Chapter 3
“Your key card, please,” the hotel attendant said politely. He looked up and saw Yale for the first time. His eyes bulged slightly, and his smile grew immensely. Keaton smirked. I totally know how you feel, dude, he thought. Yale got the card from her pocket and slapped it on the counter.
“How was your stay?” the attendant asked while he checked Yale out – checked her out of the hotel, I mean. Although, I’m sure he was checking Yale out in that way, too. It looked like he was prolonging the moment and trying to go through the check-out process slowly, just so he could keep talking to her. Didn’t he see Keaton standing right beside her? For all he knew, Keaton could have been her boyfriend. Ha, Keaton wished.
“It was horrible. I don’t understand why you guys are charging me so much money for horrible service. My bed was lumpy, there was hair in the shower drain and I didn’t get my wakeup call this morning so I was late for my appointment with Runway magazine. So thanks to your hotel and this…” she stopped, trying to think of an appropriate word. “– GHASTLY service, I missed my chance of being on the front cover of next month’s issue!” Yale was fuming. Keaton was just shocked. He could never have imagined Yale being mad – she just looked like a soft-spoken person. The attendant blanched.
“Miss, I’m so sorry about that –,” he started, but Yale stopped him.
“It’s okay; it’s not your fault,” she beamed at him. “I’d like to pay now, please.” The attendant looked a little dazed as he finished punching in the right numbers. He handed Yale the machine so she could pay with her bank card. A receipt printed out as soon as Yale finished punching in her PIN. The attendant wrote something on it and handed it to Yale.
“Thank you for staying at The Hilton,” he almost purred. Keaton had the urge to strangle him. Yale grabbed the receipt and turned away without a word. She started walking towards the doors and Keaton followed, carrying most of her bags. She only had two suitcases and three duffel bags so they didn’t have to make a second trip. Yale was carrying a bag and pulling a suitcase while Keaton had everything else.
Keaton caught up with her as they stepped through the hotel entrance and out into the late afternoon sun. She was reading through the receipt. “So,” he started. “You were gonna be on Runway?” He was amazed when she mentioned it but he really wasn’t all that surprised. I mean, look at her – she’s obviously model material.
Yale looked up and smiled. “No,” she answered simply, as if there were no more explanations needed. She just went back to looking through the receipt. Keaton noticed clumsy writing on the back side of it. He cleared his throat.
“You might want to flip to the back of that,” he suggested, unhappily. She stopped walking, did what he said and frowned at the writing. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Yale answered. “It’s just a bunch of numbers.” She handed it to Keaton and he read it out loud.
“7149791829,” he recited. He chuckled. “It’s a phone number, Yale – most likely his.” Keaton jerked his thumb toward the general direction of the entrance. Yale made a face as Keaton tried to hand the receipt back to her.
“Keep it,” she said, keeping her hands away like she didn’t even want to touch it. “Maybe you like him better than I do,” she said with a wink. Keaton just laughed and shook his head as he looked down at the receipt. He noticed the figures for the first time.
“Jesus, how’d you pay for this?” his eyes were wide and staring right at Yale. The receipt was for just a couple dollars shy of two and a half thousand. Yale just looked at him like it was no big deal.
“My debit,” she answered, clearly trying to act nonchalant, but Keaton saw that she didn’t want to talk about it so he dropped it for now. They just stood there while they swam around in their own thoughts until Keaton’s ring tone decided to break the silence. It was a song Yale had never heard before.
Keaton answered it without looking at the caller ID. “We’re outside already, relax… Yeah, bye,” he hung up. “That was Drew, my brother’s friend. He’s really excited to meet you,” he explained with a roll of his hazel eyes.
“Oh, yeah? What have you been telling him about me?” Yale asked as she glared at him mockingly.
“Nothing bad, I swear!” Keaton laughed and threw his hands up in surrender. “But we should get going. I think we should go back to my house first and plan out what we’re gonna do before we drive around.”
Yale was nodding before he even finished. “Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. We should hurry up though. I don’t want to still be homeless by the time it’s dark,” she explained sheepishly. “So I’ll just follow you to your house then?”
“Yeah, sure. Where’s your car so I can help you carry these?” he asked, motioning to her bags.
“Right here,” Yale answered, turning to the right. She walked up to a red Ford Expedition Limited and Keaton whistled under his breath. She opened the back and threw her bags in.
“Is this 2013?” Keaton asked in awe as he set the rest of her bags neatly in the cargo space. He was wondering internally why a girl would need, or even want, such a big SUV. All the girls he knew either had a teeny-tiny car or was forced to drive a truck because they had to share with their brothers.
Yale laughed. “I wish,” she said. “But 2012 isn’t so bad. I’m pretty in love with it right now.” She closed the back and walked towards the driver’s side. She went and sat in the driver’s seat but left the door open so they could keep talking.
“So, what, are you into cars?” Keaton was genuinely curious. You don’t meet a girl that can talk cars every day.
She shook her head. “Nah, but my brother fixes cars whenever he has free time. I guess you could say some of his love for cars rubbed off on me but,” she paused. “I wouldn’t say I was into it.”
“Ah, alright. Well, we can keep talking at my house because we should really get going,” Keaton said with a smile as he scratched the back of his neck. “Just follow the black F-150 right there.” He pointed at the truck about 10 cars down.
“Yeah, alright, let’s go!” Yale replied with excitement. She shut her door as Keaton walked away and waited for the truck to pull out of the parking lot. She was eager to get out of here. Other than the first day of school today, the only time she’s been out was to buy food at the mall about five minutes away. She came here to California to have fun but the only thing she’s done in two weeks was skulk around in her hotel room eating while she watched TV, and swim in the infinity pool. She could barely contain her excitement as she followed the sleek, black truck out onto the freeway.
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Hey guys! What've you been up to?
Sorry if the story's going so slowly but I really wanted to lay down the settings and stuff before I get into the actual plot and all the drama (:
Anyways,
Hope you enjoy!
Frances
YOU ARE READING
New Beginnings
FanfictionYale has always been adventurous. Moving to another country at the age of 16, she leaves her family behind for her biggest adventure yet. This is the story about how she found a new beginning in a place where she never thought of looking.
