HOSTEL
Chapter Eight — The Things We Missed
Snap.
Rebecca looked around. Celeste was hovering over her, breasts swaying ever so gently over Rebecca’s face in a way that was almost impossible to resist. The sheet of paper she’d handed over to Celeste lay forgotten on a pillow. Everything else—beds, sheets, the backpack and its disgorged contents, their scattered clothes—remained exactly the same.
Rebecca blinked and turned her head, fighting the urge to bury her face in that deep, lovely cleavage. Her eyes came to rest on the sheet of paper. “Did you read it all?” she asked.
Celeste’s pretty eyes dimmed for a moment. “Read what, Rebecca?”
“Never mind, I’m still half-asleep.” She raised her head. To her dismay, the brunette pulled back from her, keeping those tantalizing breasts just out of reach. “Were you watching over me, you creeper?”
“I kind of spaced out. You’re so pretty when you sleep, Rebecca.” Celeste sighed, happily, and the puppy-dog look returned. “You’re always so pretty.” She sat down on the far end of the bed and began tracing her finger around Rebecca’s legs. “I was kind of hoping that, when you woke up… maybe you could put me under again? Seeing you all blissed out gave me some… thoughts. About you, and about me.” She blushed as she looked down at the bed. “I’m sorry, I guess I am kind of a creeper.”
“You’re a sexy creeper,” said Rebecca. While Celeste looked down at the sheets, she quietly grabbed the sheet of paper.
Tell me that I will wake up when I hear you snap your fingers.
You will read and obey the next two lines.
When you hear the sound of your fingers snapping, you will drop this piece of paper and forget that you hypnotized me.
Snap your fingers.
Thank you for that idea, Alice. She scrunched the paper into a ball and tucked it beneath her pillow. Alice wasn’t likely to go searching through her trash can, but then again, maybe she was. For a busy woman, she certainly seemed to have plenty of time on her hands when it came to Rebecca’s affairs. Better safe than sorry. She pictured herself dropping it into the trash just before boarding her flight home, and smiled. “Hey, Celeste, come here.”
The brunette inched closer. “Are you…”
She brought her hand down in front of the brunette’s confused face. “Sleep, Celeste.”
“You’re hypnotized, Em. Just like before. Let your mind go deeper and deeper. Hearing only my voice. You are blank and obedient.”
“Blank… obedient…” The redhead sat crosslegged on the dorm room floor, staring at the cheap plastic metronome as it clicked back and forth.
“I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them. You’re doing so well, Emily. You’re so good at this.”
“Yes.” back and forth… back and forth…
She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Her hypnotized friend paid no attention to the unexpected delay, and waited quietly for Rebecca to speak. It was just like that first day, the two of them on Emily’s bed, the pretty crystal swaying in front of those empty brown eyes…
“Do you find me attractive, Emily?”
A pause. Not long, but an eternity all the same. Finally, her ruby lips parted again. “No. You’re… pretty. Not… no.”
“How do you feel about Roger Thorpe?”
Her lips curled into a faint smile. “He’s… sweet. I… I don’t know?”
“That’s perfect, Em. That’s so perfect. I told you I’d fix this. Now, just one more thing.”
“Blank and obedient, Celeste. Let everything else in the world fall away. This room, this bed, your body, letting everything slowly fade away into blissful nothingness, like a cloud floating away, drifting away. So peaceful and calm, and drifting away. You feel so good, floating away on your pink puffy cloud.”
“Mmmmm…” Celeste mumbled. “Pufffff…”
“Puffy and warm and safe. Floating so gently, it’s making you so sleepy, Celeste. So sleepy. You can just rest and listen to my voice. Just drift off to sleep and listen to my voice.”
“Mmmmhmmm.”
She watched the gentle rise and fall of Celeste’s chest. She envied the girl lying on the bed, head barely visible above the mountain range of pillows, eyes closed and lips gently parted. Celeste, lost in her trance, knew nothing about Alice, or the hostel, or anything that went on inside. Nothing, for that matter, about the world at large, about politics, about money, about suffering. All she had was the gentle bliss of being in trance, and the sound of Rebecca’s voice. It was all she’d ever need.
