fic: euro trippin' (4/?)
Arizona.
The rest of the flight into London had been fairly uneventful. I had again declined any pharmaceuticals in lieu of my very occupied thoughts. I had two things on my mind, that girl, and my Dad’s gift.
She hadn’t looked back again, but when we’d locked eyes that last time, before that guy got in our way, I could feel it. I could feel that thing, and I felt like she had felt it to.
I realize exactly how insane that sounds. I mean, I’ve never had an actual conversation with her, never even said “hello”. But I think that if I ever did, it would change my life. She would change my life.
The only problem was that she was on her trip with her boyfriend. Who apparently, she loves, if her declaration on the plane was anything to go by.
Like I said, insane.
I touched the new pendant hanging underneath my shirt and drew comfort from it. That was my Dad’s gift, and the other reason my mind was swirling.
In my family, we don’t talk much about my brother, Danny. He was-had been a Marine, just like my father, and my grandfather before him. He had enlisted a little over three years ago, when he was just eighteen, and I was sixteen. I was eighteen when my mom came to get me from school early, to tell me that my older brother, one of my best friends, had been killed in the line of duty.
I don’t remember much from that week. It was only last year, but it had that hazy quality one associates with childhood memories, remembered only in snippets; the algebra class my mom got me from, the songs on the radio on the way to the base, the heels of my shoes sinking into the soft earth at the cemetery… It’s weird, the things that stick with us.
Danny had been my best friend, apart from Teddy. He had told me all of his secrets, and he had known all of mine. He was the first person I’d come out to, when I was fifteen, and had a crush on his girlfriend, Lana. He had been the most amazing, supportive brother I ever could have asked for. He hadn’t even batted an eye, he’d simply said, “Okay. Here’s the deal then, you don’t steal my girlfriends, and I won’t steal yours.” Then he’d laughed, ruffled my hair, and we’d gone back to playing Mario Kart like nothing had happened. (Ironically enough, a year later I’d found out that Lana was gay, although it had nothing to do with me. I stuck to my promise, and never hit on her.)
When Danny had been 15, he and his best friend, Teddy’s brother Owen, had snuck out and driven to an “underground” gig for the then relatively unknown Snow Patrol, held in some field about an hour away. Owen drove them out in his pick-up, and they had planned to come back the next day, thinking that our parents wouldn’t notice.
Well, they noticed. This was before every child who could read had a cell phone, so my parents were frantic, my mother more obviously so. They ended up calling the police in the morning, only to have Danny and Owen show up about an hour later, grins from ear to ear. Those grins had faded pretty quickly once they realized how much trouble they were in. They had at least had the common sense to look abashed when my Dad and Owen’s dad, also a military man, started yelling at them, and made them personally apologize to the police.
Later that night, however, Danny had come into my room to chat, and despite being grounded for the foreseeable future, he was in high spirits.
“Check this out!” he’d said excitedly, closing the door behind him.
“Dude, you realize you’re gonna be grounded for, like, ever, right?” The oh-so-eloquent 13-year-old me had replied.
“Nah, I’ll be free in a couple weeks, a month, tops. Anyway, it was totally worth it,” and Danny had told me about how he and Owen had been wandering around the outskirts of the field, gotten lost, and had actually ended up running into the band. He said they’d been really cool, and they’d ended up hanging out for nearly an hour, talking and playing their guitars.
When their manager had called them away, Nathan Connolly, the lead guitarist, had signed two guitar picks, and given one to each of them.
Danny had kept his with him all the time. He’d taken it to war with him, a reminder that he had other dreams to live, once he’d served his country.
Of course, he was never going to get the chance now, but my parents had gotten pick made into a pendant on a fine platinum chain for me to wear. It was coated in resin, so it was a lot hardier than your standard pick.
When Teddy and I had opened it on the plane, per my father’s instructions, we couldn’t believe what they’d done. It was the perfect gift, a reminder of my brother, a reminder to live my dreams, to be happy, and to have Danny close to my heart forever.
I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice that the plane had landed until Teddy gave me a nudge, and I realized that the cabin was almost empty; the Latina was definitely gone, anyway.
We both grabbed our stuff from the overheads and enjoyed the chance to stretch our legs, walking towards the terminal. Towards what was going to be a super holiday, a life-changing experience, and a dream come true.
“So… What do you want to do now?” I asked Teddy, flopping back on my bed, the top one of a bunk bed in a four-bed dorm room.
“Me? I want to sleep…” Teddy replied, and I heard her body hit the mattress.
As much as I agreed with her, and could feel my own body singing the praises and hymns of sleep, “No.” I replied, “We can’t sleep now. It’s three o’clock in the afternoon here. If we sleep now, we’ll be wrecked for days.”
“So what do we do to kill the time?”
“Well, we could always walk back to that main street, near the train station. Check out what’s around, maybe get something for dinner. Then we can turn in early, and be ready to go bright and early tomorrow!”
“Alright.” I heard her groan as she pulled herself up off the bed. “Let’s go then.”
We headed out, walking the half a mile back to the main street, to go to what looked like a supermarket.
“Sainsbury’s?” I tested out, “It sounds so English!” Due to our near exhaustion, that was enough to make me and Teddy giggle just a little.
“Come on, babe, let’s get something for tea.”
After grabbing a few things, deciding that chicken salad would be something we could easily throw together, we headed back to the hostel.
