Falling For The Playboy

EVA

“If I didn’t know she’s crazy, I’d be offended. ” Phoebe said as she dropped her bag on the floor.

The room had pristine white walls with a bit of brown here and there. It was beautiful and luxurious, but the only thing I could focus on was the bed. After the long journey, I found the big bed quite welcoming.

I crossed to the left side of the bed, dropped my duffel on the floor before falling flat on the bed face up, arms spread, forgetting that I wasn’t alone in the room. I froze, my eyes trailing up slowly to find her watching me with a wide grin on her face.

“I know you forgot I was here. ”

I shrugged sheepishly.

“This is a little late, but, I’m Phoebe. ”

“I’m Eva. ”

“I knew that. ” She smiled. She did that a lot. And of course everyone at school knew who I was. “Nice to meet you, Eva. ”

“Nice to meet you too. ”

She turned away, sitting on the edge of the bed with her back to me as she went through her bag, I assumed, for something to wear. I got that odd feeling of familiarity again as I watched her and I just couldn’t shake it.

Deciding to ignore the feeling for now, I unzipped my bag, pulling my towel out along with an oversized T-shirt and shorts. Feeling a niggling suspicion, I rummaged around in the bag and hissed before I could stop myself. I packed just one short.

“Apparently, I forgot I would be sleeping when I decided to pack.” I muttered in frustration. Phoebe’s low laughter took me by surprise.

That laugh…

“You’re the girl from the library! ” I snapped my fingers as I turned to her, everything finally clicking into place.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to figure that out. ” She said ruefully as she twisted to look at me.

“Why didn’t you just tell me? ”

She shrugged, turning back to her bag. “I like to keep people guessing. ”

I watched her quietly. I could finally put a face to the voice I remembered from time to time. The pinch of sadness in her otherwise positive words that haunted me.

“I haven’t seen you at school ever since. ” I said, almost to myself.

“I’m an Arts. ” She said as means of explanation.

I didn’t think that was enough reason. I had never seen her at the cafeteria either. There was also the question of why she had chosen to use the library in the Science building when the Arts had one too.

“The Art building has a library, right? ”

“True. ” She smiled, reading my meaning. “I needed something different. ”

I almost asked what, but I stopped myself.

“Do you see those sick people? The ones on the beds? Waiting to get parts of their bodies amputated or just struggling to get better? They wish they were you.

“Complete. Strong. Healthy. ”

Her words from that day came to me and I thought hard on them. Had she lost someone? Perhaps a parent?

I jolted at the sound of a knock. Phoebe went to the door and opened it, but not fully, so I couldn’t see who was on the other side. I got snippets of the conversation but it wasn’t enough to let me know what they were talking about.

Phoebe closed the door as the other person left, putting her back to it. “Mrs Philomena says we can go downstairs to the hotel restaurant if we want to eat. She’s already asked them to put everything on her card. ”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

My stomach gave a sudden growl at the thought of food. My excitement hadn’t let me think of food all through the journey -I didn’t even eat on the flight, but now that it had reduced marginally, I realized that I was hungry.

“Do we go now, or? ”

“I say we do. If I should get into that shower right now, there’s nothing stopping me from sleeping when I come out. And if your reaction to seeing the bed is anything to go by, I’d say you’re just as tired too. ”

I was.

I straightened my hoodie as we walked out. Deep voices drew my attention and I turned to find Alexander, Henri, Axel and Vaughn. The image of all four of them, walking beside each other like that, was enough to stop me in my tracks and all I could do for a moment was stare. My mouth might have been hanging open too, I wasn’t sure, but even if it was, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Alexander was on a call; his was the voice I’d heard. He was the biggest of the group of friends, built like a wall, an inch or two taller than the others with an air of authority around him. He didn’t seem like the type of person that would take orders from anyone, instead he seemed like the one that would dish them out.

Axel, Henri and Vaughn all seemed to have the same build, albeit little variants. They were all tall, athletic and wide. And right now, none of them was smiling. Axel was texting on his phone -which was why he hadn’t seen me, Henri was…. I didn’t know what the hell he was doing. He seemed to be playing with Vaughn’s hair as the latter chewed on a toothpick while glancing from one closed door to the other with dead eyes.

It took a minute for my fried brain to realize they were headed in our direction and when I did, I snapped into motion, walking even faster than Phoebe. Suddenly, I couldn’t get to the elevators fast enough.

“I didn’t know you were that hungry. Jeez. ” Phoebe laughed, misinterpreting my flight for impatience.

I didn’t bother to correct her, I simply smiled while waited for her to get into the elevator. Was she walking extra slowly or was it just me? I let out a sigh when she pushed the button for the down floor and the doors finally slid closed before Axel and his friends could reach it.

There were a few people in the restaurant other than Ivacy High students and I felt quite a little bit intimidated to be in their presence, but when I saw everyone just doing their thing, I figured it was a normal thing for them so I went with it.

After dinner, I went straight upstairs to our room and into the shower. When I toweled, changed into my sleepwear and came back out, I saw Phoebe undressing to go have her bath.

I dragged my feet to the bed and fell face down on it. And I didn’t get up until morning.