Love In a Maze

Improvisations

"Hey man there's a girl out here for you." Kid's bodyguard swaggered into the hotel room.

"Girl?" He questioned lip upturning in a question.

"Yeah, man. You know of the female persuasion."

"Yeah, Bosco." He smiled a bit confused. He wasn't aware anyone actually knew where he was. "What does she look like?" He asked putting down his guitar and standing up.

"Dangerous." The big man said towering over his charge.

"Dangerous?"

"Yeah man she looks like you could get into a lot of trouble with this one." He cracked the door and peered out into the private lobby space. There, Athina stood an exact replica of the Polaroid he had taken from her. Leather, lace, netting, make-up dark and alluring. Her hair styled with large curls pushed to one side, ringlets falling over a leather bound shoulder. The ghost of her 16 year old self.

"Shit, I can't believe she actually came." He mumbled to himself breathlessly shutting the cracked door.

"Listen Kid, we can take care of her. I am sure the boys would love to eat her up." Bosco smiled rubbing his hands together hungrily.

"No, I'll take her, but let's make her wait a bit." He thought nervously. He had always been the one to take her by surprise, he hadn't expected her to find him so quickly.

"I get you. Don't let her wait too long though. A girl like that can get taken easily."

"Not from the Kid." He smiled cockily and picked up his guitar again beginning to strum mindlessly.

"How long you want her to wait?"

Stopping his fingers he thought carefully.

"She looks like one of your old girls from back in the day. They don't make'em like that anymore."

"Nope." Again he began to strum. "Listen you tell her I'm busy and I'll be with her as soon as I can." Thinking quickly, he pulled Bosco's frame back to him. "Wait no shit..." Her pieces had found themselves on his side of the game board and he needed to make sure he was still in control. "Just don't say anything... at all. I'll open the door when I'm ready and you can let her in."

"Whatever goes Boss." The big man slipped back through the door and Kid watched through a small crack as he pointed to a chair. He smiled as her red lips snarled and refused to sit as she propped herself against the wall.

He had sent her a pair of shoes only a day ago that had reminded him of the black platforms she wore in her photo. He was certain she would send them back as she had everything he tried to send her. The shoes were boxed with a note that simply said, "I am tired of just looking at this photo. Put these on and come find me." He couldn't believe she actually came. He was tired of chasing her and wanted to see if she would do the same for him, and she had. Athina had expertly played her part, and he was a little nervous she might be playing this game between them too well.

Watching her as she leaned on the wall casually smoking a cigarette under a no smoking sign like a small town rebel, he smiled thinking of the woman she was now and the girl she used to be. As he read through her old journals, when he met met her in the hospital weeks ago he would have never thought they were one and that same.

He wondered if the musicians she had fucked knew how old she was at the time, or even if they had cared. The girl in those pages always seemed to be running from something as she bounced from tour bus to hotel room. Now she only seemed to be running from those memories of herself. He felt a slight tinge of guilt, not really understanding what he had asked her to do until she stood there waiting for entry. But the lace garter belts that peeked from the bottom of her hot pants holding up a very tantalizing pair of net pantyhose said maybe she didn't mind too much. Besides the sky-high platform shoes she wore made her legs look longer than any woman her height should posses, he couldn't wait to touch her, to taste her. He opened the door wider letting Bosco know he was ready.