Smile

21.
“And the Hawks end the season with a overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings. Join us on Friday at 7:30 to catch the first play off game of the year.” The announcers said as the crowd was leaving the arena. Everyone was sad that they lost the game but happy that the playoffs were so close. This year was going to be the Blackhawks year and everyone knew it.

“You okay?” Arabella asked taking the seat next to Jonathan. She didn’t care that he was all sweaty, mad, and that she was in Kaner’s seat. Jonathan wanted to win every game he could especially when it was a home game. This game seemed like it was that much more important because Arabella was going to France tonight. He wanted to impress her.

Jonathan just sighed and leaned his head on his girlfriend’s shoulder. As much as he wanted to win the Stanley Cup a vacation right about now sounded perfect. He was tired and all Jonathan wanted was to be able to sleep in. Sleep in and wake up to his girlfriend curled up into him. That would be just perfect, hell spending the summer with her would be perfect.

“Thanks for taking my seat.” Kaner said rolling his eyes as he saw Arabella sitting with Jonathan. Her back was straight like a vertical line while Jonathan slumped so he could rest his head on her shoulder. It sickened Kaner how cute they were together it was like out of a fairytale. Those two rarely ever fought and if they would solve the problem within hours. Some people would say that those two would put on a perfect relationship facade but Kaner knew that they truly the perfect couple.

Faster than Jonathan would have liked the whole team was at the airport. They would be saying goodbye to Arabella as she left for France. Arabella was going to be gone for the whole week; meaning that when she lands it would be the 3 period already in the game. Jonathan didn’t like this but he knew that Arabella couldn’t switch her flights because if she did she wouldn’t have made the game at all.

“Bye.” Jonathan said kissing Arabella. The two were never big on making out in public sure they would steal a kiss here and there but no heavy make out sessions. It just didn’t seem like the world needed to see them make out. All the guys would rag on Jonathan that he never make out with his girlfriend and all Jonathan did was roll his eyes at them.

Jonathan watched his girlfriend walk down the same tunnel that she walked down just a few weeks ago. This time Jonathan wasn’t scared that he was losing her, he was scared that she was going to seek comfort in Martin. No matter how much Arabella stressed that they were just friends Jonathan was jealous. He was jealous that he wasn’t the one to comfort Arabella, to save Arabella, the one to have Paris with.

“Bienvenue à la maison, Arabella” Welcome home, Arabella were the words that Arthur said as he greeted the young women. Arthur was the Clare’s personal butler and he was there through everything. Not one moment can Arabella remember when Arthur wasn’t there for her and her family. It had gotten to the point that the line of butler and family friend were blurred. Standing before Arthur was a young women instead of the baby he helped watch over many years ago.

“merci Arthur ça fait du bien d'être de retour” Thank you Arthur it feels good to be back. Arabella said as she and Arthur made their way to the waiting Range Rover. It was 10 o’clock in France and the sun was out. It was still cold outside to Arabella was wearing a simple blue belted dress with nude heels and her trench coat. When Arabella left America she would change out of her jeans and into a dress. Arabella never admitted to her French life that she wears jeans. To everyone it seemed like only American moms wear jeans, not high class French’s.

“mémé, et pépé, Martin.” Arabella shouted running out of the Range Rover into Martin’s arms. She would have jumped into her grandparents arms but she didn’t want to knock them down or anything like that. It would be horrible if she did. Arabella walked into the house and shut the door. After 4 years you would think that Arabella would still wear her shoes around the house but after her mother banned anyone from wearing shoes the house still took off their shoes.

“Nous allons partir dans une heure et demi” We’re going to leave in an hour and a half Martin said peeking his head into Arabella’s room. It was the same way she left when a few weeks ago and for the first time 3 years ago. Arabella was going through all of the pictures from her childhood, something that she did only today. Martin guessed it hurt to much to think about this any other day so she tried to block it from her mind. Sure it hurt Martin but not as much as it hurt Arabella. It was probably because he never had the accusation of being the cause of their death.

“Je suppose que je ferais mieux de changer alors.” I guess I better change then. Arabella said smiling sadly at Martin. He stood at her doorframe in his infamous suits; whatever or wherever Martin is he was always in a suit. It was a quality that Arabella loved about Martin, how classy he dressed and acted. It was totally different from any guy she had met in America besides Jonathan. Jonathan dressed classy all the time but it was a different classy than Martin. Arabella walked into her closet and went immediately to all the black dresses she had.

