The Art of Dying

Ginger dude! It was the weird, other-century-clothing, serial-killer-I-know-something-you-don’t kind of smile, ginger dude that was at my house this summer. “Hi,” He said with a mischievous smile. “Is C.C. ready?” He wore a striped burgundy waistcoat, over a white shirt whose sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, a black ascot tie and brown pinstriped trousers. His pocket watch hung from his waistcoat to his pants, his bright orange hair peeked from a brown top hat topped with (was that goggles? yes) a pair of goggles and on his wrist was a brown leather cuff. He looked good but strange, so strange. Who the heck dresses like that?

There seemed to be amusement in his blue eyes at my stunned expression. My brain refused to work properly at the moment and I just stood there, blocking the doorway, gaping like a fish. What? How? Why? Eh? When I failed to answer, his smirk grew and he asked again: “So, is she? Ready?” He said, his smile growing to a full-blown ‘Cheshire cat’ grin.

“Eh? Oh, right. C.C. Um, come in.” I said as I awkwardly made room for him to come inside. He then tipped his hat like a gentleman as he passed me. Weird. And what is he doing here?

Well, he came to get C.C. since he’s her boyfriend and all that but how come he was in Brossard this summer, which is in Quebec, which is in another country, meaning it’s quite far from here. Visiting his uncle? Yeah right, the last owner of the house was a sweet little old lady called Mrs. Bouchard whose husband died in some war and unfortunately never had any children so...

“I’m Oliver by the way. Oliver Pratt-Lambert.” He said with a slight British accent as he took a seat on C.C.’s bed.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Delphine.” Just as I was about to question him about this summer C.C. flung the bathroom door open dressed in a pretty, short, white, lace dress.

“Olly!” She all but screamed as she ran to him, threw herself at him and kissed him passionately. I think my eyebrows went through the roof; wow, that’s quite a scene. Hmmm, okay! That’s not awkward at all. Yes it is. It really is. After what felt like an eternity of unease on my part but was probably only a couple of seconds they eased up but kept their arms around one another. C.C. turned to me with a smile that seemed to illuminate the room and said: “Del, that’s Olly, my boyfriend.” She then turned back to him with adoration in her eyes, mirroring his and said: “Olly, this is Del, my new roommate.” They looked so equally in love that it was sort of cute but kinda sickening at the same time.

He gave her a small peck on the lips and replied: “Yeah, I met her when she opened the door earlier. She’s very nice. I have a feeling you girls are going to be really close.” There it was again, that weird I-know-something-you-don’t smile that seems to freak me the fuck out. C.C. looked at him with slight curiosity but seemed otherwise unmoved by his creepiness. Maybe she’s used to it; she is his girlfriend after all. Oliver looked at the time on his pocket watch then asked C.C., looking at her like she was the eighth world wonder: “Are you ready, love?”

She mirrored his expression as she answered in a dream-like tone: “Yeah, I’ll just grab my purse and I’ll be with you in a moment.”

He reluctantly released his hold on her waist but kept her hand in his and kissed it before saying: “I’ll wait for you out front alright?” She nodded, biting her bottom lip. “My lady.” He kissed her hand once more then let it go. He turned to me, tipped his hat slightly and said: “Good night, Delphine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And before I had time to reply, he was out the door in a flash. Something’s wrong with this dude.

C.C. released a moony sigh and flopped on her bed. “Dreamy, isn’t he?” She asked in a daze. Ugh, really? I found him creepy as hell. I made a face that I’m glad she couldn’t seem to see from her happy bubble of joy but didn’t answer her. She then sat up, grabbed her purse and put on a pair of black high heels stiletto pumps. “How do I look?” She asked as she did a little twirl.

“Gorgeous.” She really did look beautiful. I wonder what she sees in Oliver. He does seem to love her though, sickeningly so, but… I don’t know.

“Aww, thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow. Ciao.” She said as she walked out the door, giving me a little wave as she went. I sighed. What to do? What to do? I caught glimpse of my luggage by my feet, better start unpacking, with another sigh, I set off to work. I grabbed my essentials and went to put them in the bathroom.

I looked around; the walls were a pale pink, there were two sinks on a long wooden counter with loads of products on one side and a big panoramic mirror above it the length of the counter. The floor had white ceramic tiles with a bright red fuzzy rug over it matching the red flowers on the shower curtain. I set up my things on the free part of the counter and went back to the other room.

