5. Aurora and the app
Chapter five
Aurora and the app
“ M oooooom!” I moaned, hands pressed against my pulsing forehead. “How much did we drink last night?”
My mother laughed weakly from under the covers on the couch, waggling a finger above her corpse. “The answer would be… too much .”
I wobbled to my feet, trying to catch my brain up to my skull. Everything was left when I tried to step right. I swallowed the sandpaper I called a tongue and somehow made my way to the kitchen. Riffling through the medicine bread box took all my effort. I squinted and picked the bottle, having memorized the shape of aspirin container. It was agony. Step by step—mason jar, in the fridge door, no ice just water, gulp of water, toss back the pills. Listing them out somehow helped conquer the simple movements.
I gasped for air as I put down my jar. I’d downed three cups. My bladder would be upset with me later. One problem at a time, Aurora . Rubbing my face felt so good, I didn’t stop till I realized a rather important detail.
“Uh, Mom?” I stumbled into the living room, searching for my phone. “Where’s my phone? I’m supposed to call Anthony at eight when I get up in the morning.”
I ran my hands up and down the recliner I’d slept in. Nothing. I stumbled to the table, pushing the empty bags of snacks around. Nope. Panic set in, sending my blood vibrating. I didn’t know what time it was. He would be so pissed I didn’t call him the second I woke up.
“Hunny, why are you calling him?”
And then, the world came crashing down. Right… The memory of him screaming in my face, throwing my suitcase at me, rushed back. I recalled sobbing as I fled to the airport, no idea what I was doing. Then, I was buying a one way ticket, a last ditch effort to get home before my cards were cut off.
“I don’t know,” I croaked, raking my fingers through my hair. Something distinctly not hair touched my fingers. I brushed two twigs, a leaf, and something hopefully like mud out of my mane. “Uh…Mom?”
“What?” She picked her head up from the couch once more, like a turtle from its shell.
“Did we go outside last night?” I inspected myself for the first time. My bare feet were caked in soil, a leaf glued to my left shin with mud, and my jeans were stained. I peeked up at her and found she looked about how I felt .
“Yeah, you wanted some air… and then you chucked your phone into the trees.”
Good going, Drunk Aurora! All my information, my photos, my social media was in that stupid device. I stomped toward the front door, finding only my mother’s muddy boots in the basket. Great. My sneakers were missing. Likely where I got the muddy feet.
“Here’s to hoping we didn’t get far.”
I didn’t have any other shoes. Getting new sneakers was easy. Replacing the phone with all my data and passwords in it? Not so much. I begrudgingly stomped across the porch and followed the drunken path left for me. My first clue was my hoodie still stuck on the porch door. A goat was currently trying to munch on the fabric. I snatched it from him, bleating back at him when he complained. The chickens clucked and screamed as I rampaged across the gravel without a single care. Despite Anthony’s best efforts, my heels and feet were raised on gravel and mud.
My second clue came in the form of the wine bottle dangling precariously near the back gate of the farm, leading into the woods. Down a trampled path ahead of me, I could see the two sets of marks in the mud. Neither of my shoes were there, but my keys were sticking out of the mess. Useless keys now. I crept through the gate, plucking the silver ring out of the muck. One to the house, one to the SUV, one to the gym locker, one to the post office, and so on… I was the key keeper because Anthony didn’t like going out to handle things.
Stepping into the trees, a sudden clarity fell over me. Keys in hand, eyes level with damp branches, the feeling of dew drops trickling down my head and arms… I was the one who did the household work because it was the only time I was allowed to do things on my own. I did the grocery shopping and would spend an hour or more going aisle to aisle. I cooked dinner because he hated getting anything on his hands. Cranking the stereo and dancing by the stove became an oasis for me.
I dropped the keys into the mud and left them to rot.
Pushing aside branches, I avoided more sticks and leaves in my hair the best I could. It was hard when the path went from clearly a walking trail to endless forest very quickly. I ducked and weaved, steadily losing sight of the morning light through the canopy. Heavy scents of wet earth, fresh growth, and a hint of autumn air filled my lungs. I was a hot air balloon, lightened and lifted out of the pit of my despair with every gulp of oxygen.
Home.
I ducked under another branch and gasped as I kicked something hard across the soft ground. Scrambling after it, I found my phone face down in the mud. Please, please, please. “I’ll never drink again. I’ll be a very good girl. I’ll pay my taxes on time, and I’ll never run a red light. ”
My phone was heavy in my hand as I plucked it from the muck. I wiped it off on my jean shorts. Please, please, please . Moment of truth. I closed my eyes and pressed the lock button.
