In Stranger Territory-5

Dear Alex,

It's my first day in a new place and I'm already having troubles settling in. But like you used to say, things never go they way you want. Even though the idea of meeting new people in a different country and spending the whole winter break doing god knows what is scary, I feel a rush of excitement that I cannot explain.

It's times like these when I wish you were here with me. I miss you Alex.

Sunlight pouring in from the windowsill, it's one of the most beautiful sights that one can ever describe. But standing there with her pale hands on the railing, Tori couldn't see the mystery that was the sunrise. In a lifetime there are moments so monumental that one may experience a peak moment, a moment so precious that you remain content with your life- at least for a short period after wards. A sunrise is one such moment. But that day as the big blanket spread out above changed from its dark Prussian tinge to a light cerulean blue, the mug lay abandoned as Tori tiptoed back into the room and crept under the blankets thrown over the couch. She had spent the night more or less tossing and turning with thoughts bouncing in her head, nonetheless she would try once more to sleep before Reyna awoke. Because then, there was no opportunity to sleep again.

As the clock on the bedside table read a blinking 12:30, an anonymous lump on the couch was being poked, prodded and punched in every way humanly possible. The lump however had on many occasions expressed it's disapproval in budging from that stage. But Rey was hearing none of it.

“Astoria Renette Rister, you get up this second or I'm reading aloud that damned diary of yours.”, she finally huffed in a stern voice. Ofcourse this was not a joke, because many excerpts of Tori's childhood included Reyna waking her from her peaceful slumber in many.....non-peaceful ways.

There was the one when a one-woman band show had occurred, because Rey couldn't sleep during summer camp. To this day Tori could hear those loud thumping noises as her ears bled from hearing the atrocious sound.

The lump jerked awake at the threat and her palm rose to shield her eyes from the sun.

“Rey....”, Tori mumbled. The sun was shinning outside, pouring piercing rays of light from the open balcony where the curtains were thrown open. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she swung her legs over the couch and lay back for a few minutes. A very angry figure loomed over her head, staring with so much intensity, that the amazon forest could be on fire.

“I was waiting all day to go out and you just slept half the afternoon. I hope you're happy”, Reyna snorted. The accusation was painfully correct. Being awfully tired after a 4 hour power chat with Jer on the flight, Reyna had plopped down on the fluffy bed and slipped off to sleep. However when it came to Tori she seemed to have some trouble in that field. To put it simply, Jet-lags sucked.

Reyna huffed once more and stomped across the room to the abandoned Vogue magazine that lay on the unmade bed. Fluffing out the pillow she propped the magazine on her knee and went back to reading it, only after she gave Tori a long glare for ruining her apparent trip to someplace wonderful.

Tori resumed patting down her raging bed hair, as she stretched her aching limbs and cracked her knuckles. Awful habit, everybody hated it, but someone had to do it.

A quick 10 minute shower later the two girls were lounging on the couch in Jeremiah and Sam's joined room next door. Sam was nowhere to be found, apparently duty called and he attended. That left Jer to be the official caretaker of the two girls.

“So what do you two wanna do--”

“Beach!”, Rey shouted as she bounced on the balls of her feet. Excitement was melting off of her in waves, her bulging eyes shinning with the prospect of finally getting to see the city. Typical Rey.

Jer looked at Tori, waiting for her approval. Since the flight she had hardly said two words to him, and he wanted to know why. He wanted to know her. But he knew he had to take things slowly, Tori was not one to shrug things off as usual, she was an extremely touchy person. Feeling his eyes on her, Tori looked from a bouncing Rey to a curious looking Jer. Well what could she say, she couldn't probably ruin another day. So she shrugged her approval.

“Yay! We are going to the beach!”, Reyna shrieked, throwing her arms in the air and hugging the life out of Tori and Jer.

“Rey you had too much sugar”, Tori mumbled but it was drowned out in Rey's cheers and Jer's deep rumbling laughter. Joining in with Jer she cracked a smile at Rey now shuffling off to their room to change into 'beach-worthy clothing'. Which roughly translated to 'Complete make-over' in Reyna talk.

