I Want To Kiss You In Public (novel)

***I Want To Kiss You In Public*** is the first instalment in the ***Colette International*** series, by Zelda French. It was written between the months of March and June 2020 and published on June 16th 2020 on Amazon. The book has since been revised several times to improve the quality of the writing. The latest version, "The Michael Edition" , was released in February 2023.

The novel was made available for free on most stores and on the author's website on July 1st 2023.

## Plot

The story follows **Louis Mésange**, a falsely confident senior at the fictional Colette International high school, from the moment he meets **Michael Parker**, the new boy at school. Louis’s juvenile assumptions are challenged when he falls for the charming English student. He embarks on a reluctant voyage of self-discovery.

## Summary

Louis is a seventeen-year-old student attending a private high school in Paris. Presenting as cocky and self-assured, he’s not happy as he claims to be. He believes his best friend Tony is hiding something from him and shows reluctance at being intimate with his girlfriend Lucie. He also spends his time smoking weed and doesn’t apply himself at school, and he expresses a desire to move out of France once he graduates. Louis also isn’t close to his father, whom he finds boring. He seems to hold him partly responsible for the departure of his mother, who left them years ago and who never calls.

When he returns to school after the Christmas break, Louis has an awkward encounter with an unknown student in the men’s room. That person turns out to be a new English student named Michael. Afterwards, Louis fails to describe the plot of *The Picture of Dorian Gray* to his exigent English literature teacher, which results in Mrs Paquin calling his father to complain about his behaviour. She also pairs Louis to write an essay on *Dorian Gray* with Michael.

After class, Louis, still unsettled by his encounter with Michael, boasts in front of his friends about being too good to hang out with “a total nerd”, which Michael overhears. If Louis immediately feels guilty about it, Michael appears indifferent, but he also goes on with his life pretending Louis doesn’t exist, which irritates Louis.

Louis doesn’t know how he’ll manage to write the essay if Michael won’t speak to him. Eventually, they have a talk, which results with Louis trying his best to read the book. The next day, after an encounter with his seventy-year-old neighbour Miss Eugénie, Louis meets up with Michael and offers to take him to the Shakespeare and Co, a famous bookstore in Paris, to purchase his own copy of *Dorian Gray*. He doesn’t tell his friends about it.

Later that day, Louis and Michael get to know each other better while exploring the bookstore, and Louis expresses an admiration for Michael’s looks. He also displays a certain amount of jealousy when François, a classmate whom he dislikes, appears out of nowhere and blatantly hits on Michael. François declares out loud that he’s gay, upsetting Louis, who takes refuge outside and worries about being a homophobe. Then it occurs to him Michael might be gay as well, and he becomes invested in finding out if he is. They begin work on their essay and exchange phone numbers.

Weeks later, Louis has a lot to say in favour of Michael, and he seems to admire him a great deal. They’ve finished their essay and Louis is optimistic about the outcome. When they’re having coffee at a terrace, Michael removes his jumper, accidentally revealing his stomach to Louis, who has an “embarrassing reaction”. Freaked out, he flees the scene, puzzling Michael.

At the gymnasium, Louis expresses irritation at his best friend Tony’s antics, and seems to be obsessed with Michael. During a volleyball game, he finds out from Tony that Michael has a girlfriend back in England. Distraught by the news and distracted by the sight of Michael playing, Louis gets hit in the face with a volleyball. When he gets out of the infirmary, Michael invites him to go watch a movie together, and Louis hesitates to interpret it as a date.

After leaving the cinema, Louis isn’t certain Michael has a thing for him after all, but he internally expresses the wish to kiss him. Michael asks questions about Lucie, but Louis misunderstands them as Michael being interested in her. Louis confesses to not being very close to Lucie, and keeping things from her. As Michael attempts to talk about his own girlfriend Abby, they’re constantly interrupted, which irritates Louis. When they part that night, Louis expresses his regret not to have been able to kiss him, but also his relief.

The next day, Louis believes himself cured of his infatuation for Michael, until he finds out his schoolmate, Sacha, has planned to seduce him during a party at her place. Louis is mortified, even doubly so, since she didn’t invite him to the party. Lying to himself about saving Michael, he crashes the party to recover him. At Sacha’s, François is unhappy to see him, whereas Sacha is a little too happy. Louis avoids them both and is about to reunite with Michael when he stumbles upon Tony and Lucie, who were invited to the party and went without him. They have a fight because Louis lied about staying home that night, and Tony and Lucie leave the party. Louis realises his obsession with Michael is about to ruin his friendship with the two of them.

Michael being drunk, Louis decides to take him home. Aboard the bus, they quietly hold hands, and Louis now has the certitude Michael likes him too. When Michael asks if he can text him, Louis answers to the positive, but the next day, his friends stage an intervention. Louis chooses to abandon Michael and salvage his relationship with Tony and Lucie.

Weeks later, Louis, who has become friends with his elderly neighbour Eugénie, complains to her about his predicament. He’s certain that if he breaks up with Lucie, Tony will also abandon him. If at first he thinks it was worth leaving Michael behind, Louis quickly regrets his actions when he returns from the winter holidays. Michael is more handsome than ever, and it’s difficult enough for Louis to refuse to pair up with him again to write another essay. Soon after, Louis breaks down in the middle of the library and takes refuge in the men’s room. Michael joins him and confronts him about his poor decisions. When Tony shows up searching for him, Louis pulls Michael into a stall, where they finally share their first kiss.

