She Won't Be Lonely Long

Hannah took advantage of her time alloted to take a shower before the cumbersome day began. Her aching muscles were beginning to release at the persistent pumping of the shower's jets, and the steam engulfing her in spinning wisps seemed to take the pressure off of the agonizing pain she had expanding in her cranial cavity. There was an extremely attractive man waiting in the living room for her taking, and for once in a blue moon she purposely shoved that to the back of her mind.

Her time was up, she knew when an irksome draft of freezing cold cantered into the bathroom until the accumulated steam was nothing but moisture on the walls.

"Hannah, my love." Maral's voice echoed bleakly like a rubber ball rabidly bouncing from wall to wall.

Some other noises, just as obnoxious and painful, accompanied her voice. She was quite lost in her own bathroom because Hannah hadn't bothered to turn on the lights. In fact, she did go to great lengths to do that but it was just too much for her delicate senses to handle that arduous morning.

"I- um, I f- I found--" Maral stammered while struggling to find support on the counter in this mess of blackness. Her seldomly-seen abrasiveness fueled her to continue speaking while struggling with the obstacles fumbling under her feet. "I found this nice dress I thought you could wear to lunch, because I know you didn't pack anything like it, and I thought--"

"Alright, Maral." Hannah interrupted coldly, just praying for the noises to stop.

She knew that Maral and Sergio were trying hard to set her up with Xabi, and that was the reason for his visit. They didn't understand how uncomfortable that made her after previous experiences and she dearly wished that they would without her having to further explain. It wasn't an easy thing to explain to a best friend who had a world of faith in you and... well, an idiot who cared about you quite a bit. Still, amidst the foggy malady of being hungover she couldn't find strength to care past her own strenuous thoughts.

"I'll just set it on our bed," Maral continued. "And I brought you some Aspirin, too. It's here on the counter."

Hannah smiled as her best friend showed her true colors, not the ugly smear of colors ravaged by a sprout of ambition to make love from nothing.

"I love you." Hannah whimpered, and Maral returned the statement quietly this time before leaving her alone in the hollow darkness again.

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Feeling a bit more refreshed and gregarious yet still incredibly hungover, Hannah emerged from the hall to Maral's disappointment not wearing the dress that seemed to be so perfect for today. She would have looked so beautiful, Maral whined to her own thoughts, Xabi would've been on that for sure. Why so difficult?! All the same, it didn't take her by surprise. One of the million memories Maral had nestled in her brain may have included Hannah wearing a dress, but that's not saying much at all. Hannah settled with a white cotton jacket spotted with eccentrically colored leaves zipped to her chin and a pair of nine dollar blue jeans. It was better than her preferred hangover garb, Hannah figured, that being a pair of underwear and a fluffy blanket. She took the time to scrunch some gel into her hair, because she had been told before that without that dollop of hair-gel she looked like Slash after an especially wayward gig.

Xabi seemed to take fancy in it, amazed with how perfectly the spirals arranged themselves around her head and shone with the sun a golden brown at just the right twists and turns. Sergio was simply excited because he could spend the day annoying the living hell out of her by grabbing the end of one of her curls, pulling it down until it was straightened and letting it go to watch it bounce back into place like a stiff spring. The sounds effects he made with it would be the bitter-sweet icing on the cake. "Boing!

Hannah had also gone as far as putting a bit of eyeliner on, although as the days events panned out, nobody noticed because she planned on armoring her face with sunglasses until far past dark.

The drive to the restaurant lasted about ten minutes. Xabi sat in front with Sergio as he drove and Maral sat in back while Hannah clung with her like a child, completely passed out as soon as her head hit the softness of her lap. Sergio realized it was rib-crackingly hilarious to speed up to a stop whenever he could and slam on the brakes, sending Hannah's face flying into the scratchy garb tightly wrapped around the wooden frame of his seat and her body tumbling to the tight space of floor at Maral's feet.

"I hate you, Sergio. You're the white devil." Hannah murmured sleepily while finding her place on the seat again.

"I'm sorry, cariño. I won't do it anymore, I promise." he repeated time after time, only to speed up once again and slam on the brakes with taunting laughter.

Maral scooped her helplessly dazed passenger onto the seat again and Xabi simply peered around the interior of the car curiously, wondering if maybe he would find a liking to the peculiar lifestyle that the three had welcomed him to.

