The sound of a lighter brought him back. Soon after, the smell of nicotine. The smell of smoke. He remembers where he is and who he is with. He remembers how he ended up in this situation; this situation with a red-headed look alike. What he doesn't remember is her name and why he decided any of his actions were a good idea.
He hears the woman next to him exhale. The smell of smoke as well as the view of it circling around them and the bed.
"What's wrong, Lee?"
Lee wasn't the name Levi gave her, but right now, he couldn't care less. It's not like they were ever going to see each other after tonight.
"Hey," the woman said, the sound of the sheets moving indicated that she was putting out her cigarette. After, she switched the lamp on her side of the motel bed on, causing him to shield his eyes for a second using his hand.
"What's wrong?" she repeated.
He let his hand off his face to look at her.
And for a moment he sees.
For a moment he sees shining strawberry blond hair. For a moment he sees large, fiery eyes. For a moment he sees thin eye brows that match that same shade of hair.
For a moment, he thinks everything was the way it used to be. He thinks he is back in his own home, with iher/i. He thinks he smells her scent, he thinks he hears her voice, and he thinks he is in the comfort of his own bed with Petra. He wants to reach out for her.
For a moment he is caught off-guard.
Only for a moment.
A trick of the light. He is brought back to reality. Brought back to the motel room, in a messy bed, with a stranger whose name he doesn't even care to remember. He is brought back into a world without her.
"Hey. What. Is. Wrong." Is repeated slower.
He scowls at her. "Nothing."
"Okay, well I'm heading out for the night," she tells him.
He waits for her to leave but he remembers why she is here in the first place. iOh, right/i.
"Go ahead and reach into my wallet, I don't have shit in there but money anyway."
She shoots him a look, but shrugs and gets off the bed anyway, already in her undergarments. How did she even put them back on without him noticing? Did he even take them off in the first place?
Though he has nothing in his wallet, he watches her open it anyway. Letting her open it, he realized a few seconds later, was a mistake.
"Who is this?" she asks, pointing to a picture of a young woman smiling at a fancy restaurant table.
"A friend," he told her. She was more than a friend.
"She's very pretty." Pretty was an understatement to him.
"Yes. She was."
For a moment, he lets himself go back to seeing Petra in his mind. Beautiful. Bright. Amazing. And alive.
