Bête Noir

“He’s such a freak.” Sharon, the girl in my study group for advanced organic chemistry, spoke with such a hateful tone that my head snapped up to look at who she was talking about.

He was tall, with dark curly hair, and a face that looked like it had been perfectly sculpted. His expression was serious as he looked over the books in the aisle across from our table.

“Why’s that?” I had seen him only a couple of times before, in lecture. A scoff met my ears from the guy next to me.

“He can tell who you’ve slept with the night before just by how you’re sitting. He’s so weird. And he has no friends. No one likes him.”

“Yeah, I hate him. He’s the one that let it slip out that Tom and I slept together. He’s the reason Ryan broke up with me.” Sharon snapped with such malice I pulled away from her a little bit.

“Well you did cheat on him.” I spoke with a ‘well duh’ tone. I was watching Sherlock and saw a small smile tug at the left corner of his mouth. I’m guessing we were in just the right spot, where the acoustics converged on the spot where he was standing.

“That’s not the point.” I turned my head to look at Susan. My eyebrows pulled together in confusion at her.

“Yeah it is. If you cheat on someone the chances of them breaking up with you are astronomically high.” Her angry expression was contorting to that of someone who looked like they had been slapped in the face.

“I think I’m done studying for the test tomorrow.” I closed my book with a loud ‘thunk’ and threw it in my bag. I hated people talking ill of someone, especially when said person probably just heard every stupid word out of their mouth.

“We only just started.” The guy next to me pleaded with his eyes for me to stay, I could not remember his name. It starts with an ‘S’, I just couldn’t be bothered to remember the rest of it. I was the only one who really understood the last half of the chapter. I was in the group to hopefully get clarification on the first half, but I’d rather get a ‘C’ than stay with these people.

“I’ll wing it.” I placed my bag over my shoulder. “And you know you shouldn’t talk about people like that. Just because someone is observant and you’re stupid doesn’t mean they’re a freak. He’s probably blowing all of your asses out of the water in lecture anyway.” Susan gaped after me as I turned on my heel and began my exit to get outside.

“Hey! Excuse me.” I stopped walking as I looked over my shoulder. Sherlock was walking at a quick pace to get to me. He slowed down once he saw I had stopped and turned to face him.

“I can help you for the exam tomorrow. I know you’ve been struggling with the earlier concepts. It might have to do with the fact that our professor is a bloody idiot. He has the earlier bit a little backwards. I can explain it to you.” His tone was that of someone who knew they were intelligent, a man who knew his self-worth when it came to the intellectual portion of life.

“How do you know I’m struggling?” He looked down his nose at me, not in a demeaning way, but almost like he was getting ready to duck because I decided to hit him.

“Well because your grandmother passed away, and you missed the first half of the chapter lectures.” Something inside of my chest clenched as he spoke and I found myself stunned.

“How did you-“ He looked like he was uncomfortable for a moment before he opened his mouth to begin speaking,

“Well the obvious is that you weren’t sick, no signs of a virus. The first class back you weren’t as put together, no make up, eyes red, and you looked like you were going to cry at the drop of a hat. No boyfriend, so not a breakup. Death in the family. I know it was your grandmother because of the new ring on your finger.” My thumb absentmindedly ran across the bottom of the white gold band.

“Judging that it looks circa 1950’s and too expensive to be a gift from someone, I deduced she probably gave it to you either via her will or on her deathbed.” I felt the tears pool up at the corners of my eyes and quickly wiped them away. She had only passed a month ago; it was till a little fresh to me. Too fresh.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“ He now seemed to have understood that talking about someone’s grandmother passing was probably a touchy subject.

“No, it’s okay. You’re very observant. My friends don’t even know.” My sentences felt flustered as I gripped at the strap of my bag.

“That’s because they are all stupid.” I laughed, a quiet laugh, but it was there. He looked surprised but a small smile graced his face.

“Yeah, they are. They aren’t very fond of you but I suppose you already knew that.”

“Yes, I know. They even have a little nickname for me.” My head cocked to the right.

“What’s that?” He smirked a little and looked down towards his shoes.

“Bête Noire.” A snort of laughter left through my nose and I clasped a hand over my mouth.

“The English definition or the literal French meaning?” The question passed my lips as I pulled my hand away from my face. Sherlock reached a hand up to run it through his hair.

“The English I would think. I don’t know that they are aware it means black beast in French.” I nodded my head in agreement.

“I don’t agree with them. People just tend to hate things they don’t understand.” A small smile splayed across his sharp features. “Ready to teach me?” He nodded his head at my question and motioned for me to walk ahead of him on the path.

“I think this might be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.” He looked thoughtful after he spoke, and I smiled. “Unless you turn out to be an idiot.” A laugh erupted from my lips as I looped my arm through his.

“Oh Sherlock, I believe this is going to be a great friendship.”