!! @zosoperfect asked; 💔- A memory that leaves them feeling lonely
It was the first time she woke up to an empty motel bed.
She was five, almost six.
That feeling, alone, always has a way of rattling you, doesn’t it? When you open eyes and catch sight of an unfamiliar pattern in the wallpaper– when you gasp and the scent of the room doesn’t hit any of those comforting, homey sensations. The feeling itself has muted over the course of those last few months: between evenings spent in a moving car or various rest stops. The mere fact she was actually in a bed, tucked in, warm and able to stretch little legs, a pillow even; has her more comfortable than she’d been in weeks.
Mother had told her it was a nice motel.
That they’d get to stay in this nice motel because she’d been so very nice earlier,
at the nice tiny-tot pageant.
The judges had loved her, and Mother loved her as well.
Arienette had fallen asleep to the sing-song tune of some children’s show, tucked against Mother’s side, the weight of her causing the tiny girl to funnel towards the center of the mattress.
But, that pang of thirst came along, and sometime in the evening– she squint to gaze at the alarm clock across the room, a crimson three and some zeros glaring back at her– she’d woken up… and it felt cold, and it was dark, and there was no Mother there to be curled against: only the vague sounds of rustling in the hallway, the noises from the nearby highway echoing in the distance… she didn’t even feel very thirsty after that, decided against braving the shadows for a glass of water… but that’s quite possibly the loneliest she’s ever felt; and it lasted until Mother came stumbling and tumbling back into the room, when the light began shining in through the curtains... too long...
And, upon recollection: Arienette doesn’t quite remember that motel as being very nice at all.