Déja Vu

Twenty-Three

Two hours of driving, blasting music on full volume with our cacophony as a background, I exit the car finding myself in that place I used to visit a lot as a kid but haven't been there in years. I'm in Raleigh. I jump around in excitement as I try to make sure I'm looking at everything around me. I've missed being here, missed inhaling the Raleigh breeze as I strolled around with Nick and my sisters. I was thirteen the last time I came here, right before my father and Mr. Hope started upgrading our trip destinations. It's been seven years yet it feels like I came here a week ago.

"Like the surprise?" Olivia asks as she wraps her arm around my shoulder.

"Like it?" I say still looking around "I love it."

"You're welcome." She pats my back as she goes to the boot helping Adam unload some bags. It just hit me we're parked in a very random place, in front of a building that seems a bit like an inn. I walk back to them in attempt to help but they shove me away "Are we spending the night here?" I ask them after my third time being pushed away. Olivia fixes her high ponytail after the last bag "As you can see, yes." She hands me one bag "But unfortunately only for the night. It took me a good two days to convince mum to agree on leaving you away from home on your birthday." It's like one of our parents' huge rules that none of the kids spend their birthdays away from them. I found it pretty annoying in my early teenage days, but now I find it wholesome how they love to be around their kids on the memory of the day they were born. They brought us into this world after all.

"It's fine." I wave my hand "I just have one important question." Adam closes the boot and looks at me in wait for my question "What does Benjamin have to do with this?" They both exchange eye gazes before Adam points at the building behind me "His grandparents own this inn." Wow. Little Benny's family owns an inn? "So they gave us two rooms for the night completely off charge."

"I wonder what he had told them, though." Olivia grunts as she slides her heavy backpack over her shoulder. She doesn't believe in the concept of suitcases or any types of bags that one can't carry around on their back. My bags go all the way from chic purses to tote bags, even backpacks included. Adam casually slides his backpack over his shoulder and throws my bag, that also happens to be a backpack since Olivia did the packing, over his other shoulder. Four years of a gym really did show well "Might be something down the category of 'my girlfriend's sisters'." He says as he walks to the entrance followed by Olivia and me wheezing. Benjamin and Naomi would never admit that they like each other, but we can see it wide and clear. Those two are always stuck together, on top of that the unnecessary amount of heart eyes that sprinkle them when they see each other.

Their ignorance is suffocating, but I admit they're cute.

Adam signals for us to wait for him while he does all the check-ins and the process of taking the bags upstairs. They've mentioned in the car that we've got no time for all this stuff so we'll be asking someone to take care of it. I glance at Olivia and try to strike any conversation with her "You've been wearing your hair in either ponytails or buns recently." I tell her as I rest my elbow over her shoulder "Though you've always loved wearing it down."

"Loved." She says "Past tense. Now I like to avoid anything at all costs that reminds me of him." My heart sighs for her. I know she isn't fine and hasn't been an inch close to fine since her breakup. She's just putting on a shiny mask that she removes whenever she's alone. I rub my hand over her shoulder "This is your hair, Olives, not his. And this is your life, you can't halt it over a guy that did you wrong."

"That guy was my life, Ash." She sticks a false smile to her face but her eyes are clearly puffing up. She blinks rapidly to push her tears backward "Not the time for this." She says "It's your birthday."