This was going to be a long evening.

The ride to the beach had taken a short 30 minutes in the rented maroon range-rover. Reyna's excitement had considerably diminished from the last time only to regenerate into its powerful form once again as Jer parked the car near the beach. Dubai was a small city, if it could be called even that. With tall glassy buildings across every street it seemed like LA in smaller form. But unlike the big city of lights, Dubai was the greener yet hotter version. Malls were as common as a coffee shop and stray animals were rare to see. Now that you mention it, Tori wondered if she had sighted even one pigeon till now. Nope. Not even one.

Shuffling out of the giant car, she pushed down her shades, the sun beating down even though the air was chilly. Tugging her bag tighter, she followed Jer who was finding it had to keep up with Rey's fast pace. Once into the sandy area, Jer had wandered out to secure a shaded place to rent while Rey surveyed the place for possible prey, aka hot men.

“Hey tori”, she whispered, “do you see the one in the blue shirt”. A tall guy in a blue shirt and white cargo pants stood out in the crowd, his blonde hair similar to half the people standing next to him. A short girl bumped into him playfully before turning to hit his shoulder lightly. By now Rey had turned to survey the rest of the beach for other men, leaving her to the job tori turned to look for Jer.

Walking across the sand, his arm raised to shield his eyes from the sun, Jer was heading towards them from a few steps away. Once he was close enough, he waved and pointed to a giant blue and white umbrella which had been stuck into the ground.

“There. That's ours for the day. We can stay as long as you want and then we can go back to the hotel.”, he quickly instructed as they walked to the shade of the umbrella. Whipping out a green blanket from his bag he lay it on the ground and sat down next to Tori's light blue one. Minutes later they were looking at Rey standing above them in her bright orange bikini smiling down at the spectacle.

“Aw you love birds. Am I disturbing your wittle date?”, she cooed, as if she was conversing with a two year old. Tori's cheeks flamed a bright red on cue as Jer rubbed at his neck in embarrassment. Reyna just stood there, her hands behind her back, looking awfully proud at her act.

“Rey. Shut up.”, Tori hissed from under her hat. She knew exactly how Tori felt about guys, even if they were the nice kind like Jer. She just wasn't the love kind of girl. But that never stopped Reyna from trying her hardest to set her up.

At the stern noise, Rey had shrugged and raised her hands in denial. Smiling sheepishly at her friend's discomfort she decided she better make this right. Before he knew it Jer was being whisked off his feet and dragged into the ocean.

Seconds later Tori heard a loud splash and a brown head going under the blue blanket that washed over it. A smile cracked through her lips as she saw Jer break through the surface and lunge at a laughing Reyna only two feet away from him. Propping her hands on her knees, she saw the scene unfold in front of her eyes. Reyna was being chased around the water, Jer's hands extended in front of him to catch the brown haired minx. Hiding behind people's backs and squealing at even the slightest touch, Rey was quite nimble for him to catch. Finally after a long chase, Jer had ducked into the water and not shown up for a long time.

Rey looked behind her back once more. Jer had been chasing her non-stop for minutes now. Jeez for a big guy, he was unbelievably slow. The lack of a crazy figure tugging through the ocean waves to get his hands on her stopped her feet from running. There was no Jer behind her. Where had he gone? She looked around for the familiar green eyes and brown hair stuck to that head with water dripping through the ends. But there was no one in sight. A black haired guy was walking past her shoulder when she caught a peek of brown hair streaking by.

Before she knew it, someone had caught her shoulder and thrust her under the water. The salty water burned her eyes before impulse took over and her eyelids shut. Seconds later her lungs ached for air, burning from the lack of pure oxygen pumping through her veins. Her arms flailed in every direction, hoping to tug onto anything solid enough to pull her out of this situation. Soon enough, the weight on her head lightened and she whipped out of the water, taking a grateful gulp of the air before rubbing the burning sensation in her eyes.

