Chapter Thirteen: Admiration
Hayes strolled inside the room in peace (thankfully unseen by a fanatic fan) with his packed bag in one hand and his cellphone tucked in the other. Although the night was a success and he was evidently tired, a small laugh had to be suppressed when he saw Beatrice in a strange form on the bed.
As she had promised before, food surrounded her on the mattress and no pity was suspected in her eyes. Her head hung off the side of the bed (her lilac ends resting on the floor), a slice of cheese pizza was fixed in her hand, and the rest of the pizza slices were either on her stomach or already in her mouth. Beatrice's eyes stayed set on the ceiling where the once plain paint used to be. Now, the ceiling held a mural, and to the luck of Beatrice, that mural was a galaxy.
Hayes followed her eyesight with his own, already contradicting the blues and the purples. The whites shown clearly with little specks of dust, the Milky Way made a very special appearance beside Beatrice's favorite constellations, and overall, Beatrice had thought of never looking at ceilings the same way again.
Just the idea of having stars on a ceiling is heart warming for Beatrice; mainly because she just finds stars in general heart warming, but this was a mural and this mural made Beatrice go crazy. This mural wasn't like any others she's seen before, and for a split second, Beatrice had teetered on living in this hotel room.
"I didn't even notice this was there," Hayes commented, taking long strides over to Beatrice on the mattress. Taking a slice of pizza from beside her, he took a seat to admire the mural with her.
"I almost didn't- I'm kinda glad I found this comfortable position," she giggled, biting into another slice of pizza.
The two slid into a warming session of quietness; not an awkward moment passed and not a sound was heard from both inside and outside of that hotel door.
Hayes became bored of the mural on the ceiling fast, but he didn't get tired of the mural that was Beatrice's face. He hadn't realized it, but his eyes had moved from the ceiling to Beatrice and the expression of admiration hadn't left his face. His eyebrows were still raised and his mouth ajar, but he couldn't seem to rest as this girl sat beside him.
"You're a work of wonders," Hayes commented, shifting so he say comfortably facing her.
Beatrice's eyes were torn of from above and they had finally made contact (it's not like Beatrice minded; his eyes could easily fit into the ceiling above and that would probably make the whole thing more fascinating), "what does that mean?"
In all honesty, Hayes didn't know what it meant. Hayes didn't want to say it and when he did, he thought the words wouldn't come out right, but now they did and now he's stuck. He toyed with his fingers and his eyes became attracted to everything that wasn't her, "not sure."
Beatrice rolled into her stomach (she had to move a pizza she had rolled over on), "tell me- you already brought it up."
"I really don't know," Hayes struggled to find the right words, "I mean I really don't know. I can just look at you- anyone can- and just know you are a work of wonders. I mean, come on, your eyes are ridiculously blue, your hair is just amazing to look at, your lips aren't chapped but they aren't exactly neat either, and your fascination with the stars- oh wow! Don't get me started on your fascination with the stars!"
Beatrice didn't know what to do, more or less what to say, so she sat quietly with a smile tugging at her lips and a blush set on her cheeks, "didn't know you looked at me like that."
"A fool would be the only one not to."
if this is still in your library after one whole month of being inactive, I love you so much omg this book actually means a lot to me but I'm going through so much right now (family deaths, heartbreak, school, etc.) so thanks so much if you're still reading this! ILY all so much.
