© 2014-2017 Embers
The sweat on Rosa's brow chilled as she entered the large air-conditioned lobby. Although the sudden shift in temperature startled her, it offered much-needed relief; Kabira Bay was particularly muggy the day she and her family arrived.
Her father, a stocky, pug-faced man with dense glasses, walked briskly ahead of her. He made a beeline to the front desk, towing heavy suitcases in both hands. While he settled business, she waited by the front door, shyly scanning the ritzy hotel floor.
Her mother, whom she closely resembled, came and stood by her side. With their dark ringlets, catlike eyes and bow-shaped lips, they could almost pass for sisters. They both waited patiently while things were being settled with the desk clerks.
"Totemo atsui desu, ne...Daijōbu, Rosa-chan?" her mother asked softly, touching her arm.
"Umm. Genki desu, mama," Rosa replied in a passive monotone, distracted by the seaside view through the windows. Her limbs were stiff from the car ride, and she wanted to hit the beach as soon as possible. It would be nice to free herself from her parents for a while, she thought. They tended to suffocate her, as well-meaning as they were.
"Onaka ga sukimashitaka?" her mother pressed.
Embarrassed by her mother's cloying tone, she blurted out, "I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't worry about it...uh, I mean...
daijōbu desu
." Her father, having overheard her, shot her a disapproving glance, shaking his head quickly. He then turned back to finish his business at the desk. Rosa saw her mother squint in frustration.
Rosa's father always discouraged use of English in foreign countries. She didn't exactly understand why. Most likely he simply didn't wish to stand out; he was incredibly social, and his career relied on him being so. He turned back to the clerk and smiled apologetically.
"Anata no kazoku wa nan-nin desu ka?" the clerk asked him.
"Watashi no kazoku wa san-nin desu," he replied smilingly, over-pronouncing his words a bit.
"Hai, DeSantos-san," the clerk concluded, filing away the paperwork with a reassuring smile and adding, "Anata wa ukeirerareru!"
Her father finally relaxed his face, then turned to wave at Rosa and her mother. A gawky young bellhop obliged to take the mother's bags and carry them towards the elevators. Rosa followed behind them, wheeling her luggage down the long carpeted hallway.
At the end of the hall, she saw two very tall girls waiting for an elevator. They were talking very loudly in English, though they had a slight accent. Immediately she found them quite beautiful, though as she approached them, they stared at her, halting their conversation abruptly. Her heart started to race.
She was struck by how closely these two girls resembled one another. Their faces were both long and oval, with dark wing-shaped eyes, flat button noses, and pillowy, glossy lips. Most eye-catching was their waist-length hair, which was dyed a particularly blinding shade of yellow. It wasn't blonde exactly, but rather a pastel hue that added a touch of eccentricity to their aura.
As the last few vacationers filtered into the tight space, Rosa found herself scrunched into a corner next to the two girls, feeling them tower over her. She noticed their dress was also identical; they wore an entirely bleach-white ensemble consisting of matching tank tops, floppy sun hats, and denim shorts from which their long tanned legs extended down to spotless tennis shoes.
She clamped her tongue between her teeth as she felt their judgmental stares. She could swear she heard one of them stifle the slightest snicker. Was it because she was a foreigner? Did she look dorky to them or something? Her entire body tensed at the latter thought.
Her mother was now thankfully too preoccupied with her phone to embarrass her, but her father hovered nearby, beaming at her from over a of wall of shoulders. He always seemed somewhat oblivious to her emotions. Frustratedly, she shot a weak smile at him and then dropped her head.
"Nijūgokai...36th floor," she finally heard spoken by a soothing computer voice overhead. She squirmed her way out of the door, dragging her luggage behind her. The two girls remained on the elevator. Out of the corner of her eye, Rosa saw them grinningly turn to one another.
As the doors closed, she caught one last glimpse of them sharing a lazily covert look of amusement. She knew she'd be commented upon behind her back. What flaws they'd detected in her, she could only guess. She marched ahead of her parents in a huff.
In her hotel room, she took a brief shower. Her petit body leaned forward as the water danced off her bare spine and dribbled down the crack of her round bottom. She stretched until she touched her glittery toenails, then straightened her legs and took a deep breath. The steady, gentle wet tapping on her skin began to relax her.
"Rosa! We're going to get lunch at U-Maru, do you want to come?" she suddenly heard in the distance, followed by a quick rap of knuckles against the bathroom door. Wincing, she realized it was her mother's voice. Before she could answer, she heard her father reprimand her mother again for speaking English, followed by unintelligible bickering.