Light met my face as my phone turned on. I shrieked, “Fuck yeah! That’s what I’m talkin’ abooout ! ”
With no shame, I danced a little wiggly jig in the forest as my phone booted up. Fuckin’ take that! At first, it booted up for a long time. Then, my lockscreen flashed up to my face. The default image stared back at me, and my heart stopped. Oh no, no, no, no, don’t be factory reset! I pressed my thumbs against the screen and entered my pin. Thankfully, my wallpaper booted up, and I sighed with relief.
A picture of my favorite bookstore that sold milk tea and fresh mochi stared back at me. I salivated over the idea of an iced matcha latte and something ooey gooey with strawberries. My phone finally opened fully, showing me my main screen full of apps with notifications. Missed calls, missed texts, instant messages—practically everything had a number bubble over it. Then, there was something new.
“Kis-meet?” I snorted. When did I download a dating app? Did I do it during my drunken rampage through the woods? Did my mother do it for me? A red heart with a K and magnifying glass in the middle stared at me. When I pressed it, a kissy sound filled my wet speakers on my phone. I gagged. Ewww, notification sounds. I cranked down my volume as the app loaded. At first, a soft pink screen filled my vision. Then, slowly, text crossed it…
I know what you need.
“Ha! Sure,” I snorted. I don’t even know what I need, other than therapy and three gallons of coffee. I rolled my eyes.
I can show you where to get what you want…
I furrowed my brows, suspiciously eyeing the app as more text filled the screen.
Just follow the path before you. Come and find me ;)
Then, a heart popped on the screen, and all I saw was a GPS map. A single bar across the top in a soft hue of colors said loading while it seemed to find my location. After about a second, my phone vibrated, and the screen showed it had found me. Across the top, it said, First thing: wallet .
“Wallet?” I scoffed before my face fell. “Oh no… I brought my wallet out here?”
The app didn’t speak to me or say anything. All it showed was the GPS with a walking path laid out in front of me. Great . I glanced around, checking my options. Either I could turn around and hope to all hope my wallet was where sober me left it, or I could follow the terrifying app gods deeper into the woods. I still didn’t have my shoes either.
My phone vibrated again, and I glanced down at it. The top bar said ‘ Matched! Six more stops to go. Are you ready to meet-up? ;) ’
I groaned, “Six?”
Bemoaning my blackout, sad drunk decisions, I trudged forward. One foot in front of the other, I pushed aside branches. Consulting the app every few steps, I followed it deeper into the trees, away from the trampled path into the endless trees. I tried to keep track of my previous position; thankfully, the forest was full of moss and tall grass, nothing sharp or jagged.
I came across the first pinpoint and sighed with relief. My wallet, a small, purple folding leather object was sitting on a rock like it’s fallen out of my back pocket. When I picked it up, my phone vibrated again. Pink and golden glitter filled the screen. You found me!
“Okay, app gods, what else am I missing? Don’t tell me I lost other important things. Oh fuck, where’s my ID?” I looked at my empty wallet and nearly chucked it again. It squelched as I slid it into my back pocket. The next ping appeared on my phone. Driver’s license . “Thanks for prioritizing it for me.”
And so, against my better judgement, hung over and slightly sassy, I trampled through the forest beyond my mother’s farm. At some point, I expected to end up in someone else’s pasture or backyard, but I didn’t end up anywhere but deeper in the woods. Knee deep in wet grass or ankle deep in mud, I trudged on. One after another, I found my license, my credit card, my library card, the two separate pieces of Anthony’s debit card, and my insurance card.
Then, a new ping hit my phone. Yuri .
“Who?” I snickered, stumbling out of a thick bunch of trees into a clearing. Were my shoes label brand or off brand? I don’t remember buying them. Could my sneakers be called Yuris? Or was this a person? A place? A thing ? Was this my “match”?
I spiraled as I stepped out into sunlight… and stopped dead in my tracks. Someone stood on a cabin porch ten feet from me. Hidden out in the trees with no clear trail to the road or to town, I expected to find a haunted cabin. Broken wood over closed windows, crooked doors, cobwebs, ghosts! That’s what should have been before me, not a beautiful wood cabin. The porch was stained a sweet honey color, the cabin decorated with carved edges. A cutesy wind-chime hung from the awning, and a man with a large tail stood just outside the front door.
