Look Closer

Trust

"Thanks for staying with me last night," Micah mumbled as he looked down at the bed that we had ended up sharing, his face turning bright red. His pale blue eyes darted all around the pillow that his head had slept on last night, filled with emotion. His brown hair was all over his head, trying to figure out which direction it wanted to go in and his suit was wrinkled.

I had already gotten up and looked around my room, discovering that it was pretty plain. The walls were light grey and inoffensive. It was a small rectangle of a room; one that could be crossed in about 15 steps from one wall to the wall opposite it on one side, and 13 steps on the other. I had a dresser filled with some clothing the same color as the room on the left hand side of my room. I also had a small twin bed and an armchair at the back of the room, both of which could only fit one person comfortably. Off to the right of my bed I had a small bathroom with blue tiles, a sink with a mirror, two drawers below the sink, and a shower. The middle of the wooden door in the front of the room had a tiny lightning bolt carved into it, just like everything else in this facility. I walked over to it earlier, running my fingers up and down the design, and I was still there, inspecting the door for anything else that might be on it.

I giggled as I turned back around to face him again. "You have an iron grip! I couldn't have left if I wanted to." His face was scarlet now, and seemed to be deepening in color by the second. He pulled himself off of the bed and stood up straight, trying to de-wrinkle his suit so that he could look somewhat composed. Then headed straight for my mirror and frowned when he saw his reflection. I walked back to the middle of my room, looking straight at his back so that I could make sure I knew what he was taking from my bathroom to clean himself up.

"You don't happen to have a hairbrush in here do you?" he said while he opened the drawers underneath my sink, finally finding it in the bottom drawer. My eyes followed his hands as he moved them all around. He then began to diligently comb his hair back into his usual style: every hair facing to the left. Not a single hair was ever left out of place, and it was honestly kind of shocking how much someone in charge of the country cared about his hair. He then looked at himself in the mirror and smoothed down his suit a few more times. "There. Now it doesn't look I feel asleep on the job," he turned back toward me and titled his head like a confused dog. "Does it?"

I looked up and down at his perfectly combed hair and ultra-smooth dark blue suit and my jaw dropped as I tried to figure out how someone could pull themselves together so easily and so quickly. "You will have to teach me how you manage to look so perfect after waking up ten minutes ago." He grinned at me and pulled down on his suit again.

"If anyone asks where I was last night, tell them that I stayed in your room to make sure that you were holding up okay after your first test and I feel asleep on the armchair. Matt and Julie will have my head they find out I spent the night in your bed," he whispered into my ear after walking over to my side, his warm breath tickling my ear. I stifled a giggle as Micah walked away from me and took a deep breath when he got to the door. He placed his hand on the knob of my door and twisted, walking into the hallway beyond my room, but not before holding his finger up to his mouth in a shushing gesture and winking at me, then closing the door softly behind him.

I walked back to the left side of my bed and slumped into the armchair. You were just flirting with the President, who was also in your bed! The President Gabrielle! I thought back to the way he had pulled me closer to him last night, and how he wouldn't let go of me throughout the entire night. What about Mary? Is she his girlfriend or something? I've never seen him on TV with any girls but maybe he has someone.

I groaned and closed my eyes, imaging Alex's face and wondering if Micah was thinking of Mary with guilt the same way that I was thinking of Alex. I thought of Alex's deep brown eyes and his messy brown hair, and how I had let another man sleep in my bed, whom I hardly knew, when I hadn't even thought about letting Alex sleep in the same room as me. What is going on with you Gabs? I imagined him saying when he saw me again, his eyes filled with rage and his nose flared. You slept with the President in your bed without a shred of guilt? Do I even matter to you anymore? I tried to relax for a just a moment and clear my thoughts so that I could finally have some peace and quiet, when I heard voices outside of my door.