To Maral's disappointment, Hannah didn't say much to Xabi during lunch. As a matter of fact, she didn't say much to anyone during lunch because she wasn't even conscious. She let the velvety humming of the breeze where they sat, a round plastic table on the deck of the restaurant, whisper her to sleep with her arms crossed, her head bobbing up and down, and her feet spun together on the wicker edge of Sergio's chair. Maral and Xabi were responsible for most of the conversation as Sergio devoured his food and the food that Hannah had ordered just to humor him.

"Hannah, wake up." Sergio said every few minutes between the clumps of soggy bread crowding his mouth whenever she began to tip over, and she struggled to do that but her efforts didn't pay off for long.

"Six o'clock." she murmured wearily, curling up again to stay comfortable.

Maral and Sergio understood what she meant and anticipated that moment of the day. No difference how terrible the hangover was, it always abruptly ended at six o'clock the next evening for Hannah. By seven she was a ball of energy. She had four and a half hours left and couldn't wait for her drop of hell to die.

In the meantime, Sergio and Maral thought it would be fun to go shopping, something that Hannah was strongly against. Xabi didn't care much although he wouldn't be doing much of the shopping himself. Hannah's hopes of taking a lengthy nap in Sergio's car while her friends putted around Madrid were shot down when Maral informed her that she wouldn't budge on this; Hannah was going shopping whether she liked it or not.

"Be good and I'll buy you something." Maral promised, patting the weak cushion of Hannah's hair and dragging her across the street to a boutique.

It wasn't long before Maral and Sergio had retreated into a dressing room which left Xabi and Hannah waiting outside.

Not thinking much of anything at the time, Hannah sat on the floor and curled up against the wall. Xabi, still standing, didn't notice this and looked to his side to find that she had disappeared.

"Mierda!" he mumbled angrily under his breath, convinced that she had somehow escaped from an alternative entrance.

Sergio would have his head for that, Xabi feared. Maral had mentioned earlier that Hannah didn't know how to handle herself in big cities because she had never been to one on her own. He slammed his foot into the wall directly next to where she was sitting but didn't pay much attention to that.

"You okay, Xabi?" she sighed from his feet, pushing the sunglasses to rest in her hair so she could evaluate his distress.

The exasperated sound of her voice led Xabi's eyes to a helpless ball of person on the floor. He was briefly shocked to see her down there but smiled none the less, finding something about her ability of not caring to be cute.

"There you are." he spoke, the fluidness of his voice disheveling butterflies in her stomach.

This man was too much, she thought. Too perfect. His every word mesmerized her no matter how hard she was trying against it. For just a minute, she decided, she would let her guard down.

She grinned wide and used the dusty textured wall as support as she stood once again, enriched with a sudden burst of strength as she came face to face with him. The whiteness of her teeth shone from the long opening of her smile, the first genuine one he had seen from her and from it grew interest on his part.

"Are you feeling fine?" he asked, to which she nodded although that was quite a stretch.

He smiled with her and she brushed against the wall again for support, the synchronized muscles of his face stretching his lips to reveal a glistening set of perfectly arranged teeth.

"I don't think they need us with them." Xabi took the liberty to speak while gesturing to the cubicle-like dressing room that Sergio and Maral were occupying.

Hannah nodded in agreement, finding the rubbery plastic of her shoes under a table because she had carelessly kicked them off before sitting down. That was all that she had to gather before they were outside again, walking along the lengthy narrow sidewalk that sprinted along a humongous stretch of buildings.

Although they had just came from lunch, Xabi could tell that Hannah wasn't much for walking at the time so took flat in a breezy outdoor cafe. He gestured to a set of cast-iron furniture spotting the patio among others, consisting of two intricately spun chairs and a table. Unaccustomed to the gentlemanly ways that Xabi sported, Hannah didn't know that the first chair he pulled from under the table was for her until he gestured for her to sit down.

"Oh." Hannah gasped, putting her hand up to her chest and giving a final glance to the chair awaiting her.

She couldn't help but feel the instinctive spark of suspicion as she sat down, hoping that he wouldn't pull the chair out from under her such as the other men in her life would; Her brother, her cousins, even her dad, and more recently, Sergio. It was a very pleasant change, she realized once she was safe and sound on the chair and realized he wasn't that type of joker.

"Thank you." she murmured shyly, not realizing that her cheeks had turned a piping shade of red at the kind gesture.

