Attractiveness is a Gift

“Welcome to the new Across the Seas International Learning Program,” I greeted. Silently, I made my countdown. Three.

“Yeah, thanks,” the guy said. He was leaning over a suitcase, and hadn’t looked up yet. Two.

When he straightened up, his eyes immediately started raking over my body.

And one.

His jaw dropped in astonishment. His long black hair made it way into his eyes, and he hurriedly brushed it back. “Er….My name’s Tony Houston,” he stuttered.

“Yes, I saw it on the sign-in sheet. I’m Paige Johnson. I’m helping on this trip. Have a nice stay.” With that done with, I shut the door to the room of our hostel and breathed a sigh of annoyance. Why did every guy have to look at me like that? Okay, so I was slender, and had curves and tan skin. Light gold curls tumbled down my back, and my parents always said my blue-green eyes “sparkled”. So what? Did no boy ever look past the appearance? I had still yet to find one male who didn’t gape at the sight of me.

I was training on the International Learning Program, which transported students to different countries for study abroad. My first destination was Mexico, and I’d hoped to escape the creepy high school juniors always tailing me around the school. Luckily, Mrs. Turner, the nice office lady, had recommended me being an RA for this program. With my fluent Spanish, I was a shoo-in for the training.

Contrary to my belief however, this program wasn’t an escape from my daily suitors. Every time I visited a male, they would gasp and start popping up out of corners, asking me on dates.

“Was it successful?” Rebecca asked when I reached the RA dorms.

“Shut up,” I answered. Right now, I didn’t care if Rebecca was my friend, and I was supposed to be nice to her. I wanted to hide or get plastic surgery.

“I’ve already heard one boy say you looked like a Greek goddess, another who thought you were smokin’ hot, and most said that you should be a supermodel…” Rebecca counted off.

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered.

“Oh, did you hear? Someone’s joining us as resident advisor. He’s flying in from Cuba or something, where he already did a project. I bet he has a nice tan. And he’s a senior,” Rebecca squealed. I rolled my eyes. Great. Another ignorant male to ogle me. I was starting to sound vain.

Two hours later, Rebecca, the other resident advisors, and I were standing in a corner as Mrs. Fitch, our trainer, was rattling off hostel rules.

“Now I’ll introduce our wonderful RAs for this hopefully enjoyable semester.” She called each name by alphabetical order. “David Abbey, Rebecca Cordova, Anthony Hagen, Tracy Jane, Paige Johnson…” When I walked onto the stage to line up with the other called names, various wolf whistles resounded through the crowd. I resisted the urge to scream.

“And one of our RAs who has recently joined us about three hours ago, Zach Kenyon.” Then I saw a bunch of girls in the crowd’s jaws drop. Since I’d never seen so many of the female population dumbfounded, I decided to look.

He was just gorgeous. Like Rebecca said, his skin was tan and luscious. He had mahogany curls covering his cerulean eyes. Besides that, he was about six feet and looked like a weight lifter. He waved and said, “Hey.” I could’ve sworn a few girls swooned right there.

Then he came to stand next to me. I began my silent countdown.

“Hi,” I said.

He turned and looked at me. His eyes flickered a bit with surprise, but then dimmed again. “Hey. Nice to meet you.” His words were so perfect, so smooth, that I staggered back in surprise. This had never happened before. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating. But this was a very shocking turn of events.

I didn’t talk to him again.

At lunch, I sat eating Mexican rice and quesadillas while Rebecca jabbered next to me. “Did you see that guy? He was hot!”

I didn’t make any response, since Rebecca thought any guy who still possessed hair and muscles was hot.

“But seriously, Paige. Don’t you think Zach Kenyon is hot?” She pointed her chin toward where Zach was conversing with Anthony.

“Hmm. I wonder what floor he’s going to get.” Each RA was assigned a floor level. After my embarrassing thought that this guy wouldn’t be able to escape my charm either, I wouldn’t be able to have a normal conversation with him again. He’d definitely be paired up with someone, since there were six RAs and only five floors in the hostel. I sincerely hoped it wasn’t me.

“Of course he’s hot!” Tracy Jane plopped down next to us and started stuffing cheese enchiladas into her mouth. “I’ve never seen a better looking guy.”

“Don’t you have a boyfriend?” I laughed.

“Please. My boyfriend would appreciate my good taste.” She waved a hand dismissively.

Mrs. Fitch walked by our table. “Johnson, you and Kenyon are going to be partners.”

I spit out my rice, ignoring Tracy’s disgusted expression. “What?”

“You heard me. Don’t think about changing it. Being an RA is about adjusting. Deal with it.”

“I used to think she was a nice lady,” I grumbled when Mrs. Fitch left.

“She is! Omigosh, you and Zach would make such a cute couple!”

“Argh, leave me alone.” I dumped my tray and looked back at Zach. He looked up and caught my eye. Then, he winked. I felt my heart thud erratically. Huffing in annoyance, I turned around. I needed to get a good nap in my room before seeing him again.

“Hey, Paige.”

“Oh, no,” I cursed under my breath.

“What’d you say?”

“Erm, nothing,” I said way too peppily.

“So, I was thinking…I saw this restaurant that serves amazing flan,” he stammered. I felt kind of sorry for him.

“Yes?” I asked.
“Would you like to go there with me?” he asked timidly, hesitantly.

And because of the little angel fluttering around my head, I agreed. “Sure.”

“Really?” Then he flounced off before I could answer. I almost said no, but he was gone before I could get the words out of my mouth.

I heard a low chuckle. Whipping around, I saw Zach Kenyon with an amused smirk on his face. He was leaning against the wall, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans.

