Bite Your Tongue

[ 6 ] Limbo Life

a/n: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter for some reason, so I hope y'all like it! Reminds me of staying at Airbnbs while traveling back when... we could go places... hehe

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Drew was a late sleeper, and it might have had something to do with the fact that Joanna woke up at three in the morning from a bad dream and, as she reassessed where she was, she looked over and found Drew still awake and watching TikToks about cats on their phone. Joanna had rolled her eyes, turned her back to the light of Drew's phone, and pointedly pretended she hadn't seen a thing.

Rosalie, on the other hand, was a just-enough-time-to-get-ready sort of riser. With the morning plan being a quick jaunt to the nearest coffee shop, she woke up thirty minutes before they were due to leave. Joanna watched from the kitchen, munching on a bagel, as Rosalie sat up on the couch, groggy but pleasantly awake. She smiled at Joanna from across the flat, waved a little since Drew was still sleeping, and set to work digging through her backpack for her toiletries.

Joanna propped her chin on her hand, leaning against the table as she took another bite and watched Rosalie cross the room, her baggy Huskies' sweatshirt barely showing the hem of her athletic shorts. She pursed her lips when Rosalie smiled before shutting the bathroom door behind her.

When Rosalie was done, her hair was wet from the shower. It wasn't often that Joanna saw her with her hair down, and it didn't last all that long. By the time they were outside of the Airbnb, Rosalie was already twisting her curls up into a messy bun while they stood on the stoop and looked up nearby coffee shops. Meanwhile, Joanna looked the same as she had yesterday, albeit slightly more disgruntled and with far less care put into her hair.

She yawned, eyes burning from her less-than-perfect sleep the night before. Her paranoia had kept her awake after catching Drew on TikTok at three in the morning. It was a miracle she hadn't woken up screaming, so she was effectively running on four hours of uninterrupted sleep, and she had certainly ran on less in the past.

Some guy in running shorts and no shirt jogged past. He made the poor decision of meeting Joanna's eye. She stared him down as he ran past, and he took approximately three takes in her direction before rounding the corner of the street, shaking his head.

Yeah that's right, Joanna thought, smug as could be. Better run.

"There's a place three blocks south of here we could go to. It has good reviews," Rosalie said, pointing off behind them and, effectively, in the direction that jogger took.

"I don't understand people who go to coffee shops based on Yelp reviews," Joanna confessed.

Rosalie sighed as she hopped down the stoop and onto the sidewalk. "You'll see soon enough. Ever had gas station coffee?"

"Yeah. That stuff's the shits. Literal shits. Because constipation and all that," Joanna said, and Rosalie glanced over her shoulder to give Joanna her signature stink eye that reminded Joanna of the good ol' days when Rosalie couldn't stand her. Joanna snickered.

"Are you always this crude in the morning?" Rosalie asked. She pocketed her phone along with her hands.

"I wouldn't call it crude," she said, rolling her eyes. They connected with the back of Rosalie's head, where her hair looked nearly black after the shower. "Are you always this hot in the morning?"

"Honestly, I'm a little cold right—Oh, I see," Rosalie said, laughing. She shook her head, not convinced in the slightest. She grinned back at Joanna and said, "Good one."