To Louis, the kiss is a revelation. He visits Eugénie to brag about it — though not wanting to shock his old friend, he pretends Michael is a girl named *Doriane*. Eugénie warns him about kissing *Doriane* while still dating Lucie, but Louis brushes it off, unwilling to even consider life without Tony and Lucie. When Michael contacts him again, Louis asks him to set a date for the two of them, hoping spending more time with Michael will help him decide between him or Lucie.

Michael takes Louis to the Orsay museum for their first date, where Louis’s lack of self-esteem threatens to ruin the date. Michael saves the day with his patience and his kind words, and they share a kiss in the museum. Shortly after, they stumble upon their schoolmate Sacha, and Louis runs out of the museum, terrified Sacha will tell Lucie about seeing him with Michael when he lied about staying home.

The next Monday, Louis sticks to Sacha to find out what she knows. It seems she hasn’t seen them, and Louis can breathe a little better for a moment, but his relief is short-lived. He has a fight with Lucie, and Tony backs her, as always. Feeling alienated by everyone but Michael, Louis rushes back to school with him to make out, but Michael wants him to break up with Lucie, too. Louis is incapable of choosing. Annoyed at Michael for not even mentioning his own girlfriend, he’s rude to him.

When Louis apologises to Michael by text, the latter shows up at Miss Eugénie’s, and the three of them have a good time together. Louis understands how comfortable he is around Michael and how attracted he is to him. He takes him to his place, where Michael tells him about his father’s upcoming visit, and confirms he’s broken up with Abby. Louis is so anxious not to mess things up with him, he’s not listening to him. Michael doesn’t notice and flirts with him. Eventually, they have sex on Louis’s bed. As Michael is about to leave, he comes across Louis’s father, who seems aware of what happened in the bedroom. Louis avoids a conversation with his father by mentioning his mother.

During a P.E. lesson at the Luxembourg Gardens, Louis and Tony fight again, but this time, Louis defends Michael. Tony reacts by accusing Louis of being selfish and of having ruined François’s coming out. Despite his constant fear of losing his friends, Louis now also realises their flaws. When he meets François by accident, they have a long conversation, during which Louis finds out François has had a crush on him for a long time, and that they kissed once, when Louis was drunk. Louis ends up apologising to him. Shortly after, he finds Tony and Lucie hanging out together at a bar, and he storms off.

Tony and Louis make up the next week, and with Lucie at home with the flu, they fall back into their old routine. Nonetheless, Louis misses Michael and is decided to break up with Lucie. When he finds himself close to Michael again, he speaks too fast and tells him he’s broken up with her already, which is what he intended to do, but it’s still a lie. Later that day, Michael invites him to eat a crepe with him, but Abby, his ex, calls Louis to tell him the truth about Michael. That he’s a hedonist, he’s been using Louis, and he’s not even gay.

In an impressive example of stupidity triggered by his lack of self-esteem, Louis believes Abby. He meets Michael to confront him, and he’s caught by Tony and Lucie, who are tired with his lies. In his manic state, Louis lashes out at all of them, even admitting he knows about Tony and Lucie being attracted to each other. When they leave, Louis turns against Michael as well, who barely reacts to his outburst. His placid attitude convinces Louis he was right about him. Now Louis is completely alone.

During the spring holidays, Louis spends most of his time with Eugénie, but his heart’s not in it. He’s too miserable over the loss of Michael. On his eighteenth birthday, Louis and his father finally have a talk. Louis learns the reason his mother left them, and that it had nothing to do with him. Louis’s father also informs him that Michael has been pacing outside his windows, and he suggests Abby may not have been truthful.

Louis decides to apologise to his friends and tell them the truth about himself. He goes to Lucie’s place, where he finds her with Tony. Lucie and Tony believed Louis was cheating on Lucie with Sacha. They’re shocked when they learn Louis loved Michael, and not Sacha, but they are supportive. The both of them can’t believe Louis believed Abby and they encourage him to speak to Michael.

In his search for Michael, Louis stumbles upon François, who blames him for hurting his friend. François relates what happened to Michael in London. He fell for his mean girlfriend’s brother, and when the two of them got caught, Abby’s brother denied their relationship. Abby then publicly accused Michael of harassing her brother, causing him to be isolated from everyone, so he followed his mother to Paris. Now Louis blames himself for the harsh words he used when they last spoke.

Louis rushes to Michael’s, only to find out he’s gone back to London. Devastated, Louis returns home, where Miss Eugénie comforts him and advises him to fight for Michael. Learning from Lucie and Tony when Michael’s train is leaving, Louis, accompanied by Eugénie and his father, rushes to stop him, but he’s too late: the train departs before his eyes.

To Louis’s shock, Michael saw him at the station and finds him outside. Louis worries about being too late once again, but Michael tells him he’s right on time. They kiss — in public — and later attend Louis’s birthday party organised by Lucie.

It’s implied at the end of the book that Louis and Michael remain together, but Louis is ready to let go of Tony and Lucie.

## Characters

### Main characters

* Louis Mésange
* Michael Parker

#### Supporting characters

* Miss Eugénie
* Anthony "Tony"
* Lucie
* David Mésange

**The Golden Fork**

* François
* Sacha
* Yasmine

## Trivia

* The Shark is *almost* a real place. It was inspired by a real pub called Le Requin Chagrin, located Rue Mouffetard.
* François works at Happy Beans, another fictional coffee place in Paris. He lives on the same street. That means he’s Tony’s neighbour but Louis hasn’t noticed, which shows how much attention he's given to François throughout the years.
* Both *The Origin of the World* by Courbet and *Dante and Virgil* by Bouguereau are indeed located at the Orsay Museum, but in different rooms.