The Art of Living

[3] Breakfast?

Ellie's eyes fluttered open and immediately she regretted it. The room was way too bright. Immediately she closed her eyes again, groaning softly. This was not a good way to wake up. Her head was hurting, but even so she didn't need long to realise that she wasn't in her own flat. The room looked different from hers. But she didn't want to strain her eyes more than she had just done, so she kept them close.

Now she had to focus on the task at hand anyway. Was she wearing clothes? No. Right, that was no surprise. She would have been surprised if she had been wearing clothes actually. She only hoped that her clothes weren't far and not torn up or anything. It wouldn't be the first time and she knew the struggle of getting home with ripped clothes. Not something she needed often. Time to face the task. And the light.

Slowly Ellie sat up, groaning softly. Her body was aching slightly, but that wasn't bad. It was good actually. That meant the sex had been good. Probably even very good but she didn't really remember that much if she was honest with herself. Squinting she looked around the room. It was neat, and decorated with posters of various bands. She could see a couple of guitars in one corner and a neat desk in front of the window.

It was always fascinating to see the rooms and then look at the guys. Usually the image she had of the man she had gone home with was a bit blurry. And quite often the room fit the appearance of the man. Slowly she turned her head to the side. She only remembered that her man from last night had been different from her usual choices. Considering the sex, that hadn't been a bad thing judging by how her thighs felt and how relaxed she was. And that was really all that mattered.

When her eyes fell on the man - Brian, as she remembered - who was lying beside her she was surprised. He was thin, really thin. She could count his ribs without a lot of struggle. His face was framed by a mass of messy curls, even though they were probably only so messy because of the sex and the sleeping. His nose was quite big, but not in an ugly kind of way. It was simply very prominent. Anyway. She could have picked a worse looking guy. The only thing that mattered right now was the fact that he was still asleep. Because that meant she could sneak out and go home and the night with him wouldn't have any consequences at all.

Very slowly she got up, grimacing when the bed squeaked and then creaked lowly. Oh hopefully she hadn't woken him up with that. However, it only got worse because with every step the wooden panels underneath the carpet squeaked, no matter how carefully she stepped onto them. "No, no, shh," she hissed quietly and gathered her clothes from the floor, slowly putting them on, one by one. Her underwear, her skirt, and then her blouse. Until she saw a giant stain on the front of her blouse. Oh yeah, she remembered how he had spilled beer over her blouse the night before. 'Accidentally' of course.

She sighed and bunched up the blouse carelessly. Trying not to move too much so the floor would be quiet she turned around and looked for her handbag. Hopefully it wouldn't be far. It wasn't. It was on the desk actually. Carefully she made her way over there, trying to step on the areas that were the quietest. She always kept a spare shirt in her handbag. It was nothing fancy, but it would work because anything was better than a beer-stained blouse. 

She stuffed the blouse into her handbag instead and put on the shirt. Nearly done. Now she only had to quickly check that she had everything and then she could get out of there. Routine, that was definitely routine for her. It seemed that she had everything so she went over to the door that would lead into the hallway, into freedom.

"Hey, where are you going already?"

Ellie froze in her movement and very quietly muttered, "Damn.."

He had woken up. She had been so close and yet she was so far. As much as she hated plan B, it was time for that now. She straightened out her face and put on a smile.