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CRASH was the sound of something in the next room over breaking against the floor. Emerald rolled her eyes and groaned. This, along with various other sounds of things being thrown and broken plus the sounds of crying, had been going on all night. And frankly, Emerald was annoyed and getting more pissed by the second.
“You could’ve gone to any hotel in town to cry your eyes out and break things. But you had to choose this one. And you had to get the room next to mine” Emerald thought to herself as more sobs interrupted her attempts at sleep. “There is no way I’m getting to sleep tonight” She deduced as yet again, something hit the ground.
FUMPH! That was something soft hitting the ground, but even still is made too much noise for Emerald.
“That’s it, I’m going for a walk before I kick in that person’s door and kill them” Emerald muttered, pulling on her slippers and a jacket over her tank top. She quietly opened the door of her room, careful not to forget her keycard. As she pulled the door closed, the crying next door was even louder when outside. She groaned and turned down the hall, away from the noise and began pacing.
“God, even when I’m halfway to the elevators from my room, I can still hear them” Emerald thought. Now that she was out of her room, Emerald could definitely tell the crying was that of a woman. She sounded about Emerald’s age, if Emerald had to guess. Emerald reached the end of the hall, and placed her forehead on the cool window, trying to tune out the crying in the background.
“I wonder what this girl is crying so hard about. Probably over some stupid guy...thank god I’m into girls” She pondered. Not once had Emerald ever really been attracted to any guys. She always found girls more appealing.
Lost in thought over what else on earth could have this girl crying so much and so hard that she felt the need to break things, Emerald had barely realized the crying had quieted down.
“Oh thank god. Maybe I can actually get some sleep tonight” Emerald thought with relief. She strolled back to her room, quite content with the idea of laying down and passing out. But that was until she saw the door of the room next door open. The room that had contained the crying. Emerald had a sudden twinge of curiosity.
“Curiosity killed the cat” Emerald thought to herself with a sigh and she peeked into the room. What she saw when she looked in surprised her. The room looked like a small bomb had gone off. From just the doorway she could she the bedsheets had been strewn around and the lamp had been knocked to the ground. But what surprised her the most was the girl curled up in the middle of the bed, knees hugged to her chest as sobs racked her body.
Damn her sympathetic heart, Emerald had to help the girl somehow. She quietly crept into the room, careful not to accidentally step on any glass or other broken things. When she got past the doorway to the room, she saw even more carnage caused by the sobbing girl. The bathroom mirror had a large hole in the middle of it, likely caused by a fist or an object of similar size. The curtains on the windows and shower had long, almost claw-like, marks down them, turning them into ribbons. An open suitcase had been thrown in the corner recklessly with clothes and what looked to be other possessions belonging to the girl.
“Whatever happened must have really driven this girl insane” Emerald thought with a small amount of fear and a large amount of regret for being so angry over this. This girl was volatile and there was no telling how she would react to Emerald “sneaking” into her room, if you can call walking through the open door sneaking in. Emerald contemplated her options here. She could leave the room and this girl in obvious disrepair, and be none the wiser. Or she could try and help this girl.
Emerald chose the later.
“Hey, what on earth happened here? Are you ok?” Emerald called as she reached for the girl’s shoulder. The girl jumped as Emerald’s voice and hand reached her, and she fell off the bed in fear.
“No Adam get away!” She shrieked with her eyes closed and arms up. So it was definitely a guy that made her this way. And obviously not a nice one, if her reaction and the bruising on her arms was anything to go by. The girl got to a sitting position and pushed herself back, eyes still closed, until her back touched a wall.
“Hey hey hey! I don’t know who this Adam asshole is, but I’m not him. My name is Emerald” She quietly said to the stranger, so as to not scare her any further than she actually was. The girl slowly opened her eyes, though she didn’t lower her arms, still fearing some sort of blow.
“Oh...she’s...absolutely gorgeous” Emerald thought in shock. The girl’s dark hair, combined with her alabaster skin and deep amber eyes, made her truly the sight to behold. Emerald truly couldn’t think of the words to describe how this girl looked. Gorgeous and beautiful truly didn’t do her justice. However, the one thing that Emerald hated about her face, was the dark mark that marred it. It ringed her right eye, and it obviously came from a strike of some sort. So this is was a girl on the run from some sort of abusive boyfriend. Emerald didn’t even know the guy, but oh boy did she hate him for ruining this otherwise perfect face.
“I’m...I’m Blake” The girl, Blake, squeaked out. She was shaking now, but her arms slowly came down when she realized she wasn’t looking at her abuser. Emerald slowly walked towards her and sat down next to her.
