𝑀𝒾𝓍𝑒𝒹 𝒰𝓅 | Joseph Descamps x Michele Magnan

The Rumors

[A/N: Happy new year!! And thank you everyone for the support thus far :^) Here is the long awaited update]

I tapped my pencil on my desk rhythmically, my homework untouched. It was late in the evening and I was trying to do get my math work done when I kept finding myself worrying about the situation I had found myself in. Two guys, head over heels for me, but different in the ways they loved me. 

Alain enveloped me softly with his affection. His touches were gentle, but I felt the warmth of his love for me whenever we were together. When I looked into his eyes, I felt like I was seeing a side of myself mirrored back to me--one that craved nurturing and understanding from another.

But being with Joseph was...  a symphony of intense passion for one another. Even a touch as small as his fingers grazing my face would melt me into him instantly. The urgency of our entangled bodies, our shared breaths, our warm skin colliding-- it was all some exhilarating intensity that always left me weak in the knees. 

I remembered what Simone mentioned about being able to sneak into the theater from the back door, and I decided to go to take my mind off things. I slipped out the door and made my way to the theater just in time for the beginning of the movie and slid, undetected, into my seat.

The risqué nature of the movie evidently didn't help me take my mind off Laubrac and Descamps. I tried to picture myself taking off my clothes sensually for a man in the way Brigitte Bardot was. Maybe I should just remember how she did it in case things go further with someone. 

I heard a giggle behind me and turned to see two women making out. 

Wait...

Is that...

No.

I whipped back around to watch the movie and slid down in my seat to avoid being seen. There's no way. 

Again, I looked, but this time to confirm what I saw. 

My aunt? 

I watched the rest of the movie inclined so my head was barely visible in case she had seen me as well. When it ended, I scrambled to get out of the theater and rushed home. I guess that's one way to take my mind off the boys. 

Quietly, I made my way inside and walked into the living room. There, on our couch, lay Simone and my brother intertwining faces. 

I stood there silently, shocked, and they jumped apart when they noticed me there. 

 Simone looked between me and Jean-Pierre quickly. "Michèle, I--" 

I turned and ran upstairs into my room, locking the door. I couldn't believe Simone would go behind my back like that. And with my brother? Had she been seeing him this whole time she had been seeing "Eugène"?

The next morning, I helped set up the display for our shop, my mind running a million miles a minute. First there was Descamps and Laubrac, then there was my aunt, and now there's Simone. I felt like my head was going to explode any minute. 

"You're in a good mood," my mother chirped at me. 

I smiled and nodded, fixing the signs in our display, and then washing up to get ready for school. 

"I need you here at 5:00 tonight."

I fixed the barrette in my hair. "Okay."

"5:00 sharp, not a minute later."

"Okay!"

I left the house and practically ran to the arranged meeting spot, where Laubrac was waiting for me pretending to hide behind some ivy. I giggled and ran up to kiss him. He looked around for people and pulled me further into the alley to sit with him and watch the sun rise before school. He looked at me and put his hand on mine, intertwining our fingers. His hands were coarse and calloused from the work he had been doing on the farm, but I didn't mind.