And I love you more than I did before...

So...life-changing people. Rencontrez Julien Hérvagault...
J'ai rencontré Julien Hérvagault quand j'avais quatre ans. Ses parents avaient toujours été des biens amis de mes parents. Première, je le detestais. Je trouvais qu'il était très étrange parce qu'il était timide et il voulait jouer avec mes jeux. J'étais fâchée!!!! Et mon dieu, Il ne parlerait pas...
For those who don't speak French, I met Julien when I was four. Our parents has been good friends since before I was born, so after Julien was born, they decided to schedule a playdate.
When I first met Julien, I hated him. I thought that his shyness was strange, and I was furious that he wanted to play with my toys. He tore through my books and bent the corners. For a four year old, I considered myself to be quite the neat freak. With my hands on my hips, I stood up and yelled at him. Bien sûr, Mère heard me and wasn't too happy. She insisted that I treated my guest with respect.
Respect! Hmph! How could I treat somebody who tore up my property with respect? When Mère left the living room, I snatched my book from his hands faster than anyone could say "au revoir".
Et cross-moi, I wanted to tell that child "au revoir".
He retreated to the bottom of the staircase, where he sat and whimpered. I approached him and told him that's what he got when he thought he could touch my things without permission, and he remained quiet. His big brown eyes filled with tears, and I told him to stop crying because only babies cried. Lame, yeah, but I was four! Mère told me that I was becoming a "big girl".
He was relieved when it was time to leave...I was, too. However, Mère, with help from his mother, decided to organize ANOTHER playdate! This time, we met at the Citadelle Park. If you remember anything about the Citadelle, you need to remember the zoo. I was terrified of animals at the time, so we met in the playground part of the park. Ignoring Julien, I decided to swing. I was humming along to a band playing an Édith Piaf song when all the sudden, some random, dumb girl came up behind me and pushed me off the swing. I landed on my face, and I was in tears. My knees and arms were scraped, and at the time, blood also terrified me. Mère was TOO BUSY talking to Madame Hérvagault, so she couldn't hear me, but Julien came to my aid! He asked me if I was okay, and that was the first time I heard his voice. His voice was soft and demure, just like his personality at age four. Instantly, I developed a crush on him.
Yeah, so four year olds probably shouldn't know what a crush is, but give me a break. My brother was seven when I was four, and that was all he talked about. I believe his first crush was named Alexandrine, but I'm not certain.
Anyway, all it took was for him to talk to me and for our dark brown eyes to meet. :)
As the years progressed, Julien and I grew considerably closer. I felt like I could trust him. I mean, he never was jealous of me, he never made fun of me (unless he was teasing), and he never told anybody anything I told him. In some ways, I felt like I trusted him more than I trusted Aurélie. I mean, I love that girl to death (she's my best friend), but my relationship with Julien was just different. I can't describe it. It just...was.
Julien, Aurélie, and I attended elementary school together, and we did some of the craziest, dumbest things. Like, Julien ate paint. Long story, but mon dieu at least it was nontoxic. I think he wanted to try it because it "smelled nice"...? Les garçons. Très stupides quelquefois.
Aurélie wasn't my friend when this happened; I met her in second grade...with the help of Julien. Aurélie has always been very quiet and reserved, like Julien was. (Julien has since broken out of his shell.) This led a few girls to bully Aurélie, one bully being the one and only Sandrine. During recess, Sandrine took a soccer ball from Aurélie's hands and threw it across the street. This made Aurélie cry hysterically. A few girls proceeded to point and laugh, which upset her even more. Julien came to the rescue and asked Aurélie if she wanted to play with us. She said, "oui", and that's how our friendship began.
In third grade, a boy named Gérard Pélissier moved to Lille from a small town in the Aquitaine region. He bonded with Julien, and therefore became a member of our little group. He was very outgoing, witty, and had somewhat of an attitude, but he was fun to be around. Later, I discovered he was an only child and his parents were on the wealthy side, so that might explain things? I couldn't help but develop a little crush on him, too.
In collège (middle school), things really began to change. I'm not going to talk about my situation because I don't feel comfortable doing so, and Sandrine probably wouldn't appreciate it, but Aurélie attended a different school because of where she lived, and I felt alone at Collège Paul Verlaine. The only people I had were Julien and Gérard. I could have had more, but that is a different story. Those two, regardless, were always there for me. Julien, in particular, was. He was the only person (aside from Aurélie) who told me that everything was going to be okay. He met me almost daily at the Palais des Beaux-Arts to talk, just listen to me, or just sit by me as we listened to our iPods. He was a friend when I needed one the most.
To wrap up this post, I want to say that I miss him and think about him daily. I know that love between fourteen-year-olds isn't necessarily real love, but I feel like our relationship is kind-of different. So, yeah, I haven't really told him that I have a massive crush on him and always have, but I get the feeling that he feels the same way about me in return. Before I came to America, Julien and his family came to my house for dinner. I was being my usual spastic self, and I spilled wine all over my favorite white blouse! He was laughing hysterically while my parents rolled their eyes (Mère in embarrassment, Père because he knows I'd do something like that). Needless to say, he changed my life because he brightened my day when I needed it the most.

What made me think of Julien? Chrissa and her boyfriend talk, of course! Chrissa has been in this long-distance relationship with a boy from her old middle school in Iowa since she came here. Lilly and I can't help but laugh about this. This does deserve a separate post; I think it's amusing.

One last thought: because of all the photo stealing, I'm really getting tough about enforcing no copying/plagiarism rules. This doesn't have to do with anybody in particular; instead, it's a just a message saying not to do it! You may really like the aspect of my life that I just posted, but please, don't go make up your own version because you liked it. That would be a little obvious.
Merci!
Sabine