Salt And Pepper

His: Unfamiliarity

Restless at first, I soon give in to the silence. I had no idea silences could be this comforting. A cool breeze, no worries and your shrink next to you. What else do you need?

After a while, I open my eyes and look at her, and almost as if she felt my gaze rolling up her face, she opens her eyes and smiles. You could see she was at peace. 

"That's probably the first time I've seen you genuinely smiling," I say.

"Hey! I smile!" she says, laughing.

"Suree. Anyway, I think we should get up and go look for a cab," I say, getting up, dusting my ass.

"Noooooo haven't you spent nights away from the comfort of your bed, ever?" she says, grabbing onto my hand.

"Pepper we should really get back. We don't even know this place, it's unsafe to just sit here," I say.

"Boooooo! And I thought you were fun drunk," she says, pulling me down, trying to trip me with her feet.

"I'm a lot of fun, okay?" I say with a smirk. "It's just that this is not the time to be sitting on a bench next to an alien river in an alien city."

"I hate it when you're right, Salt." She pouts and gets up.

We stumble across the cobblestone pathways, cliche Europe, I think to myself. I loved this place. There's art in everything. Even the shabbiest of shanties here made me want to pack my bags and move here, the air had something different about it. From the melancholy, monochromatic world of mine I had suddnely been sent to a place where the arches and roads and even things as measly as streetlights captured my attention as well as the women here did.

After what seemed like hours of trying to walk we finally see a Smart coming towards us. I've never seen one of these in the States and Europe's obsession with small cars had always been hilarious, but it had also given the world Volkswagen. We practically jump in front of the car and to be honest even if the guy ran us over, I'm sure the Smart would've undergone more damage than either of us.

We convince him to drop us at our hotel and show him a matchbox for reference and soon we passed out in the comically small back seat of his car.

He somehow manages to wake us up and I fish out some money from my pocket as a gesture of gratitude and hand it towards him, which he flings back at me and says something I am absolutely sure was a really bad French curse.

We make our way to my room and just plonk onto the bed. She pours us both a glass of water each and I realized we haven't spoken a word all this time. Which is weird because her annoying self can't really keep quiet for long.

"Wellll this isn't awkward at all," she finally says. "I think I should get going it's late anyway."

"Uh.. yeah sure. Goodnight, Pepper," I say with my face still buried in my pillow.

The only things I heard next were the clicking of her heels and then the shutting of my door.

Finally at peace. I suddenly felt sober, which I clearly wasn't, so I just picked up my iPad and started going through the comments my shitty little pieces had been receiving. Turns out, they weren't so shitty after all.

I hear my phone ring and it's Bryce. I pick it up and tell him we're okay.

"Yes, Bryce. Both of us," I say.

"I don't really trust you with her, you know. Maybe you got in touch with some of your old friends here and got her bumped off," he says with a laugh.

"Hah. Funny. She was right here like 5 minutes ago. Now I finally get to be alone," I say, not noticing my voice trailing off a little.

"Yeah fine. Goodnight, Jason, sleep soon," he says and drops the call.

I stretch my legs a lil and then plonk onto the bed again. Aah. I finally got to be alone. Bliss. But my train of thought soon went places I never wanted it to go. Things that made me rethink the last few weeks of my life. I suddenly sat up, washed my face and stared into the mirror.

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As soon as the door opened, I lunged forward at her. I didn't want to stop and I doubt she wanted me to. It was hasty, desperate, and something I would call un-enjoyable in a general sense. But not then. We kissed for a while longer before she stopped me.

"I didn't want to be alone," I say, and shut the door behind me.