Shorter chapter but I needed it to get the ball rolling. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
"... that your snore could put fog horns to shame, Thor!"
"Brother, please, it wasn't so bad! We haven't shared a room since we were but small children! It really took me back several hundred years!"
"Unghhh..." I groaned aloud, the voices waking me sufficiently in confusion. Cracking open my eyes, I was pleasantly surprised by the low-lighting of the room. But it wasn't my room.
Sucking in a breath that resembled a quiet shriek, I shot upright with my eyes wide open, taking in my completely unfamiliar surroundings. How did I get here? My head throbbed viciously at the movement, but I was in a full-blown panic. I had had my fair share of drunken nights on the town, but I never woke up anywhere anywhere besides home or Livvy's. And I was with two strangers, at that.
Taking in my surroundings, I noted that I was lying on a pullout sofa-bed in a rather luxurious hotel room. And there were two men speaking loudly in what I assumed was the adjoining bedroom. Looking at the window, I noted the sliver of light coming through the thick curtains, indicating daytime.
Not bothering to worry with my surroundings any longer, my body acted of its own accord as I began twisting my way out of the bedding, determined to escape before those men came into the room. Panic was gripping my heart like a vice as I tried to remember what had happened. Once I was finally free of the sheets, I felt a small pang of relief that I still had all of my clothes on, except my boots, which were laying haphazardly on the floor next to me. As soon as I reached the edge of the bed, my fears turned into reality as the two men suddenly strolled through the bedroom door, pausing their bickering the moment they saw me. I could only freeze when I looked at them, like a deer looking into headlights.
Seeing them, the cogs in my brain seemed to finally start moving again as I recognized them and suddenly remembered the night before. Distracted, I faltered off-balance by accident, my hands that were supporting my weight slipping off the edge of the bed and sending me literally head-over-heels to the floor, landing with a very harsh thud and a very loud curse from me. My superficial injuries stung like fire.
"Goddammit!"
From somewhere in the hotel, I heard someone shout, "Language!"
"Fuck you!" I screamed back before flipping my knotted mess of hair out of my face to look at the two men. If my memories from the night before were right, then the dark-haired one's name was Loki. And then when I had awakened, I heard Loki address the blond as Thor.
The blond, Thor, looked a bit startled, and largely confused. The other, Loki, looked slightly amused, if only by the curve of his mouth that indicated at least a small smirk. Thinking much more quickly than I usually did while so hungover (God, it had been months since I'd had four of those drinks in one night), I snatched my boots to my chest as I glared daggers at the men. "Don't come any closer!" I said quickly, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. I had thrown one palm out in an accompanying gesture, and that's when I noticed that my injured hand was wrapped neatly. "What the hell...?" Observing my obviously tended-to wounds, I suddenly found myself doubting what I thought was going on. Looking back sharply at the two, I said in what I hoped was a dominant tone, "What the hell happened? Where the hell am I and why am I here?"
It seemed my impression of Loki from the night before was true as he said nothing, only rolling his eyes and strolling his way toward the window. Thor seemed just as bright as the night before. Relaxing his shoulders and showing his bare hands in a sign of peace, he said, "Do not worry. You merely seemed to have imbibed too much of your city's drink and fell unconscious before we – "
"We?" Loki cut in a bit scathingly.
"I," Thor backtracked, looking slightly exasperated at the interruption, "could acquire the address of your residence. It wasn't safe to leave you out there, so I," he emphasized, shooting a look at his brother, "brought you back here to our current abode to recover."
Blinking a few times, certain that I was hallucinating or dreaming or just not hearing things right, I looked almost crazily at the man and blurted out, "Dude, what the hell is with the way you talk? The renaissance fair was months ago." The larger man's face crumpled into confusion, so I just brushed it aside. "You know what? Nevermind. Where am I?"
Pulling myself to my feet, still clutching my boots to my chest, I directed my question solely at the blond this time, his apparent brother obviously excluding himself as a party in the matter and looking out the window.
"We're in a hotel known as the 'Maison Dupuy.' It is only a short distance from where we we encountered you."
