A/N: This chapter is going to be a little boring at first, and it'll seem pointless, but it must be told…by the end you'll see why.
P.S. I have two words for you…SPRING BREAK!
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Chapter 6
I lock myself into my room after getting off the elevator and letting Lauren talk me into dinner with her later. After unpacking and taking a shower I step into the bedroom and find Kate standing there studying her nails. She looks up at me.
"He—" she begins but then stops and stares at me. I look down at realize that I am half-naked, with only a towel around my waist. I blush, horrified at the fact that she is staring at me and with only an, "excuse me," I rush back into the bathroom and throw on a shirt and some pants.
When I come back out, Kate is nowhere to be found. Shrugging my shoulders I finish getting ready and then grab my plastic key-card and walk out the door. Lauren's room number is 724; right where she said it would be, across the hall. I look both ways before crossing the wide hallway and knock on the door.
Lauren answers the door wearing a strappy black dress and high-heeled shoes. She beams up at me and I smile warmly down at her.
"You look great, Jesse," she says while ushering my inside of her room.
"And you do as well."
Lauren blushes and informs me that she will be another minute or two, which I know means more like five minutes. I sit on the edge of her bed, and then think maybe she'll get the wrong idea, so I stand.
While I wait, Susannah's face pops into my head and I yearn for her even more than before. I can hear her laughter in my ear…if she knew I was going out to eat with Lauren, would she be angry? My thoughts dissipate when Lauren taps me on the shoulder and tells me she's ready to go.
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Dinner is nice, we eat at an upscale restaurant and I insist on paying. Lauren is very talkative and by dessert I know each and every one of her family members names and descriptions to go along with it.
We finish with dessert, or more like I finish with dessert, and then I pay the waiter a large tip and we walk out the door. Lauren flags down a taxi by instinct and I hold the door open for her. When we reach the hotel we ride the elevator in silence and then I walk her to her door.
"Well," she says while she fishes around for her key in her purse. "That was really fun, Jesse. Thank you for treating me. You didn't have to." When her key is in her hand, she looks back at me with a smile radiating off of her face.
"No, no, no, it was my pleasure." I respond and then with a tip of my head I leave her and go to my own room.
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The next day I awake early to thoughts of Susannah. It's like she almost haunts my dreams sometimes. Before I take a shower I check my voicemail, but when I realize I don't have any from Susannah, I hang up without listening to the others.
I walk downstairs to the main dinning atrium after taking a shower and finishing my morning ritual. The intense smell of high class, well, everything radiates from the room and I walk in trying not to think of Susannah and how much she would love it here. I look around briefly trying not to look lost. Lauren spots me and gets up quickly from her table. She hustles over to me and slides her arms through mine and leads me over to the table she just vacated. Before she allows me to sit down, she introduces me to the other people sitting at the table. Apparently we all have place cards.
"These are employees of doctors around the country: Lilly, Chad, Veronica, and Taylor," Lauren says to me while still holding onto my arm. I greet all of them with a smile, nod, and a handshake. Lilly and Veronica exchange glances with Lauren, while Chad and Taylor inhale the food before them. They all seem to be my age and this confuses me. However when I look around I realize that the majority of the people present are male and look over forty.
After breakfast, comes the orientation where we get all of our information packets and walk around a big conference room picking up merchandise. I get two of everything so that I will be able to keep on and give the other to Marc. Lauren clings to me the majority of the morning. I enjoy her company, I tell myself, trying not to be snippy, as I know Susannah would be to someone like Lauren. She reminds me of Kelly Prescott; Dios, Susannah would think I was a traitor for 'hanging out' with someone like that.
When lunch comes around, I still find Lauren glued to my side. She talks nonstop to me, all of it useless information. I engage myself into the conversation as best as I can, but whenever I say something intelligent it is like 'talking to a wall' as Susannah would put it. They serve us exquisitely made foods, including Indian stir-fry and Spanish tapas. I make sure to get a healthy load of tapas and find them to be almost like the way my mother made them.
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The rest of the day is uneventful, and after dinner, Lauren asks if I would like to join her on a sight-seeing walk. Excited about seeing some American history, I say yes without hesitation and put on some more comfortable shoes.
We walk around the town, with her arms through mine. She complains that she is cold, but I enjoy the briskness of the wind biting my cheeks and the pounding of our feet on the concrete. On our circuit, we see the White House, Capital Hill, the Capital Building, The National Gallery, the Library, Lincoln Memorial, and the George Washington Memorial.
I find everything fascinating, but all Lauren does is complain about how cold it is and how 'blah' all the monuments are. I just smile at her and let her humor me, without really listening to her.
When I can't take it anymore, I get us a taxi and climb into it. Lauren snuggles up against me, and I let her because she is cold. We get back to the hotel, and again we ride up to our floor and I walk her to her room.
