young, and if I'd ended up a gymnist or a dancer, I'd ended up being just another element of comparison.

Since I was off radar and the youngest, i kind of had a privileged relationship with my sisters, but whenever they were fighting or ignoring each other, I was expected to pick sides, something I refused to do. I loved them both very much, and equally, which led me to miss them when they moved out, but taking sides because they had an argument over something insignificant was just stupid.

From what the guys were saying, having brothers was pretty much the same, except that arguments lasted about ten minutes, then there was about quarter of an hour maximum of not talking to each other before settling it by playing some game or watching TV.

"Speaking of watching TV, do you want to watch next Saturday's Top 14 match?" Asked Oliver. "Your team is playing... Plus we could introduce you to people from University so that you're not completely lost on your first day." He winked and I frowned.

"Um... Sure, why not? But I thought you didn't go to Kingston?"

"That doesn't prevent me from knowing people there." He leaned back in his chair.

"I know, but wouldn't these people be like way older than me?"

"I'm not that old!" He replied, bringing a hand to his chest in mock hurt. I rolled my eyes. "I'm not talking about my friends, even if it won't hurt for you to know them, I was talking about his friends." He nodded towards Alex.

"Oh. Okay." I smiled. "But where do you find a place here with French TV?"

"We know this really cool pub held by French people, so they have French TV. Plus the guy's an ex rugbyman, so he's got the channels on which you can watch rugby."

"That's awesome!" I grinned.

"I know." He grinned back. I really liked Oliver. He seemed to try hard to make me feel at home, and I was thankful for that.