I could be her. We could all be her. Tell Alice what I’ve done, let her put me into that chair, brainwash me back into mindless obedience. Become her puppet.
She thought of Olivia, and how it might feel to no longer be Rebecca Sanders. Her friends, her family, her hopes and dreams… all erased. That was what servitude to Alice got people in the end. Erased.
“Where are you right now, Celeste?”
“On a cloud.” Her eyelids fluttered. “Pink puffy cloud. Ffffffloating.”
“Good. You’re so relaxed right now, it’s easy to let my words fill your thoughts. Just lie back and let me think for you. Let me take care of you, Celeste. Because your trust me. You can just lie back on your warm, fluffy cloud, and let me do alllll of the hard work, while you rest. Rest, Celeste. Sleep, and listen.”
“Ssssss…”
Rest? Yes? Rebecca couldn’t quite make out the girl’s sleepy response. Not that it mattered. Not for long. “Whenever you’re awake, Celeste, I want you to act like your old self. Not a slave, not under hypnosis, not under my control. Just yourself. You will say, think, believe, and do anything you want to do, no matter what. Do you understand?”
“Myself. But…”
“Shhhh. Don’t think. It’s so hard to think, Celeste. So tiring. And you’re already so, so tired, sleeping on your pretty pink cloud. Rest. Rest and listen to me. everything I’ve said makes perfect sense to you. It makes sense to act like yourself, because that’s who you are. Doesn’t that make sense?”
“Yeah.” The worry drained away from Celeste’s face. “Makes sense.”
“What will you do when you’re awake? Now that my thoughts are your thoughts. What will you do when you’re awake?”
“I will act like myself. I will do whatever I want to do.”
“Good.” Rebecca gave her peaceful friend one last envious glance. “Now, just one more thing…”
Snap.
Celeste opened her eyes. She looked up at Rebecca and brushed the hair from her face. “That was… mmmm. That was hot, Rebecca. Holy shit.”
It wasn’t quite the response that Rebecca had been expecting from the girl she’d just mentally freed, and she quietly cursed herself. Alice’s hold on them was apparently too string to break. Which meant that-
“I can do whatever I want, right?” Without warning, she pressed Rebecca’s face against her chest, and Rebecca yelped with happy surprise. “Then I’m going to screw you senseless, girlfriend.”
The moaning and shouting was much louder than the day before; neither of them cared or thought much about lowering their volume, not when the sex was this good, not when a single touch felt like an electric shock and a gentle touch of Celeste’s lips on Rebecca’s pussy lips sent the latter into a joyous spiral of erotic bliss. She ran her fingers through a tangle of brown, wavy hair and closed her eyes. Celeste kept going like a perfect robot, even if she was no longer any such thing.
Celeste looked up and smiled. “I’m better at this than I thought I’d be,” she said, before diving back in like a swimmer at the pool.
Rebecca arched her back and pawed at her own tits, lost in pleasure. Her partner lifted her head again, making a show of placing her index finger in her mouth and drawing it out with a long, slow fffip. The finger went exactly where Rebecca wanted it to go, and she moaned again.
“I love you so much, Rebecca,” Celeste cooed, as her finger worked its way in and out, becoming faster with each iteration. “God, I am so hot right now!”
“Mmmmmmmmmmmeeeee tooo,” was all Rebecca could manage. She shut her eyes as Celeste added another finger to the mix. She squirmed until the brunette placed a free hand in top of her to keep her in place. “Don’t… stop… Celeste… don’tstopdontstopdoonnnnnn…”
She let the fireworks begin again, for the third time. It was just as magical as the first. Celeste was as magical now as when they’d first met. Freedom from Alice’s compulsions had, if anything, made the sex ten times better.
She came, hard, as Celeste switched to furiously rubbing her own slit. It didn’t take long for her to climax as well, and the two exhausted women fell happily against one another.
“I love you, Celeste,” she said between ragged breaths.
She meant it.
They curled up on Celeste’s bed, bodies locked together beneath the sheets and the heavy comforter. It was quiet in the hall, and Alice, for once, was nowhere to be seen or heard. They both appreciated the rare hours of privacy.
