Living In The Past

Chapter Sixteen, Part Two

Chapter Sixteen, Part Two

Birds chirped in the distance. Sunlight landed softly onto Yasmine’s face. She could smell something manly, yet sweet—the smell of James. Her hands reached out for him but only felt the empty space where he should’ve been.

Her eyes fluttered open, and then looked around the empty bed. James was nowhere in sight. Everything else was just the way it was when she had fallen asleep; the messy clothes, the scattered books and papers. But, where was James?

Yasmine sat up from the bed and looked around. It was definitely morning. She ran a hand through her hair, but got knotted because of the needle jabbed in her hand. The clock on a nearby wall read ten-thirty. How long had she slept?

Pushing the covers off, she noticed she was still in James’ clothes. Her hair was starting to get greasy since she hadn’t really gotten the chance to take a proper bath yesterday before she passed out. Yasmine ripped the needle out of her hand, not caring of how much it hurt to do that. She hated needles.

She scrambled down the hallway and into the guest room she was supposed to be staying at. All the curtains were open, letting sunlight in, and the bed was nicely made. The maids must’ve cleaned up here. The bathroom was exactly the way she left it; her clean clothes were still hanging on the hook on the wall.

Yasmine stripped out of James’ clothes and stepped in the shower instead of the Jacuzzi. Don’t want last night’s incident happening all over again.

After blow drying her hair and putting on some jeans shorts, and a t-shirt that went up to her elbows, she walked out of the bathroom. She put on her pink converses, and braided her hair into a waterfall braid—her favorite hairstyle yet. Applying minimum makeup, she looked at herself in the mirror once again to make sure she looked okay.

She stuffed her phone and lip gloss into her back pockets and closed the door to the guest room as she entered the hallway. Now, all she had to do was find where James was.

Yasmine stepped into several rooms but couldn’t find him anywhere. There were game rooms, movie theater rooms, several bedrooms, a room that looked like a gym, and rooms with random things. She felt like the mansion had a billion rooms!

On the verge of giving up, she walked down the fiftieth hallway she’d been through, but something caught her eye.

There were two large double doors with gold crested in beautiful spirals all over them. It was the only room she hadn’t checked in.

Something inside her told her not go in. That she probably wasn’t allowed to, but her curiosity got the best of her as she opened both the doors. Compared to all the other rooms in the house—mansion—this room was the biggest, yet the most simplest. It had a floral smell to it, and that “new” smell—the one you could smell with a new book or car.

“This is—was my parents’ room,” someone said behind her.

Yasmine gasped, and sent a hand on top of her heart. “Oh my gosh, you scared me.” She took a look at James. He was wearing dark gray sweatpants and a tight—maybe a little too tight—white shirt. His hair was wet and tussled, like he had just stepped out of the shower, and his emerald eyes looked fresh.

“What’re you doing here?” he asked, keeping a straight face on.

“Er—I was trying to find you,” she answered. “What room is this?”

“This was my parents’ room.” James ran his hand through his hair, a pained expression on his face.

“Was?” Yasmine was pretty sure James’ parents were still alive.