The Maison Dupuy. I knew exactly where we were. We were only a short ways from Bourbon Street, and not that much further of a walk to the ferry. "R-right," I tried to say calmly. I was okay. I was okay. "Well, uh, thanks? I think? Um, I should be going..." I said as I sat on the edge of the bed to pull my boots on.
"Miss...?" I heard Thor ask cautiously.
"Alexis," I responded, never having liked formalities like that. "Just Alexis. Or Lex, if it's easier for you."
"Um, Alexis," Thor said, seeming a bit nervous. "My sincerest apologies if we may have frightened you. I am Thor, and that," he indicated to the man standing at the window, "is my brother, Loki. I wish to make it up to you, if you'd let me."
Was this handsome, foreign blond man asking me out? If he was telling the truth about what had happened the night before, then hadn't he already done enough for me? I was clearly okay, and if I had been left out in the city alone and passed out, I probably wouldn't have been.
"Um..." I tried, my brain hurting from too much activity while I was still hungover. "I mean, haven't you done enough already? Like I said, thanks. But I still think I should go..." Finishing putting on my boots, I stood and looked awkwardly at the two. "Um, thanks. Bye."
With that, I darted out of the room, narrowly dodging the housekeeper right outside the door and making my way outside. I didn't slow my half-running pace as I began my trek home. Looking up, I could see where Loki was still looking out of the window, except his eyes were following me rather than taking in the city sights.
…
"Nanny, Pop, I'm headed to work!" I shouted into the house as I came in the back door. My grandmother was just in the next room, the laundry room, and I took a strong guess that my grandfather was in the living room watching football. I always peeked in to tell them when I was leaving. You know. Just in case.
"Okay, honey. Be safe!" I heard my grandmother call back.
"Do y'all need anything before I go?" I called back. "Do I need to bring some dinner home? Or I can have Mrs. Deveroux bring something over?" Mrs. Deveroux was a neighbor who I had enlisted to help me keep an eye on my grandparents while I was away with school or work.
"No, we're fine, Alexis. Now hurry, you don't want to be late!"
I quickly obliged and made my way to the ferry, noting to bring them home something to eat. Nanny would always adamantly say she would be just fine making dinner, but I knew it put too much strain on her when she tried. If she succeeded, then they would at least have a meal for later.
It was three weeks after my drunken incident, but it was barely a memory by that point between work, finals, and the holidays. I had been entirely too wrapped up in washing dishes and doing research papers to think about the incident, and nothing else had happened so I had put it out of my mind completely.
After leaving the ferry and making the quick trek to Bubba-Gump, I quickly clocked in and began my grueling six hour shift of cleaning other people's messes.
Whatever. It paid the bills.
The staff in the restaurant were nice enough, and the servers would sometimes step into the dish-pit to lend me a hand if we were really in a crunch. One server in particular, Chase, was always quick to offer me a helping hand. And his phone number, every chance he got.
"Hey, Lex. I didn't know you worked today," said man addressed, capturing my attention from the scalding water I was spraying on the dishes. He was leaning over the dish bump, smiling brightly at me. His brown hair was styled a bit with gel and his blue eyes seemed to twinkle.
Groaning inwardly and wishing he could leave me alone for just one shift, I replied as politely as possible, "I didn't either, until about seven this morning. Josh called in sick." I threw the dishes I just rinsed into a large tray, wasting no time in shoving it into the washer.
"Oh, that kind of sucks," he said, though he didn't seem very apologetic. I knew why. "Well, at least I'm here to keep you company!" There it is.
"Yeah..." I replied, trying to sound at least remotely enthusiastic, but it just made me want to choke. As nice of a guy as Chase was, he was almost too nice, which was a bit unsettling for me. And it didn't help that he had been trying for about three months to get me to go on a date with him. How many ways could a girl say no? I wasn't sure, but I knew that I would find out if he kept it up. He was about another two invitations away from getting smacked in the face with a hard stream of hot water one day.
"So, any plans for after work?" he asked, to which I immediately wanted to throw a plate at his head but resisted.
