Chapter 2 02

- Lightning! Let Aline breathe! She has just arrived," exclaims my uncle to their dog, who is doing what he wants.

- Hi there! How are you doing, handsome? Did you miss me? Yes, yes, I'm here, don't worry! Why don't you go and see someone else to welcome him, right? How about Louka for example?

I love animals and it's mutual. I've always wanted a pet, preferably a dog. Unfortunately, a dog in a Parisian apartment would be unhappy, as my mother often tells me. So I gave up the idea. I may be in adoration of animals but I only want them to be happy. So I took Lightning by the collar and put him in front of Louka's door. He opens his door -still on the gas-, gets out and sees Lightning. He steps back but can only lean on the car. I let go of Éclair who rushes over to welcome him.

- Aline, Louka yells with fear.

- It's me, I'm glad you know my name. Well, I'm going.

I go towards the house and say hello to my uncle who has followed the whole scene with his eyes.

- How is my favorite niece, he asks.

- Your favorite niece? It's so easy to say that when you only have one," I exclaim, pretending to be offended. But I appreciate the attention. Look, I'm fine, how about you? How are you doing?

- Fine, and I'm kidding of course, just because I only have you doesn't mean I can't like you better.

- I'm not sure I understand," I said, bursting out laughing.

He laughs with me before calming down:

- I think you should toughen up our little Louka. Lightning isn't a bad animal though. I don't know what he sees in him.

- I've tried, but he's still very fearful when it comes to dogs. And be careful, I can't tell his friends about this or he'll be teased," I exclaimed, imitating my big brother's voice as best I could. I put my stuff in the hall and went to help him.

I enter the house, which is silent, and come out to help the incompetent brother. He is still against the door and Lightning rubs against his legs, as if he wanted a hug.

- Oh, you're so cute, Lightning, come see Auntie Aline," I say.

- Take that dog away from me right now. He's going to hurt me," Louka yells at me.

- What am I doing, you idiot? Lightning wouldn't hurt a fly anyway. He never hurt anyone.

- You never know! Hey, wait, are you calling me stupid?

I laugh and grab my dog by the collar. Louka gets out of the car and goes into the house. I follow him and when I come back, I find my aunt. She is younger than my mother, but the fatigue accumulates on her face and under her eyes. She is dressed in a white apron stained with tomato sauce that is tied around her neck and she wipes her hands on a cloth.

- Aline, how are you my beautiful, she asks me.

- Everything is fine and you?

- Fine, don't worry about me. You can't imagine how much Lucie is looking forward to seeing you. She's been talking about you for days.

As if to prove her point, I hear Lucie yell my name and run down the stairs. Going too fast, she'll fall down one of these days.

- Aline," Lucie shouts.

I have just the time to open my arms, that she jumps on me. She gives me a big hug and finally gets off my arms a few moments later. She walks over to Louka, hugs him and says hello to my parents. She only shakes hands with Logan, who doesn't care.

- Max! Why did you change the wifi code, he yells.

- Logan! You're finally here! I was waiting for you to play my new war game on PC, you'll love it! Come upstairs," replies Maxime.

I see mom and aunt Agnes making a six feet long face. They must be sick of them spending their time on video games.

- Jordan! Jordan! Get down here! There's Aline and Louka," Lucie shouts through the house.

- Come on up, guys, I'm too lazy to come down," our cousin says from the second floor.

I giggle, take my things and climb the stairs. Louka grabs his suitcase and the bag containing the sheets before climbing up after me. Once arrived there, I find Jordan and after having said hello we come very quickly to the discussion of the beds.

- Well, the two small ones are in the room of Max, Louka sleeps with me in my room and you take the guest room Aline, says my cousin.

- Oh no! Not this time," I cried, recoiling at the thought of sleeping alone in this room.

- What?

- There's no way I'm sleeping alone in the guest room.

- Why?

- Why?! Because the floor creaks at night, the wind whistles through the trees and the shutters rattle. It's like being in a horror movie! And it's too dark," I added in a low voice.

- You're afraid of the dark," Jordan bursts out laughing, and he's the only one. No, but you're a big girl, Aline, you can't be afraid of the dark.

- It's not a joke, man," my brother sighs, putting a hand on our cousin's shoulder. She wakes me up in the middle of the night to sleep with me.

- I thought that was over when I grew up," he said to himself as he stopped laughing.

- Well, no," I replied curtly, offended that he was making fun of me about it.

- In any case, welcome to Brittany, he said.

- I'm from Paris and I hate the weather here.

- Otherwise we take the mattress from the sofa bed and put it in my room and your parents sleep in the guest room.

- So you move the mattress by yourself, I say to my cousin, crossing my arms, impervious to any remark he might make.

He looks at me with a desperate look but I hold on and he must understand that he hurt me so with Louka they take care of the mattress. I go back to the room to set up my things and call Jordan once I'm a little calmer.

- Where do I put my clothes?

- Third and fourth drawer of the dresser.

- It'll never fit.

- You didn't come here for a fashion show, it's going to fit without a problem.

- Let me do it Aline, says Louka. So, cousin, you should know that a girl's suitcase is made up of 80% just in case, and she needs at least one whole wardrobe for the remaining 20%.

- Damn! Just take the four drawers and leave one for your brother and then you have the empty spots in my closet, Jordan says.

- Okay, thanks a lot, I'll leave my shoes in their bag," I replied.

While I put my things away, the boys finished setting up my bed and Louka put his suitcase away. All that finished, we go to get Logan and Max in front of the computer and let's go play pool in the living room. The two opposite teams are Louka, Logan and Max against Jordan and myself here. It is necessary to know that I am totally null in the billiards or everything that is sport of precision. But the result is in, we won!

- Yeah! We beat you! You all suck! Nanani nanere, I sing at the top of my lungs.

- Ah but you're a kid in fact, shouts Max to which I answer by sticking out my tongue.

- But it's because of Logan," says Louka.

- Yeah right, you really think I won because of Aline," laughs Jordan.

- We won, and fuck you Jordan," I said, patting him on the arm.

- I love you too, Aline," smiles Jordan, whose laughter is threatening to escape.

- Kids, let's eat," shouts our mother from the dining room.

Once we are all settled in our assigned seats, Agnes tells us about the meal she has prepared for us.

- So I made a veal sauté, and I thought of you Aline, you have an eggplant gratin, and without almonds," my aunt explains.

- Thank you auntie, it's very nice of you to have thought of me, I tell her.

- You're welcome, my dear.

- By the way, Agnes, you don't know that Aline had an allergic attack on the road, my mother asks, eager to tell the story.

- Oh no, tell me about it," said my aunt.

My mother tells her the story with the help of Louka who corrects the little mistakes my mother makes. At the end of the meal, we go up to Jordan's room and watch a movie. I managed to get them to promise not to put on a horror movie. Oddly enough, I feel like they were just messing with me.

During the scary scenes, I hear the boys laughing and promise myself to make them pay. I watch the movie anyway, covering my eyes from time to time. Well, almost the whole movie. That's not bad considering I can't stand horror movies. As a proof, during a date, I left the theater at the beginning of the movie because I couldn't stand the horror images. So I waited for an hour and a half for the guy I was on a date with to come out. According to him, the tickets are expensive and already that I had made him lose 10 euros he could not lose more. I might as well tell you that there was no second meeting and that since then I avoid him in the corridors of the school. Finally, after this moment of apocalypse, we both lie down on our mattress and talk, until I fall asleep first.