CHAPTER FOURTEEN

In no time, Elena and Daniel got to school. Jordan had gotten there already before Daniel and was hovering all over Melanie. She seemed to enjoy the attention as she was also gushing over him.

June and Ivy had arrived too, surprisingly together. June was obviously surprised that Elena was going on the trip and failed to hide her what seemed like disappointment from Elena.

They got in and sat in the plane in pairs. June with Ivy, Elena with Daniel and Jordan, of course, with Melanie. Elena noticed the look Melanie gave her on seeing Daniel grab her hand, pulling her to sit with him. Elena met her eyes and she immediately flashed a fake smile turning her attention towards Jordan.

"Nervous?"

"Just a little bit," Elena shifted. "Okay, fine. I'm nervous."

Daniel leaned forward, taking her hand in his. "It's your first time so you should be. There's no need to be though, it'll be just fine."

Elena nodded, immediately remembering Luke's gum. She reached for her jeans pocket, bringing out the packet of gum.

"Luke said this should help," she tore open the packet offering him one.

"Gum, reminds me of someone."

"Who?" Elena wanted to ask but was interrupted by the voice of the air hostess instructing them on what to do.

After the air hostess had said what she had to say, the plane took off. Elena held on to Daniel's hands tightly, her eyes midway shut.

"Elena," he paused. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Um, sure?"

"You and June," he asked. "Are you both okay?"

Elena pressed her lips together.

"I don't know if this is me interfering but you both don't seem the way you used to be. You both used to be so happy, always around each other," he said, trying to maintain eye contact with her. "It's isn't because of me, is it?"

"No, not at all," Elena replied quickly. "You have nothing to do with it."

"Then?"

"Daniel," she said, finally maintaining eye contact. "What would you do if you find out that Jordan has been lying to you, a lot."

He leaned backwards. "Jordan can't lie to me. He's way too stupid. I'll catch him immediately."

"I guess I've been stupid then," she whispered, hoping he didn't hear her.

"So has June been lying to you?"

"No," she said, biting her lips. She didn't feel it was right to talk about June that way.

"Something like that," she finally said. "I'm not sure, I'm just confused."

"Distancing yourself from her won't fix anything," he said, taking her hands in his. "If you're not sure of anything, ask her. Don't bottle up your emotions and questions so you don't end up getting the wrong idea."

Elena nodded, feeling the warmth of his hands. She undeniably missed June. She missed their friendship. She missed their closeness.

"Don't worry. Time fixes everything!" Daniel finished off, smiling. "You're welcome."

Elena smiled, letting go of his hand. "Thank you."

"There's still time before we land, how about a quick nap?" Daniel suggested.

"I don't think I'm sleepy."

"We've got a long day ahead," Daniel insisted. "Don't worry, I won't tease you about your snoring or drooling."

"I do not snore or drool!"

"Prove it."

----

Their plane arrived at the airport exactly 1:30pm. They all got down excitedly clutching unto their bags and luggages. The weather was pleasant as the sun welcomed them with warm smiles.

Their designated coaster bus arrived in no time driving them to hotel, Dublin. They all got off the bus- more than half of them excited, some non-chalant and the others just tired from the flight. They poured into the hotel in pairs, making the inhabitants and nearby tourists wonder what was going on.

"Two students are going to be sharing a room," their instructor from school announced, earning groans coupled with faint squeals of excitements. Elena chuckled remembering how rooms were shared at Amigo.

"And you don't get to choose who you'll be sharing a room with," he added, finally earning groans from everyone.

"Listen up! I'll call out your names now so you come get your keys," he said, the students slowly getting quiet. "Anthony Jane, you get to share a room with Brandon Cara."

Silent prayers were made. June hoped she'd get paired with Elena while Elena just prayed she got paired with anyone but Melanie.

"Elena Harper," the instructor called out, making Elena's heart skip. "You get to share a room with June Ri-"

"Yes!" June cut him off excitedly rushing to collect their room keys.

Elena couldn't help a huge smile land on her face as she dragged both their bags walking towards June.

"Ivy Shane," he continued. "You get to share a room with Melanie Richards."

"More like she gets to share a room with me," Melanie murmured as she hoped forward to collect their room keys. "Harry's little sister?"

"Are you asking or telling me?" Ivy arched an eyebrow.

Melanie rolled her eyes. "I'll see you later then," she said jingling the keys as she sashayed back to meet her friends.

"I'll see you later," Ivy corrected as she snatched the keys from Melanie. "You know our room number, come whenever you want to."

"Melanie's such a drama queen," June said, draping her arm on Elena's shoulders.

True.

Elena laughed, her arm going to June's shoulders. "Truer words have never been spoken."

"Wow, this room is amazing!"

Elena walked slowly around the room, admiring it. It was a standard hotel room with a bed wide enough to fit three people. It had a huge fancy light hanging on the ceiling. The huge windows covered with brown curtains matched the wooden floors and white bed spread laid on the bed. There was a small flower vase by the side of the bed but Elena doubted if that was where the sweet fragrance she was perceiving came from.

"This bed," Elena exclaimed as she threw herself on the queen sized bed. "It's so soft, so big. The pillows, God. I bet this was home Umma felt laying on Mal's bed."