"Yes," I fibbed. It was only a little white lie, and did hold a little bit of truth. I had plans... To bring dinner home to my grandparents and binge Netflix. But I wasn't going to tell him that. "I have my class schedule to finish for Spring semester." Also a truthful lie. While I did have to finish finalizing my Spring schedule, I had already completed it on paper. School began again in only a couple of weeks.
"Is work and school all you ever do?" he asked, still smiling at me but not quite as jovial as he was before he was turned down. "I mean, don't you ever go out and party or something?"
"I do. Just not very often." It was becoming difficult to not grind my teeth in irritation, not slowing my pace in cleaning the never-ending mountain of dishes.
"Right," he said disbelievingly. "And the Audubon just got a Mosasaurus."
Fucking nerd.
"I do," I defended, though I wasn't bothered to try too hard. I couldn't care enough about the guy's opinion, just the fact that I had to be civil if I didn't want to lose my job. "I just went out a couple weekends ago." Three, actually, but who's counting? "You know end-of-semester is a crazy time for college students. And, well, you know how Christmas and New Years is, too."
"Well, the holidays are over and school doesn't start back for a couple more weeks. So how about I give you my number and – "
"Chase, you were supposed to clock in five minutes ago! You have two tables waiting!" I heard our manager call from across the back of the restaurant.
Slightly smirking, I watched his stricken-face pale slightly as he darted off and I returned my full attention to the dishes. I could tell by the clock on the wall that had been behind Chase that he was late, but I was feeling a bit playful and "casually" forgot to mention that he was missing his shift. Maybe that was a bit bitchy of me, but the guy needed a reality check sometimes.
…
"Thanks, Daniel!" I called back to one of the cooks as I walked out of work, a bag in each hand full of food to take home. All-in-all, the shift hadn't been terrible, and asides from a few unwelcome visits (coughChasecough), the shift ran rather quickly. It was about to start getting dark, and New Orleans was gathering to life again after the staleness of daytime in a party city. However, 4PM on a Saturday meant a crowded ferry. While I didn't worry too much about myself, I knew my bags could get snatched in a heartbeat if I wasn't careful.
"Hey, Lex!"
I internally groaned, mentally kicking myself for not knowing that getting away wouldn't be so easy. Plastering on a fake smile, I turned outside of Bubba-Gump to greet Chase once more.
He must have gotten off the same time as me. Dammit.
"What's up, Chase?" I asked in an exasperated tone as I turned to face the man. Yeah, he was attractive, but he was just so dumb sometimes.
"Well, I noticed that since we both got off work at the same time that you might like to go grab a drink or something. Tomorrow is Sunday so you can just work on your schedule then, right?"
Yeah, I could. But you could also just stop assuming things, asshole.
Trying an apologetic look, I feigned slight disappointment. "Sorry, I still have to get this food home. You know, to feed my grandparents." He knew I took care of Nanny and Pop.
Smiling like he was some kind of genius, he said, "Oh, come on! How about I just order them some pizza and send it to them?"
I almost didn't resist the urge to eye-roll. Opting for a more economical approach, I said, "I already bought them food." I waggled the bags in my hands a little at him. "I'm not gonna let you waste your money and my food just to avoid going home."
"Hey it won't be a waste if – "
"Alexis?"
Oh, no. I remember that voice. Mostly because I could never forget the strangeness of it. Turning to look to my right, I noticed two men approaching from across the street, the one in front waving cheerily at me. Thor and Loki. Honestly, I never expected to see them again in my life. But here they were. And so was my escape plan.
"Thor! Loki! I was worried you'd be late!" I said with enthusiasm, giving the two a very, very pointed look as Chase's attention was on them for the moment. The two men seemed a tad confused, but were at least smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Turning to Chase, I indicated to the two men who had just approached us. "Ah, Chase, these are my friends, Thor and Loki. They came to meet me so I could take them back to Nanny and Pop's." Glancing nervously at the two beautiful men who looked as if they'd been thrown off-kilter, I said, "They, uh, they're coming to do some work on the roof! You know, it's an old house and my grandparents can't do it themselves, so..."