A man? No… he was a hunk. Better than a hunk—an Adonis. Probably six feet tall, sloped shoulders, thick arms stuffed into plaid sleeves with all the buttons undone. His jeans were painted on his snackable, thick thighs with his unlaced boots, as if he couldn’t be bothered to tie them up completely. I marveled at the cute swoop of floppy, salt and pepper hair on top of an angular face. That was when I recognized the tail… and the scales… and the claws…
Didn’t Mom tell me ages ago that fairies lived in these woods? I nearly exploded out of my skin. Please be a fairy! Please be a gator fairy! Please, please, please be a magical, scaley bellied, hefty tail having, gob-smackingly good looking gator fairy! My mouth flapped open and shut like a gasping trout. He stared at me with glowing yellow eyes, and my heart skipped a beat.
I smiled sheepishly. “Uh… Hi?”
“Hi?” He cocked his head to the side, as if he wasn’t sure I was real. I waved cheekily, still clutching all my treasure hunt goodies to my chest. His eyes dropped to my bare toes, and I burned up with embarrassment. Oh… right. He growled, “Where are your shoes?”
I laughed. Whoops. Maybe if my drunk ass didn’t lose them after I lost everything else, I wouldn’t be walking around barefoot like a goober. I tried to brush my hair, but it was already too big of a mess. Great first impression, Aurora! Nervous laughter turned to a painful wheeze. “Uh, great questions. Well? Um…I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” He stomped down the steps with his massive feet, the ground practically rumbling. “Did you wake up in the woods?”
“Uh—no!” I squeaked, suddenly choking on my blush and tongue.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt? Who hurt you?” He hurled the questions at me one right after the other, but I was unable to answer anything coherently. My mouth continued to flounder and flap as he stepped right up to me. A massive, cold hand grabbed my chin seconds after his claws retracted. I was in shock until he turned my head left and right. “Do you remember what happened to you?”
“You’re so sweet,” I wheezed, slinking out of his touch with a tremble in both my voice and step.
“Sorry, I didn’t…I forget…” He trailed off, his yellow orbs dropping to the ground between us.
“Oh! No! It’s not you!” I frantically waved my hands to defuse any tension and only ended up tossing my phone and things into the mud. Great. I groaned, tossing my head back like a petulant toddler. “Good goin’. Now the darn thing’s probably going to never turn back on.”
“What?” He shook his head in disbelief.
“Sorry.” I spared him an apologetic smile. “My mother and I drank excessively last night. I mean, heavy-heavy. I’m not sure how much. And of course, woe is me, I start needing to get fresh air, and I’m crying and having a hard time, so we drunkenly stumbled through the woods. I don’t even know what happened, but I wake up this mornin’ with no shoes, no phone, wallet gone. It’s a bad country song from the 90s, but worse yet? I’ve been stumbling through the woods, trying to find my stuff, and I still can’t find my dang sneakers! ”
I talked like a flapping bird with my hands as I stuffed my scattered cards back into my wallet. The heavy southern drawl returned without even a moment of hesitation. Anthony would be so upset. It put a spiteful smile on my lips for a moment to think how hard he would cringe to hear me speak. Despite the sludge in my wallet and the cold in-between my toes, it felt good to stick it to him. Even just in memory.
“Hold up, Dollface. So you’re out here looking for your sneakers?” Dollface? I whirled to face the gator fairy behind me and gave him a noncommittal shrug. He eyed me, right eye twitching. Nervous, slightly scared laughter fell out of my mouth as he let out a loud sigh. “How did you get out here without shoes?”
“Funny enough, I haven’t stepped on anythin’ yet-”
Spoke. Too. Soon. I took a step toward him, beaming with my pride for not stubbing a single toe…and proceeded to step on something sharp. I yelped, my voice bouncing off the trees, scattering birds. I wrenched my foot off the ground, tears welling up in my eyes immediately. Big baby. But there was no use acting tough when blood trickled down my foot and mixed with the mud caked onto me.
“Oh, how fast karma strikes,” he grumbled, stepping up beside me. In a single swoop, he caught me behind the back of the knees and below my shoulder blades. A tingle of fear stabbed into my belly as I realized I was off the ground. Big girl problems. I’m never not grounded. Then, giddy joy filled me as I peeked up into the face of the man carrying me toward his cabin. The fairytale dream of being carried across a threshold.
