Chapter 2
The following next days were... quite depressing. Mom and I stayed at the same shabby hotel for the entire week, and I was starting to grow very grossed out by it. The bed was uncomfortable and the heating element didn't work, so it was freezing in the entire room. Not to mention the spiders I had seen crawling up the walls. I hated it, and we hadn't even been there for long.
I had gone to work almost every day since we left and stayed there for as long as possible. If I had an early shift, I stayed after and if I had a late shifty, I showed up there earlier. Dylan didn't have anything against it. If anything, he enjoyed my company and was glad to have me there more often.
Unfortunately, my bike was left at home, so I had to walk to work the days mom left early for her work. The only good thing about this hotel, though, was that it was located close to my job, so it didn't take more than ten minutes to walk there.
As for mom, she hadn't said much since we came here. She mostly kept to herself and listened to music or an audiobook. Sometimes it felt like we were living two completely separate lives even if we stayed in the same hotel room.
To be honest, I missed it. I missed my room, the entire house... and I missed dad. I wanted to talk to him, let him explain what had happened. I wanted to know why he did it, why he thought it was worth splitting the family apart. However, I was pretty sure I wasn't ready to have that conversation with him just yet. I still needed time to let everything sink in.
Right now, I was climbing the stairs to the hotel room where I knew mom would be lying on the bed with her earphones plugged in. When I turned the door handle and entered the room, I was surprised to see that I was wrong. Instead of lying on the bed grieving, she was up packing her bags.
"Mom, what's going on?" I wondered, feeling nothing but confused.
She turned to me, a small smile appearing on her lips. "I've talked to one of my co-workers and she's willing to let us stay at hers for a while."
My eyes widened. "What? Are you kidding me?"
She shook her head, the smile spreading. "No, she must be the most kind-hearted co-worker I've ever worked with. I mean, I knew we were friends, but I never expected this."
I walked over to wrap her in my arms, hugging her close to me. "I'm so happy right now, you have no idea."
She stroked my hair. "Me too, darling."
When I pulled away, I kept my attention to her. "When are we going there?" I asked, the smile never leaving my face.
"If I hadn't paid for the night, we could've gone today already, but now we have to stay until tomorrow morning. But I guess that's probably even better because it's a Saturday tomorrow and none of us have work."
I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. So, after breakfast tomorrow?"
"Yes."
With that said, I started packing my things as well. It didn't take more than five minutes, though, because I had literally nothing here. All this week had been hell because of that too. I was really in need to go home and get some stuff, so I could wear more than just two outfits every day. It was a good thing that we had special working clothes, otherwise, people would've been looking weirdly at me by now.
When we were lying in bed that night, a thought came to my mind. "So, do I know this co-worker we're staying at?"
Mom shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know," she said truthfully. "Her name is Nicole Flender. She's divorced as well and has two kids."
If I had been drinking water, I would have spit it out. Nicole Flender? I didn't know much about people around the area, but I did know a lot of things about Timothèe Chalamet. Dylan was a big fan of him and adored him like no other, and I had to say I didn't have anything against him myself. He was a hell of a great actor and not exactly bad looking.
"What?" I sputtered out, my eyes as wide as two golf balls.
Mom looked confused. "You know her?"
I flung my arms out. "Why have you never told me you work together with one of the most good looking guys on earth's mom?"
She lifted her hands in defense. "I had no idea who her son was."
I rolled my eyes. "Mom, Timothèe is one of the greatest actors right now. She must've told you about him."
Mom shook her head slowly with a frown on her face. "No, I'm pretty sure she hasn't mentioned it. Sure, she talks about her children, but not about what they do for a living."
I looked at her in disbelief. This was all unbelievable. Not only that mom worked together with Timothée's mom, but also that she was the one we were going to stay at. Did he also live there or had he moved out?
"Now that you're mentioning it, she has said that her son is traveling a lot for work which is why he's not home very much. She also mentioned that her daughter is working in France, but she never said what either of them works with," she continued, still seeming in deep thought.
My eyes widened a little by her words. "Oh, so he hasn't moved out then?"
Mom shook her head. "No, I'm pretty sure he still lives at home, but as said, he is traveling a lot."
I wasn't surprised by that. If you manage to participate in three movies in one year, you can't possibly be home much. But he still lived there? That meant I was going to live in the same house as Timothée Chalamet did. Was I dreaming or something?
"I see... I think I'm going to have to sleep, to see if I'm not only dreaming this," I said slowly, my eyebrows pulled together.
She laughed at me, leaning over to kiss me on the forehead. "Alright, sweetheart. See you tomorrow morning when you've figured out you're not."
I shot her a glare before putting my phone on charge and shutting the lights off.
-
The next day, I woke up by the sun shining through the not so well-protecting blinds. I squinted my eyes as I reached up to shield them from the bright sun. To say I was ready to wake up would be a lie. I could probably sleep for at least two more hours. Sadly, though, that was impossible in this hotel room with this uncomfortable bed and the brightness in it. I really didn't want to stay here any longer.
I soon noticed that mom was already out of bed by the sound of the toilet flushing. Rolling to the other side, I also noticed that she had already made her side of the bed. Maybe it was later than I first thought it was.
