The Unsolvable Equation

Thirty-five

It took Alexia ten minutes to discover that she was a horrible postcard writer and five to realize that taking a riverboat cruise on the top deck in the chilly French air was not as fun as she initially thought it would be. This was not helped by the fact that Almier, who was sitting next to her, paid more attention to his camera than to her. He had spent the entire ride so far leaning so far out of the boat that his life was practically dangling by a thread, and trying to capture as many photos of the same scenery as his camera memory would allow. Alexia meanwhile, spent most of her ride being huddled up in her scarf, battling against the cold winds that nipped at her cheeks, and trying her best to reject the jealous not-yet-girlfriend persona and threatened to embarrass her.

“You’ve taken so many pictures, you could practically make a stop-motion movie of France,” Alexia finally remarked to Almier, in a tone that she hoped showcased enough annoyance to get Almier’s attention, yet not enough to launch a full-blown argument.

Almier turned around, his cheeks pink and grinning. “Sorry, it’s just that the inner tourist in me has finally found freedom. You’ve got to admit, though, it’s beautiful!”

Alexia forced a laugh. “Yeah, but I don’t see the point of taking so many photos of the same thing. I mean, isn’t committing it to memory enough?” At this point, she didn’t even bother to sop up the irritation that was dripping from the tone of her voice.

Almier sat down next to her, seemingly unaffected by her bad mood. “Too bad we don’t all have your memory, Alexia,” he said with a laugh. Then sensing that she did not share his amusement, he quickly changed the topic. “You know,” Almier began, suddenly shy again. “Even though we’ve been on this trip together for over a week now, I feel like we haven’t really spent enough time together.”

Finally! He realizes that we have been chatting nearly as much as we should have been. Praise the heavens, Almier has social awareness! Alexia offered him a small smile. “Let’s pick up where we left off then, shall we? How did you find the classes?” This is so awkward! It is like a get to know session, not a romantic bonding one!

Almier seemed to take the question seriously though, and frowned, as if trying to remember the events of the past week. “I actually really enjoyed myself! The classes were easier than I thought they would be and I, as cheesy and textbook as this sounds, found it to be extremely eye opening. What about you?” He pulled out a pack of gum and offered her one.

Alexia popped the gum in her mouth and chewed it hard, pondering over how on earth Almier was able to find something that she had found moderately challenging easy. “Honestly, it wasn’t the biggest walk in the park for me, but it was really…” she trailed off, trying to pick out a word that would summarize the entire experience for her. “Fun…” she reluctantly settled on the cliche, over-used phrase that should certainly not be associated with and used by someone of her intellectual caliber. Alexia felt her IQ drop a few more points and she quickly looked to change the topic to something less confidence-denting.

“Hey, what did you get for that small test, though?” Almier suddenly asked, beating her to it.

This was exactly what Alexia had been afraid of. The test wasn’t exactly one of her glory moments and she was in no hurry to relive it. “85 percent,” she grumbled out.

Almier’s eyes widened in disbelief and it made Alexia feel worse. “Are you kidding? I beat Alexia Lee!” He rubbed his hands together in glee and Alexia scowled at him. Almier did not seem to take notice, though, and continued his mini, completely un-called for celebration of her faliure. “Wow! What a historic moment this is, folks!” He cried to no one in particular. Except maybe his own ego, Alexia seethed in her mind.

“Give it a rest, Almier,” Alexia groaned.

“No way! Do you know how rare it is that I beat you in something, just anything at all?” He sat back down in his seat, satisfaction and pride glowing on his face. “I think we can all agree who’s better at French, now.”

That comment, no matter how light hearted and innocent it might have been, was a huge dent to Alexia’s pride and made her insides sizzle with annoyance and anger.It’s bad enough that Almier felt compelled to celebrate my bad results, but proclaiming himself better than me? That’s just going too far. ”Yeah yeah, go ahead and gloat, that’s definitely going to make me feel better about my scores,” Alexia snapped at him.

Almier still had that blood boiling cat-who-got-the-cream smug expression written all over his face, and at that moment, Alexia wished that he had kept up his unpartable relationship with his camera. “Don’t be mad, Alexia, you can’t be the best at everything. Besides, let me have my moment,” he flashed her a smile that she did not return and leaned back in his seat.

Disinterested at the prospect of continuing conversation with Almier, Alexia turned her attention to the marvellous city skyline of France. She took in the bright lights, the wonderful architecture that had dazzled her on her first day here, the bustling streets and the posh shops that dotted the docks. She took in the culture, the people that she would never be able to communicate with, the melodious blend of words in the air that she would never be able to understand, the society that she would never fit into, and the boy sitting next to her that she would never fall in love with. Alexia sighed to herself and for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel on top of the world. She could be pulled down by gravity, the sky became a limitation, the people were no longer toy soldiers on display in the background but actual stumbling blocks in the way, and love was no longer a buffet which she could take her time to pick and choose, it was a menu with only one item on the list, and that was the chef’s mystery choice. Suddenly, the lights weren’t so bright anymore, the architecture was beginning to blend together in an unspectacular blur, another country, another building, the life on the streets began to annoy her and the posh shops just served as a reminder for the lifestyle she would never be able to afford.

She was beginning to skin further in her puddle of self-doubt and self-pity when Brad appeared out of the blue and stared at her and Almier with a pair of binoculars.

“Brad!” Alexia exclaimed, scrambling up in her seat. “What the hell?”

Almier just groaned, as if used to his peculiar behaviour. “Take your social experiment elsewhere, Brad,” he said in a bored tone. “You’re ruining the scenery.”

Brad lowered his binoculars. “So people do get uncomfortable when stared at in binoculars,” he muttered to himself, as if making a mental note. “How fascinating.”

“It’s not fascinating Brad, you’re just bloody psychotic!”

Brad grinned. “We all have our good points, mine just happens to be curiosity.”

“Speaking of good points,” Almier leaned forward in his seat, eyes suddenly alive. “Guess what? I beat Alexia Lee for French, can you believe it?”

“No way, dude! That’s amazing!”

“I know!”

Alexia felt another stab to her pride and her stomach clenched uncomfortably. “What did you get, anyway, Almier,” she couldn’t help asking.

Almier turned to her and she swore that if no one had been looking, she’d have that grin off his face so fast and hard, no amount of plastic surgery could be able to fix it. “85.5 percent,” he announced proudly.