Should've Stayed Away- Joseph Descamps

eighteen

I wasn't in a good mood Monday. 

Or Tuesday. 

Or Wednesday. 

As if it was the perfect storm building all semester, the aftermath of my night with Descamps just so happen to trickle into our week of final exams. And although I'd been doing good in all my classes, missing the first month wasn't exactly helping me prepare. 

Annick let me copy her notes but still, it was my first time ever taking exams and it's not like the teachers were helping us prepare. We were just given study halls, no talking allowed which meant that I was left to try and figure out what exactly I needed to know.

It didn't help that every five seconds my eyes wandered over to Descamps, watching as he sat hunched over in his desk reading. Before things were tense after the kiss, now however it felt so unnatural.

We hadn't been talking, none of the usual insults left his mouth and I didn't glare at him from across the classroom. In class I'd catch him giving me an intense stare, gaze wider than usual and almost filled with a wishful look. He had been quieter in class too, not making his typical immature jokes with Dupin. 

He hadn't even insulted anyone lately. 

Yesterday after school, as I was leaving, I could've sworn I saw him coming up to talk to me. His hands shoved deep in his pockets and face curious with a more serious expression on it. But then Michelle came up to me and we started talking, next thing I knew Descamps was walking out of the gates without a word. 

As hard as I tried, I couldn't shake him from my head. I wanted to talk to him though I wasn't even sure what I would say, definitely not anything related to my feelings. My eyes looked up from the empty place on the wooden desk where my papers should've laid, moving over to look at his back.

I glared into his dark blue polo, annoyed that I couldn't will him into glancing back at me. 

And then I felt angry at myself for even thinking a thing about Descamps. I held back a groan of annoyance and finally brought out my old English papers, beginning to study despite the thoughts flooding through my brain.

It was during lunch that Michelle filled all of us in on Jean Pierre's Latin competition, more specifically about how he had gone home angry and slammed the door. Apparently he'd been more than unprepared and gotten second to last place.

She swallowed down the mashed potatoes from the lunch before she spoke, "Our parents are furious with him, they see he's been too distracted."

My eyes met Simone's and she smiled shortly at me, completely unaware of the real reason I was looking at her. I returned it and looked back to Michelle, giving her a nod. How Simone could sit here and lie to her own best friend was beyond me.

"With what?" I asked with a more tense tone than I had originally intended. Annick looked at me curiously and I tried my best to keep a neutral face, feigning genuine interest in Jean Pierre's troubles.

Michelle shrugged, "Who knows, probably his other classes and University stuff."

"I thought he was very good at Latin?" Annick chimed in. Michelle only sighed and shrugged again in response and for a few minutes, we all sat in silence eating. I glanced at Simone again, feeling the blame she clearly had been avoiding. 

"I think Laubrac and I are officially together now" Michelle announced quietly, breaking the silence at our table. I perked up in interest as did Annick, both of us now leaning closer across the table to hear. It'd been a few months since they started hanging out together and I was surprised they hadn't started dating much earlier.