“Are you sure about this? The two of us, together, in a relationship?” Rebecca bit her tongue as soon as she said it, but the thought was already out in the world now, and she’d have to face the consequences. Nothing sounded more pathetic than a girl who wasn’t confident in herself. In her abilities. In her choice of lovers.
“Just because Alice hypnotized me into falling in love with you doesn’t mean that I can’t, you know, actually fall in love with you.
“That’s a pretty strong statement.” God Rebecca shut up shut up what’s wrong with you?
“You didn’t have to do what you did, you know. I was perfectly happy being your mindless little hypno-slave. I guess Alice figured that if she made me fall in love with you, I’d happily do whatever you wanted.”
Then Celeste leaned in and muttered something that seemed awfully familiar.
“The thing is… what if she wasn’t wrong?”
The train rocked from side to side. This time, Rebecca happily let Celeste roll into her. After a particularly heavy lurch, she let herself collapse into the brunette’s lap with a laugh and a happy wink.
Celeste responded by playfully swatting at her. “Ugh, there are so many weirdos on public transit!”
“Just wait until I follow you home, pretty young lady.”
Celeste tapped her feet impatiently on the floor of the train car. “Where are we headed, anyway? You promised that you’d tell me once we got on the U-bahn. We’re on the U-bahn. Fess up.”
Rebecca hoisted herself back into a seated position. “We’re going back to that store we went to the other day. The one with the blonde.”
“What? Why? You said the hypnosis didn’t work on her.” Her face turned suspicious. “You’re not going there to hypnotize her, are you? Start our own little army of mindless slaves?”
“Shh!” Rebecca jammed her finger into Celeste’s side, causing the brunette to jump out of her seat. “You can’t just talk about this stuff out loud like that!”
Celeste scooted back over to her seat and then some, until her hips were solidly pressed against Rebecca’s. “I can do anything I want. Besides, who’s going to give a shit, besides Alice?”
This one got herself mixed up with a rather awful man named Arthur Davies. He got into her head and tried to turn her against me. Now I will tolerate a lot of things, dearie, but not that!
“I wish I knew, Celeste. I really do.”
“You’re thinking about that guy you were telling me about.” Celeste continued to tap her feet. “I’m not worried. I know that you’ll keep us both safe. From everyone.”
“I would kill to have your confidence,” said Rebecca.
“Pfffft! Ahahahaha!” Celeste swung her legs up and bent over, laughing. “Me? ME? Confident? Oh my God, you should follow me around upstate New York for a day or two. I can barely decide what to eat for lunch at the student union, confident! Picking classes is a nightmare! My mom wants me to go back to psychology. And my dad is all…” She let her voice drop into a low baritone. “Well oh no no, you made your decision, now stick with it!”
Rebecca leaned against the window of the train car. They had one stop to go. It occurred to her that while Celeste was telling her all about life back home, she had shared very little about herself in return. Celeste didn’t seem to mind. Perhaps talking about it was her way of getting through what had just happened to the both of them. Or, perhaps it was a way to avoid talking about it at all.
“Oh!” Celeste’s hands flew up in mock surprise. “Shocker! Maybe I like both men and women, mom! I mean, do I think Chad is hot? Yes, yes I do. Do I think Mara has an incredible ass? Yes, also yes.”
Rebecca giggled at that one. She eyed the girl sitting next to her. Mara wasn’t the only girl with an incredible ass.
Celeste finally wound down, looking exhausted after purging so much negative energy in such a short period of time. “It’s just too much, Rebecca. It really is.” Her hand rested on Rebecca’s knee. “I think that’s why I don’t mind any of this. Being hypnotized. Being controlled. For once in my life, I don’t have to be the responsible one. I can let someone else do the driving.”
Rebecca placed her hand on top of the brunette’s. “You’re right. I’ll keep you safe.” She squeezed her hand. “I promise.”
She turned her head just in time to meet Celeste’s lips. A quick kiss, followed by others of increasing passion and duration. Those gold-flecked hazel eyes stared into hers. Satisfied, she tucked the brunette’s head under her own and cuddled her as best she could.
They said nothing for the rest of the ride.
