⁀➷ ┄─ ˑ IV . ☆ ──ㅤ Knee Socks
Joseph Descamps x reader
Chapter 4
Masterlist
Warnings: Smoking
┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐
“What’s going on between you and Descamps?” Simone asked me as we walked to school. The weather was worse than the last couple of weeks, clouds looming over and turning everything gray.
“What do you mean?”
“Some people saw you walking with him after school yesterday.”
“Oh right. I didn’t have an umbrella, so he let me use his. There’s nothing going on.” I reassured her.
“Good. Stay away from him, he’s bad news.” Michèle warned as we neared the school, pupils now flooding around us.
I didn’t respond to them, only focusing on not walking into someone. Simone was looking off towards Jean-Pierre, I guessed she was happy that he only got off with a warning, but there was something else in that look.
“Why are you looking at Jean-Pierre like that?” I whispered so Simone so Michèle wouldn’t hear.
“W-what?”
“You’re looking at him funny.”
“I’m not.” She stuttered out, a mix of happiness and concern on her face as she looked between me and the older boy.
“Do you like him?”
“Do I like him? I’ve barely spoke to him why would I like him!” She whispered.
“You compared him to Alain Delon the other day.”
“Yeah but… Just don’t tell anyone, please.” She turned to look at me, holding her pinky out.
“I wouldn’t do that to you.” I replied connecting our fingers.
“Thank you Y/N.” She smiled.
As we walked past Jean-Pierre and his friends, Simone kept turning around and smiling at him, Michèle completely oblivious.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
The previous week we had been doing multiple, beginning of term tests. Revision for it took up most of my time, meaning I hadn’t been able to go out a lot, only rarely for errands.
“Laubrac, some progress. That’s 4.” The teacher said as he handed the marked tests back. Most of the class laughed at this, while some remained silent.
I averaged in most classes, earning between 12-15, which I was proud of considering I didn’t really pay attention in some of the classes.
Annick usually scored higher than everyone, as well as Felbec. They both always came top of the class. Descamps however, didn’t do as well, scoring around 7 or 8 on every test.
The teachers forgave him though, considering he had lost an eye and experienced trauma. The bandage was soon replaced with a brown eye patch, which suited him more.
The next class I zoned out in, watching as the rain dropped down the window and made a soft patting sound.
“You are all going to prepare a presentation, but in pairs.”
My head snapped towards the teacher at this. Presenting in front of a class, especially with boys in the room, is horrible.
“I’m going to be picking these pairs, because if you were to work with your friend, you will get nothing done.” The teacher says as he looks towards Descamps and Dupin, who just laughed in response.
“Every pair of students will then present their work to the class.” I internally groaned at this, anxiety already building up inside of me. The teacher then began listing names off of the register.
“Sabiani and Pichon?” This pair made the class laugh, especially the boys in the back corner of the room, knowing they were going to bully Pichon because of it.
“Hey look, Pichon’s blushing. He’s turned pink like a pig!”
“That’s enough, Dupin.” The teacher called, sounding fed up of them.
“Do we have to work together in pairs, sir?” Annick raised her hand, Pichon looking at her in sadness.
“That’s the whole point of this exercise, and most importantly, your pair’s average, will be your grade.”
He then continued to rattle off some more names. Michèle was partnered with a random boy, and Simone was partnered with Applebaum.
“L/N and Descamps?”
I internally groaned again at this, picking at my fingernails before slowly looking back at Descamps. He had a small smirk plastered on his face, looking at Dupin before turning to look at me.
I wasn’t happy to be working with Descamps, knowing I would probably be the only one getting work done. But I wasn’t disappointed either, this way I get to know him a bit more.
“How does that sound?” The teacher asked happily once he had partnered everyone up.
Nobody replied, some looking at their partner and smiling while others just faces the front, not amused.
The bell rang, and everyone scrambled to grab their things.
“I feel sorry for you Y/N, having to work with Descamps. Surely you can ask to change?” Simone said as we walked down the school stairs, heading for break.
“I’m sure it will be fine. He won’t do any work anyway, so I can do the presentation on whatever I want.” I smiled back.
“Yeah, I guess that’s an advantage.” Michèle shrugged as we went to sit down on the benches outside.
“Me and Simone are going to ask if we can work together. We don’t really feel comfortable working with a boy after what happened a couple of weeks ago.” Michèle said, fiddling with her hands on her lap.
“I don’t blame you, I don’t feel comfortable either but, it’s either Descamps or a random boy I don’t know.” I shrugged and they agreed with me.
Michèle starts talking, while Simone smiles, looking into the distance. I look in the direction she is, and Jean-Pierre is walking towards us, a book in his hand.
“Here, this is yours.” He says to Michèle, holding it out to her, “I put it in my bag by mistake.”
“Thanks.” The girl smiles.
“Bye then.” He walks away abruptly, Simone’s smile fading when he didn’t even glance at her.
“English isn’t the problem for me, it’s maths.” Michelè begins to rant, “I got three out of twenty on the last test.”
