Gabby woke with a start, gasping for air. She found herself trapped in a terrifying dream. She was aboard a plane with her parents, the engines roaring as they soared through the darkened skies. But instead of excitement, there was an ominous tension in the air.
Gabby glanced nervously at her parents, but they seemed strangely distant, their faces expressionless as they stared straight ahead. She tried to reach out to them, to seek comfort in their embrace, but they remained cold and unresponsive.
As the plane began to shake violently, Gabby's fear reached a fever pitch. She called out to her parents, begging for reassurance, but they ignored her pleas, their indifference piercing her heart like a knife.
With a deafening roar, the plane suddenly plummeted towards the ground, Gabby's screams echoing in the chaos. She reached out desperately for her parents, but they remained motionless, their indifference haunting her even in her darkest hour.
Just as Gabby braced herself for the inevitable impact, she jolted awake, her heart racing and her body drenched in sweat. Gasping for air, she clung to her pillow and hugged it tightly to her chest. She knew this was the aftermath of the plane turbulence. She had actually prepared her mind for it, but this would be the first time in years her parents would be appearing in her dream.
She checked the bedside clock to see the time, only to find out that she had only been asleep for barely two hours, and it was a few minutes after two. She sighed and lay on her bed, still clinging to the pillow, and hoping to find sleep. She drifted off a few hours later into a restless sleep.
In the quiet stillness of dawn, Gabby stirred awake, her heart heavy with the remnants of her haunting nightmare. As the tendrils of sleep slowly released their grip, she found herself grappling with the lingering unease that had settled deep within her soul.
With a heavy sigh, she dragged herself out of bed and made her way to the window, seeking solace in the pale light of the early morning sun. Outside, the world seemed to stir with the promise of a new day, yet the shadows of her nightmare still clung to her like a stubborn fog.
As she sipped her morning coffee, she couldn't shake the feeling of isolation that had plagued her in her dream. It was a loneliness that seeped into her bones, a gnawing emptiness that no amount of distraction could fill. Though she had come to terms with her parents' death, yet these plaguing nightmares still drained her and left her feeling more miserable than ever.
She slumped back in bed with a groan. She knew she should have refused when Alessi brought her the full glass of mojito after forcing her to down some glasses of margarita not long before. But she was one damn persuasive, strong-headed, stubborn bitch.
Gabby groaned, remembering what she had done the previous night. She wished she could just hang herself at that moment. God, what a disgrace she had been. She clearly remembered everything that had happened the previous night. She had not been too drunk to notice what was going on around her, and she had been the most sober out of all the girls.
She clearly remembered a part of the night when Michael had sat very close to her, showing his pearly teeth. "What do you want?" she asked, shuffling away from him. But he insistently followed her, mirroring her actions.
"What do you want, Michael?" Leaning forward, he studied her face, his eyes alight with curiosity. "What's your deal, Gabby?" Gabby shifted away from him, staring at him guardedly. "What has that got to do with you? Can you let me be? I prefer my solitude. Do you mind moving away from me?"
Undeterred by her cold attitude towards him, Michael disregarded her words, his confidence unwavering. He leaned even closer. "Fair enough. But I promise, I'm excellent company; I don't bite." Gabby raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by his persistence.
"You seem to have mistaken confidence for arrogance." Michael chuckled, unfazed by her remark. "Perhaps, or maybe I just know what I want when I see it." Gabby's lips twitched in disgust, but she had to admire his superb level of boldness.
"And what exactly do you want?" she asked. Michael leaned back in his seat, a playful glint in his eyes. "What I want? Of course, it's to get to know the intriguing woman sitting in front of me."
Gabby rolled her eyes. She leaned towards him, looking him straight in the eyes, and whispered, "I have heard such words before, and I will give you the same answer all previous prospects have gotten." She sat up straight, still looking at him in the eyes, with an unreadable expression.
"Thank you so much for the consideration. I must decline your generous offer to disrupt my perfectly mediocre existence. Though I must admit, I find your timing as impeccable as your taste in... well, everything. Thanks, but no thanks." Michael laughed until his sides hurt. "I think I'm falling in love with you."
Still smiling hard, he said to Gabby, "If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me. I'll be here, hoping for a chance to charm you again." Gabby scoffed at him. She stood up, ignoring him, and made her way to the mini-bar to get a glass of water. As Gabby walked away, Michael watched her go with a twinkle in his eyes, undeterred by her rejection and already looking forward to their next banter.
Gabby felt like pulling out all of her hair at that moment when she remembered having that conversation with him. "Why on earth had she sat still for such a conversation? Now, he had taken it as a challenge to pester her." She had promised herself to avoid him at all costs, but look at what her strong-headedness had led her to.
She was still crying over her lack of self-control and how she had reneged on her words when she suddenly remembered a heart-stopping part of the previous night. Someone had dragged her away to sing, and she had really been enjoying herself, belting the words of the song into the pretend mic, which was an empty beer bottle lying around.
She had been singing happily to the song when her eyes came in contact with Michael, who was staring at her with a weird look on his face. She did not know what came over her because she did the worst thing one would ever imagine.
She had belched into the pretend microphone when their eyes had come in contact, and it had been loud as hell, which had actually gotten a lot of the sober guys to laugh merrily and also kind of loosened the atmosphere a bit between Gabby and the guys.
But just thinking about it made her feel so sick. Gabby could clearly remember the look on Michael's face. At first, he had been shocked as hell, his eyes opened wide, almost comically. Then he had busted into loud boisterous laughter, which actually got him rolling on the ground. My God, what a disgraceful sight that would have been. She remembered that she had also laughed it off at that time and had continued singing.
Then, after her crazy singing sphere, Mary and the girls had helped her to her room. They had actually rejected Michael's help when he had volunteered to help take Gabby to her room. Gabby sighed, thanking The Lord for small miracles.
She stood up, feeling less dizzy. She walked to the cabinet to look for any pain relief drugs because the head-splitting headache she was feeling at that moment was nothing fun at all. She sighed in relief when she found some aspirin, which she took immediately.