They reached the door of the shop, and Celeste reached for the door handle. Rebecca took her hand and held it tightly. “Not yet, not before we talk.”
“About what?”
“Look into my eyes,” Rebecca commanded, and the brunette complied immediately. “Deep into trance just for me, Celeste. Deep into trance. You’ll always fall deep into trance for me.”
“Deep. Yes.” The light faded from her eyes. Rebecca felt the hand she held lose all tension and form, like steel turning into rubber.
“I’m going to hypnotize Elke. You’re going to stand by the front door, blank and obedient, until I’m finished. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Rebecca. I am blank. O… obedient.”
“Now we’re ready,” Rebecca declared, pushing open the shop door. A soft chime echoed above her head. “Come inside with me.”
“Yes, Rebecca.”
Elke was standing at the counter, but her back was to the two women entering the store. The sound of the bells sent her spinning on her heels to face her new customers. “Hallo!” She raised her voice. “Willkommen zu die Erinnerungen!” She smiled and spread her arms across the counter, trying to appear as welcoming as possible.
Rebecca approached the counter as Celeste stayed behind, earning a suspicious glare from the shopgirl. Too late, Rebecca realized her mistake. Having one person distract the salesperson while the other hung near the entrance, ready to make a grab-and-dash, was an obvious threat in a little shop like this. This was a nice neighborhood, but crimes happened every day, everywhere.
To compensate, she threw herself into her new role, widening her arms as well and grinning as enthusiastically as possible. “Oh, HI!” She stretched the smile a bit further. “Remember me? I came in looking for an album? ALBUM? Is it still here? I’m just going to go check.” She moved to the record rack, giving Elke plenty of time to assess the pretty young woman by the door. Celeste was soon transfixed by a store display, and the shopgirl’s posture gradually cooled.
Right where I want you. A little tired, but not too much. She found the old Scorpions record and held it up. “Yes! It’s still here!”
“It’s three Euros for each one,” the shopgirl sighed. It felt like the end of a long, and apparently very busy day. Perhaps Elke had stayed up late the night before, partying with her boyfriend. Rebecca approached the counter with her purchase, appreciating the irony of the situation. She was supposed to steal Elke away from all of this. Instead, she was going to make certain that the German girl would never leave this shop. Would never leave the lucky bastard she was dating. Would spend the rest of her life living in quiet, happy, backwater bliss. Safe.
I can fix it.
The girl straightened as Rebecca approached, and prepared to dig into the till for change. “Three Euros,” she repeated.
Rebecca held out the record. The shopgirl took it and placed it flat on the counter, revealing the pretty crystal that Rebecca had hidden behind it. The overhead lights sent a blizzard of multi-colored sparkles across Elke’s surprised face.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Rebecca slipped into her hypnotist voice as the girl across from her began to sink towards the counter. Her face was already beginning to smooth out. “It’s so pretty. You look so, so tired, Elke. So very tired….”
flash flash flash flash flash
“Your mind is completely empty now, Elke. Completely blank.”
“Yes,” replied the entranced blonde. “Completely empty.”
“Completely blank. Say it.”
“Completely blank.”
Rebecca’s pussy hummed, just as it always did when a beautiful woman sank into trance before her. A hand drifted to her crotch before she caught herself, and she redoubled her efforts to stay professional. Just like Alice, a professional mind-bender. “Elke, listen to me, Can you do that?”
“Yes. I… yessss…”
“Good.” She stuffed the crystal into the pocket of her jeans and ‘accidentally’ brushed the very spot she’d been trying so hard to avoid a moment before. Mmmm, fuck, I’m gonna need to take Celeste back to bed after this, holy hell. “My thoughts are your thoughts right now. What I think, you believe. Say it.”
“What you think… I… I…” Her eyes fluttered as she struggled against the command. Brainwashing her would have proven a tough job even for Alice, and Rebecca gave herself a silent pat on the back. It was like she was doing the Irish woman a favor here.
“What I think, you believe. Because you let my pretty crystal send you back down into a deep, relaxing hypnotic trance. Where my thoughts are your thoughts. Say it. My thoughts are what, Elke?”
“Your thoughts… my thoughts.”
“My thoughts are your commands. Say it.”