“Hi Blake. Do you mind if I ask what asshole did this?” Emerald ended her sentence in a near growl. Emerald hated this person with every fiber of her being. This person had obviously caused the beautiful girl in front of her a great deal of pain.
“His...his name is Adam. He’s my boyfriend...was my boyfriend. I never want to see him again. He’s an abusive, malcontented, belligerent person. We always fought somewhat, but tonight was different…” Blake trailed off. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to talk.
Emerald knew what she was going to say the second her mouth opened.
“He hit me. He tried to hit me multiple times but only one actually got me good” Blake muttered to the floor. Emerald looking at the bruises covering the pale skin on her arms, staining it like purple and yellow and blue paint on a white canvas.
“I...I regret ever meeting him” Blake finished, looking up. Here they were, two strangers who just met(with one initially being mad at the other), and Blake was pouring her heart out to Emerald. Emerald could still see the tears silently streaming from her eyes and Emerald did what felt natural and placed a hand on Blake’s back, and slowly rubbed in circles. Blake flinched at the initial touch, but the tension quickly left her body as Emerald started her comforting massage. As they sat in silence, Emerald had an idea,
“Hey Blake? I’m gonna go ahead and start you a shower in my room. Take as long as you need. I’ll clean up in here and then I’ll be right over to talk a bit more if you want” Emerald offered, kindly. Emerald felt massive sympathy for this girl and wanted to do everything in her power to make her feel better. Blake looked up at her and gave a slight nod. Emerald picked herself up and jogged over into her room, starting a warm shower for the girl. She walked past Blake who had a yukata-style shirt and long, comfy-looking pants in her arms. Blake wanted into the bathroom silently and closed the door.
“I really hope this girl is ok. She seems so nice and she’s just so gorgeous. Hopefully she isn’t too affected by this or I’ll have to kill this Adam...hell I might do it anyway” Emerald grimly thought as she began cleaning up Blake’s room. She neatly packed Blake’s belongings into her suitcase and remade the bed. She felt like a maid. However, maids couldn’t mend broken glass or torn fabric.
“Hmm...someone will have to pay for this” Emerald pondered. She opened her wallet and took out a card from some poor mook she had pickpocketed. Well at least his money would go to good cause. She would pay in the morning. After surveying the room one last time, she strolled back to her room and took a seat on the chair in the corner, opening a book.
The door of the bathroom opened and Blake walked out, her raven hair now let down and her hand now bandaged. She looks even more beautiful after the shower, Emerald realized. However, Blake realized something Emerald didn’t.
“Hey...Emerald...I...want to stay here for the night. I don’t want to go back to my room. But...you only have one bed” Blake muttered. Emerald snapped out of her trance and realized what Blake had just said. And Blake was right. Emerald hadn’t planned on having two people in her room so she had only booked for one person.
“That’s okay! You can take it, I’ll sleep in the chair or on the floor or in the bathtub” Emerald told her. She wasn’t about to send Blake back somewhere she didn’t want to go. As much as Emerald wanted to, she wasn’t going to offer sharing the bed with Blake. Blake didn’t need someone flirting with her so soon after this incident with Adam. But fate seemed to smile upon Emerald that night.
“We...we can share it if you want to…it would feel wrong to kick you out of your own bed that you’ve so graciously offered me” Blake said apprehensively and with a light blush spreading through her pale cheeks. Little did Emerald know, but Blake also found Emerald very beautiful.
“Sure!” Emerald said, possibly a bit too quickly, she worried. She stood up from her seat and slid into the bed next to Blake, who had already laid down. Emerald purposely laid with her back facing Blake, trying to be very careful with how she played this situation. Blake simply snuggled into the soft fabric of the bed and eventually, into Emerald’s warm body. Emerald tensed up at this, but slowly the tension left and she rolled over, placing an arm over Blake’s waist and pulling her close.
“Thank you Emerald...so much” Blake whispered in the darkness of the room, after she had thought Emerald had fallen asleep.
She hadn’t. And so she smiled and said nothing, slowly drifting to sleep.
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Emerald slowly blinked herself awake and suddenly panicked to find another person in her bed. The panic quickly dispersed though as she realized Blake was the one she had tangled her limbs with. Slowly and reluctantly unwrapping Blake from her body, she crept out of the bed over to the hotel room coffee maker. Emerald, preferring tea, set the coffee maker to make a pot of jasmine tea. As the pot bubbled, Emerald turned and watched the sleeping Blake. She looked so peaceful. And so beautiful.
And for the first time in her life, Emerald fell in love at first sight.