Paris is for lovers, not the brokenhearted

Chapter 3

Lucy POV

I stood on the cold ground, looking up at my mother. She was wearing a confident look on her face but I knew something was wrong. A tall man approached us, he wore a green uniform and a pointy hat. Without either of them saying a word, he handed my mother an envelope or something like that. He walked away and mum took a shaky breath. She opened it up and her tears fell. What was going on?

"Mummy, what happened." I called hugging her legs. "Daddy should be hugging you now. Not me!"

"Honey, daddy's not here now. He's somewhere else." She looked at me with her piercing blue eyes and looked down with sympathy and sorrow.

"Then where is he?" I asked innocently.

"Well no-one really knows right now, he's missing." Her eyes flooded with tears again as she sniffled.

I don't understand. Where was he? "Mummy, I don't understand."

She built up her courage and breathed in. "Dad's missing in action honey."

"What does that mean?" I was obviously making this hard for her but I needed to know something.

"It means that he's gone missing and no-one knows where. He could have been killed or he might have been captured, anything could've happened to him sweetheart."

Then it had hit me, what she meant. I started crying and I let go of my mum's legs as she scopped me up in her arms and cupped my cheeks. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again without finding the right words. We were standing there, outside in the cold crying for ages. But the tears wouldn't stood flowing from either if our eyes.

Eventually she put me down and we walked home. We stopped near the woods and I sat down in the floor, gazing into the forest. Daydreaming. As I was looking in I noticed a shape emerge from the forest. I looked closer to see a man in a black uniform. Several medals hung from the side of this chest and his hat was glossy black. His brown hair blew in the wind and his green eyes locked into mine. I stood up and made my way over to him. He looked right through me and carried on walking.

"Daddy, please don't leave us." An nine-year-old me whispered to him.

"Excuse me, miss?" A voice said. I groaned and turned away, my alarm clock sounded different. I felt a nudge on my shoulder.

"MUM GET OUT!" I screamed and turned around. It didn't feel like my bed, it was hard and upright. I opened my eyes to see a young man laughing silently looking at me.

"Sorry love but I'm not your mum." He said almost in hysterics now. I looked around and realised I was still on the plane. Oh yeah, I'm so stupid. I felt my cheeks burn up as half the passengers turned to face me.

"Umm, sorry about that, I'm not really a morning person." I said quietly. I looked up at him and I had to say, he was pretty hot. He had hazel coloured eyes and brown side swept hair. I smiled and felt a tug at the side of my mouth. I brushed my fingers over the edge of my mouth and felt something crusty. Dried up drool. Great. I quickly scraped it off without looking pathetic. By the time I had it all of the man had finished laughing his head off and looked at me, amused.

"That. Was. Hilarious." He said, the sides of his mouth pointing up again.

"Whatever, anyway did you want something? You kinda woke me up." I said a bit too moodily.

"Errmm yeah, two things. The first one was you were saying things in your sleep and kinda creeping everyone out. And the second thing is that we're landing soon so I thought I might wake you." He said in a bit more seriousness.

"Oh well umm, thanks." I gave a half-hearted smile in return. "Oh sorry, I'm Lucy by the way." I held out my hand waiting for him to shake it.

"I'm Chase." He replied. He gazed at my hand and gave me a disgusted look. "You don't expect me to shake the same hand that you wiped your drool with do you?"

Oh shit. I obviously wasn't discreet about that. Instead of saying anything I though it might've been better to just turn away from Chase. I had only known this guy for all of what, 5 minutes? And he had already become a bipolar asshole. Was I just some giant magnet for these kind of people or did I just wear a sign on my back that said 'Assholes please approach me and make my life worse than it already is.' I mean seriously?

We landed shortly after that and I tried to get out quickly before the queues began to build up with everyone trying to get out the plane. As I went past customs and collected my bag I noticed something different about it. I picked my bag off the conveyor and saw a small envelope heavily sellotaped onto it. With great difficulty, I ripped the envelope off and opened it.

Hey buttercup, I'm full of surprises aren't I? Where did you think your French father would be living? :) -Dad x

The note made my heart melt, now I knew it really was dad because of his handwriting. I felt a pang of stupidness as I read the last sentence. Duh Lucy. I had no idea what I should do now. I hadn't booked a hotel or exchanged any money. Crap, well I guess I would need some euros first so I went over the the ATM and took out £500, thank god for international cash points. I walked over to the money bureau and exchanged it all to euros. At least I had a starting point now. Okay, taxi or shuttle bus? Bus would be cheaper..

5 minutes later I ended up in a shabby waiting area. I stood and watched numerous taxi's driving pass. Should've taken a taxi Lucy. I waited for another half an hour before a small red shuttle bus appeared. I hopped on and waited until everyone else got on. Within minutes we were on the famous road of Paris, going past numerous monuments. As we drove by a busy area I noticed the Eiffel Tower. It was beautiful at night. The bright lights flashing and illuminating the figure of the Tower. People climbing the top to gaze down on the rest of the world. Couples walking hand in hand. It was beautiful. The bus halted to a stop a few minutes after the Eiffel Tower went by and I stepped out the bus to see a luxurious hotel in front of me. The lobby itself looked like something from the living room of Buckingham Palace. This would be far too expensive for me to stay at so I began walking down the road and asking people if there were any hostels near by. But everyone I asked didn't speak any English. Sure, I knew French but when they answered it was far too quick for me to understand anything, might as well give it a shot though eh?

A pretty young lady was walking my way and I made my way over and tried to ask for directions.

"Exuse moi, mais y at-il les auberges dans cette zone?" I asked, using my rubbish French accent.

"Oui effectivement il est, il suffit de tourner à droite aux feux et marcher droit pendant environ 10 minutes et vous devriez voir une auberge de jeunesse sur le coin". She replied all to quickly I barely understood any of it.

"Très bien, merci." I said as she walked away. I don't think I understood any of that. I think she told me to turn right and walk down for 10 minutes. Oh well I've got nothing to lose. I pulled my suitcase behind me and slung my bag over my shoulder as I walked towards the lights. I looked at my watch to realise it was 3:30 in the morning. It didn't even feel like morning since I hadn't had a proper night's sleep. I saw the lights and made a right turn as the cold morning breeze blew in my face. Before long, I saw flashing lights at the corner of the road and saw a sign reading The Basement Sink Hostel. Strange name for a hostel, but I still walked in because I really did need a place to stay. I walked in as the doors opened and hot air  blew in my face. 

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Pretty boring chapter but again it needed filler details, the next chapter might be like this. I'm not sure. Oh and by the way, at the beginning of thr chapter, that was a dream (the bit in italics). Also that bit in French: Lucy asks if there is a hostel near by. The woman says yes and tells her to go right at the lights and walk for about 10 straight down and she should see a hostel on the corner. The French might not be accurate even though I have French blood I still am not fully fluent in the writing so there may be a few mistakes in the French.

Thanks, love you

Nicole xx