The way the hostel was laid out, the front desk, computer corner, kitchen, and the common room/bar were on the ground floor. The basement held a laundry, and the largest bathroom facilities, and all the rooms were from the second floor up, ours being on the third floor, room two.
Around six o’clock, when Teddy and I couldn’t keep our heads from hitting our chests, we headed upstairs. Surprisingly, I managed to change into my pajamas, interrupted by what felt like a thousand yawns, and lay in bed. I let my thoughts drift, knowing that it was only going to be a few minutes before I fell asleep, and was thinking about the girl from Miami when I finally lost consciousness.
I awoke to the sound of Teddy’s alarm; I was impressed that she had managed to remember to set one. Blearily, I looked at my own phone. Ten am?! I was surprised, I was normally such a morning person, and had an internal body clock which tended to wake me up at eight each morning. Must have been much more tired than I’d thought.
Teddy, on the other hand, was definitely not a morning person, I could hear her mumbling, cursing her phone for having woken her.
“Arizona? You awake?”
“Yeah… I think I’m just as finely tuned to your alarm as I am to mine.”
Now that I was awake, I was excited.
"So, what are we gonna do today?" I asked, sitting up and stretching.
"I don’t know. I figured we could just catch the train into London, have a look around. Go from there?"
"I think we get breakfast included before 11, so maybe shower, eat, and then head out?" I leant over the edge of my bed to look at Teddy on the bottom of the other bunk, and she nodded her assent.
After much needed showers, a breakfast of toast, croissants and fresh fruit, we headed out. Sitting on the train, I let my mind wander, and it strode right back over to the Latina that had plagued my thoughts for the last 24hours. I couldn't help but wonder if I'd ever see her again. I mean, London was huge, no doubt, but still... There was always a chance, right? Maybe it was only a one to a million chance, but it was enough to distract me for the entire day; looking for the brunette around every other corner, searching very face on the street. I even thought I saw her once, when we changed trains to the Jubilee line at Green Park, but I must have been mistaken; it was so busy, there must have been thousands of people in the general area.
I had all but resigned myself to never seeing the girl again, and I flopped back onto one of the couches in the common room with a sigh.
"What's up, babe?" Teddy asked me, leaning in to be heard over the noise; it was 6.30pm and it seemed like everyone at the hostel was in the immediate vicinity.
I rolled my eyes at her with a wry smile, "I can't stop thinking ab--"
"About that girl from Miami." Teddy finished for me.
"Ho--"
"How did I know? Because I know you, Arizona. Once you fix on someone, you can't get them out of your head. It took me a little while to figure out what you were doing today, but then I realized you were looking for her." She finished somewhat triumphantly; my lack of denial was all the confirmation she needed.
"Hey! How are you guys going tonight?" a cute redhead with an accent had sat down on the couch opposite us, beer in hand.
"Hi!" I replied, grateful for the distraction, "I'm good, thanks. Having a good night?" I gestured vaguely around.
"Yeah, I am. It’s a good hostel, I've been in some seriously dodgy ones, but this one is great! Oh, I'm Lily, by the way." she finished, swapping her beer so she could extend her hand.
Taking it, I replied, "Arizona. And this is my friend Teddy." Teddy meant forward to clasp the proffered hand.
"So where are you guys from? I'm guessing the States?"
"Yeah, we're from Miami. How about you?" I asked, "Australia?"
"I'm impressed; no-one can ever guess where we're from. Although apparently in Adelaide we speak quite differently from everywhere else in Australia. Something to do with being settled by the Brits," she let out a short laugh.
"'We'?" Teddy enquired.
"Oh, I'm here with my best friend, Robyn. She's just over there," she pointed to where a pretty brunette girl was talking to the bartender. "Hey! Robyn! Come here!" she hollered.
The brunette said something to the bartender, probably excusing herself, and headed our way, standing next to Robyn, hands on hips. "Hi! I'm Robyn," she offered us a small wave which we returned, "Sorry I was just signing up for the knock out pool tourney later. Hey if you guys can play, you should sign up too, we could use more people. Winner gets a £50 bar tab."
Me and Teddy looked at each other at the mention of a pool tourney. We were both pretty good, and a bar tab was never unwelcome.
"Karen, this is Teddy, and Arizona," she gestured at each of us, "They're from Miami. Arizona guessed that I was Australian. I was telling her she's the first person here who's actually guessed right."
"No kidding... How'd you know?" she asked me, seemingly genuinely interested.
"Ah, we grew up Marine brats, moving from base to base every year or two. I've heard almost every accent under the sun," I responded modestly.
"Ah, ok. That’s cool… Wait. You're from Miami?" at our nod, she continued, "Are you guys here with that other couple? They got here a few hours ago, I think they went to the supermarket to get something…" At the mention of a couple from Miami, my head started spinning. No way, it couldn’t be them. There would have to be hundreds of other people from Miami in London at the moment. I started talking myself down, reasoning with myself.
That all went out the window, though, as she gestured towards the door. There, standing not thirty feet away was the girl. And her boyfriend, but I really couldn’t have cared less. Because she had looked in our direction as she walked in. And now she was staring at me. She turned to her boyfriend and said something, and as he walked off, she started walking directly towards us.
No. Freaking. Way.
A/N: Even if I don’t deserve them for making you wait this long, I still love reviews. They’re actually better than chocolate. And given that it’s Easter, I have a lot of chocolate.