TRITTANY: Finally Noticed

Figure of the Imagination

TREVOR

Later that same night, I stood under the warm water of the shower in my hotel room as it drenched me completely, with my forehead pressed against the cold tile wall in complete disbelief over what had just happened. So much so that I was beginning to wonder if I just dreamt the whole thing. Maybe I'd wake up a few minutes from now and still be in Toronto. Maybe I'd wake up and find that I had still to confirm the flight booking to Vancouver. Wake up and find that Brittany had still to fly back home for Christmas. Or even better, wake up to find that she had never really left at all. That's really when it all started going wrong.

However, the water running down my spine was far too warm and wet and real for me to be dreaming. I knew that. So now, the best I could think of was that I had just imagined it all. Imagined that Brittany's laugh had made everybody in the pool smile and turn around when she walked in with Taveeta. Imagined that she had seemed so glowing sat in that lounger with her glasses framing her face and her sole focus on the pages of that book that had been on my mind all day following everything I had gotten from reading the blurb and seeing Victoria with that knowing smirk on her face when I handed it to her that same morning. Imagined that I had felt happy when Britt finally closed the book and took off her glasses after the rest of the guys disappeared and slipped into the pool. Imagined that she had seemed to be the brightest thing in the dim and shadowy room as she floated in front of me, smiling and dragging her hands through the water. Imagined that my heart had quickened when I felt her back against my front as I grabbed her and she squealed, splashing underneath the water briefly. Imagined that from that moment on something had taken over me and all that I could focus on was her smile and her eyes and the strand of  hair curling by her face. Imagined that as our voices became quieter, that same strand of hair came to be in my hand and her eyes locked with mine whilst I tucked it behind her ear. Imagined that everything suddenly came to be in slow motion and before I knew it I was leaning towards her. Imagined that I felt her forehead touch mine and our breathing collide and seen her close her eyes. Imagined that below the water our hands joined together, whilst extremely slowly, our noses touched. Imagined that if Lamar's voice hadn't have come echoing along that hallway - I was sure I was going to kiss her.

But as I stood there under the running water of the shower, no more than twenty minutes after the whole thing happened, I knew that my imagination was not that powerful. All of those things were not in my head. As crazy and unpredictable as they were. They had been real.

Without really doing anything, I turned off the shower and grabbed my towel from the railing, harshly drying my face and hair with it. I stepped out of the shower, drying off before pulling on sweats and opening the bathroom door to the room. Lamar was in there, lying on the bed on top of a towel, still in just his swim trunks with his cellphone held above him.

"All yours, man," I said as steadily as I could manage whilst still half hiding behind my towel as I dried my face again. A lot was going on in my head, understandably, and when it came to things like that Lamar could read me like a book.

"Alright," he said. Much to my relief he locked his phone and rolled over, plugging it into charge before standing up with his towel in hand and walking past me without giving me a second glance. The moment the bathroom door closed and I heard him turn the lock, I dropped the towel from my face and hung it over the back of a chair by the window. I heard the tap water running in the sink on the other side of the bathroom door as I glanced out at the view we had from our room; mostly city lights and stars at this moment in time. Maybe it would've been less underwhelming when you were looking at it with a clear mind. That definitely did not apply to me right now.

I sighed, walking away from the glass and stopping in the centre of the room in front of my bed. I threw myself down onto my back and closed my eyes, placing my hands over my face. I felt like screaming. Screaming until my throat was raw, screaming until I had no voice left, screaming until it all just went away. My fear was that it never would. If Lamar hadn't been on the other side of a single door, I may have given it a try, because at this point, anything would've been worth one.