A hoarse groan escaped from Elise's lips as she rolled over onto her side and propped herself up using one hand. She gazed about groggily, lifting her free hand to shield her eyes from the streak of brilliant morning sunshine filtering into the room through a long vertical slit in the curtains, and tried to gain a grip of her surroundings. After a few seconds her eyes adjusted to the bright light and, smoothing a lock of tangled golden hair back from her face she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, inadvertently sending several glass bottles clinking across the wood-panelled floor with her feet. Dropping her head to her hands, she closed her eyes and massaged her temples with her fingers, trying to soothe away the mish mash of jumbled memories fogging her mind, whilst praying that despite all the evidence to the contrary it hadn't happened again. Steeling herself she looked down over her shoulder and her eyes fell to a sleeping figure sprawled out beside her on the double bed. Several winding dragon tattoos, interlaced here and there with leering skulls snaked their way up his bare arms and chest. His eyes were tightly shut beneath the mass of overhanging green spikes that was his hair. A wave of regret and self-disgusted surged through her. She had promised herself that the last time was just that: the last; she couldn't understand why this kept on happening. Obviously alcohol had, as usual, played a large role, and by the looks of things and the pounding headache that just started up in her head, she had hit the bottle pretty hard, yet even so, she normally found it unbearable just being in the same room as Psymon. Everything about him repulsed her - his insolent attitude, his punk rock style, but here she was again waking up beside him and from the satisfied smile on his face and the mess of twisted bedcovers, there was no second-guessing what had gone on.
Still slightly intoxicated from the night before, Elise stood up and clumsily began collecting up her clothes from there where they had been haphazardly strewn about the room. She got dressed as quickly as she could manage, desperate to flee the scene, cursing under her breath as she fell over a couple of times as she hastily pulled on her trousers. After several minutes of frantic searching she finally managed to locate her shoes under a nearby table and, snatching up her bag, she pushed though the bedroom door out into the hotel corridor beyond. She was extra careful to close the door quietly shut behind her, yet nonetheless, she had only taken a few paces when she heard the click of the door as it swung back open and the familiar cocky tones of Psymon's voice echoing loudly down the corridor after her: 'Hey babe, leaving already?'. Elise bit her lip and hoped that everyone was already downstairs at breakfast and wouldn't hear the noise. She reluctantly turned round to see Psymon shamelessly standing butt naked in his hotel room doorway and, as she did so, unwelcome memories of their earlier fervent exertions together came flooding back. Throwing him a look of utter revulsion she spun on her heel and wordlessly continued on her way. 'Yeah well you'll be back, ain't nobody can give it like ol' Psymon' he jeered and she heard the door click shut.
Her head still throbbing, Elise made her way slowly towards the elevators. Suddenly she staggered forwards as a wave of dizziness and nausea hit her, causing her to loose her balance. She instinctively reached out for the nearest thing to steady herself. 'Watch it' Skye reproached her, shoving her off with a frown, then, noticing Elise's dishevelled state, her voice softened. 'Hey, are you ok?' she asked. The Australian's nasal accent aggravated her and usually she would have taken pleasure in telling Skye where she could stick it, but in her current state she just wasn't able to muster up her usual gusto, in fact it seemed an impossible struggle just to keep her emotions under control; she was so tired of pretending that everything was fine. Closing her eyes and wishing that she could forget everything that had happened in her life recently Elise reached out a shaky hand to steady herself against the wall, a single tear sliding down her cheek. 'Hey, it's ok' Skye comforted, taking hold of Elise's arm and patting it gently, 'come on let's get you back to your room'.Wiping away the tear with the sleeve of her jacket, Elise allowed Skye to help her back to the fifth floor, handing over her keycard so that Skye could unlock the door.