“Three out of twenty isn’t so bad.” Simone sighs, still looking at Jean-pierre. I nudge her slightly with my elbow, smiling.
“L/N. Can we talk?” A voice comes from behind. All three of us turn around at the same time. Descamps is stood there, not looking at the other two, just me.
“Uhm sure.” I say wearily, looking at the other two girls, who are just glaring the boy down. He starts to walk away, and I stand up to follow him, leaving my bag with the two girls.
Once we made it a fair distance from Simone and Michèle he turns to me, leaning his back against the wall that we walked towards.
“We’ll have to go to your place, for the project.” He says, not looking at me, just pulling a cigarette and lighter out of his pocket.
“Why mine?” I ask, pulling my cardigan closer to my body, the September air hitting me.
“Because we can’t go to mine.” He blows smoke, looking straight ahead.
“Why?”
“Because. We can’t go to mine.” He says more sternly this time.
“We can’t go to mine either.”
“Why not?” He turns to me.
“My brother, he doesn’t like it when I have boys in the house. My mother is the same.” I cross my arms over my chest and look up at him.
“What? What if you tell them it’s for a school project.”
“I don’t know how they’ll feel.” I shrug.
“Oh well. Meet me after school. We can go straight to yours.” He turns away to take another drag of his cigarette and blow the smoke away from me.
“Okay, by the school gates?”
“Yes.”
I nod at him awkwardly.
“Is there anything else you wanted to say, or is that it?” I ask him, tilting my head.
He hesitates for a moment, before mumbling that he had nothing else to say, and walks off towards his friends.
I stand there for a few seconds, watching him, before turning on my heel and walking back towards the two girls on the bench.
“What was that about?” They asked once I had sat down.
“Nothing, just the project.” I shook my head, still thinking about the interaction.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
Like he said, Joseph was sat on a wall by the school gates, smoking again. As I approached him he turned to me and threw the cigarette away, stomping on it once he had came down from the wall.
“Sorry if you waited long, I was talking with Simone and Michèle.”
“It’s fine, had the chance to have a cigarette anyway.” He nodded, “Are we going?”
“Yeah.”
Everyone had left by now. The streets were silent except for the occasional rumble of a passing car.
“So, what did you want to do the project on?” I asked, turning to him as we walked up my street.
“Not sure, you can figure that out.” He replied, looking between his feet and the street ahead.
“Okay. Are you going to do anything in this project?”
“If you tell me to.” He replied, smirking at the ground.
“Descamps you have to do something, it can’t just be me that would be unfair.” I said when we approached my house.
“I will do something. I’ll be emotional support for you.”
“Oh, as if you know what emotional support is.” I laughed, opening the door, “Michael!”
My brother came out from the kitchen as we stood in the doorway.
“This is Descamps. We have to do a project for French.” I told him.
“Why are you with a boy?” He asked, chewing on an apple.
“We got paired up by the teacher.” I shuffled on my feet, gripping my bag tighter.
“Right, okay. Keep your door open and both of you don’t sit on the bed at the same time.” Michael replied, pointing his finger between us as he glared Descamps down.
“Yeah I know.” I sighed and walked past him, Descamps closing the front door and following.
“Door open!” My brother called as we walked up the stairs.
“I know!”
As I walked into my room, setting my bag down on a chair, taking my cardigan off and putting it on the back of the chair as well. Joseph stood in the doorway, looking around.
“What are you doing?” I asked, turning around to him and leaning my hand on my chair.
“You live here?”
“Yes…”
“You look like you do.” He said, taking his jacket off.
“Is that supposed to be an insult?” I took his jacket off of him and hung it on a hook with my cardigans.
“No.” He replied simply, turning around to slightly shut the door, leaving about a 4 inch gap.
“So,” He turned to me, “What do you want to do the project on?”
“Camus?”
“Sounds good.”
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
After about 15 minutes of me researching books and writing notes, Descamps finally spoke up.
“Why do you hang around with Michèle?” He said, leaning against the headboard of my bed.
“What?” I replied, sitting on the floor and leaning against the bed frame, open books scattered around me.
“I don’t get why you like her so much.”
“She’s my friend.”
“She’s an attention seeker. You don’t deserve to be around people like that.”
“She’s not an attention seeker.” I sigh, looking up at him and putting down the book I was holding.
“Did you see the way she was dressed on the first day.”
“It was a hot day. Anyway you could have ignored her but you decided to pour water all over her.”
“She’ll get over it.” He said, sitting up more and looking away from me.
I continue to look at him before picking up the book and going back to reading.
“He only got off with a warning.”
“Hm?” I hummed, not looking up from my book.
“Jean-Pierre. He only got off with a warning, while I’m stuck with an eye patch for the rest of my life.”
I turn around fully to face him, leaning my arm on the top of the bed by his legs.
“Yeah it’s not fair, I get that. You have every right to be mad at him. Besides, you look cool with an eye patch.”
“You think?” He turns to look at me, smiling and sitting up more.
“Yeah, it suits you.”
He laughs and gets up from the bed, moving a few books to the side to sit next to me on the floor.