Grabbing my suitcase, I hauled it up on my bed and grabbing its content ─clothes and shoes mostly─, I dropped everything unceremoniously on the ground. I then took my luggage and put in at the bottom of the closet. The only thing left is my backpack with books and pencils, and my carry-on that doubles as a purse, I push them under the bed and voila, there, done. Now, what to do? It’s still early, maybe I could go exploring. I yawned suddenly, or maybe I could take a nap. I looked at the time it was still only about 3:30 PM, yeah a nap sounds good, I’ll go to the ‘caf’ later. I grabbed a ‘Star Trek’ oversized T-shirt and checkered blue pants, went back to the bathroom and changed, brushed my teeth and hair then going back in the bedroom, I tossed my dirty clothes in a ‘dirty clothes pile’ far away from the ‘clean clothes pile’, then I grabbed my carry-on (it was way more of a purse, really) from where I put it under the bed and took my MP3 and a mini speaker out of it. Setting it up on the bedside table, I put a timer on it and started it on shuffle. I then closed the opaque black curtains tightly shut and settled into bed. ‘Ellie Goulding’s’ soft voice came up as I drifted off to sleep.

Bright light shining from the window awoke me from my peaceful slumber. Ugh, didn’t I close those curtains? “Rise and shine sleepy head.” I heard C.C. say in a sing-song voice. I pried my eyes open with much difficulty and looked at my alarm clock; 11:13. Already morning, gosh I must’ve been really tired ─come to think of it I kinda still am. I grabbed my covers and brought them over my head to block the sun from reaching my face and tried to go back to sleep. “Oh no, you don’t. We have much to see before dinner with my friends.” C.C. said grabbing my covers and throwing them off.

“Ugh, C.C.! Come on!” I complained. I’m still tired from yesterday and I won’t be able to sleep come Monday when school starts.

“Nope. Here.” She said thrusting a brown paper bag in my face. How can she be so… happy, this early in the day? I grudgingly sat and took the bag from her. Inside was a big blueberry muffin, yum.

“Thanks.” I mumbled sleepily.

“I hope you like blueberry. I had one earlier, they’re really, really good.” She said enthusiastically from where she sat on her bed facing me. She was already dressed, wearing an oversized white shirt (it looked like the one Oliver wore yesterday) with black leggings underneath. I took the muffin out of the bag and began picking at it, taking a bite once in a while. Hmmm, it’s really good. “So, could you be ready in like thirty minutes? Then I’ll show you where everything is.”

“Yeah, ok.”

“Great.” She said looking at me in a weird-studyingly-staring sort of way. Maybe she’s not so different than her boyfriend after all.

To get her to stop her staring, I said: “So, how was your date?” That did the trick. She seemed to start glowing at the mention of those words and shifted her gaze, looking unseeingly at the wall, with a dreamy expression.

“Oh, it was perfect. It always is with Oliver. He’s… like… my prince charming or knight in shining armor, you know? He took me for a walk in the forest and we sat on a bench and…” She blushed then, so it was easy to guess that they full-on madeout on the bench. “Anyway he then took me to this little French restaurant out of town called: ’Saveurs Divine’ and we talked and talked and it was heavenly…” I sort of zoned out a little as she continued on in her dream-like tone. Once she was done with her tale about her magical night she said: “I’m going to go get the keys so I can show you where everything is. So, hurry up and finish getting ready.” She said standing up and walking out the door.

After a much needed shower, I brushed my teeth; put on my usual makeup ─a black smokey eye with lots of mascara and some blush─ then I blow dried my hair and flattened it with my flat iron. I donned my locket-charm necklace that I never take off, a plain black T-shirt, some dark ripped jeans, my black and white ‘Converse’ shoes and a black faux-leather jacket.

As I stepped out of the bathroom, I saw C.C. on her bed, twirling a set of keys on her index finger, whistling. As she saw me she stopped her whistling and let the keys drop in her hand. “You ready?” She asked, standing up. As I’ll ever be. I gave a small nod. “Alright. Grab your schedule and caf pass. And let’s go.” She said leaping merrily to the door, grabbing her big taupe purse on the way. I grabbed the items she instructed me to bring, plus my room key and MP3 from the top of the big black dresser and followed her out the door, locking it behind me. I then stuffed my pockets with the key, MP3 and caf pass, keeping only my schedule in my hands.

She was waiting by the elevator and I noticed, as I got closer, how much smaller than me she was. She couldn’t be more than 5 foot 3, which is kind of a big difference compared to my 5 foot 7. I arrived beside her just as the elevator pinged. We got in. “So, what do we do now?” I asked her, when the doors were closed. I turned my head to my right and looked at her beside me, she was staring at me. I smiled awkwardly at her and she beamed brightly back at me before quickly snatching my schedule from my hands, startling me.

“Let’s see.” She took a look at it. “Hmmmm, uh, huh. Oh, dance, that’s nice! The teacher is really great, you’ll see.” After a beat, she looked up with a little disappointed look on her face. “We only have gym together, that sucks.” I raised my brows at that with a look that said; hey, what can you do. The elevator pinged on the third floor and we got off, heading towards the glass bridge that connects the dormitory tower to the school.