Her eyes fluttered for a just a moment. “Your thoughts are my commands.”
“When I snap my fingers, you’re going to wake up. When we leave the store, you won’t remember my visit here, or Celeste, or anything about us. It’s just been a long boring day at the store.”
“A long boring day,” she sighed, perhaps thinking of the long boring day she’d endured before Rebecca had walked in to make it so, so much more interesting. “I won’t remember.”
“You won’t let anyone hypnotize you. In fact, it’s impossible for you to be hypnotized. The second you start to realize that you’re being hypnotized, you will become fully awake and aware of what’s going on. You cannot be hypnotized. Say it.”
“I cannot be… hypnotized.” Her closed eyes narrowed as she struggled to process the information. It happened a lot. Subjects who had no idea they were hypnotized couldn’t believe the anyone ever could put them under. Truth in television—the one person in the room who “couldn’t be hypnotized” was always the first one to go under. Elke would have been that person eventually, were it not for Rebecca.
“You have no compulsion to ever visit Club Trabant.”
“I have no compulsion to ever visit Club Trabant.” Wow, that was easy for her. No wonder Elke had never dropped by the club to be hypnotized—she hated the idea so much, she’d managed to completely free herself from the ‘irresistible’ command Rebecca had given her.
“There’s one more thing, Elke,” she said, before she realized what that one more thing was. No. Not again. Never again.
“Yes.”
Thinking quickly, Rebecca walked over to the sales rack at the front of the store and gently nudged the hypnotized Celeste to one side. She returned to Elke with a fluffy brown sweater cradled in her hands.
“You’re going to sell this to me. For, um, five Euros less than you normally would.” Because I saved your ass from sexual slavery and you won’t ever know it.
“Yes. I understand.”
“Good. Now, on the count of three…”
“Do you know how big Berlin is, Rebecca? Take a guess.” Celeste wrapped her arms around her new sweater and gave herself a hug. “Guess.”
“Square miles, or people?” Rebecca wasn’t sure of the answer to either.
“Whichever, whatever, point is, Berlin is huge. Like, New York City huge. So why are we in the saaaaaame stupid club again for the billionth time?”
Peter slid two more beers across the bar with a wink. Rebecca collected both and handed one to Celeste. “Come on, the bar is too crowded. Let’s find an open spot.”
They made their way past the half-full dance floor into a more amenable spot, both marveling at how quickly their familiar little backwater club could fill up whenever the locals decided, however they managed to decide such things, to all stop by at once. Girls from the hostel mingled with hopeful Berliners, while a lanky American boy commandeered the karaoke machine and filled the club’s speakers with not-too-terrible renditions of popular classic rock hits. Drunks were everywhere, and Rebecca witnessed several collisions between dancers and drink-carriers. No fights; not yet, anyway.
“So you didn’t answer my question. Why aren’t we out at a beer hall smashing glasses together and pretending to sing along in German? Why are we back in Alice’s club? That woman’s never more than ten feet away from you most of the day, I swear.”
“Oh, you mean that Alice?” Rebecca pointed towards the far end of the club, where the dark-haired Irish woman was chatting with one of the bouncers. “If she comes over and says ‘hi dearie,’ just smile and nod.”
“Smile and nod? Oh yeah, those are my two siblings, Rebecca! I see that you’ve met them already!” Celeste shot her a knowing wink. Her face suddenly brightened. “Oh, hey! Look who came in!” She turned to face the door, and Rebecca followed her lead.
Other Emily made quite the entrance, laughing and shouting and breaking out into a sexy little dance long before she reached the end of the bar. There were three other girls with her that Rebecca recognized from the hostel. One was Petra, the fitness girl that she’d passed over during Alice’s auction. The other two shared the same dark skin and lovely olive-shaped eyes. They were sisters, she guessed. All four of them, of course, were deeply under Alice’s spell. She wondered if any of them—or all of them—had been with a ‘customer’ today. Someone who knew the secret word that would turn them into mindless, obedient drones.
…listen carefully. Whenever you hear me say the following words…
“Celeste! Hey!”
