Read Online Billie by Anna Gavalda, Jennifer Rappaport - Free Book Online Page A

just said . . .
    Â 
    Zilch.
    Â 
    â€œI respect her wishes.”
    Â 
    He respected my wishes.
    And in front of a teacher, too!
    But . . . for me, certain evenings, it was a struggle just to have something to eat! There were mornings, I didn’t even know if my . . . no, nothing . . . the word “respect” was so devoid of meaning that I didn’t even understand why it was invented! I thought it was a dumb thing you concluded a letter with, like—“Respectfully yours, Mr. President”—with your signature underneath and all that . . . and this guy, this little Franck Mumu who must have weighed 110 pounds completely wet, what did he do? He made the teacher nervous in front of me and forced her to look at me in a pleading way.
    Â 
    Oh my God. It was a big deal.
    It was something . . .
    Excuse me? What, you fools? You
still
want to get on our case? Oh, well, no. No, thank you. It seems that Billie really doesn’t want to and that someone respects her wishes.
    Oh . . .
    I was born at that moment . . .
    Besides, as soon as Madame Guillet turned on her heels, I who never opened my mouth in class, I screamed. I screamed like a wild beast. Ostensibly to blow off steam, but really, I realize only now, it wasn’t at all about stress that was subsiding or pressure that had to be released, it was the cry of a newborn . . .
    I screamed, I laughed, I lived.
    Â 
    So, you know, little star, I’m really going to do everything to try to convince you to help us one more time, but if you don’t want to, don’t worry, I’ll save Francky myself.
    If necessary, I’ll carry him on my back; I’ll grit my teeth and go to the end of the world. Yes, if necessary, I’ll drag him to the moon and we’ll end up in the emergency room on planet Mars, but meanwhile, no worries, you and all the others, you can count on the fact that my will shall be done.

 
    I admit, I’ve been drawing out the pleasure but don’t worry, the rest will go faster. Note that I don’t have much choice, since the nights are short at the moment and I’d better get a move on if I want to finish telling you the whole story before you disappear.
    But then, you understand, it’s important because it’s the show’s first season. Like, the one that sets up everything to follow. Afterward there will just be more or less well-constructed episodes that come one after the other until we get to you.
    Plus, you know them already . . .
    You were there . . .
    Yes . . .
    You were there . . .
    Okay, sometimes, it’s true, you were distracted, but I know you were with us. I know.
    Â 
    In the first episode, I made a real effort because I just can’t hold back when telling the story of how we met. Those scenes contain the heart of our friendship. Besides everything is there, everything . . . Our way of being, of not being, of chatting, of gossiping, of helping ourselves or loving ourselves. As I said to Francky one day, we’re communicating vessels but with mud on the inside, so yes, it was important for me to do a good job recounting how we started out in life.
    And that’s okay, right? There are plenty of people who produce six-volume works about their childhood and then four more on the first time they used a condom, whereas I’ve given it to you in one scene. That’s the right way to do it, admit it.
    Â 
    * * *
    Â 
    I won’t say that everything was easy after that, but there were two of us, so actually yes, I’ll say it: everything was easier after that. By recess on that same day, everyone was already calling us Camille and Perdican. Hey, that really put us on a pedestal, don’t you think?
    Precisely because we didn’t want to repeat it, our performance became a sort of mythic thing, and anyone who was absent that day because they were sick or something,