“Now how does that feel huh?”, Jer stood a few meters away from her, a smug look painted across his perfect looking face. That little twat. He was going to get it now. Nobody messed with Reyna. She lunged at him, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing his body back into the water. What she didn't expect was how prepared he was this time. Ducking in time, he casually flipped her over her shoulder and gripped at her arms around his neck. Gaining a tight hold he ducked under the water, the waves crashing over them mercilessly.

By now Rey had been kicking and shoving at his body in any way possible, having enough of the fun, he let go before swiftly swimming away. He knew she would try something again. That girl never gave up.

He jumped out of the water and jogged back to the spot where Tori lay on her light blue blanket with a thick fat book looming over her head. A bright sandy beach with people and kids playing around and having fun, a reading Tori seemed to stand out like the moon in the sky. Lying on the blanket on her stomach, her head was buried deep in yet another fantasy tale, wishing she could become part of the tale itself. It wasn't until he had bent over in curiosity and flicked water on her forehead that she started.

“Hello Astoria”, Jer smiled cheekily at the glaring girl sitting below him. Wiping the water drops from her beloved book, she glared at a dripping wet Jeremiah smiling creepily at her.

“Jeremy!”, she whined. Brushing the sand off her new top, she stood up to meet his green orbs with her angry Grey ones. Books and fantasy were much too close to Tori. They seemed like the world that would accept, without judging. Love without reason. Giving her aspirations and ambitions. A scratch on a book beloved to her was an invitation to war.

Seeing the image of a smiling Jer with an extremely angry Tori standing on her toes to reach her full height, clutching a wet soaked book in her hand, Rey knew this was more than trouble. Quickening her pace, she squeezed herself between the two angry birds and separated them with her arms.

“Woah there! Let's not start World War 3”, she exclaimed. Neither of the two broke their smoldering eye contact until they received a loud smack on their shoulder. Yelping in pain, Tori stepped back to rub the burning red spot on her shoulder, while the smack hadn't even hurt a hair on Jer. He simply ruffled his hair and reached for his bottle of water in the cooler.

“I was trying to engage her in conversation”, he shrugged.

“Well find a better way”, Tori mumbled as she shoved the book into her bag, afraid the little paperback couldn't sustain any more damage. She turned away grumpily and stomped her way to the mini bar set up in one shady corner of the beach. Slumping on the ebony wood counter, she stared into the ocean. The waves were lapping at the shore, the foaming white contrasted by the ocean blue resting against the peach colored grainy sand.

So mesmerized by the spectacle was she that she didn't notice a young man snapping his fingers in her face. Starting from her day-dream she turned to look at the man. Her eyes met brown ones, his tan brown face with chiseled cheek bones and long eyelashes gave him the typical look of an Emirati. Tousled black hair lying much too close to his eyes, he stared back at her, amusement clear in his eyes.

“Spacing out are we?”, he asked in a heavily accented voice.

“Uhh...I'm”, she answered intelligently. She wasn't used to new acquaintances. Rey was the one who loved meeting new people, half her socializing activities were forced because she stuck to Rey like a parasite. Maybe not parasite, their relationship was more symbiotic.

Once again she came face to face with the guy's fingers snapping in her face while his lips turned into an amused smile. She shook her head clear and looked back once gain to answer him immediately.

“Um, no. I'm Astoria.”, the words gushed out of her like a leaky faucet. Her cheeks turned beet red in embarrassment as she realized just how insecure she sounded.

Urging a hand forward he put up what he hoped to be a welcoming front. He had seen many types of people in his time, but he had an inkling this girl was going to be different. Unlike the other ladies on beach who seemed to bare their skin for others to gorge their eyes out, she seemed to be squirming in just her tee and shorts. He noticed that she seemed startled by his sudden friendly gesture and cracked a smile to put her at ease. This seemed to work. Now for the real deal, getting to know her.

“Hi, I'm Faizal. It's really nice to meet you Astoria”