"Not many men hold chairs for ladies where you are from?" Xabi asked while sitting across from her. Once he was seated and level with her at the table a dozen butterflies swarmed again.

She chuckled cooly and shook her head, picking at the burgundy linen napkin wrapping a bundle of silverware at her right.

"No, never. It's nice though."

He nodded slowly and peered across the street to avoid eye contact although personally he didn't mind it. Her eyes were a beautiful, one of the many favorite things he had found to stare at about her, but she seemed to be a bit evasive from it. He sensed a sort of humiliation on her part and couldn't understand why.

"How long have you known Sergio and Maral?" Hannah settled with that question to shatter the quiet after a minute or two.

Xabi narrowed his eyes to ponder while leaning his head back. "Four... years, I believe. Honestly, Sergio and I have never been so close as, lets say... Sergio and Torres. I'm convinced I was brought here to be your companion."

Xabi rose his brows to await her response, which would be a clear indication of how she felt on the matter and just how well this trip would pan out. She cleared her throat and looked to the gray and black pebbly ground again, something that he was noticing quite a bit from her. She was very insecure with herself, particularly around him. That could mean night or day.

"Well, you make a good companion." Hannah uttered to her feet before smiling and forcing herself to face him. "I'm glad he called you instead of bitch-face, anyhow."

Xabi was taken off-guard by the sudden burst of what seemed to be her genuine personality, squeezing laughter from between his pursed lips as she joined him. As the conversation progressed, Hannah became more comfortable with Xabi although she still seemed a bit coy on certain subjects.

Nearly an hour later, at the stretch of sidewalk behind Xabi, Hannah could see a familiar figure jog into view. As it neared, the body got bigger until it was a good six foot standing a few feet behind the pair, hidden from Xabi but in Hannah's general sight. She kept an eye on Sergio curiously while raising the glass of iced tea to her mouth and taking a long swig from it.

Xabi continued to talk to her about how great the home he had found in Liverpool was, while she glared at Sergio's stationary figure hiding behind. He seemed infuriated most likely for their disappearance yet relieved to find the two together. He was drenched with sweat and furrowed with exhaustion until his eyes gained a sudden sparkle. Quietly, he gestured from Xabi to Hannah simultaneously and straightened his posture as a dorky grin bent his lips.

He squinted his eyes shut and began to hug himself, squeezing his mouth into a kissy-face and swinging his hips. Hannah struggled to contain the mouthful of tea she had but didn't dare to swallow it, knowing she'd burst into laughter at the worst time and choke. Maral joined Sergio a minute later during his charade, although she emerged from an alleyway pointing out of the route that he had taken.

"What are you doing, pendejo?" Maral spat icily as he groped himself, her voice finally attracting Xabi's attention to where they were standing.

Sergio stopped all that he was doing when Xabi turned around and waved innocently while Maral hooked her arm with his and drug them to the table. Hannah let herself freely laugh now and patted Sergio on the arm while gloomy disappointment melted his face.

"It's okay, Serg'." Hannah cooed while Maral prepared a lecture for the couple.

"Couldn't you two have told us that you were leaving? Do you have any idea how worried we were? We've been running around for an hour looking for you two because you decided to leave your phones in the car!" Maral threw her arms into the air with frustration.

Xabi stayed quiet, not bothering to point out that his phone was in his pocket but he had turned it off somewhere during the afternoon so it would quit vibrating against his leg while Hannah spoke.

"You could have used the dressing room next to us if you needed alone time that bad." Sergio grinned, his thick brows bobbing along his forehead.

Hannah narrowed her eyes, threw four euro on the table and stood up.

"I'm sorry." she muttered, pushing her chair under the table as she left it. "Not really, but you can believe it if it makes you feel better."

Xabi loosely shrugged his shoulders and joined the three on the sidewalk, letting Sergio and Maral link hands in front of him while he strolled along next to Hannah.

"Did you two have fun, at least?" Maral forced between her teeth as temptation got the best of her. She couldn't help but wonder if her plan was ironing out.

Hannah nodded although Maral couldn't see her trailing along behind.

"Yes." Xabi spoke, the simplicity of that single word earning a small grin across Hannah's face.

She hadn't known him for long enough to fall for him yet, but she knew him enough to know that she was going to fall for him soon enough. Amidst the agony of her hangover and the infatuation she held with his beauty, she realized that and knew that there wasn't anything she could do. She was doomed for affection.