She Had Me At Bonjour

The room was silent; well, almost silent. Cree was tapping her fingers on the cover of her book, which broke the overall quietness I was enjoying. I looked up from my paused game to see my sister on the other side of the couch, book closed, and head turned to the side, facing the window leading to the backyard. I sighed and put down my gameboy, crawling to the other side of the couch. Cree looked at me and attempted a smile.

“You’ve been inside all week. Go out and get some fresh air or something.” I put my hand on hers and smiled.

“Can you make me some tea and cookies, Krysh?”

“Stop avoiding the real world and I might. Just go in the backyard, I highly doubt Alex will be there.”

Cree groaned and looked out the window again. “You don’t know that.”

“Neither do you. Now go outside and I’ll make you your tea and cookies.” She hesitantly got up and went outside, walking as slowly as possible.

Aw few minutes pass and the cookie dough is mixed, and in little shapes on the pan when a scream echoes into the house. I ran outside without a second glance and was met with Cree on the grass, Alex standing above her with his hand outstretched. She looked up at him, a sad look on her face as she got up herself, completely ignoring his hand. If he didn’t look hurt then, he was ten times worse when she walked back to the house without a second glance back at him.

“Cree, wait, please talk to me! You haven’t answered any of my calls or texts or emails or anything!”

She pushed past me in the doorway and bolted into the kitchen, taking a ball of cookie dough and plopping it into her mouth as she put water into the teakettle.

Alex walked up to me and sighed, running a hand through his messy, unstraightened hair.

“How’d you get back there?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe.

“The fence door was open and no one answered the front door.” He paused, running a hand through his hair for the third time that minute. “I just want to talk to her. Why is she avoiding me?” He looked desperate, his eyes glassed over and bags under his eyes.

“To be honest, I’m not sure why. We just came home and she never left the house/ She’s kind of just been moping I guess.” He didn’t reply, just stared at the ground with his hands in his pockets. I looked over to the kitchen and back to Alex. Stepping out of the way, I gestured inside. “Go in and talk to her. She’s in the kitchen.” I closed the door and walked back into the living room, hiding under the counter to the kitchen to overhear.

“Cree just please please talk to me. What did I do to make you mad at me?”

“What did you do? What did you do?!” You acted like you completely didn’t care! You just sat back and did nothing, said nothing. You of all people. You should have at least said something or, or did something Alex! The fact that you didn’t care that I’m pregnant with your kid just about killed m-“ Cree was cut off and it was silent again. “No don’t, don’t do that Alex!” Pause. “No do it again.” It was silent again and I peaked through the door, but pulled back when I saw the two kissing. Alex spoke up. “I sat there and did nothing, yes, but I did and do care. I didn’t know how to react; I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. I do care, I care a lot. Oh shit, no, don’t start crying.” I heard the high-pitched whines and sniffles.

“Hey I’m not done. I- I want you to have this baby, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I’m a good dad. I promise. Cree I, I love you, I really do.” You could hear her breath catch in her throat, then it was silent again. I don’t know why I did it, but I clapped. I clapped loud, standing up and going into the kitchen where Cree and Alex were in the middle of a bear hug.

“That was cute, really, I heard everything. You guys are cute. Will you go outside and stop being a hermit now? I love you but I hate being here for too long.” Cree laughed and nodded into Alex’s shoulder.

---

“Finally she talked to him. I was about to drag her out of your house and force them to talk. So everything’s a-ok?” Juliana’s loud voice boomed through the phone speaker as I sat on my bed, laptop in front of me.

“Yep, so perfect it’s sickly.”

“Good, one couple down, two to go.”

“Two?”

“Yeah, two. Why so confused?” I heard the creak of a chair followed by the rustle of sheets; she probably moved to her bed.

“Because there’s only Jack and Angela. I mean, I know it’ll happen eventually but still.”

“Don’t tell me you’re even worse then he is. You don’t see it? You don’t notice it?”

“Notice what?” I asked, giggling at the end.

“Bro, what’s with the giggle… is someone there?”

“What? Oh, no no, I’m alone. I’m laughing at something Zack said.”

“So you’re IMing him?” I made a noise in response. “I’ll take that as a yes. You don’t notice anything weird about how he acts around you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Seriously Krysha, you don’t notice that the two of you act differently around each other?”

“Well, we trust each other and he’s a really close friend and-“

“BULLSHIT!” I dropped my phone and rubbed my ear in pain and put my phone on speaker.

“Loud much?!” The line went dead a few seconds later. I hung up the phone and stared at my computer in complete confusion.