Picking up my phone from the nightstand, I realized it was almost eight in the morning. Not late at all for being a Saturday. Why was mom up already?
A second later, she emerged from the bathroom and joined me by the bed. "Oh, you're finally awake. Good morning, sweetheart," she said, giving me a small smile. It was the most genuine one she'd pulled off since we left dad a week ago.
"Finally?" I yawned, covering my mouth with my hand.
"Yeah. We're leaving as soon as possible. Come on, let's get up," she ordered, gesturing me to get out from under the covers.
I looked at her strangely. "What? Why are you in such a hurry? Are you that hungry?"
Now it was her time to be confused. "Jules, I thought you wanted to get out of here as soon as possible? I talked to Nicole a few minutes ago, and she said we can come whenever we want to."
My eyebrows were knitted together. Nicole? What was she talking about? I mean, I had a dream that we were finally getting out of here and moving into Timothèe Chalamet's house, but that was only a dream. It wasn't like that could be true.
"Who's Nicole?"
Mom rolled her eyes. "She's my co-worker. We talked about this last night and you flipped on me because I didn't know who her 'famous' son was, remember?"
Shaking my head slowly, I stared at her as if she said something incomprehensible. Was I still dreaming or what was this? I would have to wake myself up to realize this wasn't real. Therefore, I started smacking my face constantly, earning weird looks from mom.
"Jules, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to wake myself up. This is just a dream, it's got to be," I groaned.
The weird look on her face turned worried instead. "Alright, if you don't stop with that, I'm calling an ambulance."
I stopped smacking myself and looked at her. "Wait, so I am actually awake? We are moving into Timothée's house?" I asked, still not believing it.
She let out a deep sigh and sat down beside me on the bed. "If this is a problem with you, I could always ask someone else. I'm not sure if we could move out today or even this week if so, but if this is too much for you, just tell me."
I shook my head vigorously. "No, no! It's no problem at all, I just... I can't believe it's true, that's all. I thought I dreamt our conversation yesterday. I'm sorry I reacted that way," I apologized, grimacing.
She placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "Don't worry about it. I just want you to be as happy as I am about finally getting out of this shit hole."
"I am happy, mom. I'm actually more than happy. Maybe you should call an ambulance after all," I joked, making the corners of her lips twitch a little.
"Great. How about you get up and get ready to leave then?" She ordered, clapping her hands together.
Without answering, I jumped out of bed and hurried into the bathroom to freshen up by washing my face and applying some make-up. Once I was finished brushing my teeth, brushing my hair and using the toilet, I exited the room. Mom was sitting on the bed with her suitcase all packed and jacket on. Damn, she was fast.
After throwing one of the two outfits I had on, I shrugged on my jacket and slipped my feet into my sneakers. "I'm done!" I almost yelled, my breath catching in my throat.
She looked up from her phone and gave me a small smile. "Awesome, let's get out of here once and for all then."
We walked down the stairs to the lobby to check out. It didn't take more than two minutes until we were sitting in the car, all buckled up. "Alright, how about we go eat some breakfast before going to their house, yeah?" Mom offered, and who was I to decline that? We rarely ate out because of our lack of money.
"I'm in!"
With that said, mom turned on the engine and pulled out of the parking lot in the pouring rain. It was windy as well, so I was glad I didn't have to bother with my bicycle today. Mom was less happy, though, because I could tell she didn't like driving in these weather conditions. I was more than happy that I got away with it.
Thanks to the traffic and the weather, we didn't come to a halt until fifteen minutes later. We parked outside a bakery we used to eat a lot when I was a little kid. It was the entire family's favorite place to go to when we wanted to eat breakfast or something sweet. We could have gone to my work too, but I didn't like going there when I was free because I hated the feeling of being there when I wasn't working. It felt like I was working when I wasn't.
The place was called 'Tina's café' and if you weren't attentive, you would probably miss it because it wasn't big and it was hidden between two other stores. Mom and I entered the bakery and bought our separate breakfasts before sitting down by the windows.
It was nice. We hadn't spent time outside our house or that awful hotel room since forever, so this felt necessary to me, and I hoped it did for her as well.
"Alright, since I don't have a clue about this son of hers, can't you tell me about him since you seem to know a lot about this guy?" she winked, making me roll my eyes.
"I don't know what to say more than what I've already explained. You must have seen him in one of the movies you've watched, though, because I mean, he's called 'The King of Netflix."
She rose her eyebrows. "Oh really? What movies has he been in then?"
I mentioned all of them, telling her that 'Call me by your name' and 'Little Women' were probably the movies he was most famous for. Both of them had been nominated in the Academy Awards after all.
"You mean the curly-haired one?"
I let out a quiet laugh. "Yeah, that's the one."
Her lips twitched a little. "He seems like a nice guy, Jules. Maybe you should give him a shot," she winked.
That made me let out a loud laugh this time. "Oh, mom. I'm pretty sure I'm not his type. He's too good for me too, and besides, he already has a girlfriend."
She rolled her eyes, giving me an encouraging smile. "You know, when I met your dad, he also had a girlfriend. It's never impossible."
I snorted. "In this case, I think it definitely is."
-
There's chapter 2 for you guys! Loving this so far! Maybe because I have all these ideas in my head about what's going to happen... Geeee so excited!
Pauline .xx