Once more, Vincent dipped his hands into his pockets as though by chance or by some magical luck he would be able to grace some cash in it. Cash that he knew for sure he did not have. But again. Again and again. He shoved his skinny fingers returning back up with nothing but air and dust. A cry almost escaped from his lips as he looked right up to the ceiling.
His eyes flickered down, casting a gaze on the mirror that stood before him. His reflection looked at him accusingly.
"What on earth are you looking for?" He asked, speaking to himself. His hand slid up covering his face in a face palm. "This is stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
"No it's not," he said once again to himself with a mouth full of conviction, clearing his palm off his face to stare at it with much scrutiny. "You look good. Remember you're going on a date. A date with the most beautiful girl in school. You're dating a total baddie for god'sakes. Be proud. Stand tall. Don't disappoint her. She is, after all, Rory McIlroy. The Rory McIlroy, man!
"But you just sunk in all your life savings on a date to impress her. What on earth are you going to do? Nobody is coming to save you this time. Think Vincent! Why do you think Rory doesn't want the relationship to go public?
"Nope. I look good. I got some nice wears for myself. Who knows if I might even get lucky today with her?"
He slapped himself immediately, waking him up to the reality that he was indeed talking to himself. He felt a totally raw feeling of fear shroud him up like a blanket. Talking to one's self is indeed a sort of thing that landed people in mental hospitals. Was he by any chance going mad?
He looked around to see if there was anybody listening to him rant to himself. But he was alone in his room, as he had always been. Somehow the situation made him wish for a second that there were actually people with him listening and waiting to make a joke out of his every move. But no.
He looked at his wrist watch. It was about time. A few minutes before four thirty. A feeling he found to be quite similar to electricity zapped over his body and suddenly he felt energetic once more.
He put his hands once again in his pocket, and pranced himself out of the door to the corridor. While there, his head danced over his shoulders, glaring with suspicion at every shadow that passed by. He wanted by all means to not be seen by Monsieur Dubois.
When it felt as though the coast was clear he walked as fast as his legs could take outside of the hall way, down the stairs to a hall that led straight outside.
There was still no sign of Monsieur Dubois. His lips stretched in a grin. He was lucky today to be able to escape the old man's icy glare, he judged within him before making his way across the hall.
"Do you know you're way too young to be talking to yourself, Mon Cheri,” an old frail voice spoke. It brought up a sigh from the bowels of Vincent, who at this point did not want to bother looking at who exactly the words were coming from. He knew it was none other than Monsieur Dubois.
"Thank you, I'll stop, Monsieur." Vincent replied, unsure of the words to use.
"Sure," Monsieur Dubois hissed. "All that time you take to talk to yourself in your room, I believe if you put in as much of an effort in working, surely you would have paid up your rent by now. Remember, your rent is due in two days time."
"I remember Monsieur Dubois." Vincent sighed, trying his best to move out of Monsieur Dubois' line of sight so he wouldn't see that he was wearing new clothes.
"Good boy. And have a nice date," the old man finally said, with eyes that seemed to pierce just right through the young boy's soul.
As soon as Vincent heard those words, he ran off, wishing that the heavens would open up and swallow him whole. Immediately he picked off his bicycle and began riding away towards his date, his face as red as red could be, embarrassed that the old man, Monsieur Dubois, who was the land lord of the apartment he was living in, had overheard him.
He rode to the location of the date, one of the most beautiful areas of Paris, housing some of the most prestigious restaurants. This was where Rory had wanted the date to be. A bit fat from school. Beyond the reach of students.
He kept looking at his watch, biting his lips and silently hoping she had not left sake of his lateness. Once there, he stormed in the restaurant, his eyes open, darting the entire place to see her face.
Just a little bit more, and he spotted her seated on a chair looking directly at him, her lips pursed with angry eyes dotting her pretty face. He immediately walked towards her.
"I'm here," he managed to say despite feeling the cold hands of disappointment choking him. "I'm sorry I'm late."
"You better be," she spat, flashing a glare at him. "You made me wait all this while for you. What the fuck do you take me for, Vincent?"
With his head lowered to his chest, he did not say a word. Rory liked people intimidated by her, and what could make her more happy than a tall handsome fellow like Vincent cowering to her voice.
"You're lucky you're cute," she said finally, with a smile drawn over her face, an elbow on the chair, with a finger on her lip which she bit seductively. "You may sit."
He sat down with a smile. His mind worried, frantically looking for words to say. "Uhm, what do you intend ordering?" He finally asked.
