“Wealldo,” Geneviève said with an eye roll.
“See?” I whispered to him in encouragement, “I told you they miss you a lot.”
I noticed a slight tint to his cheeks as he appeared somewhat overwhelmed by the love radiating towards him. Like he wasn’t expecting his friends to still want anything to do with him at all.
"When do we leave?" River asked, taking everyone by surprise, but not me, Iknewhe missed his friends if only he'd admit it. Geneviève got up and checked the calendar on my wall,
"Tomorrow morning, I'll book us tickets online." She beamed, clapping her hands joyously.
I wondered what it would be like alone with River in the mountains, would it get too cold on one of those long autumn nights, How ever would we keep warm?
Chapter 10
Heat In Winter
Part 1
GenevièveandIwerein charge of buying the takeaway we'd eat on the way there since the morning metro food was always dry and tasted like sandpaper (according to Keomi). I'd gotten everyone's order except River’s since I didn’t get a chance to see him in the morning but I'd assumed the others that we'd just get something random for him.
Fall mornings in Paris were always cold and everyone was wearing thick coats, jackets and trousers, which was also appropriate considering were going to be spending the rest of the weekend in the mountains. I'd never been to Geneva but everyone else swore they'd gone with their families as kids before.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn't exactly been anywhere. I'd have loved to travel the world and see all the amazing things the earth had to offer, it would be fun to have someone to tag along with me too. Perhaps I'd take Jaadi once he graduated high school but that was far away as he was only in middle school then. I'd be fine on my own I guessed, someday maybe it wouldn’t be so lonely to be so far away from my family.
Fabian and Merilla went out to get some coffee from Fabian's mom's little Café, I didn’t even know Fabian's mom owned a Cafe, which explained why he almost always had coffee in his hand, and was grocery shopping for her so much. Apparently, she had so much money she never had to work another day in her life if she wanted, but it’d always been her dream to have a little coffee shop and bakery, so she figured why not start it once her acting career was over. Keomi insisted on remaining at the train station to wait for River to get there so he wouldn’t lose us, also to make sure he didn’t bail or run away any chance he got which was both actually really nice of her to do and wise. He was quite the slippery person.
Geneviève and I took a taxi over to Lou Lou's Diner to order the food, and I was surprised at how surprisingly well we were getting along. No snide comments, no bitter glares, it was kind of freaking me out and I was wondering how long it would take before she snapped. But if she did it wouldn't be at my dispense, I was hoping to have a relaxing weekend away and I would have that no matter what. Nothing and no one would ruin that for me.
LouLou's Diner was an old Fast food place on St Ives street, it was very popular but clearly not in the early mornings because when Genè and I got there it was practically empty. A dishevelled-looking middle-aged lady was our waitress, she had dark hair that'd greyed over the stressful years and tired-looking brown eyes.
"Can I take your order?" She asked and just before I could reply my phone started to ring in my pocket, so I handed Geneviève the list of food everyone wanted and checked to see who was calling, it was mama.
"Um, Armani I don't see anything for-" Geneviève began but I cut her off,
"Not right now Gene, everything is on the list so please just order!" I burst out sounding a little nervous and she threw her hands up in defeat before turning back towards the waitress to place the order.
I made my way over to one of the booths and answered my phone,
"Binti yangu." Mama advanced when the line connected, "I hope I am not interrupting your studies hm?"
"Not at all mama, I have a free period," I lied knowing I was skipping school today for our trip, "How are you?"
"I'm doing well, I only called because I was alarmed as to why your location was not working," Mama spoke and I swallowed hard, I'd turned it off so she wouldn't be able to know that I was leaving France.
"The wifi on campus never works well, after classes when I'm back in the dorms you will be able to see it," I assured her,
"That's good, I hope you are well prepared for your exams next week hm?" Mama emphasised her tone serious,
"Of course I am, you know me, mama, now I must go. My next class is starting. I'll talk to you soon." I answered and she clicked her tongue,
"You are a busy woman now eh?" She tisked, "You no longer have time for your mother?"
"That is not true, and it was never my intention to give you that impression, but I must go now goodbye my teacher is calling me." I appealed and hung up the phone.
I sighed rubbing my temples, it was so early in the morning and she was already giving me a headache. By the time I was done on the phone, Gene returned with a bunch of paper bags with our food and I helped her carry them and pay for the food before we made our way back into the taxi and on our way to the train station.
Once we arrived there were a number of people who were waiting to get on different trains, we stepped onto the train and showed our tickets to the conductor before noticing our friends in the back row. My boots clunked on the flooring and I nearly tripped over an unravelling in the faded red carpeting. The train had two-seaters so Merilla sat with Keomi, Fabian with Gene and River, and I even though I could tell Geneviève had wanted to sit in my place for whatever reason.
Barely an hour had passed by and everyone was complaining about how hungry they were so I started to hand out the food,
