Unbreakable Ties: An Arthur Leclerc Story

Chapter 3

I was annoyed. Well, I suppose I was disappointed, which had turned into annoyance. And my roommate was not helping.

"You still haven't heard anything from Arthur?" Sophia had asked for what I swore was the hundredth time.

"No, Sophia."

"Huh."

After our kiss on the cliff, Arthur drove me home and walked me to the door. We had exchanged numbers and another toe-curling kiss, and he had said goodnight. That was 8 days ago - not that I was counting.

"I'm sure there's a good reason for it," Sophia said encouragingly. She had grilled me for details when I came in that night and had asked me daily if I'd heard from Arthur. Each time I told her no, and she tried to make me feel better, but all I really wanted was for her to stop asking. Clearly, he wasn't interested, and it would be a lot easier for me to forget about him if she didn't keep bringing him up and our magical night.

Urg - and it had been magical. That's what made this suck so much. I'd spent hours upon hours trying to figure out what I did wrong or said that had been wrong. Urg! I had to stop thinking about this and stop blaming myself. He's just a dumb boy - a dumb boy with beautiful blue eyes.

"I'm going for a run," I told Sophia before changing and heading out into the beautiful Monaco day.

I started off slow, making my way off campus and heading to the beach. A good long run is exactly what I needed to get that dumb boy out of my head.

When I got to the beach, I remembered why I hated running, and used the excuse of being halfway to take a break, dropping into the sand. I sat for a few minutes, closing my eyes and breathing in the sea air. But before long my peace was shattered when I heard someone call out and moments later felt something whizzing by my face and land next to me.

As I opened up my eyes, I took in the volleyball next to me and the boy running towards me. As I got my bearings, I realized that I recognized the boy running towards me - Arthur.

You have got to be kidding me.

"Emmy! Hey!" greeted Arthur as he slowed to a walk and stopped in front of me.

"Hey Arthur," I returned, hoping my voice sounded neutral and didn't reveal that I was both thrilled and annoyed to see him.

"Sorry about the volleyball, Charles hit it a little too hard," he said as he waved behind him and I took in a group of boys watching us, clearly confused as to what was taking Arthur so long to collect their ball so they could continue their game.

I just nodded and continued to stare up at him, waiting for him to take said ball and go away.

"I'm so glad I ran into you," started Arthur as he dropped onto the sand next to me. Why, so you can ignore me in person too? I thought to myself. "What are you doing tonight?"

Well, that's not what I was expecting. "Uhhh, I think Sophia mentioned heading to Jimmy'z with some of our classmates. Why?"

"Oh, that's too bad. I was hoping maybe we could get dinner," he explained.

"Wait, what?!" I blurted out, immediately turning red - I did NOT mean to say that out loud.

He sighed. "I'm sorry I haven't texted you all week. I had a great time with you, but I had to head out of town for a race. I didn't want to start a conversation when I knew I wouldn't be able to focus on it or make plans."

I'd been talking to this boy for all of five minutes and he'd stunned me twice. "Oh. Um. I kind of thought maybe you weren't interested," I confessed sheepishly.