Alpha's and Eiffel towers [On Hold]

-||5|| Jones and phones

I probably stood there for more than 5 minutes, at least it felt like it. I was as frozen as a wax statue, not a chance I was able to get out of my pose anytime soon. It was only when Jackie gave me a poke in the ribs, I relaxed. "How did he find our hotel?" I whispered without moving my eyes from the person in question. He still seemed to be wrapping up his conversation with the man behind the desk, before turning back to us. "Coincidence?" Jackie tried to answer, but I just looked at her in disbelief. "Find my iPhone?" Anna replied with a grin and folded her arms in front of her. Before she could even finish her sentence, he had made his way back to us. I felt my heart moving from my rib cage to my throat, but I tried not to let that sense take control over me. "Hey," he started, staring at me which awoke a feeling of awkwardness inside of me," I may have forgotten my phone in that sweater I gave you this morning". Every sound of his voice flowed through me which disturbed my attempt at seeming unphased; I didn't understand how someone so unknown could impact me. I tried to get out of my train of thought and hauled his hoodie out of my bag.

"Here you go, but your phone is gone," I answered and pushed the fabric against his torso. "Wait, what?" He asked, and I placed my hands above my hips, unintentionally trying to make myself bigger maybe because I'd been feeling belittled by him. "Someone called your phone, and my teachers confiscated it," I explained and he looks away, sighing. "Also, Britney Spears? Are you not willing to let go of your 90's baby routs or something?" I heard a voice behind me say sternly, clearly coming from Jackie. It was only after I turned around to face her. I noticed how those two had taken a great distance from me, standing more than far away. He looked at her for a split second, slightly humored by her remark. He only answered her by shrugging his shoulders and turning his gaze back on me. A smile was still teasing his lips; whereafter it seems to turn back to the stress he'd felt when he heard his phone was in the hands of an unknown old man. "Who's the teacher that took it?" He calmly asked as I looked at him mockingly. "I'm not going to let you get me into more trouble than you've already caused," I said whereafter he got closer to me. "Who's your teacher?" he asked again, now more intimidating than he'd sounded the first time. The funny part was that that didn't seem to phase me, even though the rest of his actions made my bones turn to melted butter.

"I've already answered you," I bounced back cockily with a small smile, and after that he made space between us grow a little again. "Look, I really don't want to be troublesome," he said with a slightly worn-out tone," but I really need that thing. Can't you go ask for it then?". His voice suddenly made him sound like a whole other person; even his posture had changed. My itch of irritation that had grown with the past minutes had melted away like snow on the first day of spring.

"Only if I can choose another ringtone!" I heard Anna call from behind, that's a deal I was willing to make. Because these days, anything's better than Britney. He laughed and nodded, which sealed the contract. For some reason, that last facial expression of him had boosted my self-confidence, whereafter I walked up to mister Monroe who'd been standing by the coffee machine in a cluster of teachers. I knew for a fact that the phone had been pushed into his hands so that he could take care of it, maybe because he was the only educator with a fanny pack to carry it. "Mr. Monroe?" I asked in a friendly manner which he responded to by turning around. "talk to me," he said openly with his trademark positive smile, which made clear I'd already chosen the correct path. "Can I please have that phone back? You know, it's actually not mine, and it had gotten into my bag on accident. The real owner's back to come to get it," I said, and before my most excellent angellike teacher was able to answer me, the devil itself chimed in. Mister Jones, he who must not be named in a conversation like this. I felt my chances dwindle.

"And you're sure this isn't one of your easy excuses," he asked with raised eyebrows which I'd have loved to rip off with a nice strong piece of duct tape. "I think you're confusing me with Jackie," I answered whereafter he crossed his arms, gatekeeping mister Monroe and his holy fanny pack. "Well then, if that one's not yours, where's yours?" he challenged me, so I took out my phone from my bag. He looked at it, motioned Monroe to return the confiscated device into my hand whereafter Jones simply pulled my own out of my hand. "Hey!" I yelled, louder than I'd have wanted, following my precious phone into Jones' jeans pocket. "You'll get it back tomorrow, stay close to one of your friends who possess over a phone," Jones said frosty," your bag equals your responsibility". After this he turned his back on me, forcing Monroe -who didn't seem to support his colleague's way of handling things- to do the same. With a bad temper, I returned to Anna and Jackie, who seemed to have held up the conversation for this whole time with our French/Dutch/whatever guy. "Thank you very much, now they have my phone," I mumbled while handing him his device into his warm palms. He looked surprisingly guilty at his phone and only then up to me. "well, can I make it up to you all if I take you all to Giovanni?" he said rather hopefully. "More free food, I'm really starting to get fond of you," Jackie only to get a small, yet deserved a slap on the shoulder from Anna. "You know, money isn't going to bibbity bobbity boo my phone back into my pocket," I answered whimsically. He raised an independent eyebrow playfully, like a toddler finding the ideal plan to get to the candy cupboard.

"It can buy me time to get it back. Now, walk down the street away from the Champs. At its end, you'll find a small pizzeria named 'Giovanni'. Just inside, I'll catch up to you," he said, already leaving us behind mid-sentence. "Should we really accept an offer made by a total stranger which, mind you, we don't even know the name of?" I asked doubtfully, but I felt that something inside of me had already answered my question. "It's a pizzeria, Jane. No one in their right mind would say no," Jackie said resolute," and if you do, I'll tape your mouth shut with the closest roll of duct tape I can find". With that classic Jackie-like sentence, I was done defending the other option which could result in my untimely death if I wasn't careful. "Plus, I still need to change his ringtone, so we can't lose him now," Anna chimed in, and I laughingly shook my head. We were not leaving that man with a trace of Spears music on his phone. We walked out and as directed made our way to the right end of the street. This lane wasn't as busy as where the other side extended to. It emerged into a small, round square, surrounded by French eateries. The scents descending from all around made anyone who dared to come close enough water.

"This dude seems to know where the good food is," I said, staring all around me. "Public service announcement for those who haven't noticed, he feels something for you," Anna said, addressing me with a punch to the shoulder at the beginning of the sentence. I turned around to her with a questioning expression, waiting for her to explain where she got that idea. "For this time and this time only, I stand with Ann on this one," Jackie followed up. "And you all came up with that after having a less than 5-minute normal conversation?" I asked, truly wondering how that was possible. "The pizzeria's over there by the way," I said, hoping this was a good enough distraction to drop the topic slowly. "Well, of course, you can see a lot in those eyes of his," Jack quickly said as we started to make our way across the square to get to the restaurant. I raised an eyebrow, not quite seeing her claim as evidence. "And since when can you read eyes, if I may ask?" I mumble while she just stared at me with a serious expression. "I'm serious, Jane. He has something different with you that he didn't have when we were talking to him," she said while I pushed open the door of Giovanni. The smell of freshly baked pizza hit us like a tornado and the typical Italian interior made me feel like I'd just left Paris by merely walking in the entrance.

"Bonjour, des jeunes filles. vous avez réservé?" asked a man with a sun-tanned skin and a rather plump figure. He looked exceptionally friendly at us from behind the counter, yet we were all three just stunned, trying to translate what in the world this guy had just said to us. "Elles appartiennent à moi," I heard a voice say from behind us in a very wonderful French accent," on a réservé sou le nom de La Forte,

Max La Forte,"

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I played Minecraft until 5 am this morning and now I don't know if I'm dissapointed in myself or proud, whoops

I hope y'all like this so far!

Don't fail this day,
Staywithspeedy