Attention

12

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I wake up to the sound of birds chirping. I slowly open my eyes out of drowsiness and see the sun shining in the room. I roll over expecting to see Carter but when I don't, I quickly sit up in confusion. I look around the room and see his bags still here so, he didn't ditch me. I figured he went out to get breakfast. Man, I really have to pay him back for spending money on me.

I yawn, swinging my legs to the edge of the bed to stand up and stretch. I go over to my bag, getting out my toothbrush and going to brush my teeth in the bathroom and do other bathroom duties.

Ten minutes later, I hear the door open, just as I'm drying my face. I walk out of the bathroom and see Carter holding a Waffle House bag. See, I was right.

I give him a soft smile, still drying my face with a towel. "Hey."

He gives me one back. "Hey." he holds up the Waffle House bag. "I got us waffles."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

I set the towel down back in the bathroom. I walk over to the bag of food, getting mine out and immediate dig in. Carter does the same. We eat in silence for a while before I swallow a bite of my waffle and look at Carter. "How are you feeling?"

He looks at me, giving a slight nod. "I'm good. Thank you for last night."

I nod. "Yeah, no problem." I pause. "So, where do you want to look now?"

He shakes his head, running his fingers through his hair, frowning slightly. "I think we should head back. She's gone."

My eyebrows scrunch. "Head back home?"

He nods. "Yeah, I can't think of anywhere else she would be so, at this point it's pointless looking." He pauses, looking up and shaking his head. "And you know what? I'm tired of this. This is exhausting me emotionally and I knew this wasn't a good idea but..."

He stops his rant but I urge him to continue which, I wish I didn't. "But what?"

He looks me dead in my eyes, piercing me with his cold green eyes. "But I listened to you. If I didn't, I wouldn't be feeling like shit left with this false hope."

I tense up in shock, not expecting him to say that. At first, I'm hurt but then my jaw clenches and I become angry. "I was only trying to help you."

"Well, I didn't ask for any help!" he burst out.

I stand up from my spot on the bed, furiously, putting down my waffles. "Screw you then." I pick up my shoes and start to put them on. I walk to the door and open it about to walk out.

"Wait!" Carter stops me. "Where are you going?"

I turn towards him, giving him a blank stare. "I don't know, away from you."

"Ava, I--" I close the door, not waiting for him to finish talking. Right now, I just needed fresh air. I know it was my fault giving him false hope but he didn't have to throw it in my face.

And yeah, he's right, we should go home. His mom has done a great job in making sure they don't know where she is.

I walk further down the sidewalk of the motel until I find stairs to sit on. I sigh, resting my left elbow on my knee and my chin in my palm. I watch cars drive by and wonder if maybe Carter's mom is in one of them. Probably not.

My eyes tear up in frustration at myself. I caused all of this because of my stupid crush on him. How could I be so thoughtless?

Just as I sniff, wiping at the tear that fell down my face, I hear a door open and then someone start to come down the stairs. I expect them to walk past me but they sit down next to me instead. I look over at them and realize it's a women. She has a hoodie on with the hood up and sunglasses on but she was looking at me.

I give her a forced but polite smile. It was only forced because I was sad.

She smiles at me back but hers seemed kind of forced too. "I was about to head out to get some food but I heard you crying. It won't hurt to stop and ask what's wrong so, what's wrong?"

She had a soft and polite voice and from what I could tell she looked like she was in her mid-forties. I shake my head, not knowing how to explain this to a stranger. "I don't even know, boys, I guess."

She lets out a chuckle. "Oh, honey, pretty girls like you shouldn't be crying over a boy. Make him cry over you."

I let out a chuckle. I liked this lady. "No, it's not even what you're thinking. It's my fault anyways. I got us into a sticky situation."

"What's the sticky situation?"

I lean against the railing next to me. "I tried to help him find someone important to him but it didn't work out."

She sighs. "Well, maybe it wasn't supposed to, you know? Some things just don't work out and you have to deal with it. Maybe he's better off without that person..." she trails off and I can't see her eyes but I could her the emotion in her voice.

I give her a concerned look but ask her, "Are you here by yourself?"

She nods, composing herself. "Yeah, I...I wish I wasn't though."

"What do you mean?"

She looks down at her fingers. "I miss my family. So much."

I felt so bad for this lady. She sounded like she's been through it. I wonder what happened with her family? Maybe she needed someone to talk to so she could rant about what happened. Everyone just needs someone to talk to. So, I ask, "What happened?"

She gives me a sad smile and opens her mouth to tell me. But before she could get a word out, I hear Carter yelling my name. I try to just ignore him but he finds me sitting on the staircase. "There you are, Ava. I just wanted to say I'm--"

Before Carter could finish his sentence, the lady next to me gasps very loudly and stands from her spot. I look up at her in confusion to see her holding her hand to her heart. She stands there speechless, looking like a gaping fish out of water, looking directly at Carter.

I look back at Carter and he looks just as confused as me. He sticks his hands into his pockets. "Do I know you?"

She finally gets a word out. "Carter." she whispers, her voice cracking in the process.

She takes off her sunglasses and removes her hood from her head. When I see who it is, my eyes widen and I quickly stand to my feet. I've looked at her picture multiple times walking down the beach to recognize who she is. I look at Carter to see his mouth fall open and his eyebrows scrunch. He steps back in surprise and he now looks like she did just a few seconds ago.

She walks up to him and stares at him amazement. She cups his face and I see a tear fall down his face.

He slowly reaches his shaky hand up to her hand and whispers out, "Mom?"

A/N:

WOW, THEY UNINTENTIONALLY FOUND HER and lol she was a whole conversation with her without realizing who she was...

But anyways, please vote and share your thoughts!