The Guardian Angel's Guide to Giving In

Tristan opened one sleep-filled eye at a time, then quickly closed them, initially blinded by the insanely white ceiling. She tried once more, opening one eye and then the other. She turned on her side and her muddy green eyes were met by a pair of crystal clear blue ones. She was initially mesmerized but then consciousness streamed in and she realized she should probably use this moment to take in where she was and who these incredible eyes belonged to. First she examined the owner of the eyes. They belonged to a man, and not just any man but one with strong chiseled facial features, floppy brown hair, and broad shoulders underneath his gray v-neck. He was exquisitely handsome, distractingly handsome but he was taking her away from the rest of her task. Tristan peeled her eyes off the stranger and absorbed her surroundings. She looked down at herself and saw white sheets covering her and bright white tiled floors. She smelled sterile hospital air that momentarily brought her back to that time in second grade when she broke her arm on the playground under the less than watchful eye of her mother who was too occupied on the phone to see her daughter do tricks on the monkey bars and was whisked to a hospital that smelled similar to this one. She was going to assume that all hospitals smelled the same which meant she was in the hospital. She looked back at the man and saw he had a book in his lap and was using his finger to mark the page in the spot that he had abruptly stopped at when he saw her stir. He looked down at her initially with concerned eyes as she looked around sporadically at her surroundings. Her eyes landed back on him and he smiled down at her and he couldn't help but smile with all he had back at her. He would finally meet the beautiful girl he had been watching over for the last 4 months. "Hey," Alex said, "welcome back."