Chapter Text
You glance at the tiny glowing spots through your plane window. The night sky was illuminated by multiple building, street, and car lights as the plane passed through. It was going to take another hour or so before you could land, due to turbulence. It was an understatement to say that you were excited to start this journey in your life! A fresh start at college was just what you needed after all the drama that traumatized you in high school. Small blinks here or there made you realize that you were starting to drift off, you didn’t fight it, a good rest until your new life starts…
Your new life didn’t start off as well as you wanted it to be. Panicking at the airport’s help desk and barely able to form a coherent sentence, you complained to the woman that you were supposed to be Los Angeles right now, and not Phoenix.
“Miss, I already told you, you don’t have a connecting flight. This is your final destination,” the receptionist lady told you.
“Clearly not! Here, look at my ticket!” You ignore her misgendering and shove your ticket in the lady’s face rather hard. She backed away from the counter, her expression twisted in fear as she looked back at you. You pointed to the location on the ticket, it said the flight was to LAX instead of PHX. “See?? Same terminal and everything! I did what I was supposed to!”
“Y-yes I see that, but you’re here, in the Phoenix airport,” The receptionist lady told you.
“Why!?”
“I’m sorry miss but I have no idea! Maybe your flight changed at the last minute?” The reception lady was trying not to cry as she looked at you with fear. You sighed and stepped away from the desk.
Looking at other flights on the schedule board, none were connecting flights to LA, or even anywhere out of state. It didn’t make sense to you. Walking away from the board and sitting down for the first time in an hour, you dialed up your parent’s number to tell them the bad news. They weren’t too worried about you since you told them that you hadn’t even stepped out of the airport, you rolled your eyes at their nonchalance. It seemed like you had to crash at the airport, or at least stay at the hotel nearby. It was past midnight and you were exhausted; you decided to take a short nap before doing anything else. Your eyes hung heavily and you leaned back in your seat.
With a loud gasp, you woke up from a deep sleep. The morning rays hit your retinas as you turned your head up. It was morning already. Fuck— How long did you sleep for? You checked your phone. It was seven in the morning. Shit , you thought to yourself. You had to get out of here. You slowly walked out of the airport and felt the humid environment, it’s going to be a long stay in Arizona…
There was a travel bus that was getting people to board, no one was checking so you just got on without a word. Honestly, there were barely any passengers on the bus at all, which should’ve been the first red flag for you. The second was the bus driver saying that the stop was in ‘Paradise’ and not ‘Paradise Valley’. You sat still and distracted yourself with mobile games and music. It felt like hours before you finally came to a stop.
The small neighborhood outside looked like a ghost town, and the people who roamed looked like mindless zombies. You sighed and stepped off the bus and onto the dry ground. While walking in the town with your luggage, you glance around at the people walking, doing their daily errands, nothing seemed too bad until two guys started shooting at each other in the distance. You panicked and ran behind a building to hide from the gunners. What the fuck was that!? You ran down the street to find a motel or something to crash at for a few days. Nothing remotely close was around. You curse to yourself, I regret not driving to LA.
The humidity was catching up to you. Sweat covered your body, making you feel sticky and gross. You were just about to give up until you heard the crumpling of paper beneath your foot. It was a map of Paradise. Thank goodness! You bent down and grabbed it with haste. There was a new motel down the street! You raced down the sidewalk to find a building with “MOTEL” written in giant letters. It was so beautiful at that moment. A rush of relief flooded to you as you walked in. The AC was trash but you took literally any type of cool air over none at all.
After paying for the week, you settle in your trashy motel room. At least it had cable, that was a plus. Nothing else seemed to matter as you pulled out your tablet and started to draw. You challenged yourself to draw as many paintings as you could before the new school semester started. It was hard, and you were a procrastinator, but it was motivation to stop thinking about killing yourself. You used your stylus and quickly sketched the motel room from your perspective. There wasn’t much in decorations, and the slightly desaturated amber colored walls were a nightmare to look at. You sighed and put the tablet away. Nothing was working. Damn it. You knocked yourself on the head like someone knocking on a door.
