Gómez Lotero Natalia, From Colombia To France With Love

FROM COLOMBIA TO FRANCE WITH LOVE

Written By Natalia Gómez Lotero

The college’s corridor reek. The smell of the stale urine curled from under the lavatory doors, depressingly mixed with deodorant and body odor in equal measure. Josh kept his head down and pushed his way through the desert of sad faces. All he could think about was his life in Colombia that he had left behind. France was not so bad, although the winter season was starting and everything was grey and cold, there were things about it that felt good like a fresh start and new people to meet. Josh was lanky, with a dark complexion, caramel-colored, with hooded eyes that were dark yet bright. He had wavy black hair and long eyelashes, paired with dense, dark brows that framed his eyes.

Time wasn’t friendly for Josh, and most precisely, Halfpast six o’clock of any part of the day was the most depressing time for Josh, it is when he gets home to a small dormitory with a mini cuisine attached to the wall and a bathroom with a shower that could be turned into a bathtub sadly he couldn’t fit in, but although his place was cozy the bed was okay the little kitchen had everything he needed and the home location was the best of all, it was next to the metro station and in front of the school.

Josh would get home and fix himself some food that he barely knew how to cook, except from Pasta to which he would simply boil water and add the pasta then wait five minutes and take the water off later put a premade sauce, eat it in the loneliness of his room and stare at the wall in between texts and facetime calls with Cover his not so tall girlfriend with a gentle expression, She was one year younger than him and lived on the other side of the continent in Colombia. with every facetime, Cover would make him smile but as soon as the call ended he would be back to his reality as a big wave drowning him back to the ocean. Cover was the only safeguard he needed to save him from drowning.

Regardless of their long-distance relationship, At such a young age, Josh and Cover had both settled their life goals. Cover would always ask Josh to remind her about their beautiful memories because she loved hearing it from Josh and Josh would tell the story like this;

“I have known her since she was a little girl and as she grew up I felt something as butterflies running through my stomach, she was getting prettier every day and catching my attention more and more.” then he would continue with certainty in his voice “we are both meant to be together”. and Cover would go speechless for a minute before responding and later respond to him a simple; “I love you” three words that meant the world for Josh.

He has been in this exchange program for about five months now, and he still doesn’t know how to feel about it, some days he goes out and go to bars with some friends that are also Colombians and kind of enjoy the time, but other days he will just stay in his house all day and do nothing else but pasta for lunch and stare at the wall for the rest of the day.

In his journey, Josh had met different people who made his experience less difficult, Additionally, he had some friends from his country living in the same city, One of them is Gabriella, a tall young girl with light brown hair, plump lips that make her smile trustworthy and eyes small oval shape which stand out because her eyelashes were covered in a lot of mascara.

Gabriela and Cover also knew each other from Colombia, and Although, Gabriella is a nice girl, she was too different from Josh, she just couldn’t stay at home, she loved to go out to party, loved drinking and meeting with new people every time she could. and Gabriella’s friends from France were just like her, they also knew Josh through Gabriela. Amongst her friends, there was one girl who liked Josh, her name was Charlie, a tall, kind of blondie, a thin, pink-cheeked, fair

complexion that glows with pink undertones, Charlie was an outgoing person, As the days went by, she became close to Josh. They would skip school and go shopping or dining together while they both get to know each other better, Josh and Charlie both knew each other before from Colombia but never got to sit down and talk.

Days went by; Gabriela, Charlie, and Josh started to spend more time together, they would go out to bars with their Colombian friends that were in the same exchange program as Josh, especially on Monday’s to take advantage of the beer promotion of one euro per a beer, despite the taste of the music of one J Balvin’s song being played the whole night.

Josh was a gentleman, so every night after they have been out he will always walk Charlie and Gabriella home and then go by himself to his, On the other side of this story, Although Cover was thrilled for him because Josh was finally out and he had new friends, She couldn’t bear the fact that Josh was spending more time with other girls in a different city, Jealousy took over Cover and overshadowed the trust she had for Josh and replaced it with anger.

Every Half-past six o’clock of any part of the day became increasingly depressing and tormenting for Cover because of missing Josh. loads of thoughts would run into her mind; “What if he is cheating?” “What should I say about it if he is happy?” “What if she makes him laugh more than I do?” Thoughts and thoughts will take over her mind. Every day, she wanted to talk to him about it, but words wouldn’t just come out, it was like they were stuck in her chest underneath the brick. Suddenly facetime calls changed into messages because she couldn’t look him in the face without words repeating in her mind - he is cheating on you - and as much as she needed to tell him what was wrong she felt like her tongue was moored. it didn’t matter how many times Josh would ask

if everything was alright, Cover would simply respond that everything’s fine, but Josh wouldn’t understand that the word fine in the feminine dictionary means not fine.

