• For The First Time • (GxG)

Ch. 28: Were You Ever Lost? Was She Ever Found...

Omniscient

Outside, the sun was within its final stages of rising, saying hello to everyone down below as they went about with their everyday lives.

Some were doing holiday shopping at the mall nearby, or getting their nails or toes done at the nail salon down the block. Some were standing before the talented country singer on the corner of the street, where he always was with his guitar, hippy scarf, cowboy boots, cowboy hat, smiling at those who walked by as they grinned at him before dropping money in his instrument case. The pleasantry of his voice accompanied those walking along the strip, just outside the wide circle of hotels for tourists.

Inside, Thanksgiving decor clung to the walls and furniture within the four-star hotel, its floors sleek and its foyer fountain fresh.

It had just passed primary check-out time, being a smooth twelve in the afternoon as people were beginning to start their day, the November holiday only two chilly sunrises away. Smiling, the clerk behind the desk bid a family of guests farewell as they turned on their heels to roll their suitcases through the automatic sliding doors.

Upstairs, on the sixth floor, Ocean lay in a cloud of white, the rest of her room hardly touched besides the used towel in the bathroom and her suitcase beside the desk.

Asleep, she stirred at a faint sound she assumed was in her dreams alone. Falling still again, her breathing returned to its rhythmic and slowed state. Although, a few moments later, the sound seemed to grow louder and beyond the proximity of her subconscious mind.

Opening her tired, swollen, and puffy eyes in a flutter, a groan almost crawled up her throat, for she believed the hotel housekeeper was standing outside her door, having gotten the wrong room since she booked a two-night stay. Plopping her head back into her barricade of plush white pillows, Ocean's body stirred some more before she began lifting up and dragging herself from the comfort of the bed.

Wearing striped sleeping shorts with a loose graphic tee, she ambled over to the door as the person behind it knocked repetitively once again, annoying her further. With her natural hair now in a messy bun on the top of her head, since she didn't have the energy to wrap it for bed last night, she opened the door in subtle aggravation.

Ready to shoo the lady away and simply go back to bed, Ocean found her every limb stilling and her lips parting agape though no words had left. Because the person on the other side was no housekeeper in the slightest.

What're you doing here? Her eyes asked, watching the way Eve's had trailed to the surely concerning bruise on her face the second the door opened.

Finding each other's gaze, Eve's head tilted sadly, as if asking what the hell happened... Ocean could feel her emotions arising from the look Eve was giving her alone, not to mention the flashbacks she suffered right at that moment. Swallowing the rising lump in her throat, she took a glance down at her feet, her grip on the door tightening since she was still holding it open.

Now stepping inside to reach for her girlfriend, for she wasn't even sure if she knew what to say, or if she should say anything, Eve kindled her eyebrows the second Ocean took an instinctive step backward.

"Shaun..."

Her voice was so soft and below a whisper, Ocean almost didn't hear it given the sound of the hotel AC blasting on the other side of the room.

She didn't mean to do it, rejecting her girlfriend's touch and comfort. And Eve knew that. At least by now she did, although that had yet to make it sting any less still.

This time, while Ocean stood biting her lip before reluctantly meeting the tender gaze upon her, emotion grasping the way her chest rose and fell, she didn't move away. Caution filled Eve as she tried again, inching closer and not reaching for Ocean until she was close enough that Ocean couldn't draw back a second time.