Once inside Elise flopped down on the couch as Skye confidently made her way into the small ensuite kitchen and filled up the kettle. Leaving it to boil, she came back and took a seat next to the blonde haired Canadian. 'Listen, I know it's been a tough but you can't do this to yourself,' she said earnestly. Convinced that Skye had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, Elise shot her an irritate look which Skye ignored and carried on. 'I've been there myself, I know what it's like to feel like your life is falling apart when your parents divorce' she said frankly. At the mention of the dreaded d-word Elise flinched, unable to stop all the feelings of helplessness and despair it brought with it; feelings she had desperately strived to suppress for the past few months. Her hands were trembling again and she was suddenly both annoyed and scared because she could no longer recognise herself; she used to be so self-assured, so confident, but now a vulnerability had overtaken her that she just couldn't seem to shake off. 'It must be that much harder when it's publicly splashed across all the tabloids' Skye acknowledged and Elise couldn't disagree with her there. Being the daughter of the prominent Canadian politician she had gotten used to, even come to relish, life in the public eye, but this was different. Now that it was about matter close to the heart the publicity she craved had become a nightmare and she had been finding the whole affair incredibly strenuous and heart-wrenching; especially when the press appeared to glean such malicious joy in regularly expounding preposterous rumours of her father's tirade of secret foreign lovers, which had in turn led to more litigation procedures.
Reaching out Skye took the other girl's pale unsteady hands in her own, 'look, I know it's hard to believe now, but you'll get through it, I promise,' she gave an encouraging smile, 'but it's going to take time… and drinking yourself into a stupor every other night and then jumping into bed with Psymon isn't going to solve anything'. Elise swallowed and lowered her eyes to the carpeted floor. 'You know?' she asked meekly. 'Yeah pretty much everyone on the circuit knows, but don't worry - Kaori warned everyone that if anyone dared open their mouths to the reporters she would personally shove her board through their head.' At this Elise couldn't help but give a small smile. 'I always thought you loathed Psymon, how did it happen?' Skye enquired, eyeing Elise curiously.
There was silence as Elise thought back to the night a few weeks back when they had all first arrived at the hotel for some pre-event freeriding to sound out the courses and prepare for the qualifying runs. By the second night she had gotten so exasperated by the heavy metal music continually pounding up through the floorboards of her room that after a few Martini's she had resolved to go down there and throw the offending stereo out the window, along with anyone who happened to stand in her way. Only, she had found Psymon, fresh out the shower with a skimpy little pink handtowel wrapped about his waist; a sharp contrast to his usual bad-boy attire. After she had got over the initial shock of discovering that Psymon actually washed, the sight of him had made her laugh for the first time in what had seemed like ages. However, she had stopped abruptly when he had whipped the towel off and she had discovered that while mother nature may not have made him completely right in the head, she had obviously made up for it elsewhere. It shouldn't have happened but she had let it. Her fans called her the Angel of the North, yet she had been more than happy to loose herself in the carnal sensations of the moment; anything to take her mind off her parent's separation. 'I wasn't thinking straight' was all she finally offered Skye by way of explanation.
Sensing that she might have overstepped the mark, Skye jumped up and walked back into the kitchen, 'tea or coffee?' she shouted from the other room. 'Coffee, black, with a couple of aspirin would be nice. There should be a packet on the counter somewhere' Elise called. 'No problem – any sugar?' Skye asked loudly. 'No thanks' Elise yelled back, clasping her forehead and hoping that that Skye would hurry up and get back so they could stop all the shouting. Reappearing back in the bedroom, Skye handed over the drink and the tablets and gave Elise a quick look up and down. 'Tell you what why don't I run you a bath?' she offered candidly.
Stretched out in the tub, Elise let herself doze in the warm water, the foamy bubble bath lapping at her skin. She was glad the first SSX event wasn't until the following morning as it meant that apart from a short corporate video conference in the early afternoon she was free to spend the rest of day lazing about. She knew that she probably should be out on the slopes, squeezing in some last minute practice like the others were doubtless doing, but she just didn't feel up to it as she was; most of her energy was gone, spent between the sheets during the small hours of the morning. Elise sighed. Allegra had been right about one thing; Psymon was an absolute animal in bed.