Paradise 69

1

I STRETCH OUT MY ear to hear every sound that comes from Adrianna and Giuliana's room, as I sip my steaming cup of coffee.

This coffee is so strong that it could wake up the dead!

"Where did you guys put the pot of sugar?"

I hear them chuckling while zipping suitcases. In a matter of seconds, I hear a "let's go" from Adrianna, and see the door opening and closing with the usual thud.

"Well, thank you for not holding it for me!" Adrianna exclaims, making a big sigh of relief after being able to drag her heavy suitcase to the kitchen.

We planned this trip six months ago, and from that day forward, Adrianna was already filling her suitcase with the latest clothes, bags, and shoes from the most beautiful shops in Florence.

I got up at seven in the morning, as agreed the night before with my friends, but evidently, I have completely forgotten that I am the only one on time in the group.

"Hey, aren't we missing someone?" Adrianna asks.

I turn towards the only closed door of the apartment, and the girls follow my gaze. Vittoria is still snoring in bed.

"How can she sleep through all the noise we are making?" Giuliana enters the apartment and approaches the closed door.

"If she doesn't wake up now, you won't have enough time to eat breakfast!" I stand and gulp the rest of my coffee.

Giuliana knocks on the door with her right hand, while opening it with her left.

"Come on, get up sleepy head, or we'll abandon you here, and you'll have to eat Ciabatta alone for the rest of your life."

I'm standing in the doorway, empty coffee mug in my hand. I watch Giuliana throwing pillows at Vittoria's head. She groans.

WE ARE FINALLY able to set up the apartment and leave with minutes to spare. We stop at a bakery two blocks away before calling a driver from an app that would take us to the airport.

Our destination was Tahiti International Airport, but to get there, we will have to stop by Frankfurt, and San Francisco. We will be arriving in California around one thirty in the afternoon tomorrow. We are going to have an overnight layover from San Francisco to the Faa'a commune in the suburbs of Papeete in French Polynesia. I suggested we head for Baker Beach. It has that famous postcard view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

If it had been for Adrianna, and Giuliana, we would have left Vittoria here, and gone to freshen up somewhere, but I couldn't leave her alone. She was the youngest of the group (by only a couple of months) and her parents trusted in me, since I was their daughter's childhood friend.

I couldn't disappoint them. It was true, even a little bit, I have always been the one who prevented others from ending up in trouble. (I had a sort of nose for troubles though). Vittoria had just turned eighteen, she had been the last in our class. We finished school a few months ago, and our parents decided to give us a five-day trip to anywhere in the world as a gift.

Adrianna wanted to go to Brazil because of a soccer player named Neymar. All of the posters hanging on the wall in her bedroom gives me the impression that she is in love with him.

Giuliana wanted to go to France because, according to her, she would find the love of her life gazing down at her from the top of the Eiffel Tower.