Same Experiences

Chapter Eleven

Dave

I sighed as I sat in the plane. I still couldn't believe that we were actually going to Miami for the weekend. Well, the correct way to say it would be to say that Lucy dragged us with her.

Now, she was sitting beside Rey, talking about when she's gonna set up the website and everything. Meanwhile, Brent was sitting with Karan, with the former doing all the talking about how he'd thought of a new recipe and Karan just listening to him with the utmost interest. Linda immediately found her place beside Lucian who was working hard to keep his eyes open. Linda glared at him and set his head on her shoulder. He closed his eyes and softly snored as she looked at him fondly, stroking his hair softly.

George was the only one who was a bit tense sitting beside me. The awkwardness had been there, even though mildly, but now, as we were sitting close, the awkwardness and tension had ratcheted to another height.

"Listen, about the other morning," I started and she shook her head. "It's fine, it was sleep, it's fine."

I gave her a searching look and as usual she didn't let any feelings show. But I knew that it affected her too. I decided that I'll talk to her about it when we reach.

When we reached the resort, Lucy was practically skipping as we went up to our rooms. A pair ended up in every room. And, as fate would have it, I ended up with George.

George was in front of me, opening the door and I was looking at the nice corridor when I saw her.

For a minute, I thought I imagined her, but I didn't. She was here, as clear as day.

I started having flashbacks and they were clearer than ever before.

Stop your whining. You'll be fine. You'll feel good. Come on, stay still.

My eyes couldn't move away. And that was proving fatal for my lungs, because I felt like they were shrinking.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my cheek and it forced me to look at it's owner.

George's grey forest eyes had concern in them. She was saying something, no, asking something, probably what's wrong, but I couldn't hear it. I held her wrist, to keep her hand on my cheek, to keep that warmness as long as I could. Her pulse was high. It almost felt like it matched my heartbeat.

I closed my eyes, focussing on the warmness of her hand.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

I opened my eyes to find George's eyes looking at me with a question. I smiled at her and squeezed her arm. Suddenly, her eyes widened a bit as she looked at my hand resting on her arm. She drew in a surprised breath and dropped her hand to her side.

She buried that hand in her jeans pocket and went in with her bag. I looked at the room and whistled.

"She really went all out," George murmured. I nodded.

"I guess, yeah," I said. She shuffled on her feet awkwardly, not knowing what to do or say. Then, she just dropped her bag in the bed, took some clothes out of it and went into the shower to freshen up.

As soon as she went inside, I deflated. I hated this. I hated being like this with my best friend. I didn't want her being uncomfortable around me, so I decided that I was going to try to be normal around her.