You sat on the edge of the bed, thinking to yourself again. How could I let this shit happen to me!? I’m a fucking failure …
You gathered a small satchel and your motel room key, walking out to get a soda or something. You needed to stop panicking and clear your mind. There was a store nearby called Lucky Ganesh, the subheading said ‘International Market,’ but international was overlaid with ‘All-American.’ You hummed in suspicion before walking in. A giant wave of a strong bloody musk hit you. You covered your nose instinctively and avoided the freezer section of the store. Without much of a fuss, you grabbed a soda of your choosing and stood in line to wait. It wasn’t even a long line but it felt like hours. You thought about just kicking the next guy in the ribs to pay for your soda faster. But, you weren’t like that, you shook your head and sighed while standing in line.
Hope was reviving within you when it was finally the guy in front of yours turn to pay for his load of junk food. All you thought about was paying for your soda and getting the fuck out of this place. What you didn’t notice was the fact that a tall man in a trench coat was running up behind the guy in front of you. The tall man kicked the shit out of the guy in front of you and placed his milk in front of the clerk. The guy paying tumbled to the floor, scattering bills on the floor. The scene shook you back to reality. What just happened? You peered up at the tall man, he was freakishly tall and thin. Despite a pair of sunglasses hiding his eyes from you, you could see the natural aging of a mature man. He was somewhere in his 40s. It took the man side-eyeing and glaring down on you with a scowl to show you his bright green eyes. You felt something drop in your care and you looked up at him; staring at the man stupidly.
“What’re you lookin’ at?” The sudden voice from the tall stranger startled you. It was an understatement to say that you were embarrassed. But his voice was just so hot to you. You could practically hear what he sounds like when he groans.
As the tall man finished his purchase, you kept on staring at him until he left the store. The person standing behind you had to shove you forward to get you to pay for your soda. You did so while being called an infidel(while previously not caring about religion, you feel as though that man was your savior now). You walk back to the motel with a wide grin on your face. Maybe staying in Paradise for your vacation wasn’t so bad.
It took an hour or two to get situated in the motel. The sun was still out; it was barely near the evening. Thinking to yourself, you decided to talk another walk down the neighborhood to check the town out. Especially with hope that the tall stranger was around. You couldn’t text any of your friends about him, they’d probably call him fugly. He kind of was. You didn’t care, though. He can be fugly and hot at the same time.
Skipping around a town like this was not the best idea. Yet, you were determined to find that stranger. He wasn’t easy to miss at all. You found him running errands rather quickly. You followed him from a distance, he looked clueless to your subtle stalking. As he turned a corner, you stepped up close to see what he was going. You peaked over the corner to find it empty with the man nowhere to be found. You huff to yourself in disappointment. Before you could turn around and walk the other way, a strong arm shoved you to the wall. Pointing right at your forehead was the cold barrel of a beretta. Attached to the arm was the tall man, he frowned at you and held you further against the wall.
“The fuck are ya doin’? What’s your problem?” The man asked you with that smooth voice of his.
You muttered out incoherent things. To the man’s vexation, he reluctantly pulled the gun away from your head. Your gaze slowly moved up to the man’s face again. He still had those damn shades on. For a second, you caught your bearings and spoke up to the man.
“I… I like your face.” You mentally shot yourself. Why the fuck did I say that!?
The man stepped back in dismay, his grip on you dropping. He looked awkward at your comment. He could tell you were much younger than he was. No doubt, he thought you were very attractive, but he couldn’t tell if you were serious or not. “You gotta be fucking kidding me…”
“Uh, no not really… I like you..r face. I promise…?” There’s no going back now, you have to lie in that grave you dug.
The man scoffed in amusement, he was enjoying this. His face twisted in a devious smirk as he looked back at you. “Who the fuck even are you?”
You nervously give him your name. It was a little late to introduce yourself normally, but it was worth a shot. “So, yeah. Nice to meet you… sir?”
He laughed at your compliment. You were adorable, and adorably stupid to him. He lowered his shades to look you up and down. It gave you a chance to sneak a glance at his bright green eyes again. You smile nervously back at him again. He pulls his shades back before grabbing you by your shoulder and walking you down the street. “Nice to meet you, babe. You can call me Dude.”
You bit your lip as smooth words slipped out of Dude’s mouth. He walked you back to your motel. You were too busy day dreaming about his body up against yours to ask how he knew where you were staying. You bid him goodbye and walked back into your room. Back in the motel, you took a long and hot shower, feeling yourself up and down pretending it was Dude who was touching you. It was going to be a long week…