I looked hopefully at Chase, praying that my lie wasn't too obvious. Chase, however, seemed to be sizing Thor and Loki up, jealousy rich in his eyes. "Oh," he said shortly, not taking his eyes off the men. After a moment of hesitation, he shook his head and looked at me, a smile back on his face. A confused smile, but a smile, nonetheless. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. You just didn't mention you were meeting some people earlier."
"That's okay," I said, not offering an excuse. "But we really must be going. There's only a little daylight left and Pop wants the estimate pronto. Bye!"
As I turned and motioned for the two men to follow me, I heard Chase say a farewell before muttering something about carpentry work on a Saturday. Once the three of us had crossed to the next street and Chase was safely out of sight, I rounded back on the two men who had dutifully followed me, though both clearly confused as to why.
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" I said in a bit of a humiliated panic, trying to look as apologetic as possible. "I know! I know I seem crazy! I just needed an excuse to get away from that guy. God, he just bugs me so much – "
"Lady Alexis," Thor interrupted me. "Has that man been bothering you? Do I need to – "
Need to what? I thought to myself as I cut him off. "No, no! Nothing like that! He is just a very persistent guy and I was needing any excuse to get away from him. I'm sorry that I dragged you two into it. I don't even really know y'all so I don't know what the hell I was thinking."
"Matters not," Thor said brightly, smiling. "It's a pleasure to run into you again. Well, for me. Brother, here, probably disagrees."
I didn't doubt it. Loki hadn't said a word, only putting on a sour expression during the whole ordeal.
"Um, I guess it was nice seeing you again, too. You saved me from crushing that poor guy's heart in front of a lot of people." Seriously, if Thor and Loki hadn't shown up, I knew I would have been forced to put my foot down with Chase. I may not have cared for the guy, but no one deserves to be shot down in public, especially while sober and especially when the two people involved work together.
"So... Are we really accompanying you to your grandparents' home?" Thor asked, still smiling. He seemed to find joy in everything.
"Ah, no," I said embarrassedly. "I, uh, I just made that up. You guys don't have to come with me anywhere. I just needed to get away. Like I said, I'm really sorry I kind of used you two to get away. I probably interrupted something important – "
"Nonsense," Thor said in that beautiful accent that he and his brother shared. "A lady in trouble should have someone around to save her."
With that, Loki finally spoke up, though his tone matched the disdainful look on his face. "Yes, and Thor here seems to have a real soft spot for damsels in distress."
"Hey!" I snapped defensively. "I am not a damsel in distress! I just didn't want to hurt the guy's feelings!"
"Looked to me like being turned down wouldn't dissuade him." His voice was cold, challenging.
And dammit, he was right. I had turned Chase down many, many times already and he didn't slow his efforts in the least. But I wasn't about to admit that to this pompous asshole. "I had it under control."
"Of course. Why else would you enlist two almost complete strangers to aid you in a lie?" Stopping himself, Loki sighed. "But whatever. It's not like I care about the inner workings of a mortal's mind."
Mortal?
Kinda giving Loki a bit of a crazy look, I turned to look at Thor as I said, "Um, suuure... Anyway, thank you for helping me again. I swear I'm not doing this on purpose."
"'Tis quite alright, Lady Alexis," Thor said, ignoring his brother completely. "You've shown yourself as different from other women in this city. It's quite intriguing."
"Um, right..." Jesus, I had forgotten how weird these guys were. I probably needed to get away from them, too. "Well, I should be going. You know, before this food gets cold." I indicated to the bags in my hands."
"Of course," Thor said a bit apologetically, though Loki said nothing. "Glad to be of assistance. I hope we see you again."
"Um, yeah. Again, thanks." With that, I all but fled from the scene, high-tailing it for the ferry. As thankful as I was for their (well, Thor's) help, their odd accents and strange idiosyncrasies really seemed to weird me out. Those guys weren't only like from another era, but from another planet entirely. How did I keep getting caught up with creeps?
PLEASE R&R!
