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Moving to Paris was no easy feat. Nothing about it was easy, but it would be worth it to go to my dream school, I told myself. The hardest thing about moving to Paris was going through my days not being confident in my abilities of speaking French. I had been studying it for years before moving to Paris, and yet, I didn't trust that I could speak it well enough to not sound like a fool to the native speakers. I tried to avoid it as much as I could, but that was no easy task when living in the city of love. You would expect a good amount of people in Paris to be able to speak English considering the amount of English speaking tourists, but really, only about a quarter of the people in the city spoke English, making my life far harder.
I had gotten lost on the way to a meet up with other people who were new to the city. I thought it would be a good start to making new friends, considering I had to start from scratch. It's not like a had a lot of friends back at home, because I was always too busy taking care of my siblings and personal life to have much of a social life, but I liked to have at least one, so I was quick to try and make one.
I got the attention of multiple people, asking if they spoke English, but was having no luck.
I tapped a boy who looked around my age on the shoulder, getting his attention. I didn't expect much from him considering the last fifteen people had been a fail, but I had to find someone, so I was getting desperate. The meet up was supposed to be soon and I had no idea where I was. Google maps was not helping.
"Uhm... Excuse-moi. Je suis de America, et je suis non confidaint en ma Français. Tu parles Anglais?" The accent felt foreign on my tongue, and I was sure I butchered the pronunciation, but I powered through. A smile grew on the boys face, and he laughed a little. My cheeks burned. I definitely had a terrible accent.
"Yeah, I do. You sounded alright, though. Might want to work on your accent." I let out a dramatic sigh of relief. Finally.
"You have no idea how many people I had to ask before finding you." The boy had an amused look on his face as he watched my dramatic display. "I'm totally lost, and need help getting to this café here. Think you could help?" His blonde hair brushed my shoulder as he looked over my arm to the map on my phone screen, and he looked at it for a moment before backing away.
"Yeah, that's on my way home anyway. I'll take you there." I noticed how crazy white this guys teeth were when he flashed me a smile. They were so white that I almost flinched when I caught sight of them. Still, I smiled back, glad to not be hopelessly lost anymore.
"Thanks, I really appreciate it."
"My name is Adrien." The blonde held his hand out to me, and I shook it, noticing how soft his skin was. Most guys palms are callused and rough, but his skin was softer than mine. I almost asked him what his skin routine was, but kept my mouth shut out of fear of it being insulting to his masculinity. Some people's masculinity was really fragile, and I didn't know this guy, so I didn't risk it.
I gave him my name, looking ahead instead of looking at him after realizing I had been looking at him too long. I couldn't help it. He was so damn pretty, it was almost painful.
"So you're from America? Why'd you move to Paris?" I was glad for Adrien's offer of small talk. I was afraid that the walk to the café would be awkward, and I really was not looking forward to it, until he spoke up.
"Yeah. My dream school is here, so... I have always thought that the art and atmosphere here was beautiful, too, so I'm so glad I got the opportunity to come here. It also helps that it's getting me away from all my siblings. I love them and all, but being around so many kids really gets tiring." I hoped I wasn't rambling too much, but I really did have a lot of reasons to move so far away. It was the first time I was having a meaningful conversation with someone since I moved, and I planned on taking full advantage of it.
"You have a big family?" The guy looked genuinely interested in the conversation, so I was less worried about my rambling. The thought that I getting along with someone so quickly made me smile to myself.
"The biggest. Eleven siblings. The oldest out of all of them." Adrien's green eyes widened and his perfectly pink lips parted slightly in shock, and it almost made me laugh. I always got that kind of reaction.
"Wow. I couldn't imagine. I'm an only child. Do you ever wish you were an only child?" I started to feel bad that we were talking about only me, so I tried to think of something to ask him instead.
"Not really. I couldn't imagine my life without my siblings. They're my everything. I'd be nothing without them." The two of us turned a corner, and I pushed myself slightly closer to the blonde, trying to not take up too much room on the sidewalk as the concrete got busier. "If you could have a sibling, would you want a brother or a sister?" I was sure he would answer brother. Any boy I had ever heard answer that question said brother.
"Sister." I glanced at him, catching his eyes for a moment before turning forward again. "I imagine she would remind me of my mom. I'd probably be really protective of her." It felt like there was some weight to his words, and I didn't want to bother him with asking, so I tried to change the topic.
"That's cute... Sorry, it's so obvious that I can't not say something, you are gorgeous." I hoped that wasn't a weird thing to say.
"Thanks, I get that a lot." Adrien smiled like he knew something I didn't, and he probably did, but I didn't press. I didn't have the time to anyway, because I spotted the café he was showing me to some ways ahead of us, and a smile grew on my face. "Looks like we made it." When we stood in front of the building, I turned to him, smiling. I caught myself staring for a moment, because gosh, his smile was mesmerizing, but shook my head to get rid of those thoughts so I could thank him properly.
"Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to help me. Would you like anything from here as a thanks?" I didn't really want to part yet. He was kind, and really pretty. I felt like he would be a great friend, and the goal I had set for myself that day was to make a friend. It would have been great for me to meet my goal so quickly.
He shook his head no.
"No, thank you, though... I hope you like it here in Paris. Bonne journée! Au revoir!" My hand itched to reach out to him, to grab his arm and ask for his number or something so we could stay in contact, but I didn't. He seemed really nice, and I could imagine him as a friend, but... Something kept me from reaching out. Maybe I felt guilty for having taken up so much of his time. Maybe I felt like he wanted to just hurry and get home, considering he rejected my offer of buying him something. Who rejects a free treat from a café other than someone who wants to high-tail out of there?
So I turned, and walked into the building, ignoring the nagging in my head that told me to go after him.