The Trip | THG One Shot

Epilogue | City of Lights

Note: Before you read and enjoy this one shot contest entry, please please please if you haven't already, read The Hoodie Girl by yuenwrites 😊Such an amazing and talented writer.

Without further ado, I present to you my one shot contest entry for THG!!! Enjoy :)
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Epilogue | City of Lights
Listen to "Paris" by The Chainsmokers
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Brody's POV

It's been one month.

I've been in Paris, France for an entire month and I have two months left to go. The six hour time difference makes it hard for me to communicate with my friends back home in Massachusetts. I've only successfully reached my best friend Asher over FaceTime once, and Wren was there too.

"Hey Brody Bear", I remember her sweet voice saying. This was three weeks ago, her and Asher are still dating and I'm happy for them. I've gotten over my crush on Wren a long time ago, but I will always have love for her.

Asher is one lucky bastard.

"Honey", my mom says shaking me out of my thoughts. "You should go out and explore all the wonders of Paris. You're always cooped up in this room on your phone." She hands me a stack of euros and smiles.

"Go, have fun."

I look down at the crisp money, maybe my mom is right, its time to get out for once.

I get out of bed and get dressed, I comb my hands through my hair, and look one last time in the mirror.

"You look pretty damn good Brody," I say smirking to myself.

I grab the cash and room key, slip it into my pants pocket and leave the hotel; finally making use of this trip.

***

I wasn't familiar with the popular tourist hot spots. My Uber driver suggested the Place du Trocadero, apparently it's a great place to view the Eiffel Tower. I agreed with his suggestion and it took 10 minutes to arrive at the destination.

"Welcome to Paris," the driver says before I get out of the car.

"Merci, sir." I wasn't very good at French in high school, but I knew the basics. 

I turn around and see many people sitting on a large building staircase. I look to my right and see a big and glorious fountain. I begin to walk up the steps, I reach the top and look down at the floor. A gray surface with black squares complimenting it throughout, the design was amazing.

I find a place to sit on one of the empty steps. I take out my phone and capture a picture of the Eiffel Tower. This thing is huge and breathtakingly beautiful. I hear giggling and turn around to see three girls smiling at me and waving.

"Salut bombasse," one of the girls say. I awkwardly wave back and quickly turn around. Weird.

I remember Asher telling me to get myself a French girl. If they're all giggling creeps then no thank you.

I continue awing at the Eiffel Tower and taking more pictures, knowing my mom would want plenty.

"It's beautiful isn't it? Like a dream you've always wanted to come true," I hear a feminine voice say.

"Yeah, exactly," I respond without looking at the person speaking to me, thinking of Wren.

"I've been sitting here for the past two hours just enjoying the view," the voice says again. The voice was almost comforting, like a warm blanket on a cold winter night.

I turn my head to look at the mystery girl to find her already looking at me, her flaming red hair blowing flawlessly in the wind. My eyes widen at the sight of her and her eyes do the same.

"Faye-"

"Brody-" we say at the same time.

What is Faye Archer doing in Paris? She's wearing a rather large backpack on her back. She has on a casual track suit, something not categorized as typical Faye Archer style. And her hair, she cut it, it's now resting at the top of her shoulders.

"So," I start, "what are you doing in Paris?"

She takes a deep breath in and releases it. "I've decided to go backpacking across Europe." I furrow my eyebrows in question. Who goes backpacking?

"Yeah I know, strange right? During senior year I was suffering from depression, and my psychiatrist advised me to do something that will make me happy with no friends or family influence. So I researched some things and decided this would be best for me, and so far it has. It's only been a month, but I can say that I am not the Faye Archer from high school, I've changed. I never want to be that cold icy bitch again." A tear slips out of her eye but she's quick to wipe it away.      

I grab Faye's hand and give her a genuine smile. "I'm proud of you Faye. I knew you had some heart in there," I say poking her chest. She laughs and stands up, stretching her arms and legs. She takes my hand and leads me down the steps.

"Let's go."

***

I wipe my mouth with a napkin and keep laughing hysterically at what Faye is talking about.

"I'm serious!" she continues laughing. "I should've let Mia kick my snooty ass, I deserved it."

Faye took me to this place that sells these colorful cookie things called macarons, and they're actually pretty good. It's starting to get dark outside, but we decide to continue our walk anyway since the city lights are turning on. As we finish our cookies, we keep talking about the crazy things that happened when we were in high school. Then suddenly Faye stops walking.

"Hey what's wrong?" I ask worriedly

Her face solid as a stone, her mouth slightly ajar like she had seen a ghost. I wave my hand in front of her face to see if she was still there. She begins to slowly raise her hand, it rises all the way up and then halts. I follow her hand, looking up to what she was pointing at.

The lights.

They were so bright in the night sky, the tall structure made them seem minuscule, but the two together are powerful, magical. I look down at Faye. Her doe eyes still in awe of the wonderful site.

"You know, someone told me that I deserve a happy story." I grab her hand while staring at the tower.

"You do Brody. You're a really great guy," she utters. "And I'm sorry, to you and what I did or have said to your friends. I think about it all the time, the hurt and mean I caused."

I shrug. "We're human Faye, we all make mistakes."

A strong urge takes over me, nothing that I've felt in a while; since Wren. My heart is palpitating sporadically. Her story, the way she talks, the way she laughs, eats, breathes... It was all new. She was stunning, so beautiful inside and out.

"Why are you looking at me like that," she asks. I didn't realize I was staring at her, this whole day I didn't realize that the girl standing next to me was an incredible human being.

"You deserve a happy ending Brody," she says softly. Her eyes lift up to mine and I couldn't look away, I was mesmerized.

"You do too." I pull Faye close, her beautiful green eyes questioning me.

I kiss her. I'm kissing Faye Archer, and it feels so right.

"My happy ending, my happy story, it all starts here, with you," I confess.

She looks up at me, shock written all over her face. A smile starts growing on her lips and she grabs my face and kisses me back, the Eiffel Tower shining bright behind us.

Paris, the city of lights. This was the trip of a lifetime.

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AHHHHHHH!!!! This is my first ever entry in a one shot contest! I'm so freaking proud of myself *wipes tear*. Thank you to all who read and loved the short story as much as I do. I extremely enjoyed and loved writing this! Is it weird that I liked Faye in THG? 😂 #Fayedoeshaveaheart. And who didn't ship Braye at the prom? Don't y'all lie lol #Braye4Life. I hope you like my entry Yuen <3

xoxo,

Alannah_Writes