"I would like some Spaghetti Bolognese with some Jamaican sauce to go with it, for starters," she began. Vincent sighed. He knew that alone had taken half of the money he had saved away. Perhaps she would be the only one eating. If he ordered food too that would become too much for his savings to take.
"Waiter!" he called, raising his hands lazily.
Just before him a group of boys were passing by. His words seemed to call out to them as they turned seeking to see where the familiar voice was coming from.
This was Henri Matisse and his friends. A handsome devilish looking boy that had mischief written in his eyes. Once his eyes caught on to Vincent, he bursted into laughter. The ridiculous kind that would have anyone who heard it questioning the reasons behind it.
Once Vincent heard the laughter and saw where it was emanating from, he began looking to the floor, knowing that he was the one being laughed at.
"Well well well, if it isn't Vincent the degenerate." Henri sang out loud, moving to Vincent's direction while Vincent kept caving in, wondering what it was that Henri was doing in the restaurant.
Rory felt herself ashamed to be seen with Vincent and complained as well of his presence although Vincent thought it was because she did not like Henri as well.
He reached the table not so long after. "Is he bothering you, my beautiful?" Henri asked, his hands clenching the table with his friends behind him laughing mockingly, referring his question to Rory.
"Leave us alone," Vincent declared angrily.
Henri's friends rushed at him but got stopped halfway by Henri who brought out some wads of cash from his pockets.
"I'll tell you what," Henri turned towards Rory, ignoring Vincent like he was bereft of existence, dropping the wad of cash violently on the table, "I'll give you all of this, plus a 200,000 dollar car if you leave this piece of garbage you're dating right now."
Without a second thought, Rory with the speed of flight, left the seat she was in, without a second look at Vincent who then carried a face of surprise and shock.
"Thank you, thank you." Rory giggled, hugging Henri who smiled nastily at Vincent.
A sudden rage filled Vincent up immediately and the next thing he knew was that he had punched Henri, knocking him backwards. His gang seeing what had happened, immediately pounced on Vincent, bringing him to the floor, but he was so enraged that both boys couldn't stop him, he pushed them aside and got right back on Henri, punching him multiple times again.
"Security!" Rory called out. They got there in no time to pick up the maddened boy that Vincent had become.
"You will pay for this, you cunt!" Henri stood up, cleaning his mouth off the blood. He wanted to attack once more but he found himself held back by the security. He could do nothing but curse.
Vincent felt all that he could feel; pain, betrayal, anger, hurt, but still, in his heart, he was glad he gave Henri something to remember. But now he had to face the Vice Chancellor, Henri's father.
The VC of Matisse University de Paris was an old man. Vincent and nobody that he knew could ever confidently say that they knew his real name. Everybody referred to him as Vice Chancellor Mattise, and if Vincent did not know any better, he might have thought for certain that even his son, Henri, did not know the name of his father. That would have been a terribly comedic thing if it were really true, Vincent thought within himself, having once again one of those inner monologues that he usually had as he was held on both arms to the office of the VC by two security guards.He nearly let out a chuckle as he got thrown into the office immediately, with the view of the old VC staring at him with a face full of scorn; his son just standing beside him, quiet, his lips and parts of his face still swollen.Vice Chancellor Mattise was said to be in his fifties, but his head was already so crowded with white hair, his face, always with a frown reeking of wrinkles, had people guessing that he
Vincent did not offer to fight back. He promptly let himself swing on the hands of the security guards as they strolled out of the premises.With one final swing of his head backwards, he was able to steal for what he felt was the last time, the view of the University. ‘So just like that,’ he thought within himself, he was about to lose the only shot he had at gaining an education and making it out of the pitiful penniless life that he had been leading right untill now.He fought back tooth and nail against the tears that were about falling right across his face. He wished for a second that his eyes had the suction power possessed by his nose to pull back on whatever it had excreted. He has worked hard in getting an admission there. He had to work twelve hours doing multiple jobs everyday in order to pay for his bills. Now everything had gone down the drain and all for what? All for nothing but a girl who was ready to betray him at the mere sound of money.Again, he let his head dan