Rebeca looked up. Her girlfriend was happily leading Other Emily away from her new friends and over to their spot. The redhead grinned and waved like a star-struck tourist. In a moment she was standing right next to Rebecca, excitedly leaning in for a hug and practically floating above the floor. “Rebecca! Heeeey! We finally get to meet up at the club!”
Other Emily was dressed to kill, and Rebecca couldn’t help but appreciate that fact. Even Celeste was greedily taking in the redhead and her short, tight, shiny silver dress. Damn, this girl has curves. “What,” she began, faltering as she caught a glimpse of Emily’s deep cleavage. “What, um, how was your day?”
“Hangover, sleeping, shopping, you know, the usual. I swear to God, I’m going to steal that bed and take it home with me. I could sleep in it for days. Fuck the museums and the stores, I’d spent my whooooole day curled up sleeping!”
“Ha ha, me too,” Celeste offered.
Other Emily looked at her, then at Rebecca, and then back to Celeste again. Recognition flashed in her pretty brown eyes. “You two do anything fun?”
“We went shopping, too, said Celeste, before Rebecca could speak. She pointed to her new sweater. “Rebecca got me this to replace the one I lost. Isn’t she fucking awesome?”
“You should probably take that off before you die of heatstroke,” said Rebecca. She wiped her forehead for emphasis. “It’s a hundred degrees in here.”
“NEVER! I’m going to wear this sweater until it’s all sweaty and gross, and I get a whole row of seats to myself on the flight home because I smell so bad.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes. “God, you’re so sexy when you talk like that.” A young German couple came into view, arms locked together as they slowly made their way to the dance floor. They paused every few feet to share a kiss, and every smooch made Rebecca feel a little better. Even in Club Trabant, miracles happened. She moved to say something to Celeste, to share the romantic scene she’d just witnessed, but a different scene came into view as she did so.
Suddenly, she didn’t feel better after all.
Alice was sitting on the same corner booth Rebecca had found herself sitting in that first night in Berlin, with her own Emily by her side, and two hypnotized Aussies at her command. Where Alice had flipped things around and placed the would-be hypnotists into a powerful hypnotic trance. Where everything had gotten started.
The same thoughts kept marching through Rebecca’s head, drowning out the voices of everyone around her. After a while, both Celeste and Other Emily gave up on her, and turned to each other for conversation.
“…and she’s really awesome in bed. Hee!”
“I figured she would be! Oh my God, you two are so cute together! Have you guys gotten over to the Brandenburg…”
Why did she let Emily go? Why not keep her here?
The girl in the booth was pretty, of course. Dressed casually for the club in jeans and a purple top, with long black hair spilling down to the small of her back, she slumped in her booth seat. Her head was bent forward, and Alice was gently waving her hand in front of the girl’s face. Rebecca tried to lip-read what Alice was saying, but it wasn’t one of her talents and she couldn’t interpret a single word. Every so often the girl’s head would sag a little more, and Alice would smile before continuing.
Dearie. Rebecca recognized that word, at least. The girl’s head wavered slightly before sinking another inch.
It didn’t make much sense. Emily was beautiful. More attractive than Rebecca. More attractive than the girl falling under Alice’s spell. More attractive than many of the people who wandered into Club Trabant on any given weekday. Almost as beautiful as Celeste, and if she really had to admit it, at least equally as attractive. Plenty of men would have gladly handed over their Euros for two hours with Emily, and yet Alice had wiped her mind and sent her down south to look at castles. Why?
She looked over at the booth just in time to see Alice place her hand directly in front of the sleepy girl’s face. A snap of the fingers and the girl became a boneless heap, head resting on the table, arms limp and dangling uselessly by her sides. Another victim. Another subject. Another hooker.
“Hey, whatcha looking at?” Other Emily, now more than a little drunk, slung her arm around Rebecca’s shoulder and leaned into her. She followed Rebecca’s eyes to the booth across from them. “Oh, look! Alice is looking after that drunk girl! She’s so nice. She’s so nice, Rebecca! I’ve never stayed at a nicer place than this. How about you?”