After two months, Josh moved to France, Cover was planing and discussing with her mother the way she was feeling about the situation and how jealousy was consuming her, her nights turned into unsleepable nights, imagining what Josh could be doing with Charlie. One day, as they were having a family lunch, she broke down into tears while explaining to her mom the situation, and then she begged her mom to buy her an airplane ticket for her to save her relationship and her mother agreed to it. She bought her a ticket for the holidays, the 15 th of December, her flight’s itinerary had to make a stop in Bogota and then Frankfurt, Germany and finally the 17 th of December she would take the last flight from Germany to Lyon, France. Five days before the trip to France, Cover decided to tell Josh that she was going to visit him and spend the holidays with him when he heard the news, he felt like the happiest person in the entire world. he responded; “Oh, my God! I can’t believe you are coming! we are going to have the best time of our lives” Then He added. “I am going to start planning trips for us to travel across Europe for you to experience a little part of Europe” Josh texted her.

Cover had never been in Europe before neither travel alone thus she responded: “I’m very excited and nervous, I feel like they are going to stop me in Germany and send me back to Colombia”.

Cover only had five days to plan this entire trip and unexpectedly little did she know that for an underaged person you are required by law to provide lots of legal document signed and approved by the notary of the state, Additionally, there is an assist card which is medical assistance that is obligatory to buy and it was quite expensive.

Regardless of the situation, Cover did everything she could to have everything she needed in five days. The day before the voyage arrived, and she started to feel insecure about traveling alone but the reward of meeting Josh again made her stronger. the night was long and she couldn’t get too much sleep but it was not a problem because she was going to be on an airplane for fifteen hours.

The next day, Cover traveled to Bogota with her mother and said Goodbye, as she was going to continue alone. When they arrived in Bogota, her mother accompanied to the flight agency, for her to check-in and the security system, once her mother made sure that everything was perfect, she kissed her Goodbye, Cover started to cry, because she was afraid of being left alone, but her mother’s sweet hug, she was able to say goodbye to her mother and then she passed the emigration and got into her second airplane, this one last for eleven hours, She thought she was going to sleep it over but that didn’t happen, she only slept an hour and the rest of the flight she spent it to the bathroom.

When she arrived in frankfurt, she went through the gate of her last flight to Lyon-France there she tried to remain calm while reading a book. after a long way, she finally boarded her last plane, but there she started to get nervous, because once the plane touched down, she knew, she was going to be asked some questions like;

“What is the reason for your visit to Lyon?”

“For how long are you staying in France?” and “Where are you staying?”

Cover was nervous and scared but everything turned out well and she became conscious of the fact that everything that scared her of flying by herself was already through and she was in Lyon France waiting to get her luggage and go outside, where Josh was waiting for her.

The moment when they both laid eyes on each other, both of their faces light up and Josh couldn’t help but running and lift her and gave a very tight hug. it was a momentous time to remember for Josh and Cover, It seemed as if they had forgotten what it was like to be around each other so it was a little bit weird at first but as soon as they started walking to the metro station and talking about the journey, everything went back to normal. they arrived at that tiny room with a big bed and Cover was exhausted so she took a bath because she was able to fit in and then they cooked pasta and went to bed, they both laid down and started talking and looking into each other eyes as if they haven’t seen each other in years, they were so happy that words can’t describe, Josh finally felt like home.

The next day, Josh woke up first and woke her up to a sweet

“wake up baby we need to pack because we are going” whispering into her ears.

“Babe, Going where?” Cover responded while yawning.

They were heading to Italy and he was so excited to tell her the news as if she had forgotten about the trip. So she packed her bags, and everything else she needed for her trip, Josh had already packed his bags and they both walked to the train station, where they were going to be spending the next 6 hours sleeping talking and listening to music, it didn’t matter where they were or what was happening around them when they were together nothing else mattered.

When they arrived in Milan, Cover was very excited about being there because it was her first time in Europe, they both walked, enjoying the city while taking pictures, having a lot of fun as a couple. They ate the best pizza in town and laughed and spent the best time of their lives together, then they went to sleep around 1 o’clock. They were very happy to be together, Cover felt like they had never had such a connection as a couple before. it was so deep that she opened her heart and

talked to Josh about how jealous she was about Charlie. They were both drunk in love that they both cried. It was so amazing to open my heart, Cover finally felt relieved and at peace.