Take Me To Paris

Chapter 24

I walk down the streets, looking for a nice, yet cheap hotel room. I find one across town from the Hôtel Plaza Athénée.

Good. The further the better.

I walk into the front of the hotel, and there's a small, young girl, around seventeen, standing behind the front desk. Her frame is small, and her skin is tan. She has a small nose full of freckles. Her hair is only a shade darker than her skin, and it's pulled into a messy ponytail. She's slouched over the desk, one elbow propping her chin up, and the other lays limp, her fingers tapping a rhythm only known to her. Her deep blue, piercing eyes stare off into space, as if she's in her own little world.

She hasn't noticed me, so I clear my throat a little to get her attention. She jerks up straight, her long, waist length ponytail flopping into her face. I smile at her while she sputters, trying to get it away.

"Um, hi, how can I help you? Oh wait, uh, you probably don't even know what I'm saying. Uh, bonjour!" She says quickly. Her accent is obviously American.

"Hi. I need a room, one bed." I say, she looks shocked for a moment, then she smiles.

"You just made my job so much easier." She breathes out.

"I bet. What is a young American girl like you doing I'm France?" I ask.

"I could ask you the same thing. I feel like you're a good person, and I want to be friends, so I'll tell you. My parents met when my dad came here for a business trip. He's American. He met my mom here, and they fell in love within the month he was here. Mom moved to America with him, and they got married. They had me a few years later, then, when I was three, they divorced. Mom came back here, and left me with Dad. A few months ago, my father died of lung cancer. Serves him right for smoking for over thirty years straight. I was never close to him. Anyway, since I was underage, I was forced to come live with Mom, and help her run this hotel." She says, faster than a flipping racehorse. Like, her words are hard to catch she speaks so fast.

"Oh, that's good. So, why are you working the front desk since you obviously can't speak french very well?" I ask, smiling. Her smile and whole attitude in general is hard not to smile at.

"Mom wants me to learn by listening to others. It's impossible, and I usually have to pull out my giant English-to-French dictionary out just to get them to understand what I'm saying. I'm not allowed to use my phone on the job. I do anyways, but I don't want Mom to catch me." She whispers the last part. I simply nod. "Oh! I'm Sunset by the way, but I just go by Sunny." She says. Sunset? Such an unusual name. It's pretty though, and definitely fits her.

"I'm Vivian, but I go by Vix." I say, still smiling. She lifts my mood automatically.

"I like that name. So, what are you doing in France?" She asks.

"I came here for a vacation with my friends. I'm interning at a small emergency clinic in Miami, Florida. I uh, snapped I guess you could say, and since I almost r- how old are you? I don't want to be telling you things you don't need to know." I say, narrowing my eyes.

"Seventeen. I know more than the average seventeen year old. You know, you look really familiar?" She says. I decide to just tell her.

"Ok, well, um, I snapped, and pretty much assaulted my... boyfriend? I don't really know what we were, we never got to fully talked about it. Anyway, they all forgave me pretty quickly, but I just had to leave, I couldn't let it happen again." I say, looking away from Sunny.

"Do you know why you snapped?" She asks quietly. I nod.

"Um, he let me be in control and I went to far, I became like my dad." I say, feeling the tears start.

"Hey, it's okay! As long as they forgave you, right? Oh that's how I know you! You were the one on that bus a few weeks ago weren't you?" She speaks faster than humanly possible.

"Uh, yeah, I was the one on the bus." I say awkwardly. That was on the news?

"You must be strong." Sunny whispers in awe.

"No, my dad was just a bad man, and it wasn't near as bad as what he's done." I say.

"I'm so sorry." Sunny says, furrowing her light brows.

She gives me the key to my room, and I pay her for it. I walk to the elevator, and press the second floor button. I got room number ninety eight.

I walk into the room, and the style is completely different from the suite I was in before. It's a simple, single room with a queen sized bed against the wall in the middle of it. Three walls are deep red, and the one with the one with the bed against it's black. The sheets on the bed match it. There's a small coffee pot, a mini fridge, and a microwave on a long, black dresser. The bathroom is a blinding white color, completely contrasting the room.

It's cozy. I grab a suit of clothes, and step in the shower. The water isn't as powerful as the one in the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, but it's still nice. I wash with the provided soap, since I left mine at the suite. The one here is sweet lime. It smells nice.

As soon as I get dressed, I hear a knock on the door. It better not be Loba or any of the others. I open it cautiously, and see Sunny on the other side of it. She's in a pretty short, light pink summer dress with small cherry prints all over it. I smile at her, and open the door wide enough for her to walk through.

"Hi, do you mind some company? I'm pretty bored, and my shift finally ended. I brought Phase 10!" She holds up a deck of the Phase 10 cards. I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, you can join me. I was just going to drink and pass out on this nice bed." I say. She looks at me curiously.

"You can drink?" She asks.

"Um, yeah, I'm 21, I'll turn 22 at the beginning of October." I say, grabbing the cards from her outstretched hand, and shuffle them.

"Oh, you don't look that old. I turn 18 on July 31st." She says, nodding. Her dimples pop out, making her look even younger.

"So, you ready to get beaten by the master?" I ask, and Sunny laughs.

"Sure, old woman, I'll beat you in nothing flat!" She fires back.

We bicker playfully back and forth for a few hours, before Sunny leaves. I won two rounds, and Sunny won one. She pouted playfully before walking out the door, telling me bye. Once she leaves, I fall into a fitful sleep. I kept getting nightmares. Most involving Dad's face on my body as I rape Ansel. Pretty gross, but that's what my brain came up with. I woke up countless times in the night, crying.

The worst thing is that Ansel isn't here to hold me anymore.