On a windy evening the next day around the school premises, another luxurious car came parking just close to the school's gate. A Rolls Royce. It brought forth the attention of students who all crowded around it with their eyes all lit up in awe of its beauty.The door was flung open and a bald man with pitch black glasses, well framed cheekbones and jaw line and a muscular build, stepped outside of it wearing a white suit.He looked around, as if selecting for a student. His demeanor was nothing short of intimidating, but this did not stop the students from admiring from the distance that they were perched on."Hey you," he called out, pointing at one of the students, a tall lanky boy with glasses and a bulb haircut. The boy walked foreward although his eyes were filled with uncertainty."Take me to the Vice Chancellor of this school," the man demanded, his voice was hoarse and as intimidating as his looks were."Y-yes." The boy replied, his tone shaking.In a few minutes there were
It took them thirty minutes to get to their destination. At that time, Vincent finally broke out of the surprise bubble that he had found himself. He was finally back in the real world, in a car with a one-eyed bald stranger that had just paid a huge amount of money to the VC like some sort of trade to get him.His chest vibrated with the thumping of his heart. For all he knew the man in question could be some sort of organ trafficker that he had just been sold to. Sweat dripped down his face as he bit his lip."I'm sorry, Monsieur driver, sir—""The name is Frank." Frank cut his sentence short, his eyes still focused on the road attentively. "Frank Guillaume. But just call me Frank.""Okay, Frank. I'm genuinely happy to have met you. You took me away from jail so I infact am very happy. But where are we going to?" Vincent sounded unsure and nervous. He had every reason to. Frank was still very much just a stranger to him."Well, no need to panic. It seems you have had a little encoun
Monsieur Dubois stood waiting with a scowl on his face in front of Vincent's apartment waiting for him. He finally saw him with a look of happiness on his face. His eyes possessed what Monsieur Dubois would casually call a fool's glimmer.Today was the day the rent was supposed to be due, why on earth did he look so happy? Monsieur Dubois asked, his hand grasping hard to the walking stick that he held, shaking with tremendous annoyance at the young fool's behavior, prancing into the hall way like he owned the place.Once he got closer, Monsieur Dubois fired off with his question. "Where is my money?" It caught Vincent off guard, but in no time, he returned the scowling look on Monsieur Dubois with a smile.His behavior was shocking, but not any more than it was annoying and provoking to the man's anger. But before he could say any other word, Vincent was with a wad of cash that Monsieur Dubois' eyes were not fast enough to see from where it was that he pulled the money."Take," Vince
For the next few days the entire school had been covered by wallpapers and fliers all depicting the so called party by Henri."I heard there is going to be a pool party there too," Denis said, inspecting the flier as it perched just right there on his locker, "I get it's going to be all big and boujee by the "infamous and rich" Henri Matisse, what I don't get is why they have to put it on our faces. Why are they trying to get us to go by all means?"He ripped off the flier from his locker, his face ridden with an annoying disgusted look."Because they want us to come. It's that simple," Vincent said, tearing the flier off his locker too, "So they will be able to embarrass and make fun of us there. That's his plan. And it's low."Speaking of the devil, there were approached by Judee, a very huge man with a considerable muscular frame. He was known as the most fearsome student in Mattise University de Paris."Oh great." Denis retorted, about to leave with Vincent when Judee blocked them
The forced invitation was a problem as Vincent had thought it to be, but there was another equal issue that he had to face if he really was going to go to the party. On the day before the party, he was standing in front of a mirror again when he found out this one thing, and even felt gobsmacked and stupid that he had never thought of it before: he had absolutely no clothes to wear to a party. The clothes he has bought on the day he was supposed to be on a date with Rory were worn out and spoilt from the fight he got into with Henri and the subsequent events that happened."I have to get myself new clothes," he finally said to himself as he looked on his reflection. With that thought he ran across the house, grabbed a bag and his trustee bicycle, and off he went. There were several boutiques in Paris that were well said to be of impeccable quality, but one, only one of them did he fancy in entering. The large boutique de Gentry. It was the most beautiful according to him, and the onl
In the boutique once again Vincent was greeted with condescending eyes. He could not only see it, he could also feel it; deep resentment resting in the heart of the staff as they saw him strolling behind Marie."Hey, who let you in here?" One internal security guard hallowed in a thunderous tone at Vincent who paused like a man frozen in time. "He's with me." Marie said, touching Vincent by the shoulder. A mere touch from her was enough to make him melt inside. "But Madame, look at his dressing. He looks like a street urchin. Why would you let him here?" The security guard's eyes were still focused on Vincent."Because this is a boutique and I can bring anyone I want inside here," she said, her tone like a fiery sword made from the coldness of ice."No, you don't—”"If you have further complaints you should take it up with my mother."The security guard kept quite and decided to leave, but he gave one look at Vincent that made his blood freeze. Vincent has decided in his mind that