Arabella had certain dresses that she would only wear today. It was only knee-length dresses that was totally plain. Putting on the dress, shoes, sunglasses, and hat felt like steeping into a time machine. It seemed like just a few days ago she was doing exactly this for the first time instead of four years ago. Carrying her shoes to the front door Arabella couldn’t help but start to tear up a bit. She was never mentally or emotionally prepared for this day to come; no one was.

Brigette Clare hated the days when she would have to visit her son’s, daughter in law’s and grandchildren’s grave. Brigette would go to the grave site to visit more often then the rest of her family. She was the only one who forced herself to put in new flowers every month while the rest of her family chose to ignore. Her second oldest son would visit his brother’s grave only when he was in the area. Other than that he would stay on the other side of the country; Brigette blamed the jealously that was shared between the brothers. Pierre her eldest son was the one who had it all while his younger brother had to work for everything. Brigette was the strongest one out of her family; which she thanked her name for.

“Le déjeuner sera prêt dans une demi-heure.” Lunch will be ready in half an hour. Brigette told her only favorite living granddaughter and Martin. Brigette and Lyon her husband had said their peace before the younglings. This was the day that Lyon had openly cried out of grief over the lost. Lyon was a high powered business man who missed a lot of his sons childhood. So when they grew older Pierre had to learn the trick of the family wealth; wine. Pierre was the one who wanted to live in the house of his parents wanting to make up the lost time he shared with his father. Now that Pierre was gone Lyon felt sadness towards Arabella. She would never get the makeup time that Lyon got; she would get nothing.

Martin went first out of him and Arabella. He was always the one who went first because after Arabella finished paying respect she wanted to leave. Martin’s words were always short, simple and meaningful. Right now like always nothing came out; no words, sounds or tears came out. He was like a stone-wall, it seemed as if every emotion was drained out of his body. “Elle se renforce” She is getting stronger. Martin whispered feeling the his eyes start to water. Growing up with Laurent, they made a pact together; the pact was that they would both watch over his sisters. That no matter what happened they were to protect the girls from anyone.

“Papa pense que ce que j'ai un nouveau copain, et oui je vais devoir Martin l'interroger. Maman choquant que cela puisse paraître, je n'ai pas été faire des courses en quatre mois, et oui ça me tue. Sophia je serai sûr de visiter les Pays-Bas pendant l'été et je sais que je l'ai dit la dernière fois mais je ne pour de vrai cette fois. Laurent devinez qui obtenir un A dans la photographie.” Dad guess what I got a new boyfriend, and yes I'll have Martin interrogate him. Mom shockingly as it sounds I haven't gone shopping in four months, and yes it's killing me. Sophia I'll be sure to visit the Netherlands during the summer and I know I said that last time but I for real do it this time. Laurent guess who's getting an A in photography.

Arabella always felt the need to update her family on the life that she was living. That she was thankful enough to have. As Arabella started to ramble about her life more and more she started to cry. She didn’t understand why she able to live her life while her family didn’t. They didn’t deserve this; if anything Arabella believed it should have been her. It was Arabella who was getting the threats and not her family. Arabella was the one who didn’t tell anyone about the threats, she was the one who opened the door for the men and she was the one who left the door open. But as quickly was those thoughts invaded her mind they left.

Arabella got up off of the ground and carefully made her way to Martin. That was the great thing about him, he would always give her space when needed. The two got into Martin’s black Ferrari and sped off back to the house. Speeding along the roads was something that Arabella missed about France. There was to much traffic in Chicago and no one ever drove as fast as the Europeans. As Martin’s black Ferrari pulled up at the front of the house was a group of people standing on the porch.

“Jonathan?” Arabella questioned in surprise that her boyfriend was in France. There he was standing in the flesh in front of her house. But it wasn’t only Jonathan standing next to him was Kaner, Sharpie, and Burish. They all stood around admiring the house not even paying attention until Jonathan heard his name. There stood Arabella dressed like a classy lady steeping out of the Ferrari with the help of a guy.

Turns out the guys had today off so they wanted to come to France. They all got on the plane an hour after Arabella’s plane. It was a pretty eventful plane ride for the guys who was single; Kaner and Burish. They flirted with all of the girls on the plane the whole 8 hours. Jonathan and Sharpie was sleeping the whole flight because they were tired from the game and had ladies.