“No,” said Rebecca. She thought about it for a moment. “No, that’s not true. There was one time where Emily and I lucked into finding this great deal on a luxury hotel. Last-minute cancellation, we cam across it at the exact right moment. Five stars, everything we wanted, and it cost the same price as a motel. It was fucking amazing! Nothing will top that.”
“Now you’re talking!” Other Emily turned away from Alice and faced Rebecca. “Your doppelgänger once got us both stranded in Denver during a blizzard. The airport is like thirty miles from the city, so we took a chance and hopped a bus downtown. Picture this super old historic hotel, very fancy, bellhops and all that. We roll up at like midnight and there’s one room left, and we’re thinking ‘holy shit, what’s this going to cost us?’ And I was just about to yell at Rebecca for dragging us all the way downtown for nothing when the guy is like ‘oh, there’s one room left, screw it, you can have it for the corporate discount rate.’ Because it was better than going empty and them getting nothing, I guess? Anyway, it rocked! Best hotel stay until this one, I’d say.”
“Hey,” Rebecca said suddenly. “Do you guys need a drink?” She held her empty glass and shook it. “I don’t want to live like this.”
The redhead laughed and handed her some cash. “Vodka tonic for me, thanks.”
“Beer me, babe,” said Celeste.
Rebecca slipped through the crowd without a word. Her feet aimed for the bar and took her along for the ride, occasionally bumping against happy drunks and loud-talking college girls like a pinball, coming to rest directly in front of Peter. His attention was on her at once, and she weakly held up two fingers. “Two vodka tonics plus a glass of that draft hefeweizen, please.”
It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. It just couldn’t.
“Fifteen Euros.” Peter was back already. He was impossibly fast even on the busiest nights. She handed over her cash without saying anything, feeling a bit guilty about not leaving a tip. Not that it mattered, compared to what had just taken place. Compared to what…
Can’t be. It can’t.
Vodka and soda and beer spilled over her hands and spotted the front of her dress. She looked around for a culprit, a jostler of some kind, before realizing that her own trembling hands were to blame.
She hadn’t told Other Emily where she had found her most incredible, luxurious hotel steal. It was so far in the past that she rarely talked about it with anyone, even her best friend.
But distant past or not, it had happened. Not even Alice could have thought of planting such a memory in her mind. A ski vacation with her best friend, a snowed-in airport with flights delayed until morning, a late night local bus into town, a big old hotel offering a single room for a huge discount. Just for her and her Emily.
In Denver.
She reluctantly let her feet take her back to the redhead in the corner.
I shouldn’t do this, Em, and I’m sorry. I just… I think this could be for your own good, you know? Like, if you’re stressed out from studying, or upset about a guy, I’ll be able to help you. Fix you. You know what I mean, right?”
“Yes, Rebecca.” Lost in trance, Emily was forever agreeable.
But it would help. A secret phrase, that she would never ever use unless it was really important. During finals and things like that. She promised herself she’d never use it to make Emily dance naked around their dorm room or to fall in love with anyone. For good. She’d use it only for good. “Heh. I can save the fun stuff for all of the other girls.”
“Yes, Rebecca.”
“No, forget that I… never mind. Em, listen carefully. Whenever you hear me say the following words…
“Are you sure you’re okay? You keep staring off into space.” Celeste placed a worried hand between Rebecca’s shoulder blades. “We can talk about it, you know. I’m always here for you.”
“Hold on to that thought.” She set her drink down on the thin wooden rail that lined the walls of the club. “I’m gonna follow Emily to the bathroom. Watch my drink.”
She watched as Other Emily made her way to the rear of the club and into the restrooms, then followed, taking a leisurely path through the crowds. She pushed her way through a crowd of young German girls and walked to the last stall. Peering under the door, she could see a pair of heels. She eased the stall door open and slipped inside.
“Rebecca!” Other Emily stifled a shout and then a giggle as she backed against the toilet. “What are you doing? This one’s taken! There’s an empty stall next to this one, I just saw the open—”
“The Spartans are on line two.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “Then I should answer them.”
Holy shit. Holy shit holy shit holy shit!
Rebecca tried to speak, but her mouth refused to open. There was so much to say, and at the same time, what was there really to say? This whole time. It’s been her this whole time.
Finally, something managed to escape her lips.
“Emily?”