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For the rest of the duration of the week, I meet tons of new people, 'chill' with Lauren and her new friends, walk around Washington with Kate at night, and find myself really missing Susannah. I call her every chance I get, but she doesn't pick up or call me back whenever I leave her a message. Kate, tells me that she checks on and says that she is okay, just busy. And when I ask Kate, what Susannah is busy with, she doesn't seem to have an answer.
The night before we all depart from the conference, there is a big party in the bar area on the first floor and tons of alcohol. Apparently all the doctors like to drink, and so does Lauren. "But only when it's free," she tells me while almost slipping off of her stool.
I catch her before she hits the floor and then tell her, "I'm going to take you up to bed now." She leans on me while I walk with her over to the elevator. She smells horrible and I try not to gag at the smell of alcohol in her breath. When we finally manage to get down the hall to her room, I prop her up against the wall and search her bag for her key. Once I find it, I open the door and help her inside.
The door shuts behind me, and I steady Lauren by putting my hands on her waist. She looks up at me and then before I know it, her lips are on mine. She wraps her whole body around mine; I stagger at the sudden onset of weight. We fall onto the bed, her on top. She straddles me and her heavy lips never leave mine. I can feel the onset of suffocation slowly sliding over my body, much like Lauren's tongue is sliding over my tongue. I try not to gag, while trying to pry Lauren's legs from my waist. All the while, my brain is screaming, "She's the wrong woman!"
She's dead weight and her legs are like iron. Her hands are brusquely tugging at my shirt and I try to struggle against her. She finally takes her lips off of mine and I say, "Lauren," after catching my breath.
"Oh Jesse," she whispers into my neck and then bites my ear. I yelp and jump up off of the bed, making Lauren sail from the mattress and onto the floor. I run out of the room and grope my pocket for my key. I stumble into my room and lock the door behind me.
Panting, I turn around and sit on my bed. "Nombre de Dios," I say aloud while dragging a hand through my hair.
Kate materializes beside me and looks at me funnily. "Jesse," she says carefully.
I pause for a moment, and then look over at her. She looks worried. "Yes?"
"What the hell was that?" Kate bursts out.
Merde, she saw me. "Lauren is intoxicated and she advanced on me." I say, choosing my words carefully.
"No shit," Kate says. "Lauren is a bitch, and a talkative one at that. I saw that coming from the first moment she laid her eyes on you."
"You weren't even there when she first saw me," I point out. Kate huffs and mumbles something about never being able to win. "It doesn't matter, we're going home tomorrow, and I'll be able to see Susannah finally."
Kate throws me a look, which I can't decipher. "Sure." She smiles a smile, which I think is a façade.
I smile over at her frustrated and sigh. She dematerializes and I pace around the room for ten minutes, before sighing in annoyance and taking a hot shower. When I get out of the shower I sniff my clothes and they smell like Lauren. I throw them in the trash, not wanting to even see them again.
I slide into bed, suddenly wanting Susannah there lying next to me. Why didn't I just make love to her when she wanted it? It would have made her happy and that would have made me happy. Every time she smiled it made my heart light, and every tear she shed made my heart break. Would she still want me to make love to her when I got back? Would I be able to go through with it? Would she be able to do it? I get red hot angry when what Paul did pops into my head. I could tell him where to go…
I stare up at the ceiling for a while, my mind constantly cantering about, before finally dozing off.
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I don't see Lauren the next day when I go down to check off, or in the many lines in the airport. When I finally get onto the plane, I scan the first class cabin area to check if she is in any of the seats, but she isn't. However, when I find my seat, I find Kate sitting in the one next to it.
"I checked the stewardess's' list, this is an empty seat," she says to me while I put my stuff into the overhead compartment. After I glance around the cabin once more before sitting down, she adds, "And Lauren is catching a later flight." I sigh both out loud and mentally.
"She is a bitch," Kate says and I look over at her startled.
"Please don't raise your voice so high." I say in a whisper while glancing around to see if anyone heard Kate.
"Yeah, 'cause that would make a whole hell of a lot of sense," Kate snorts. "I'm only dead and all." She looks over at me, "Or did you forget that?"
"No, I most certainly did not forget that!" I whisper back to her appalled.
"You 'most certainly' did!" Kate says while crossing her arms over her chest.
"Fine, I did. I am sorry." I look over at her, waiting. She looks over at me and smiles. I smile back over to her warmly.
"Yeah, yeah." Kate says playfully and then stares out of the window.
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AN: Yeah, not so sure I like this chapter, but I had to put it in there. Hopefully I'll have the next one out soon. Please don't crucify me if you hate it—I'd rather you break it to me nicely. But if it did suck, then tell me—maybe it can be salvaged…