◊ ◊ ◊

Four hours later, she showed me the whole school. Since she had the school’s keys, we were able to visit the basement and wings that are usually locked on weekends. It was pretty long but fun and now I know where my classes are going to be, come Monday morning. My favorite place that we saw, was the large walled garden/terrace and C.C. told me that that’s were we were to meet her friends in the late afternoon after we got our food. We made our way to the cafeteria; it was around 4 o’clock. I was famished ─only having eaten a muffin and all. I think C.C. felt the same.

“So, this is the cafeteria as you can see.” She said as we entered the big cafeteria through its wooden front doors. She paused several times on our way to the food serving area to introduce me to several people. “Hey, John, Alex, Nina, Seb.” C.C. said as we approached their table. They greeted her back with a chorus of hey’s and what’s up C.C. “This here, is Delphine. She’s from Canada.” She said with an arm around my waist. “Del this is John.” She said pointing to a hot, muscular (from what I could see), mocha colored skin, blue eyed dude.

“Hey.” He said with a smile and nod in my direction. I smiled back.

“That’s Alexis, or Alex for shorts.” She motioned to the petite blonde with a short square haircut beside him. She gave me a small, shy wave, which I returned. “And that’s Seb and Nina.” She nodded in the direction of a tall, handsome boy with warm brown eyes and hair, whose arm was around the back of a gorgeous middle-eastern girl with golden brown hair and dark eyes. They both smiled and waved and I saluted them back before C.C. said: “Well we gotta go, you know hungry and all that.” I heard them tell us bye as C.C. grabbed my arm and hauled me through all the grey, round tables to the food serving area, stopping several times to introduce me to, yet again, more people.

The cafeteria was relatively full for a Saturday, before the beginning of class ─which was surprising. At the counter, C.C. chose a burger with fries, a fruit salad and an iced tea while I selected a big balsamic salad, a slice of apple pie and a water bottle. C.C. gave her pass to the blonde woman at the register; she scanned it then gave it back to her. I did the same as her and took out my own pass from my jeans, gave it to the lady who scanned it and gave it back to me. We then headed to the garden/terrace through the cafeteria’s side doors with our trays.

We crossed a semi-outdoor hallway leading outside and entered the garden through one of the arches in the walls containing the terrace. The garden consisted of big expanse of green freshly cut grass, stone paths and benches, with lots of trees everywhere; Willow and Wisteria shaded most of the sunlight from reaching the diverse potted flower plants spread throughout the terrain.

Oliver was sitting at one of the many scattered picnic tables, under a Wisteria tree, reading a book. There was a half eaten sandwich on the tray in front of him and an almost full water bottle beside it on the table. He looked mostly normal today. He wore a black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and little round sunglasses with red lenses on the tip of his nose. Brown leather gloves were covering his hands; he also wore dark jeans held up by golden suspenders and his usual pocket watch ─no hat today though. C.C. sat beside him and he looked up, beaming at her he marked his book and kissed her. I took a seat in front of C.C. and tried not to pay too much attention to their smooching; instead I focused my attention on my food and attacked it. I was starving and it tasted heavenly.

C.C.’s stomach growled, so with a small giggle she detached herself from Oliver’s embrace. He tucked a piece of her long dark hair behind her ear, “Hungry, love?” he said looking at her lovingly.

C.C. turned back to her food and replied: “You have no idea.” And she dug in. Oliver then turned to me. “Hello Delphine.” He said with an easy smile looking atop his glasses at me with omniscient blue eyes that made me feel uneasy.

After swallowing a piece of salad I replied: “Hi, Oliver.” Then, quickly averted my gaze back to my food. What is it about him?

“So, did you girls have fun?” He asked us looking intently at C.C. as she drank her iced tea.

“Oh yeah, it was great.” C.C. said. “We had a lot of fun, didn’t we Del?”

“Yeah, it was fun. C.C.’s great.” I said.

“Awww, thanks. You’re great too, you know.” She said looking exaggeratingly touched. Her expression made me think of my mom and her crazy antics ─I miss her.

We then got to know each other, talking about anything and everything. And once I got to know him a little more I discovered that Oliver isn’t as weird as I thought (well he is still weird, but less than I thought), when you get passed the odd staring and sometimes crazy smiles, he’s a pretty nice and decent guy, who completes C.C. perfectly. I had yet to figure out what he was doing in Quebec this summer though.