“You should sit on the bed for a bit, the floor can get uncomfortable.”
“Won’t you be uncomfortable though?”
“No, I’ll be fine.” He shook his head and looks down at his lap.
“Thank you.” I say, putting my hand on his shoulder to pull myself up and going to lean against the wall, my legs now a few inches away from the back of his head.
“Is there anything I could do?” He says, turning around to look at me.
“Umm… I guess you could make a few notes on the context of L'etranger. I was going to do that next anyway.” I replied, sitting up and leaning down to pick up a book and give it to him.
He takes the book as I stand up. Walking over to my desk to get a pen and some paper for him, I feel his eyes following me. I smile slightly and turn around.
“Here.” I say, handing him the stuff.
“Thanks.” He takes them and opens the book.
I go to sit down next to him on the floor, picking up my own book and carrying on reading.
“Aren’t you going to sit on the bed?” He turned to me.
“I’m making sure you don’t mess the project up. It goes towards my grade as well.” I reply, leaning my head against my bed frame.
“R-right.” The boy says, maintaining eye contact with me but not saying anything else.
“Y/N?” I hear from down the corridor, my mother’s footsteps becoming louder, before she enters the room. “Your brother said you’re working on a project with a boy.”
“Y-yes. This is Joseph Descamps.” I say, sitting up straight.
Descamps stands up and goes to shake my mother’s hand, “Hello.”
“Are you staying for dinner?” She asks.
He turns to look at me questioningly, and I give him a nod.
“If that’s alright.” He looks back around.
“Yes that’s fine. It’s nice to know Y/N is actually making friends and she’s not just hauled up in her room like she always is.”
I feel my face turn red at this and rest my head against the palm of my hand. Joseph turns around laughing at me, putting his hands in his pockets as my mother walks away.
“I like her.” He carries on laughing as he goes to sit down next to me, closer this time.
My face goes even redder at the close distance between us, and I try to distract myself by reading.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
“So, Joseph, have you lived here for a while?” My mother asks, trying to break the silence around the table while we eat.
“Yeah, my whole life, in two different houses though. The first one was just outside of the city, but now I live a few streets down from here.” He replies after swallowing a mouthful of carrots.
“That’s nice. I’m guessing you like it here then.”
“Yeah, sometimes.” He replies, before turning his head to me, asking me to say something so he could get a break.
“How was work?” I ask my mother.
“It was alright, a lot of customers at the shop.”
I nod, not knowing what to say next. My brother, sat across from Joseph doesn’t say anything, just eating his food and staring down the boy across from him, making the whole situation more awkward.
When we had finished eating, I took all of the plates to the kitchen, offering to help my mother clean up.
“Should I go pack away the books upstairs?” Joseph asks me.
“Yeah, thank you. I think we’ve done enough for today.” I smile, which he returns and starts making his way up the stairs.
I clean everything up for a few minutes before making my way upstairs. Descamps is sat down, stacking all of the books neatly at the foot of my bed.
“Thank you.” I smile at him.
He looks up at me standing over him before holding his hand out to me. I take it and pull him up.
“I should probably get going now, it’s getting dark.” He says, walking past me to my door and taking his coat off the hook.
“I’ll walk you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I have nothing better to do.” Walking to grab my cardigan, I notice it’s not in its usual place, placed on the seat of the chair instead of the back of it. Weird.
I put it on anyway and turn to Joseph, who’s stood watching me.
“C’mon.” He says, and walks out of my room. I smile at him behind his back.
Once we made our way downstairs we go to my mother.
“Thank you for the meal madam.” Descamps says as he sticks his hand out towards her.
“You’re welcome. You’ll have to come over again, I have a lot more questions to ask you.” She smiles, shaking his hand as he laughs.
“Let’s go before it’s dark.” I tell him, smiling at my mother as I gently grab the boys arm and walk towards the door.
We exchange goodbyes, and as soon as I close the door behind me I let out a sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’m just tired.”
“Are you sure.” He says, stepping towards me.
“I’m sure. Let’s get going, it’s getting dark.”
“Want to get rid of me that easily?” He smiles.
“Yes.” I say sarcastically, laughing as we start to walk.
After a few minutes I notice we had gotten closer to each other, our shoulders almost touching. I look up at him, admiring his face underneath the golden street laps. Why is he so horrible to Michèle, but completely fine with me?
The boy turns to look at me, and I quickly look away, now focusing on my shoes as he laughs quietly to himself.
“This is my house.” He says and stops outside of a brown door. He turns to me, not saying anything.
“Oh, you don’t live that far away.”
He shakes his head, still looking at me.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I start, not knowing what else to say.
“See you tomorrow.” He replies, smiling as he goes to open his door.
Quickly, I stand on my toes and kiss his cheek before quickly turning around and walking away, not wanting to see how he reacted.
After walking a few feet, I turn my head back, and he’s still stood there looking at me, hand on the doorknob, and a blush on his face.
I smile to myself and carry on walking home.
└── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┘
A/N: how on earth do i put a submission box on my profile i don’t know how to use tumblr 😭
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