Love is an Open... Window?

It wasn't supposed to go this way.

Yesterday morning, Crystal had wheeled her bright pink suitcase down the driveway, tossed in into her beat-up sedan and drove 2 hours to a medium-nice hotel in a warmer climate than she normally lived in and checked in, ready to forget everything that had happened the day before.

She'd taken the elevator all the way up to the 3rd floor and keyed open her room, where she started unpacking and humming to herself.

This vacation is just what I need, she'd thought. I can relax, have a drink, go down to the pool...

The pool. Online, the pool had looked amazing, and was mostly the deciding factor in what hotel she'd picked for this trip. Excited, she'd practically tripped over herself trying to get to the window to open the blinds so she could have a look.

And the pool didn't disappoint. It was a beautiful blue pool with a wooden deck and potted plants all around, and Crystal could even see a hot tub a little ways off that she couldn't wait to dip into. No, the pool wasn't the problem; the layout of the hotel (and by extension, her rooming placement) were the problem.

The hotel was shaped in a giant rectangle, with the pool in the middle, so whenever Crystal looked out her window, she was bombarded by the view of her neighbors.

And what neighbors they were.

The two guys were decidedly in love, with the way they were looking at one another, and Crystal was once again reminded that she wasn't in love. Not anymore. But she had been, and losing that hurt more than never having loved at all.

The two in the room across from her looked about her age, maybe a bit younger, and seemed to be enjoying themselves quite well, if Crystal was seeing things right.

The one with the long red hair was sitting sideways on the black-haired guy's lap, and from here Crystal couldn't tell if they were a guy or a girl, but it didn't matter; the two had already successfully put a damper over her mood.

It wasn't supposed to go like this because this was supposed to be Crystal's vacation from love, and instead it was turning into the universe's sadistic celebration of fucking over her life for all eternity.

Crystal got up from the chair she was hiding in, the one that blocked her from outside view. She stealthily peeked her head out the window to check if they were still there. One glance. Yep. There they were.

Every time she had looked out her window so far this trip, she'd seen the two guys in the hotel room across from hers engaged in some kind of sickeningly cute activity, and it made her sick. Who gave them the right to be happy, when less than 24 hours before, her heart had been ripped out and trampled on by someone she'd lived with for 3 years.

She'd left her house for this hotel because all around her were things that reminded her of him, and yet it seemed that even in this hotel, she couldn't get away; even here, her depressing love life seemed to mock her.

You used to have that, it said. If you hadn't come home early without calling, that could still be you.

Crystal fought back tears as she sank back into the chair.

Her rational mind told her to just close the blinds and continue her vacation, but something in her had already snapped past repair.

Crystal moved onto the bed and laid down her head, but every time she closed her eyes she imagined the two embracing, or sharing a morning coffee, or cuddling or showering or laughing or anything else that until two days ago had been hers, too.

With one last muffled shriek into her pillow, Crystal got up and grabbed her card before heading towards the door.

On her way out, she took one last look at the boys before shutting the curtains.

They had moved to the couch, almost out of her view, but she could still see them, slumped over, the redhead's head on the black-haired boy's shoulder, wrapped up in the same red blanket with some sort of robot TV show on in front of them.

Crystal forcefully whipped the curtains together and vowed not open them again. She didn't need that in her life. She'd find someone else, someone without the audacity to cheat. And then she'd be happy, just like she once was, and like she'd be again.

She left the room and walked down the hall to the elevator.

The only thing left to do was get wasted.