"Uhh, it's okay mom, I'm—uh, I mean...
onaka suitenai...saki ni itte!
Mada onaka ha suite imasen. Ato de tabemasu!" she yelled through the noise. After a some hectic commotion, she heard the voices die down to silence.
"Hey. Mom, did you hear me? I'll get my own lunch in later on, okay? I want to go down to the beach for a while first..." she added, but there was no response.
Rosa paused, turning off the water and stepping over to the door. She placed her ear against it, realizing that her parents must have reluctantly decided to leave her behind. She grinned, feeling victorious for this moment of autonomy she'd managed to eke out.
She wrapped her wavy black hair up in a bath towel and stepped out of the tub. Walking up to the bathroom mirror, she inspected her naked reflection closely. Why did those girls in the elevator leer at her so strangely? And more importantly, why did it bother her?
It was unlike her to dwell on such things; she had a fairly high opinion of herself, and she absorbed compliments about her looks on an almost daily basis. She had been raised to be something of a princess, and she knew it was in part because she fit the bill. Maybe all this traveling, without much opportunity to make any real new friends in the past few months, was just finally getting to her.
She observed her small yet perky breasts, observing the droplets of bathwater dripping from the peaks of her tender nipples. Turning to one side, she looked at the sinuous arch of her back, which lead down to her perfectly round little apple bottom. Toned, clean. Everything's fine, right?
Not exactly. With a small grimace, she noticed a layer of dark stubble growing in where she usually shaved her pubic hair. She fussily grabbed one of her father's unused razors, smeared a bit of hand soap over her prickly mons, and quickly mowed the offending growth down. Somewhat satisfied, she dried the rest of her body off and slipped into her black & white-striped bathing suit. She was ready for the sun.
On her way down to the beach, Rosa stopped at a vending machine to get a bottle of seltzer. Immediately she felt eyes on her again. She paused, hearing a bit of chirpy laughter nearby, followed by whispering.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the two lemon-haired twins she'd run into earlier. They were perched opposite one another on the handrails of the walkway, staring directly at her.
Rosa's heart raced again. With her sunglasses on, she could pretend she didn't see them, but for how long? Most people used this walkway to access the beach; it wouldn't make sense for her to take an alternate route, especially because it would then only make obvious how uncomfortable she was.
She slipped a few yen into the machine. The bottle lurched forward, then got stuck behind the glass, hanging indefinitely. Rosa immediately heard the girls behind her laugh again, their whispers vague but clearly amused.
Frustrated, she decided to give up her bottle without a fight. Hitting or pulling the giant machine would probably only further deepen the awkwardness. As gracefully as she could, she forced a smile and exhaled with comic weariness, then turned to walk the gauntlet.
She moved with swift, clipped steps, her toes clutching the straps of her sandals for dear life as she passed between the two girls. They said nothing, but continued to ogle her quite obviously. She thought it a bit rude, yet she still couldn't determine if they intended to be or not; maybe this attention she was getting was a form of flattery? She still couldn't tell.
Walking out onto the beach, the girls disappeared from view as Rosa descended a steep sand dune. She put the two strange Japanese amazons out of her mind for a while. The shoreline glistened blindingly, opening up in either direction as far as her eye could see. Although it was late afternoon, the sun was still shining bright in a cloudless sky, and hundreds of people still lined the sands in various stages of play and relaxation.
Laying down her towel, she applied a bit of sunscreen and skipped to the ocean. She dove in with abandon, her compact body dipping and undulating under the current until she was quite far out. Pulling herself up, she treaded in place a bit, taking in the oceanside panorama, and when she was pleased, she swam back to the shore.
When she arrived back at her towel, she again saw the twins nearby. Their sneakers were off, and they were bumping a volleyball back and forth a few yards away. They no longer appeared to take notice of her, though she still found it peculiar that they seemed so ever-present. Shrugging her shoulders, Rosa stretched out across her towel and let out a long yawn.
It was only a few moments before she heard a hollow thud next to her head. She felt a spray of sand across her forehead. Startled, she sat up. A volleyball rolled past her. She looked over, seeing the girls staring at her.
"Oh! Honto ni gomen ne...!" one of them said, bounding over to retrieve the ball. Rosa wiped the grains from her hairline and did her best to sound polite.
"Ah...Daijoubu, Sinpai naiyo," she replied politely.
"Wait, are you American?" the girl asked, noticing Rosa's strong accent.
"Uh, yeah," Rosa replied with a little chuckle. "My Japanese is actually still not that great..."
