Eyes Open [ c.l. ]

↦ chapter ten | manatees and movie nights

chapter ten-

DEATH

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"Lamantin. La-man-tin." Pierre spoke, making sure to pronounce each syllable of the French word. Currently Pierre and Ellie were replicating the scene from earlier that morning. After becoming convinced from how great Charles' decorated nails looked, it's how we got here.

The Spaniard and the Frenchman were lying on the bed that belonged to room 210, gently chattering amongst themselves. "Le-mon-ten?" Ellie repeated, in her opinion perfectly.

"No, no." Pierre shook his head, a small smile etched on his face, he wasn't actually frustrated. "La." Pierre spoke, sending her a look to repeat after him, to which she obliged. "Mon." Once again, Ellie repeated after Pierre. "Tin." Once content with her response, Pierre nodded. "Now, putting it all together. Lamantin."

Ellie took a deep breath before she spoke, accidentally inhaling too much air, causing her to let out a small cough. "Sorry, you've made me nervous now." Pierre chuckled at this. "Lamantin?" Ellie spoke softly, with slight hesitation, but as she looked in Pierre's eyes, she saw them light up with content.

"Yes! Well done!" Pierre had a large smile growing on his face, Ellie too laughed in satisfaction and contentment. While some may see this as an overreaction, what they may not know is that Pierre had been attempting to teach Ellie this word for at least seven minutes now. Coming from someone who had to sit through the whole seven minutes, I'd personally say the reaction was justified.

They had now reached the point where they were squealing in excitement like pigs in mud, all too caught up in the success of the one word. "Pierre! We need to stop moving so your nail polish doesn't smudge." Ellie was now getting dejavú to this morning when she had told Charles that exact thing.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was caught up in the moment." They stopped moving and now they were lying on the bed as Ellie continued to paint Pierre's nails with patterns of blue red and white.

Pierre had seen what Charles meant with the state of Ellie's nail painting skills, hisvere he thought that it looked pretty cute and adorable. They continue to chatter about utter nonsense, Ellie had even gotten Pierre to reveal some paddock gossip.

From the past half an hour Ellie had gathered the thought that Pierre was a good gossip and now he didn't disappoint, "No way!" Ellie gasped upon hearing the information Pierre had just shared. "Wait, so you're telling me that Lando and Carlos-"

Before Ellie could continue, Charles returned as he walked in the room after going to the bathroom. At this, Ellie lost her train of thought as she propped herself up again, excited to share with Charles.

"Charles, guess what!" If Ellie hadn't been lying down, she would have been bouncing up and down in excitement. It slightly worries Charles as he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, what could make her react like this? "I learnt a new word today."

The large smile that had spread over Ellie's face caused Charles to chuckle. It reminded him of when a father came home to his toddler. "Oh yeah, what is it?" Charles decided to play along, as long as it made Ellie happy, which it seemed like it was.

Ellie and Pierre glanced at each other before Pierre gave her a nod of reassurance, which only confused Charles further. Once again, Ellie got nervous and let out a timid giggle. "Lamantin." At her correct pronunciation, Pierre gave Ellie a high five and wink of approval.