4

Eiling

THE REST of school that day was not great. I kept receiving weird looks that made me pull my hoodie cap to cover my eyes. To say the least, I was grateful when the final bell went off. I hurried out of, and away from school like my butt was on fire, keeping my head ducked all the way.

I kept chanting to myself that the stares were all in my head but I was quite sure that I was lying. I knew very well that those stares were real, and as real as they could get. And they were all because of the library occurrence.

The hotel I was lodging at came into view after some minutes of walking. I hurried towards the building with my heart in my throat, and my stomach in my chest. My mind worked fast, willing my body to move faster. I took to the front steps, two at a time and then dashed towards the front desk.

Rosa was there, she was the one on duty today apparently. Rosa was one of the receptionists at the hotel. She wore so much makeup that her face changed every time I saw her. It was a little impossible to say “this is Rosa's real face” because she didn't give anyone the chance to see her without makeup. She hated me too — so I had concluded.

I let out a sigh and ran a hand through my hair. Bearing Rosa was way better than facing the world out there right now, so I took the chance.

When I lifted my gaze up to have a look at her, she had a tight scowl on her foundation clad face. Despite the cold air coming from the air conditioning unit, I caught a bead of sweat on the side of her face. The moisture made the foundation there look like it was melting, along with the rest of her face. So in general, with that scowl on her face, she looked horrifying.

But I wasn't going to tell her that, at least not today.

“Hey there, Rosa.” I said with an overly sweet smile on my face.

She rolled her eyes and scoffed in response before grabbing the keys to my room and tossing them into the counter before me. My smile dropped and shattered to a million pieces. Ninety percent of the time, Rosa was always being bitchy. The remaining ten percent of the time she wasn't bitchy could be seen when she was interacting with the opposite gender.

So generally, she was a bitch anyway.

I growled under my breath and collected the keys, stomping away. But Rosa's high pitched voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Weasley!” She called.

Like I said before, she was a bitch. She gained unspeakably joy in picking on me. She was well aware of the fact that I wasn't comfortable with my last name, what better way to pick on me than use that against me.

I whipped around and faced her with a frown on my face to show that I wasn't interested in her rambling.

“You don't have to wear a frown all the time.” She rolled her eyes.

“If you keep rolling your eyes like that, they're gonna fall off someday,” I retorted.

Her scowl deepened.

One of the things that drove Rosa crazy was being spoken back to. She wasn't that old, in fact she was eighteen, just a year older than me. Being the young girl she was, the manager and other staff usually stepped over hee and treated her like a baby. Because of this, she demanded respect from whoever she could and picked on those younger than her. It helped her ego.

For a second, I'd expected her to throw a snarky comeback my way, like she usually did. But surprisingly enough, she didn't.

I went back to the counter.

“I just wanted to inform you that the owners raised the price of the rooms,” she stated with a scoff.

My jaw hit the ground as I realized what this meant, instantly.

Here comes another lemon.

“Why would they do that?” I asked.

She chuckled evilly. “The owners don't have to explain anything to you. If you can't meet up,” she motioned to the door with a manicured middle finger. The bitch. "The doors are always open for you to leave.”

I couldn't resist the urge to roll my eyes. Just when I was beginning to think she could be better.

My mind skipped her file to focus on the problem at hand. I was running low on funds at the moment. I still didn't have a job and my savings were running low. The money in my account could barely meet one need. It was either food or shelter. And the time limit was quite short. If I paid for the room for one more night, I would have enough money to feed for about four days. My original plan was to sleep tonight and search for a job tomorrow but this stumbling block had to come.

“What's the new price?” I asked her.

A smirk came upon her lips as she pointed towards the board behind her. My eyeballs popped out of their sockets and hung on springs from my eyes when I saw the new price.

“That's fucking high!” I exclaimed abruptly. Casting another glance at the board, I noticed another drastic twist. “You've got to be fucking kidding me. My room's the least expensive room? Where the fuck is the manager? I have to speak to him, how do you expect me to meet up with that?.”

A fake concerned look occupied Rosa's features. “Boohoo.” She made her hand into a fist and put it under her eyes to add stress to her point while I stared at her with a disgusted look. She brought her hand down and let the smirk go back to her face. “You think I give a fuck? Like I said before, the door's wide open.”

Once again, she motioned to the door. I decided I'd had enough with her and her bitchy attitude. I didn't care if she was treated like the gum under the wheels of an aeroplane, I didn't give a flipping fuck, as long as she was a bitch, she needed to be put in her place.

So, I slapped the keys back down onto the counter.

