"It's a hell hole. Get me out now."

An overstatement sure, but put a girl in the middle of the desert with no WiFi living off of pizza and Ramen noodles and you have yourself a noncompliant b*tch of a daughter.

"Listen I know it's tough right now but you gotta wait this out just a bit alright? I'm almost done wrapping things up down here and I promise it will be worth it. Give me until tomorrow and then you can kiss that hell hole of yours goodbye."

I groaned into the plush pillows that lay upon my neatly made bed per the service of room keeping. They still held the scent of lavender from when Dad and I had moved into the hotel room two days before.

The curtains were shut to block out the rays of the high-risen sun and the windows were cracked open in hopes of fresh breezy air, even though none was possible. The muted tv displayed cable news of some unclaimed lottery ticket in the area and beside it lay an open pack tootsie pops and wrappers. The small kitchenette in the far corner of the room was littered with greasy paper plates and red cups, too many to contain in the tiny trashcan provided in the room. They complimented the air tinged with the slight smell of beer.

I hadn't expected Malia and Diana to bring booze and more friends with them but I went along with it. They knew that even though I lived on the wild side a bit, I would never get tangled into their crap. Smoking and partying and getting buzzed and hungover every other night was not for me. But that didn't stop them from enjoying themselves around me. I hadn't seen my twin best friends in over 6 months when they moved down to Palm Springs and wanted to catch up. Malia and Diana were living the high life.

And here I was, stuck in 110 degree weather, sweating away my summer. The pool had been closed off the whole day due to a messed up pipeline that filtered it or something like that. And so now it was a major inconvenience to me and the countless other vacationers in the bloody establishment.

With a sigh I hurriedly mumbled a few words of agreeance under my breath before ending the conversation with my father. Placing my phone on the beside table, I made my way first to the tv to pick up another cherry red toostie pop and then to the corner of the room to clean up the mess left behind from an hour earlier. I tied my thick hair up into a high bun for my sweaty neck to breathe and tried my best to gather everything together. Once I had a hold on things I opened the front door, made sure the door stopper was in place, and proceeded to carry all the garbage down to the larger trash bin down the end of the hall. When I returned to the room, I left the door open after noticing it was less stuffy that way. Still, I could practically taste the alcohol in the air.

"Yeah. No one's gonna like that." I decided it best that no one suspected any underage drinking had occurred during our little "hangout" and mask it before any curious people start making complaints. I did my best to fix myself up in the sink in mirror mounted in the wall before grabbing my wallet, phone, and keycard to leave for the mini convinience store on the main lobby.

I made an effort to pull down my crop top in hopes of coming off as decent but eventually gave up on the prospect halfway there. When I reached the mart, I found the toiletry section and was fortunate to find a pleasant enough air freshener way cheaper than expected for a luxury hotel. I did have to use a bit of the emergency money Dad had left me just in case though.

I had been examining the canister when I collided with a stroller coming from the oposite direction.

"Oh gosh. I'm so sorry. That was my fault. I should have been paying attention." The lady had an apologitic look on her face, although she seemed out if it. As if she had been daydreaming how much better this vacation could have been had she left the two kids that sat in the stroller before me at home with a relative. Seeing them literally bouncing out of their seats dying to be set free made me feel like I couldn't blame her.

"No no its fine. I really should've looked where I was going. It not on you trust me," I replied, trying to relieve the obviously distraught woman. We were about to exchange goodbyes before I noticed what lay beside my feet.

I'd always loved this edition of the book. I myself had suggested that the boarder of the book and the engraving that ran along the binging be gold to match it's creme background. The front side lays face up, showing the spiraling letters that adorned the cover. Its thick pile of golden edged pages looked a bit beaten, but they were frail and was to be expected if thrown around. Even without its jacket cover, I knew every copy of the book that had made the shelves.

I bent down to pick it up and ran my fingers along the author's name stamped into the front cover. Howard Jennings. Originally he was going to come up with an alias but realized there was no reason that he couldn't use his real one. I huffed at the odds of finding my father's book of all children's storybooks to have stumbled upon.