“Well, well, well, who do we have here?” C.C. grunted with an annoyed look on her face, when she saw behind me the source of the voice. I turned and saw a very, very hot, blonde dude with gorgeous blue eyes. He was wearing a black fitted T-shirt under a black leather jacket and dark jeans that seemed to make his muscular, already pale white skin even more pale. “Cassandra Mortis and her lover Oliver. What’s up man?” C.C. appeared angry, while Oliver just raised a red eyebrow but kept quiet. He then turned his attention to me. “Oh, and who is this pretty lady?” The hottie said as he sat down next to me. “Hi, I’m Zane.” He said in a sultry seductive voice as he held out his hand to me.

When I took hold of it, I was surprised at how cold it was and then I was stumped even further when he brought it to his lips and gave it a light kiss. My god, do people still do that? Well Oliver do it but still. It kinda made my heart flutter a little ─just a little. What am-I doing? I shouldn’t tempt myself like that, I can’t get close to him, (romantically) even if he’s gorgeous or he’ll die. And with that thought, I sharply pulled my hand away from his grasp. He raised an amused pale eyebrow at that.

I was about to introduce myself but C.C. beat me to the punch and said: “What are you doing here Zane? I thought you were in Ell…─another country.” She said quickly glancing at me, then looked back at Zane with an irritated expression.

“I was…” Zane said lightly. “But then I decided to come back and spend some time with my dear little brother. Have you seen him, yet, by any chance?”

“I’m sure he doesn’t want to see you.” C.C. said with disdain. “And I’d appreciate it if you left us alone. All of us. Delphine included.”

“Oh, Delphine. What a pretty name.” He said looking at me with a panty-dropping smile, completely ignoring C.C. Oh ‘tabarnak’, I’m in trouble. “A pretty name, for a pretty girl.” I can’t get caught up in him, think of Antoine. Oh, Antoine. His face flashed in my mind and I touched his charm on my necklace unconsciously. That way it’ll stop me from wanting to kiss the life out of him ─literally. C.C. was pinning Zane down with a murderous look and the expression if looks could kill crossed my mind. I hope to never have that look directed at me. “That’s a beautiful necklace, who’s in the locket?” He questioned, when he saw I was lightly playing with it.

“My dad. He died before I was born.” I said distractedly. C.C. gave me a small sympathetic smile. While Oliver looked on, like an outsider watching a movie, detached from what was happening but fascinated nonetheless ─the only thing he seemed to be missing was a big bowl of popcorn to nibble on. I looked back at Zane to see his flirtatious behavior gone for a moment.

“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to lose a parent. I lost both of mine five years ago, so I can relate.” I took his hand and gave it a little squeeze with a small smile. Why is C.C. so hostile towards him? Sure he appears to be a player but other than that he doesn’t seem that bad.

C.C. snorted and rolled her eyes turning to Oliver she hissed: “Do something.” Oliver looked at her with a look that said: What do you want me to do? She gave a loud sigh and put her hands in her face. “This is hopeless.”

“So, Delphine, it’s French isn’t it? Where are you from?” C.C. groaned, still with her hands hiding her face and her elbows on the table.

“I’m from Montreal.”

“Hmmm, Montreal. I went there once.” He was about to continue but a sexy voice interrupted him.

“Hey sorry. We’re late but Abby wanted to…” C.C.’s head shot up at the sound of the new the voice and she leapt from her seat with a big smile on her face. I, once again turned around to see who it was.

“Blake!!!” She yelled as she threw her arms around a tall, dark hair, lean but slightly muscular boy, who grabbed her in his arm and spun her around. He was wearing a black shirt, black jeans, black ‘Converse’ shoes and a black studded belt. Once he set her back down on her feet, I could see his face and OMG, if I thought Zane was hot, then Blake was blazing.

I absentmindedly thought; are there any NOT sexy guys at this school? I feel like a fat kid on a diet in a candy store. A little behind him, stood a girl with light brown hair wearing a lilac colored vintage dress. She looked at C.C. and Blake with an annoyed/bored look on her pretty face.

“I’m happy to see you too C.C.” He said with a warm laugh and an easy going smile.

“So, how was your summer? You have so much to tell me and I to tell you.” She then gasped, grabbed his hand and led him over to me. “Oh, Blake, there’s someone I would like you to meet. This is Delphine, my new roommate.” His deep, blue eyes smudged with kohl locked with my light green ones and for a moment, I felt the world stop. Nothing else seemed to matter but him and me. Getting lost in the dept and intensity of his soulful orbs ─I felt a shiver go down my spine and it was not from the cold. I just wanted to stand from my seat and go to him, attracted like a magnet to steel but at the same time I couldn’t seem to make my body move.

I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder and I heard Zane say: “Hello, brother. Missed me?” Blake let go of my gaze, seemingly reluctantly, to acknowledge his brother and I let go of the breath, I didn’t realize I’d been holding. What the hell was that?!