“Thanks, Martin.” Arabella said knowing that he had something to do with all of this. Because no way would Jonathan and the guys would be able to get onto the grounds with approval from a family member. Brigette and Lyon wouldn’t know who the boys are so Martin must have done something. How Martin did everything sometimes left Arabella in awe; but when those moments happened she didn’t question it. She just basked in the awe he would leave her after he did something like this.

Sharpie, Burish and Kaner could all see that Jonathan was getting mad when he saw that Arabella was with another guy. But they could see all the jealously slip away when she kissed Jonathan. Arabella introduced Martin to them and then walked into her house. Stepping into the house was like stepping into a time machine; and you landed in the 15th century. Shoes needed to be removed as they weaved their way in and out of room going through a quick tour.

Arabella and Martin were getting a little irritated that the guys took so long to go through the house. But understood at the same time, even living there for so many years they found themselves slowly walking around admiring the different rooms, paintings and furniture. The coolest thing about the house was that in the library was the family tree dating back to the very first Clare. Names and dates were painted on for every family member but as soon as your last name changed from Clare to something else you were no longer followed on the family tree. Meaning it wouldn’t show your grandchildren.

Lunch was a little awkward but Brigette and Lyon took it all in strides. Their English was a little rusty but knew how to speak. Both of them couldn’t hid their happiness when they found out that Jonathan knew how to speak French. Sure it was Canadian French but he knew how to communicate with them. Plus Brigette thought he was such a gentleman towards her granddaughter.
“What should we do?” Arabella asked as everyone was lounging around the living room. Sure it wasn’t like how the guys usually relaxed at home but here they felt as if one wrong move and they would break something. The guys just shrugged their shoulders not knowing what to do in another country where people spoke a different language. Arabella just threw Martin look which replied in an outburst “No, no we are not going to go and do that. Not today; maybe sometime later on this week.”

“What does she want to do?” Burish asked turning his head from the television. He couldn’t believe how much nudity was shone on the television.

“She wants to go shopping.” Martin groaned throwing his head back into the seat that he was sitting in. He didn’t feel like shopping, well he never felt like shopping but he put up with it.

“How bad can that be?” Kaner asked looking forward to get out of the house and go see some French girls.

“Well we’re 3 hours away from Paris, and on top of that we have to sit around and let her go crazy in the stores. Plus all the hot clerks have a stick up their butt so they’re total bitches.” Martin said as soon as the chick part left his mouth Burish and Kaner quickly turned down the offer. Even Sharpie couldn’t handle the 3 hour drive that they would have to take.

“Jonathan and I are going to go out for a bit. We’ll be back.” Arabella said standing up with Jonathan following her. The guys just shrugged their shoulders and went with Martin back to his place. Even though Martin lived in the Clare house because he was going to help take over the company, he bought an apartment near by. This way he could take girls back there without any question and he had an amazing game system there.

Jonathan got into the passenger seat of the Maserati thinking it was the drivers seat. Something he realized was a mistake figuring that he was in Europe and everything was different. Plus he was glad that Arabella was driving he didn’t really trust himself driving on the other side of the road. He didn’t realize how fast Arabella drove until now, he was gripping the seat.

“This is where my family is buried. Martin and I came here earlier today but I wanted to bring you here.” Arabella said as she parked her car. She was still in the black dress, sunglasses and put her hat back on. Jonathan intertwined his fingers with his girlfriend’s as they made they’re way to the graves. He saw the graves and felt the sadness radiating from Arabella.

“Thanks for taking me here.” Jonathan whispered hugging Arabella as she cried into his chest. He loved how tough his girlfriend was, not physically but emotionally. He knew that Arabella didn’t believe that she was a strong person but Jonathan believed that she was.
“I love you Arabella.” Jonathan said not really knowing what came over him but he just said it. They have been dating for almost two months already and this was the first time that any one of them had said something like that. Jonathan didn’t know how exactly Arabella would react to this.

“I love you too Jonathan.” She whispered her lips hovering over his. Next thing they knew they were kissing in front of her families grave. To the world kissing and admitting that you love each other in a cemetery was a little weird. But if you looked it in another light; the two confessed their love to each other in front of Arabella and her family.