Anthony used to scoff at that silly, fairytale idea. I thought it was romantic.
And as my heart thundered in my chest, I was right. My gator savior pushed the door open with his foot and angled us both into the cabin. Did this mean…his name was Yuri? Was the app leading me to this man the whole time? Why was he something I needed ?
Yuri set me on the counter next to his sink. I studied the inside of his cabin as he cranked on the water. High ceilings with exposed rafters stood tall over me. It was all the same honey glaze color as the porch with dark embellishments along the trim. An open floor showcased minimal furniture. He had a table with two chairs, a squishy couch near a fireplace, and a backroom across the cabin from the kitchen.
“Your cabin’s nice,” I squeaked.
“Thanks. Your foot’s dirty.”
I flushed harder as I tried to sit up on his counter. “Yeah, sorry, I didn’t even-”
He put a hand to my stomach and physically pushed me back as he handled my foot under the faucet. I hissed as he plucked something from my flesh. “You should be more careful; you could get hurt. It was just a piece of glass, but it could have been a bear trap.”
“You just keep bear traps in your yard?” I blinked rapidly, staring at him in disbelief.
“No.” He scrunched his face, glancing at me sharply.
“Then why would I get stuck in a bear trap?” I quirked a brow.
“You could have walked on one in the woods.” He held up a long piece of jagged glass to me. I pinched it between two fingers and took it from him. All that for a shard of glass? “Thankfully, you don’t need stitches. Keep your feet under the water while I grab my kit. ”
I put the glass on the windowsill above his sink before sitting back on my palms. The mud and filth washed off my feet while I continued to rinse the wound. Yuri ducked under the sink and returned with a first aid kit. He only turned off the water when he’d collected a handful of items. I watched in absolute awe as he worked carefully, like he was born to be a doctor and not a gator fairy in the middle of the woods. He put cream over the wound first, then a cotton bandage or two, then wrapped up my foot.
“Goin’ to need to keep off it for a day or two,” he grunted, closing the kit.
“Thanks,” I breathed, testing my foot’s ability to move first before attempting to swing off the counter. My toes caught the sink, and Yuri caught me. Like a flightless bird, my arms flapped out to my side as I prepared for my face-first landing. However, strong arms scooped me up and held me to a firm chest. Yuri was cold. It made me shiver at first as I worked my feet under me. After a moment, he stepped back but left his hands firmly planted at the small of my back.
“Now I’m starting to see how you lost all your stuff in the woods.” His voice was deep, from the cavern of his chest, like his vocal cords rolled over gravel. It was uncomfortably beautiful. Warmth pooled in my belly, and panic set in, immediately following it. I froze in his arms, staring up into sharp slits splitting yellow eyes, unable to speak. Yuri gave me a once-over before cocking his head to the side. “You alright, doll? You clammed up. Is it the teeth? ”
“Nu-uh.” I swallowed the lump in my throat, shaking my head vigorously.
“You can say it. I’m a tough gator. I can take a little screaming of terror.” He rolled his eyes, chuckling to himself.
“It’s… it’s not that.” How was I supposed to tell the gorgeous magical fairy forest man holding me up in his kitchen that I was experiencing true, unfiltered, to the core attraction to him?
Snap out of it! Just because he’s the first person to show you basic, person decency doesn’t mean you need to go goo-goo eyed on the man!
I blinked once to clear the haze in my eyes. “Sorry, it’s just that I’m hung over and I got lost in the woods and now I’m caked in mud and there’s twigs in my hair—and probably a frog .”
He snickered softly, a hand leaving my back to pluck at my hair slightly. “No frogs, but probably a glob of mud or more.”
“I’m intruding on your peace and quiet, and I don’t know how to get home. My phone probably won’t turn on or get service out here—wherever here is—and I…could just really use a hot shower.” I leaned back against the counter, hissing in pain as I tried to bring my foot down.
“Sorry, no can do. You’ll crack your head open standing flamingo style in my shower.” My head fell back as I resigned myself to a life of miserable filth and mud when he spoke again. “Good thing I got a tub. You can prop those puppies up on the side.”
“Oh!” I found myself without a single word to say as he scooped me up in one arm, wrapped my legs around his waist with the other, and carted me from the kitchen to the bathroom through the bedroom.
And the wonderful, deep musky scent of wooden barrels, the forest after a rain, and something smokey filled my nose the whole way there.