“Someone’s really popular with the guys,” he snickered. I glared darkly at him, trying to ignore his defined muscles and azure eyes, but he just turned and walked away. I was starting to think of this guy as a jerk. Why did I have to be stuck with him in floor duty? I thought being an RA was supposed to be fun!

“Hola,” Tony exclaimed as I perched onto one of the yellow tables of the Mexican patio, “¿Cómo estás?”

“Bien,” I replied beforegrabbing a menu and looking through it. I ordered some flan and coffee, and then rested my head on my arms. Tony was looking at me earnestly.

“Do you have something you want to ask me?” I asked.

“It’s just surprising that you agreed to this. All of the guys said that you’d rejected their invitations already.”

Of course guys gossiped like girls. It was a defining characteristic.

“Uh, that was because I was busy. I would’ve accepted if they hadn’t all asked at the wrong time.” I didn’t want to make Tony too hopeful. It must’ve worked; his face drooped. I stood up before I broke his heart further. “Thanks for inviting me. I’ll pay.” Without stopping to hear his response, I slapped down some pesos and stood up, quickly hurrying toward the safety of the youth hostel. It was almost time for my shift with Zach, anyway.

“Hello,” Zach intoned. “I thought you weren’t coming because of your date.”

“Even if it was a date, I wouldn’t have ditched my job,” I snapped. Who did he think I was? Some freeloader who always willingly tried to escape duties?

He seemed a bit surprise by my outburst. “Calm down. I was just teasing you.”

“Well, stop it.” I sat on the edge of the hallway. My eyes were already drooping a little. I knew I should’ve taken that nap. Stupid night shift.

Zach’s voice was further leading me to drowsiness. “You sure that guy you were with has returned to his dorm? Because we’re supposed to make sure every student returns to the hostel.”

That jolted me. “Tony? I’m not sure…..I just left him at that restaurant. I’m pretty sure he’s returned…” I was suddenly unsure.

“You wanna check?” He stood up and held out a hand. I debated over it for a while, then put my hand in his. It was warm and smooth, and his face looked briefly triumphant as he pulled me up.

“Hmm, I think it’s Room C114,” I pondered.

We walked up two flights of stairs. I stumbled on the second flight and almost rolled down the steps, but Zach’s arm wound its way around my waist. “Whoa, easy. Did you not get your sleep or something?”

“Nope,” I sighed. “I meant to, but something came up.” Tony and his stupid offer were what happened.

“Mhm,” he agreed doubtfully.

“And you got your sleep?”

“Yeah, while you were at your something that came up, I was sleeping peacefully in my room.” He grinned as I grimaced.

“Stop bringing that up,” I said.

“Hey, you were the one who mentioned it in the first place.” We got to Tony’s room and I knocked softly on the door.

“Nobody’s going to be able to hear that,” Zach added unhelpfully.

“What am I supposed to do? Pound on the door?” I glared at him.

“That is exactly what you should do. But you’re probably too tired or too weak, so I’ll do the honors.” The he banged loudly on the door.

“What the hell is your problem?” I hissed as I heard grumbling and shuffling inside the room.

“Hey, if you can’t wake them up to check, then I will.” He smirked at me jeeringly.

”Yes?” snapped a shaggy blond as he poked his head out the door. Then he saw my face and redoubled.

“I was just wondering if Tony came back?” I asked nervously. Zach was probably smirking behind me.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll call him. Yo, Tony! Some hot girl’s here to talk to you.” I tried to protest, but Tony was already by the door, smiling at me, his hair messed up.

“Uh, I don’t need to check on you, Tony. I was just making sure you were okay.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, we can always do it again, right?”

“Um…About that….I really don’t think it should be done again. I mean, there is that rule about how RAs can’t spend too much time with students of the ASILP.”

“What? That’s why you came to see me? To rub it in?” Tony’s face was murderous now. It was probably a combination of sleep deprivation and anger.

“Actually, I wasn’t counting on seeing you…” I flinched. That had come out wrong….

“Go away! I don’t want to talk to you anyway!” Then he slammed the door in my face.

“Guess we just saw pretty boy’s ugly side,” Zach said.

“Shut up.” I hated dealing with this.

“You should be happy, you know.”

“What the hell? Why am I supposed to be happy that I just hurt someone’s feelings?”

“You should be happy that so many people admire you,” Zach said, as if it should be obvious.

“Whatever.” I walked along the hallway, but my feet felt like lead.

At the corner, I leaned against the white walls, thumping my head. What I really needed was a nice long sleep.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh? What?” I said, my voice seeming slurred to me.

“You really should’ve gotten some sleep, huh?” He sat down next to me.

“Yeah…” I tried to rest, but my head kept drooping to the side.

“Here.” He guided my head to his shoulder, and patted my hair.

“What’re you doing?” I immediately recoiled, which I always did when a boy touched me.

“Helping you sleep. Just lean your head here. I’ll watch the hall.”

The idea of a nice sleep was too strong to resist. I succumbed and lightly leaned my head on his strong shoulder. Before too long, I was fast asleep.

I woke up to noises coming from the rooms. That was when I realized Zach’s arms were around me, and I’d snuggled into his body for the warmth of his sweatshirt. Zach was watching me with a drowsy smile on his face.

“Good morning,” he greeted. “Did you have a nice nap?”
“Yes, thank you. I hope you did okay with watching the hallway alone.”

“Sure. It was easy. Tony tried to sneak out, but then he saw us, and went back into his room.” Zach laughed.

“Um…okay?” That guilty pang was there again.

“Oh, don’t worry. We’re in Mexico! You can let go and forget about the guys.” He did something sudden, pulling me into his arms. “Or not necessarily forget all of them,” he breathed.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Zach pulled away and gave me a wink.

“Later, Paige. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Forgive me for being offensive, but your looks were what attracted me in the first place. Then I realized your personality.”

Maybe looks weren’t really that bad.