• Chapter 1.

    “Well be landing in 15minutes…weather in Paris today is cloudy with light rains, temp. In the mid 60s.”

    I grinned. Finally, we were here. I nudged the larger sleeping man beside me. “C’mon man, get up. I’ll leave you on the plane if you don’t.”

    He groaned and flipped his head away from me. I shrugged, picked up a piece of paper and rolled it up. Unable to hold it in, I began to laugh as I slowly stuck it in his ear until his head shot up. “WAFFLE.” He yelled as he pulled it out, causing a few people to look our way.

    “I’m…I’m such a friend…” I said, in between laughs.

    He grunted and yawned. “How much longer?”

    I pointed at the incoming runway. “I’d guess about 40seconds.”

    A moment of silence passed between us, as we both seemed to take in the fact that we were in Paris. Paris, France. A million miles way from all of our problems…jobs…college…everything.

    “Julz would love this,” he muttered, just loud enough for me to hear.

    “Oy. None of the girlfriend stuff, ok? We’ll call them, that’s it.”

    He gave me an odd look. “I don’t see why you insisted that they not come.”

    I put my hand on his forehead and pushed back a bit so I could look at him properly. “For the past two months we’ve been smothered. Julz is becoming more of a…she…doesn’t…seem to be doing too well,” I said, making sure to choose my words carefully. “Matt or Sarah or…yeah, well he’s becoming somewhat insufferable with all this stuff and the new hormones he’s taking. Don’t get me wrong, I’m there for him…her…totally, but I don’t want to be depressed and cornered 24/7 you know?”

    The man seeming to understand nodded before saying in a serious tone. “ Nice cover, but I’m still not having sex with you Eggo.”

    Repressing a laugh, I attempted to look disappointed. “Well that’s no fun Lump.” I managed to let out before cracking up. It was impossible to hold in anymore. The excitement about being here, the exploring and fun we could have. When I finally stopped laughing, I was grinning and shaking with uncontainable excitement. The man beside me seemed to be just as excited, but obviously able to have better composure than me. Though his eyes and wide grin couldn’t hide it.

    Finally, we saw people start to get up and grab bags from the overhead compartments. I happily grabbed my small backpack form under my seat and stood up, waiting for Lumpy to shuffle out. A few minutes later we were standing in awe in the Charles de Gaulle Airport.

    “Paris!” I said, dropping my bag and stretching my arms towards the ceiling. Hearing a satisfying crack, I lowered them and picked up the bag again. Turning towards Lumpy I grinned. “Hotel? Sites? Food? What first?”

    He laughed a bit before trudging off towards a flight of steps. “How about luggage first?”

    Running a bit to catch up with him, I huffed. “I knew that.”

    After we’d both gotten our bags, we decided a taxi would be the best way to the hotel.

    “3 rue Rouget de Lisle 75001 Paris.” I said to the driver. He grunted something in response and popped his trunk for us to put our bags in. Moments later we were settled in and he was pulling away from the airport.

    “What hotel did you book?” Lumpy asked, not taking his gaze away from the beauty of the city outside.

    “A suite at the Hotel Mayfair.” I said, a little too guiltily.

    He spun his head around. “The one we agreed was too expensive? The $200 a night one?!”

    I smiled and nodded. “Yep. That’s the one.”

    “Eggo we can’t afford that! We’ll be broke in 2 days!”

    “Oh come on…I’m not that stupid…” I said scrunching up my eyes. “What the hell do you think I’ve been working for this past year? We’re set for the entire 3 weeks.” I finished, handing him a credit card. “Joint account thing I set up, I’ve money saved up from what dad gave me and all the stuff I’ve worked for. All together it should be around 10 thousand. If that for some strange reason isn’t enough, you still have a s**t load in your savings don’t you?”

    He half-heartedly nodded before pushing the card back to me. “Eggo I’m not spending your money, I…”

    “Lumpy, I saved it up for THIS purpose, if you don’t spend it I’ll rape you with a squirrel. Besides, our tickets are round trip, the hotel’s already been prepaid…the only thing we need to worry about is food and gifts and whatever…”

    After a few minutes of persuasion, he shrugged and pocketed the card. We both continued to marvel at the sites passing us before the driver finally came to a complete stop. I stared at the white, fancy looking building and began to shake from excitement again. We stepped out of the taxi and I shoved some Euro’s into the man’s hand, grabbed our bags from the back and stood in awe. It blended in so much with the city around it; one could’ve mistaken it for a common apartment.