“You can have your fucking keys back, bitch!” She gasped at my words, obviously taken aback by my snappiness. I frowned harder, she was going to lose her breath by the time I was done with her.

“You think picking on me is going to make yourself look great? Well think again because the only person you're fooling is yourself.” I snapped. “I see right through you, and believe me when I say you are nothing but a dumbass, makeup clad, stuck up, Grade A bitch.”

“How dare you?” She shrieked, horrified.

I wasn't finished yet.

“What? You're not used to hearing the truth?” I let amusement flash in my eyes and my lips curl into a smirk. I was sure right now I looked like Tyler Bridge but I didn't care. This felt so fucking good. To finally be able to break free and tell someone exactly what you think of them. “I'm not shocked. You probably got lipstick in your ears, dummy.”

That was the final blow. Rosa's lips curled downwards and quivered. I didn't wait for a reaction from her, I spun around and started for the door, adrenaline pumping in my veins.

“You forgot to pack your shit!” Rosa yelled at my retreating figure. “Of course you would forget your things because they are worth nothing!"

I ignored her and kept walking, wondering where the hell the hotel staff were. Couldn't they see the receptionist being unprofessional?

I left the hotel, making sure to slam the door as hard as I could–which wasn't too hard considering the doors had rubber liners that prevented the slamming.

I hadn't forgotten anything of course, the bag pack over my shoulder and it's contents were my only belongings. Everything else had been ripped away from me by the hand of time.

My feet carried my angry form further and further away from the hotel while I struggled to clear my mind of the consequences of what had just happened. I plopped down onto a bench by the sidewalk when I decided I'd had enough walking.

After throwing my bag to a side of the bench, I ran to find another one. I could always take a cab but that would mean eating into my survival money. I sighed, and pulled my legs upwards into a criss cross position on the bench, feeling very screwed.

It suddenly dawned on me that I was back to having nothing again. I had nowhere to go.

I let my head drop and my emotions get the best of me. Pulling down my hoodie cap to shield my eyes, I let myself cry. Everything I'd been through replayed in my head, from the accident to this point. And then I cursed my luck.

Half way through my cursing, I saw the headlights of a car approaching. I squinted and watched the car intently from under my hoodie. I must have looked funny, sitting on a bench by the sidewalk with a hoodie and a backpack. Like a character from a horror movie.

As the car got closer, I got a better look at the car and realized that I knew it. But I couldn't remember where I knew the car from. It did look familiar though. It was black and expensive looking. I wondered what millionaire was driving it. My condition was ironical. Here I was unable to pay for one night at a hotel and a person with the money that could probably solve all my problems was passing right by.

I became confused when the car came to a stop a few meters from me and then I downright panicked when I saw it reverse and stop in front of me and my bench. My mind immediately concluded that this was probably a kidnapper and he(or she) was going to make me his(or her) next victim.

I stood up abruptly and put my fists in front of me, ready to swing into action if the need came.

Actually, I had no clue what I was going to do. I hadn't exactly experienced this kind of thing and kidnapping was quite rare in these parts so this was strange, very strange.

All my assumptions got shoved down my throat when the passenger seat window glass went down and I saw who the driver was. Shocked would be an understatement of what I felt.

His lips turned up into the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen and his eyes twinkled.

“Hey there, E.”

I swallowed and drew my brows into a line, unable to believe my own eyes. “Kayden?”

His smile turned to a grin. “The one and only.”

I blinked in pure awe. Damn, he was gorgeous. Then I abruptly shut my eyes. No. I needed to top this, he was out of my league and not to mention one of the players. A Prime.

His chuckle made my eyes snap open. “You're still here?” I couldn't help but ask.

I'd half expected myself to be day dreaming or something because of the library occurrence. But, it's turned out, he was real.

He laughed again and shook his head in the process. “Get in.”

I stared at him for a second, unable to process everything happening. Kayden Facro just showed up here like some sort of knight in shining armor and was now offering me a ride in his expensive car. I had to be freaking dreaming…

“Stop closing your eyes, E.” I didn't know I was doing that.

Awkwardly, I opened the back up and grinned sheepishly causing him to laugh again.

“While I could stay here and watch you all week, I have to head home before my mother sends out a search party.” His brow arched as he added. “And I'm not leaving this spot until you get in, so come on.”

I nervously licked my lips and went to grab my bag, and then without much thought–because my brain had died sometime ago–I exhaled.

“Okay.”

It was the first sensible word I had uttered around him and considering the situations around us, I did great!

With a final thought of encouragement, I placed my hand on the door handle, opened the door and got in before Kayden zoomed away.