Alpha's and Eiffel towers [On Hold]

-||6|| new friends incoming

"Do you always introduce yourself James Bond style?" I asked while we were directed to a rather large, round table covered with a red cloth. He grinned ever so slightly but didn't answer me. He held onto our eye contact for longer than I'd expected which made a strange sensation journey through my body. "But, mister French guy," Anna said, strategically leaning forward towards him," why exactly did you bring us here?". She spoke while making the salt shaker dancing under her fingers and staring at him as if she was interrogating him. "Well, I tend to come a lot to this place with my friends and every time we meet here, new people are always welcome to join us," He said, then looking at the ceiling with an uncomfortable expression," and I've screwed up so many things today I have a lot to make up to you and many others". He leaned a little back in his chair while Jackie got ready to answer leaning her cheek on her fist. "More guys who can speak Dutch, I hope. I've heard enough French already," she complained rather dreamily. "We've been here for less than a day, Jack," I said, only getting a stern nod in return as if I was the one not understanding basic Jackie logic.

The place Max had brought us to had such a typical Italian feeling. The glass of the shop window was painted with the name of the restaurant, along with a big Italian flag. It felt weird thinking something like this would exist in a cultural hotspot like Paris. Somewhat unconsciously I noticed that I was starting to give more attention to the young gentleman that the place itself. Something kept directing my eyes from the burning candle in the middle of the table to his sharp contoured face. This was the first time in my life I'd felt like I couldn't take my eyes off of someone, which, in all fairness, feels kind of freaky. The fact that I'd only known his name for a few minutes but had already thought more about him than my future was honestly confusing me. What in the world was happening to me?

"But hey," Anna continued, clearly willing to further pursue her cross-examination," how come you speak fluent Dutch?". He smiled with a clear expression that he'd expected this question to come up," my father dumbed me on a boarding school in Northern Europe. Everybody was pretty much forced to learn at least three languages, and if you were unlucky, you would have to sign up for more. I truly wasn't the brightest at Wildwood university, though, but I did meet my best friends there". After that, the sound of the squeaky door opening once again followed up his voice. Three guys with similar features to Max, which didn't hide the fact they weren't a tourist, walked in. They were somewhat athletically built but seemed to carry a welcoming vibe with them. They made eye contact with Max and slowly began making their way to our table where they calmly took their seats.

"Girls, this is Finn, Joah and Nino, the guy who called my phone," Max said, pointing at his fellows. "Well, since I think we've never introduced ourselves. I'm Jackie, that's Anna and next to her is Jane," Jackie said while the 4 followed her finger from friend to friend. When I saw Max's eyes fall on me, I seemed like they were glistening, a strange luminosity I couldn't label. Nino seemed to have noticed this, giving his friend a soft tap on the shoulder. "C'est elle, he?" I heard him whisper, but before I could see Max's reaction to this, I got distracted by Jackie hitting the table with the bottom of her knife. "You know, we're extremely awful at French so please, keep the language off the table, or I'll take out Google translate," She said rather irritated whereafter Anna laid a soft hand on her shoulder. "Well, that one's vivacious," the boy named Finn said in which Jackie responded with a hair flip and a satisfied smile. "So, now the most important and standard question, what did Max do?" Joah asked with a big, exciting grin.

"Let me tell you a story," Jackie started, clearly happy to enlighten them. "First, this muchacho flies into the Mc Donalds patio, crashing into our table on his skateboard," I saw the trio across us all look directly at said muchacho, who was trying to hide his embarrassed smile in his hands. "This little fiasco resulted in my hard-earned money hitting the pavement and besmirching Janes clothing with a cold ass milkshake," she continued whereafter Anna chimed in. "So mister genius over here lend her his sweater, forgetting his damn phone was in there, which ended in Britney Spears being blasted during a tour we had at the Louvre and said device being taken away by one of our teachers. And now, when she tried to get it back for Max over here, they swapped his phone with hers which resulted in Jane being phoneless," she ended the story with a bright smile, now making all eyes around the table fixate on he who had severely fucked up. "What a great day you were having, Max," Finn said while Max let his hand travel through his blonde hair. "Not everything can go according to plan, right," he said defeatedly, and our eyes met once again. Nino, who seemed to have quite enjoyed the storytime, let his smile fade rather quickly and took the floor. "This gives me a reason to believe no one but you will have to raise their wallets tonight?". Max nodded, now staring at the table, "as if I'm not used to that by now". I frowned slightly; he must have a lot of money to his name if this was a regular occurrence.

"Bonjour, tout le monde. Vous voulez boire quelque chose?" the man from earlier said now approaching the table. An Italian speaking French, not something you see every day. "What do you want to drink?" Joah asked who had translated his request. "Are you all above 17?" Finn asked to which we all nodded in response. "We're in our last year of high school," Anna added to that. "Maybe y'all would be interested in a Lachaude," Joah said, looking at his friends rather sneakily. "I don't drink alcohol, so a Cola is enough for me," I said quickly.

Alcohol was something I'd become interested in when I was 16, but that died off fast after my first party. It was that night that I'll always remember, but not in a good way.

"1 Coca et 6 Lachaude, s'il Vous plaît," Finn said and the man, still holding his smile as bright and ever on his face, left our table. "What's Lachaude?" Jackie asked, clearly keen to discover a new beverage. "It's a beer that's brewed here in one of the suburbs of Paris. It's probably the best thing I've ever tasted," Joah explained while the others nodded in agreement. "In Belgium, most Flemish beers taste like dishwashing water, so something better is always welcome," Anna answered which I rolled my eyes at, laughing. "We live in a country that lives off of beer, and you dare to compare it to second-hand water?" I asked to which she responded with a wide grin. I knew Anna had probably tasted more alcoholic beverages then I've seen clouds. Jackie was the same story; those two would hop from party to party, inevitably trying to invite me every time and surely fail to take me with because I was the last person you'd see on a dance floor. I would instead get myself a cup of coffee or go roller skating at the basketball lot nearby, something that wouldn't give me a hangover.

When I awoke from my ocean of thoughts, I caught Max quickly diverting his eyes from me to the plateau of drinks that'd just arrived. Whatever I felt for him, he felt it too.

—
I feel an uncontrollable urge to write this:

If you were waiting for a sign; this is it.

Don't fail this day,
Staywithspeedy