Eyes wide shut

Who are you?...

***

The young reception clerk took a long sigh checking the messages of his friends tweeting that they were ready 'for the time of their lives' next to some airport pictures. The bottom right corner of the laptop screen caught his attention and brought even a bigger, deeper sigh - it was merely 2.45 in the morning -  his shift ending at 8 a.m. He grabbed his chin in one palm using the other to surf more on Twitter and f*******:.

The big, glass hotel’s doors opened up with quite a quarrel. The boy behind the reception desk smiled. Without taking his eyes off the 4 entering noisy girls, he took out a couple of keys from a drawer.

"Good morning, girls! he joyfully waved, emphasizing the word 'morning'.

" Mornin'! " they all answered each in their own time.

"Your teacher's been asking for you" the boy devilishly smiled.

" Attendant, actually” one of the girls cut him off.

“Yeah, whatever! If you say so!” the boy laughed ever louder stretching over to hand them the keys.

“Thank you” one of them shyly smiled back at him.

“Good luck!” he whispered to her and she answered back through an involuntary small bow.

“Will you hurry up, Anna??” the most arrogant of them yelled before entering the elevator.

“Yes, I’ll be right over!” Anna replied.  Her long, rich brown hair only left a strong floral fragrance as she quickly apologized to the man she almost hit when she ran towards her so-called friends – the other three girls wearing way too much makeup and way too short dresses for their age. Her sparkly blue eyes were only covered by a little mascara and a shiny pink lipstick concluded her ‘girls’ night out’ outfit.

“Honestly, Anna” the arrogant one began as she was searching for a piece of gum inside her red purse. “14 days …and nights by the sea and you’re still single” she laughed.

“Ah, Veronica, but I’m only 18” Anna smiled right away impersonating an old British woman. “I’m not in a hurry,” she said totally ignoring the ‘theory of what a girl must be when she turns 18’ and started almost seeing herself graduating magna c*m laude this last year of high school. She already wrote all the application letters for the best universities out there and she already decided that when she’ll finish college she’ll move to the United States and start her life there, so she really wasn’t bothered at all by the girls next to her, who most definitely saw themselves marring of to a very old, rich sugar daddy and ride his limo all day long. Anna smiled for herself.

“What’s so funny??” Veronica asked a little annoyed.

“You” Anna replied ruffling Veronica’s hair simply because she knew she hated it so much.

They weren’t really the opposite type of best friends – Anna was the smartest kid in class, Veronica was the most popular off the entire school, so they both reached a silent agreement that they needed each other to get through high school, and quite honestly, and quite secretly they started caring for one another.

                “Stop doing that!” Veronica started chasing her until they reached the door of their room. Anna opened it at once but almost fell on her butt if Veronica wouldn’t have been behind her to catch her: their form master was inside their room, arms crossed over her chest, angrily stomping her foot.

                “Get back here!” she ordered when the last two girls attempted an escape.

                “H-hello teacher…”  they all greeted forgetting that they were supposed to be bad, independent women.

                “Is this a way to get outside the room??” she poked Veronica’s too revealing top shirt. “Aren’t you ashamed?” she turned to face Anna.

                “A little... but she wouldn’t listen” Anna mumbled almost stealing a smile from her teacher but she wouldn’t give in, she had to stick to her serious face, so she frowned a little more: “Silence!” she screamed. “There have been 14 days, tomorrow’s the last! Must I really keep an eye on you like you’re some kindergarteners?? I also intend to have a good time `till the very end! I don’t want to wander around worrying for some… muddleheads! Is that clear??” the teacher really tried her best to sound angry. “You two, get to your room right now!” she pushed away the other girls leaving Veronica and Anna alone in their room, but not before reminding them that their flight back home was at 11 o’clock that night.  

***

                His black, almond eyes analyzed everyone on the street from his 10th story. He had nothing but the white sheet wrapped around him hoping that the cold morning breeze would help calm down. He was afraid to even blink because every time he’d close his eyes, the dead woman would stare at him… He loved the sea ever since he was a little kid so he figured that taking a short detour to the seaside would help him… but nothing had changed so far: the same dream, the same noises every time he dared to close his eyes.  He was now resting his head on his arm, watching the people below… The sun was almost up and he didn’t have had any sleep yet. He took a deep breath and shuffled back inside the room. In less than 10 minutes he found himself in front of the elevator; his eyes were again alive and shiny; his smile was present too and his hair, well mostly only the bangs due to the haircut were carefully gathered into a small pony-tail. The elevator’s door opened up and a strong floral scent invaded his personal space.  It felt so familiar… He quickly lifted his eyes to check on its source.

‘Oh, the girls from last night’ he thought and smiled for himself when seeing their extravagant swimming outfits; only one of them stood out by her oversized colored t-shirt and three-quarter length jeans. He watched them as they noisily got out of the elevator and gently smiled when only one of them turned around for a brief second to take a second look at him: for an unknown reason, Anna’s response to his smile was an unconscious blush and a rushed smile. The elevator’s door closed with a ding that brought her back to earth just in time so her friends wouldn’t notice the silly grin on her face. She shook her head and followed them silently.

The red sun looked like a fireball on the extremely clear sky, coloring everything around in a warm shade of pink.

‘This is it’ Anna thought getting up from her lounge chair ‘the last sea bathe of the year. See you next year… I hope... my wonderful sea’ she kept talking to herself plunging in the water.  She enjoyed several swimming styles until she chose to relax with a little back swimming. After she threw her arms behind a few times, she hit something. Fearing that it could’ve been a child, she quickly turned to face it:

“Oh my God, I am so, so sorry! Are you o…. “ her words got lost when the dark, almond eyes blinked at her.

“It's ok. I’m ok…” he answered but his words turned into a soft smile when the floral scent veiled around.

All of a sudden he grabbed her arm to pull her away from something... even if at first she misunderstood him, she quickly realized that he just wanted to save her from a group of kids playing water tag; he pulled her closer so they won’t splash all over her throwing violent shades of red on her upper part of the face.

“Sorry!” all of the kids yelled, getting further.

Anna still couldn’t spell any word and the same feeling she had this morning ate her all up; she was staring at the water drops sliding on his forehead trying to reach his eyes and sooner than she realized she found herself wiping them away. Her hand froze up in the air and her eyes doubled as he leaned over to kiss her. She aimlessly blinked twice but instead of breaking the kiss, she actually deepened it, taking a really good taste of his salty lips.