The stories featured in the book

sometimes irked me. Dad had based his stories on the ones my mother would create for me as a child. The one of the kind princess who was stolen away as a girl and forced to serve a horrid troll and his people, whom she came to understand, before being rescued by the kingdom's most valiant knight. Or the boy who played a magical harpsicord to enchant entire villages.

Although nothing beat the originals. I wore my Snow White costume for Halloween unill I was 11 and still planned on recycling it for a more sophisticated look. I once kissed a frog in middle school on a dare and secretly hoped it'd turn into a boyfriend. Even to the day, 2 weeks from my 17th birthday, I still wished to never grow up, just like the boy who never did.

But none of that really matters now. He's shifted to a more young adult audience. I prefer it more anyways. It kinda got a bit old eventually.

"Here you go." I placed it in the hands of the woman, who stowed it in a compartment in the back of the stroller. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, this time paying more attention to our surroundings.

By the time I made it back to my floor the clock on the wall across the elevator read 2:15. I pulled out the keycard from my back pocket and jiggled it around in the slot a few times before I managed to unclock the door.

The pungent scent cascaded out the door so I made quick work of spraying down each inch of the room before opening the window further.

With the room in order, I poured myself a glass of water from the tap, scoured my suitcase for my laptop, and made myself cozy on the pullout sofa positioned in front of the television.

For the rest of the evening I sat there rewatching episodes of The Office on Netflix before feeling the need to make myself dinner. It was the last pack of Easy Mac, nothing special. I made a mental note to ask my dad to pick some up on the way or do it myself in the morning.

I had just started the microwave when I heard the door slam shut and the light in the hall flick off. It had been my only source of lighting ever since sundown a half our before. I made quick time pulling out my phone from the back pocket of my jean shorts and switching the flashlight on. Unfortunately there were no weapons around as the hotel, for obvious reasons, couldn't provide any. I tried to recall some basic moves I had learned through a YouTube video my middle school made us watch on selfdefense. Although I knew it wouldn't do much good.

"Who the hell is there?" I demanded, my voice sturdy and unwavering. I kept the light pointed to the hallway as I menuvered around the table, keeping my body angled towards the door. Right before the beam hit the last corner where the intruder could have possibly hidden, the hall light flicked back on.

"Boo!" A man jumped out of the shadow into full view. A grin etched his face when he realized he had gotten the reaction he had wanted from me. My hand had instantaneously reached for the base of my throat while the other clutched the phone tightly, poised to throw.

"JESUS DAD! WAS THAT NECESSARY!?" I questioned once I calmed down and regained my composture. My father on the other hand had seemed to put all joking aside after he had his laugh, trading his toothy grin for a more stern expression.

"Well if it taught you to never leave the door wide open for anyone to just waltz in then yeah Lace, it was necessary," he replied, crossing his arms. "What the hell were you thinking?"

I always felt akward when he spoke in an authoritive voice. He almost never used it, only on certain occasions. We had always laughed everything off at the end of the day. That's how our relationship was. We were always my mother's carefree goofballs. She had been the one to keep us in check. But now he had to take on the role of both the prankster and the cop.

I shrugged my shoulders and srunched my face in an apologic gesture. "Sorry?"

"Sorry?!" He rose his eyebrows. "I'm serious Lace!"

"Okay I'm sorry alright! Its too freaking hot in here as you can tell and I was going to close it anyways. Plus nothing would have happened. There are only like 5 people in this whole hall."

"Open a freaking window then."

"They are. All of them. What else was I supposed to do?"

He scoffed and shook his head. "Whatever Lace. Just try think about what your doing next time." Dad walked over to the couch and tossed down his jacket. "Anyways, listen. There's been a change of plans. Turns out we are gonna have to make a stop somewhere else before we head on back to San Diego."

"Where to?" I ask.

"London."