"I know right," June added, joining her on the bed. "Elena, be nice to me and sleep on the bed, eh? I need to have this bed all to myself."

"You wish," Elena laughed, rolling. "Ah, how nice."

June got up, taking out her phone to check the time. "It's past three already. What are we supposed to do?"

"Just hang around, i guess," Elena replied, getting up too. "The instructor asked us to just us to rest. He was he was going to talk to us about our schedule during dinner."

"Okay. Just relax it is then," June jumped back on the bed. "I'm so exhausted."

"Get up," Elena poked her. "You tired? Let's shower first and then freshen up."

"Wanna shower together?" June asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Elena looked like she wanted to throw up. "I love you but no."

"Ouch. You just broke my heart."

False.

---

Elena and June heard a knock on their door.

"Who's it?" June asked, her mouth filled with chips.

"Me," the door was pulled open to reveal Ivy. She was still in her dungarees but she had a bra top on underneath this time. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun and her face looked freshly washed. Her headphones were hanging loosely around her neck, her phone begging to be noticed from the pockets she buried it in. "What's up??"

"Just chilling," June replied as she resumed stuffing her mouth.

It was almost 9pm. They had had dinner already and a lengthy lecture from their instructor that included rules and regulations they were not going to follow. He told them they spend the rest of the day doing whatever as long as they didn't leave the hotel premises while the rest of their days were filled with excursions.

"Do you have an extra charger?" Ivy asked, taking one out of the cookies Elena was eating. "I brought only one charger and i want to charge my phone, headphone and I-pad."

"You can have mine," Elena suggested, getting up to disconnect her phone from the charger. "I've been charging my phone for a while so it should be fully charged."

She disconnect her phone from the charger, two notifications appearing on the screen. One was a notice that her phone was dull charged and the other, a text message.

Daniel: Wanna hangout?

Daniel: I'm downstairs.

"Here," Elena said, handing the charger over to Ivy, smiling.

Elena: Sure

"June, i need to step out for a while," she said, flashing her a smile. "See you in a bit."

"Where are you going? Omg, did-?"

"Yes," Elena cut her off knowing what she was about to say. "Byyeee."

"Good luck, girl."

Elena fled past the corridors, quickly getting to the elevator. She pressed the last floor as she anxiously toyed with her phone.

She found him sitting on a chair immediately she got to the last floor. He was in a regular black tee with regular faded jeans and even from a distance Elena could see that his hair was wet.

"Hey," Elena said, standing in front of him.

"Oh, hi, you're here already," he got up.

Elena nodded.

"Um, should we stay here or go outside," Daniel asked, nervously. "Or do you want to go to my room?"

"Your room?"

"I'm sharing a room with Jordan and he has gone off to some girls room," Daniel replied, a 'true' ringing in Elena's head. "What do you think?"

Elena bit her lip. "Okay."

"Okay, let's go then," he smiled, leading the way.

They took the elevator back up, arriving at Daniel's room in few minutes. The room was similar to Elena and June's except that they had a different coloured bedspread.

"You're sharing a room with June, right?" Daniel asked as they both got seated.

"Yeah," she replied. "I got lucky, i guess."

"I can't wait till tomorrow," Daniel said. "It'll be so fun."

"I know right." Her phone beeped. It was a text message.

June: So you went to his room ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Elena: Just go to bed😂

"Your wallpaper," Daniel commented on taking a glimpse of her wallpaper. It was a picture of he and Luke looking as ridiculous as ever. "That's the guy in your locker, right?"

"Yeah," Elena replied. "That's Luke."

"Oh," his voice hinted something that felt like jealousy. "The guy that gave you gum."

"Yeahhhh. We've been friends since literally forever. He is so cool."

"He seems nice," Daniel said, looking away. "I would like to meet him."

True.

"Here," Elena said, swiping through her gallery to show him a picture of Luke.

"He strangely looks familiar," Daniel muttered, observing the picture. "It feels like i've met him before."

"Ayy, there's no way you'd have met," she said, collecting her phone. "Except you mean you met him in my locker."

"Maybe," Daniel laughed, lightly. "I just realized we don't have any picture together."

"Mhm."

"Let's take pictures together tomorrow," Daniel suggested though it sounded more like a command.

"Sure."

"So tell me something."

"What?"

"Anything. Just tell me about you."

"Mhmm, i don't have anything to say. You tell me about you."

"Nahh," Daniel laughed. "I don't know what to say."

"Tell me about your family," Elena suggested.

"My family? There's nothing much to say," Daniel replied, Elena making a face. "Fine, let's see. Well, my family is just normal. We weren't always this way though. My parents are really busy people but they still try to create family time. Like, it's so much better than when we were younger. They never had time for us when we were you younger to the extent that me and my brother were sent to a boarding school."

"Aw, you have a brother."

"Two, actually," Daniel replied, his expression changing. "But you won't be seeing one of them around so let's just say i have one."

"Oh. Why?"

"It's a long story,"Daniel replied, looking away. "Most people here don't know it. The only person that knows about it is Jordan."

"Oh," she decided not to push further. "It's okay."

"I'll tell you another day," he smiled, Elena nodding. "So tell me, what's your favourite midnight snack?"

That night, they talked and talked until Elena fell asleep, her head rested on Daniel's shoulder.