Chapter 12
Dayyan
Somehow, I’m more nervous today than I was yesterday. Today it’s not about me, I’m fine. Jannis and I need to find a way to communicate that works for him at school. Since we’re used to just talking to each other, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Even through his whisper, I can hear the smile in his voice. Ah, so that’s how it works. “I would be hopelessly lost. I would have to ask someone in the class, but I didn’t remember any names.”
Jannis stops abruptly looking at me in disbelief. Then he types with nimble fingers, and a computer voice speaks up. “Are you serious? Not a single one?”
“Verena? Ah, and that idiot from the bike cellar, Thorsten. But I wouldn’t have asked him.”
Jannis pinches the bridge of his nose with his lips pressed together. “You mean Valérie and Torben?”
“Ah, close. I got most of the letters right though.”
This remark is too much for Jannis, and his head falls onto my shoulder, laughing. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
”You know what.”
We’ve calmed down when we reach the physics classroom and I follow the lesson as attentively as I can.
It’s super distracting that our teacher has tucked the corner of his white coat into the back of his waistband.
The mere fact that he’s wearing the thing, when we’re not even experimenting is over the top.
Unlike me, Jannis participates actively in class. In fact, he’s the only one who participates at all. Always with that synthetic voice that doesn’t really suit him.
“I understand that you need that thing, but your voice sounds so strange.”
Jannis furrows his eyebrows questioningly, and I interpret that as “Why?”
“Your real voice is so much deeper.”
Jannis types something into his phone and slides it over for me to read. “Sorry, the app can’t do sexy and seductive.”
I didn’t expect that answer, and I press my hand over my mouth to keep myself from bursting out laughing. He types again. “Oh, isn’t my voice sexy and seductive?”
Well, now that I think about it. “I do like your voice.”
The morning was surprisingly relaxed, and the two-hour art class in the afternoon flew by. The bike cellar is deserted when we unlock our bikes. “That was so much easier than I thought it would be.”
Jannis nods in agreement. “I guess I was worrying about nothing. Thank you for being so cool about it.”
***
“Okay, what’s your deal?” It’s Wednesday morning and Jannis and I would really like to enter the classroom, but Torben is blocking the door. I take a deep breath, hoping it will calm me down, because I really don’t feel like dealing with this shit.
Since Monday he’s been on a roll. Judging by his comments, he has no other intention than to make Jannis look like he was cognitively impaired, as if he couldn’t understand when we talk to him like we do with anybody else. As if he couldn't think and speak for himself.
If I’ve learned anything over the last two days, it’s that Jannis is smarter than many others in this room, me included.
Not that it would impress him in any way, this guy is huge, but I corner him against the next wall, nevertheless. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Enlighten me.”
“We’ve been in the same class for twelve years, and I’ve never once seen or heard him speak. And then you show up and suddenly he’s talking.”
“Firstly, the donkey always names himself first. Secondly, he has a name. And thirdly, are you jealous?” I stand on tiptoe and my lips almost touch his earlobe.
That he even lets me get so close to him is a miracle.
I’m literally waiting for two firm hands on my chest and a strong push backwards.
Instead, he takes a sharp breath. Nice. “You heard his voice and now you want more, am I right? You can’t get enough of it, but you don’t know how to get what you want. ”
Still no reaction, and I’m too carried away to stop now, even though I know that the longer I poke the bear, the more violent his response will be. “I get it, believe me. It’s so deep, so incredibly sexy.”
With a sharp pain in my chest, I fly backwards. Torben leans over me with rage contorting his face, and I can’t help but grin. If I get hit now, I would’ve more than deserved it, no question. My phone vibrates and I glance at my smartwatch.
“Do you need help?” I shake my head almost imperceptibly and see out of the corner of my eye how Jannis’s posture relaxes.
“What’s your problem? That Jannis talks to me and not to you, even though you’ve known him for so long? Maybe think about why that is. Jannis and I are friends. We didn’t just meet on Monday.”
“Are you serious? What do you want from that loser? He’s a freak. Silent as a fish. Ah, or are you after the money? That’s it, isn’t it?” Given the place Jannis is living in, I suspected that the Delfosse family had money. I never cared enough to ask though, but I see Jannis flinch.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t bullshit me, everyone knows they’re loaded.”
“Oh, you’re well informed. I haven’t seen any bank statements from his parents yet, but I wasn’t aware that the information was relevant to me, my bad. Money was never an issue between us, you can ask Jannis yourself. But you’d have to talk to him, and I’m not sure YOU can do that.”
Torben grabs me by the collar at exactly the right moment—just as our math teacher comes around the corner. “Hey! Break it up, boys! Torben, what’s this all about? Dayyan hasn’t even been here a week. What’s he going to think of our school?”
I bite my cheek hard to keep from laughing out loud or saying something I’d definitely regret.
“You don’t have to fight for me.” Jannis’s expression is serious as we take Flocke for a walk in the afternoon.
“I didn’t fight.”
“You know what I mean.” His amber eyes look at me piercingly and I feel him in every fiber of my body. It tingles. This is new, well, not new, but different, and I push the thought aside again. Just like last time, when I was surprised by... whatever.
“It was about me, and all I could do was standing stupidly at the sidelines and watch. I had so much I wanted to say. But I just couldn’t.”
“Can your app scream?”
Jannis looks at me blankly. The “Are you serious?!” in his gaze literally jumps in my face.
“It would be so cool if you could just set your app to 'angry mode' and it would go crazy. Imagine the show you could put on.”
He grins, but he doesn’t leave it at that. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble because of me. I’m not going to make any more friends at this school; I am and will be the freak who doesn’t talk. You still have a chance to fit in, and I don’t want to take that away from you.”
Okay, enough joking around. “You’re my friend, and if the others can’t or don’t want to see what a great person you are, I’m really sorry for them. But I’m definitely not going to let anyone give you shit when I’m standing right there.”
Jannis considers this for a moment, his right hand running through his blond curls. “Okay, but I’ll whisper in your ear what to say. I’ve got some good lines, too, you know.”
That's my Jannis... Jannis... just Jannis… not my... Holy shit. I answer quickly to get the thought out of my head. “Deal.”