38 Back On Track

She arrived at the bus stop, found the bus and got seated. After 10 minutes, the bus was filled and left the airport making its way to the hotel. They traveled for nearly fifteen minutes, before finally reaching the hotel. One glance at the building was enough for Linda to realize that her night wasn't going to be all comfortable.

A five story tall construction, whose paint was wearing off. There were hardly a few windows. The main entrance door was huge, but it was broken and cracked. On top of the building you could see a \"Grand Hotel\" board, which was rusty and seemed as if it could fall any second. This doesn't look that 'grand', Linda thought, her head spinning. She felt like crying, what have i gotten myself into?

The bus parked near the main door and everyone started to get off, taking their luggage and rushing into the hotel. Linda considered it was way better to spend the night in the bus rather than going inside, well, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, hopefully it'll be better inside, Linda tried to console her self. Reluctantly, she stepped out of the bus, when everyone had gotten off.

The bell service came and carried her luggage inside. She quickly followed that person and entered the hotel. As soon as she stepped inside, her mood lifted. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Looking around, everything was quite old fashioned, but still, it was really decent.

Reaching the counter, the receptionist asked for her passport. Showing it to her, Linda was given the key to her room. The lady instructed the bell service to lead Linda to her room.

Opening the door, her heart sank.

There she saw, a single bed, a side table and a chair and a tiny window. Nothing else! Worse then that, the entire room was so small and was not even painted! Linda breathed in and out, trying to calm herself. She was standing in the middle of the room, with her suitcase resting in the corner of the room.

She decided to check the washroom.

Opening its door, her heart sank even further. Can this get any worse? She screamed inside, almost on the verge of a mental breakdown. Just a toilet and a sink. No mirror, no towel and no means of taking a shower. She could not bother about it anymore, her top most priority was re-charging her cellphone and informing her parents about her situation. Thankfully, there was a power socket in another corner. She connected her phone to its charger. Ah, thank goodness it's charging. She sighed in relief. But, the signals still weren't there.

Checking the time she found out it was 12:00 a.m. She fell onto her bed, too tired to change or eat. \"Ew, what the hell is this?!\" She exclaimed in disgust, sitting on her bed. It was smelling... So BAD. Seemed like no one ever dared to wash the sheets, for so long. She gagged. Finding a scarf in her bag, she wrapped it around her head and dozed off into an uncomfortable sleep.

She had no idea how she managed to finally fall asleep after tossing and turning all night, but when she opened her eyes, the sun was rising. It was 5 a.m. Linda frowned, she was so sleepy and her night was so excruciating. Unexpectedly, her stomach started to growl. She had not eaten anything for hours and now she was really hungry and felt a little weak. She finally decided to get up and find something good to eat in this hotel.

But before, she had to look at herself in the mirror, because that night, she went to bed without even changing, removing her make-up or washing her face. Luckily, she had brought along her hand mirror and she fetched it from her suitcase. Looking at herself, she had an unpleasant surprise.

Her hair was so messy, dark circles were forming around her eyes and her make-up was all smeared on her pretty face. She came to a conclusion that there was no way she would step inside Paris in this state. Opening her bag, she took out all the facial products Emily had helped her pack. Since she had a lot of time before 8:00, she would tidy herself up.

First she removed her old and smudged make-up with the help of a make-up remover and washed her face. Then she applied some moisturizer and her skin felt instantly better and fresh. After that, putting on some primer, she covered her dark circles with a concealer. Putting on her foundation, she applied a nude and light colored lipstick, eye shadow and blush etc. At the very last she put on mascara and eye-liner on her elegant, up-turned eyes.

Finally, spraying the 'setting spray' on her face, she looked for some decent clothes to wear. After she was done with everything, she packed her stuff back and went outside to have breakfast before they will be leaving for the airport.