Alpha's and Eiffel towers [On Hold]

-||7|| oh ringtone

The rest of the night was pleasant. A couple of beers had broken the ice that had come from the first time meeting, and the conversations were being pursuit by somewhat intoxicated brains. I didn't resent them for it, you do you, and it's always fun seeing people being turned into fairly underage babies. I, on the other hand, had downed four small bottles of cola, to give you a frame of reference for how long we'd been there. No one had yet dared to rebuff a drop of the newly discovered beer, except for Max. He'd stopped after one glass to the resentment of his friends, but they'd quickly forgot to guilt-trip him for it because another care package of Lachaude had arrived.

By now everyone had been served their pizza's. The smell alone was intense and heavenly. "I swear, I'm moving to Paris just to get a bit of this every day," Jackie said, looking at her piece as if it was her soon to be husband. "Why do you think we come here so often?" Finn answered who had already consumed half of his slice. They were not in the wrong there; the taste was indescribable. I don't know if Italy can beat this place.

"So, Belgium," Joah said suddenly genuinely interested," what do you guys do for fun there?". Anna put down her second slice to think," a lot of scouting groups organize parties from time to time, but for the rest, I'd say it's boring". Finn grinned widely before taking a bite," Here we just have dancings that just fill up every night". Then Anna changed the subject, clearly having realized something," Hey, mister Max. I still need to change that ringtone of yours". Max in response looked at his phone and defeatedly handed it to her while being followed by surprised, yet amazed looks. "Oh, has Britney lost interest?" Joah asked amused, making the rest of the tipsy crowd. "Everybody has their taste," Max answered. It was only then that I noticed that Nino had been keeping an eye on me for a while. Not in the way Max did, it didn't feel the same. He just looked at me, changed his gaze to Max and swam his way back into the conversation.

"Also, there's a party at a dancing around the corner, do you all want to come?" Finn asked to which I heard rather strange squeals coming from my neighboring friends. "Guys, don't forget the 1 AM rule," I said, whereafter I saw the French ensemble turn their heads, clearly thrown off balance. "We have to be at the hotel by 1 AM each night," I explained making Anna and Jackie, in sync with Joah, groan with frustration. "Sounds like a prison," he said to which Jackie disorientedly nodded. "I don't think I'll to tag along, I will stay in our room cooking up some fresh excuses for when you all come in late," I said, and I saw Jackie pull up her best pouty lip. "Come on, you never do anything fun," she said in a childish tone, but I shook my head again. I felt Max's gaze burning on me, so I looked back, yet this time he didn't move his eyes. "Okay then, boring tomato," I suddenly heard next to me, which made me laugh. "I think you need some sleep," Nino said, also joining in on the roaring that had followed Jackie's comment. "Hey, I just got out of my house, I really don't need a substitute dad now," she said slowly and swingingly pointing her finger at him, which just fueled the laughter.

After half an hour or so we left the restaurant and greeted by soft rain coming down on us. "Man, we just left Belgium, I don't need more water on my head," Jack said leaning on Joah, although he didn't look more stable than her. "Come, it's already late, and I still need to sneak you past our teachers," I said, receiving a confused look from Anna. "Why sneaking? What are we doing wrong?" she asked guiltlessly to which I rolled my eyes. "I don't think Jones will be pleased to see you two after a few drinks," I answered whereafter she nodded slowly with a goofy smile. "Sorry that they drank so much, that was really not my intention," Max said, walking next to me. "It's okay, I've escorted them more than once in this state," I said with a smile while remembering the past times. When I looked up at him, I saw the lights and neon signs of the restaurants reflecting within his eyes and against his face. For some reason, it felt like we were the only people roaming this earth. Something seemed to be dancing inside my head which gave me a feeling I could only describe as fluttering butterflies. It took a lot for me to get those thoughts out of my head.

We reached the entrance of the hotel which looked vacant to my relief; it would be a lot easier to sneak those two through an empty lobby than passing a crowd of teachers. In the meantime, the boys had taught them a French song which they were now singing together with a practically perfect Parisian accent. I wearily looked at them and cracked a smile, "and all of the sudden they do enjoy French". I heard him laugh carefully too, whereafter I turned to him. "If you want, I can take you all to breakfast tomorrow, somewhere other than the Champs-Èlysées, though. They always try to profit off of unsuspecting tourists," he said in a charming tone, which made the offer hard to resist. "That sounds great. I hope those two won't have an ugly hangover," I answered with made him smile.

"Anna, can I have my phone back?" he asked, whereafter he had to softly catch her shaking arm to safely take the device out of her hand. "Your ring tone is changed in the name of Jane, I have nothing to do with it," she proudly said which made my eyebrows furrow, this can't be good. Maybe she'd used the Dora the Explorer intro or even some typical stripping music; she can't be trusted with that kind of power. "Now I can at least give you my number," he said, looking through his phone to find his contact.

"Heyo, Pippo. I don't have mine, remember?" I said, yet he didn't lose his grin. He reached for his back pocket and returned his hand within my eyesight with a phone between his fingers, mine to be specific. I stared at it in full-blown confusion," how did you get it back?". He simply shrugged his shoulders while giving his response," I just know which ropes to pull". I was getting suspicious about said ropes, hoping to god he hadn't just taken it. "You didn't steal it, did you?" I carefully yet firmly asked, trying to make it sound like a joke. "I'd never do that," he answered without a grain of irony sprinkled across his words. Something within me believed him, so I copied down his number into my phone, while he quickly added mine.

A strange feeling washed over me as if knowing I couldn't lose him again was a relief.

"We will come to your hotel tomorrow, I'll get these guys out of bed," he said with the same smile he'd held for the past couple of minutes after which he started to walk away. With a swift arm motion, he was able to pull the boys with him, who seemed to have tried to braid themselves together. A French, rather inaudible conversation was started up, which died down the further they got away from us. "Those French dudes are fun," Jackie said with a double tongue. "Yeah, those French dudes," I repeated under my breath while we walked into the lobby.