Like Rapunzel, but Not Really ✔

Chapter 20

I didn't know where to start. There were so many things I needed to fill her in from after she had left earlier today and so I promised her that I would do so tomorrow morning at the airport, which really was just three more hours away. That got her to shut up.

"Okay, meet me near the check in counter. I need to make coffee now to wake up."

I smiled gratefully to her even though she could not see it. Thank God for good friends. "Thank you, Penelope. I owe you big."

"Well, maybe you should start paying back your dues then," she muttered before ending the call. I sighed in relief that things were falling into place.

I then turned to the man who lent me his cellphone and sheepishly smiled. "One more call?" I didn't wait for his okay and just quickly dialled Hunter's number and asked him to meet me at his car in two hours. And to make sure that Tristan or any of his uncles/friends did not see him.

While I waited for them to get me my passport, I sneaked back up upstairs, going past Gin without him noticing me, carefully tip-toeing across the hall before making a break for the room I was sleeping in earlier. I needed to freshen up. I didn't even brush my teeth before I slept this afternoon and so my mouth tasted like a sewage tank.

Turning on the bathroom lights, I finally came face to face with my face post-hair cut. I tousled my hair to let the choppy, shoulder-length hair to fall into place more naturally and gently shaped my face.

I smiled.

I actually looked quite good with this hairstyle, surprisingly enough, given the fact that I just let it snip with a kitchen scissors.

My hair had not been short for a very long time - last was when Conor chopped it off in Switzerland. My parents always felt that women should never have short hair - archaic, yes, but with the little amount of time I ever saw them, rebelling and fighting about hair was just not worth it, so I kept it long to keep up the pleasantries during the brief moments I had with them. But this was definitely the shortest my hair had ever been. I could imagine the reaction my parents might have later when they saw me. I mean, besides the part where I had sneaked into the continent with a fake passport when I should have been under house-arrest in the first place.

After washing my face, brushing my teeth with the toothbrush I assumed Tristan left for me to use, I went out and looked for a piece of paper and a pen. It took me a good ten minutes to pen my words on the piece of paper and finally, I left it on top of the bed that I carefully made up again.

I shut the door behind me and felt a pang as I realised that I wouldn't even get to see Tristan's face before I left for good. I really would have tried opening all the doors to see which room he was in but he would have figured out in a fraction of a second that I had gone to Rum when he saw my hair. That boy was intelligent, there was no point denying it.

With my heart and mind resolved, I quietly bid Tristan, Someplace Downtown, and it's occupants goodbye, and went downstairs to retrieve my passport and left the place with Hunter's car.

_________

"You realise your Dad's gonna kill me, right?" Hunter was dragging my suitcase for me as adjusted the mini satchel that contained my cash and fake passport. The airport was not full, but considering that it was still early in the morning, there was a considerable amount of people wandering about. I silently manoeuvred us both towards the direction of the check-in counter.

I looked at him and smiled assuringly. "It's fine. That's why you're not going. I'll just tell him I sneaked out and did all this behind your back."