This is part 2 of Liminal, a short story in serial form. If you haven’t already, read Part 1 here.
Swoony. That’s how I feel. I heard Momma tell Daddy on their wedding anniversary that he made her swoon. I don’t know that word so I looked it up and it’s overwhelmed with ecstatic joy. According to the dictionary. I don’t know ecstatic either but I looked it up. Perfect.
I’m swoony because today is the day I’ve been waiting and waiting for. For two weeks. Simone is in third-period biology with Hugo and he’s best friends with Florent and she told Hugo to tell Florent to meet me after school on the path by the gigantic oak tree in the bosquet. Between the little stone bridge and the hillock. After the hillock but before the bridge.
I took all of my dresses out of my closet and piled them on my bed. Then all of my stockings, then my chemisiers, then my shoes. I matched them up all different ways and I took snaps and sent them to Simone so she could help me pick the perfect outfit. I want to look perfect. I’m not totally obsessed with clothes like Léa and Camille, but I see how Florent always watches them in the lunchroom and I want him to notice ME. Is that conceited? Simone says Léa is conceited, but I like her okay. We have geometry.
Last week in civics we were doing a group project and Florent was sitting by me and he leaned over and touched me right on the shoulder of my sweater and he said “There’s a hole in your sweater” and I looked and there was a little rip in the seam so I was totally embarrassed but I think I hid it okay. I just said “Oh, thanks.”
That’s how I met Florent. Thanks to a hole in my sweater. But I’d already seen him, of course. He has blue eyes which I just love and brown hair that is really curly and kind of longish but not too long. He doesn’t look like a girl or anything. Ha! He usually wears a jersey of Saint-Étienne which I guess is his favorite football club or sometimes he wears the top from a tracksuit or a hoodie.
Anyway, I can’t wait until school is done. I’m so nervous and I keep watching the clock and looking over at Simone and she totally has this like secret smile because she knows today is it.
Finally the bell rings and Simone and I meet in the girl’s room and I brush my hair in the mirror and put in a barrette while Simone walks around me and takes snaps and tells me I’m “breathtaking.” Right. Then she says good luck and she kisses me on my cheek and I go out of the school and across the yard and onto the path through the bosquet. I can feel my heart racing. I can’t wait to see Florent and finally talk to him. I hope he likes me as much as I like him.
Florent is not my first boyfriend. That’s Léo. He’s this boy I kissed at a party at this girl Jolie’s house after the last day of cinquième. It was night and a bunch of us were in her back garden listening to music and some kids were dancing and Léo was talking to me a lot and then he held my hand and we walked out to the very back of the garden where this huge lilac bush grew along the fence and we sat down in the grass in this kind of dark space behind the lilac bush and we kissed for a long time. But then it was summer and I didn’t see him for the rest of les vacances and when we came back we weren’t really boyfriend and girlfriend anymore. So sad. But not really.
But I’m totally excited about Florent because Simone said that Hugo said that Florent wanted to meet me and so I’m hurrying but not too much because I don’t want to be breathing like a crazy person when he sees me. Or sweating.
I’m almost there and I can picture him waiting for me, right where the sun comes through the trees and makes it warm and super romantic under the giant oak tree and that’s why I picked this spot. Probably he has a flower for me or maybe a charm. Or even a poem that he wrote for me. Camille got a poem from this boy in 3e and it was on notebook paper so kind of lame but he drew a little rabbit on it and he’s a good artist. She showed all of us and I was totally jealous. So I hope that’s the kind of boy that Florent is.
And then I go up the path over the hillock and I can see the tree and I start down and I’m looking all around for Florent but I don’t see him. And the sunlight is right there and it’s perfect for us to meet and I go down the hill and into the patch of sun. He will be here any minute.
While I wait I touch my hand on the oak tree and think about what I’ll say when Florent gives me the charm or poem or whatever. The bark is really rough and kind of flaky but it feels good on my palm. I can see how each bark piece is a little island with like streams running all around it. Not really but I imagine it like that. Lots of little islands and lots of little streams, and maybe there are very tiny creatures like ants or something living on the islands or maybe only one on each island and they’re trying to get to the other island to see the other ant but the stream is too big to cross.
I wait like twenty minutes. I don’t know because I forgot to look at my phone clock when I got here but it seems like twenty minutes. Maybe more. All I know is that it’s not the perfect time anymore. The sun moved off of this spot and now it’s a little bit chilly and I’m starting to shiver. Probably Hugo didn’t tell Florent or maybe he had to do sports after school or something. It’s not his fault. Tomorrow I’ll tell Simone to tell him to meet me. Or maybe I’ll even tell him myself.
Okay, I guess I’m kind of mad. Or sad. I mean I picked out this dress especially for meeting him. Too bad, so sad. But not really.
I give the big oak tree a hug instead, then I go down the path toward home.