Title: The Real World
Part: 4/?
Author: Wendy
Category: Others
Rating: PG
Copyright: 1999
<> Wendy <>
I walked out of my room with Aryela and saw her and Nick having a little conversation together in the living room. They seemed pretty comfortable with one another, although I could see that Aryela was a little quiet. She used to be like that when she first meet guys that she liked.
I was walking out slowly and met up with Sara. The two of us headed together to the living room.
"Hey, guys," Sara greeted.
"Hey," Aryela replied.
"Everything settled with your stuff?" Nick asked.
Sara and I both nodded.
"So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?" I asked.
"Well, whatever you guys are up to, I guess. Where are Lance and Drew?" Nick said.
"Drew said that he was going to take a quick shower and I'm not sure about Lance," Sara explained.
"You guys want to go around the city for a little while and then go out for dinner? I mean, there's not really any food in the house anyway," Aryela suggested.
"Works for me," I said.
"Me too!" Nick agreed in a comical voice.
"Yeah, me three!" Sara added.
<> Drew <>
I headed downstairs once I finished taking my shower and got dressed. Once I reached the lower level, I could hear Sara, Nick, Aryela and Wendy engaged in a conversation in the living room.
"Hey," I greeted them all.
They all said hi to me and Sara smiled. She had such a pretty smile.
"We were just planning what to do tonight. Would it be okay with you if we all go out tonight? I mean, there's not much in the house right now anyway," Wendy spoke up.
"Sure, it's fine with me," I nodded and sat down on a stool that was located behind the couch. "It'd be a good time to start finding our ways around the city too."
"Well, someone should go tell Lance. What's taking him so long anyway?" Nick said out loud to no one in particular.
"I'll go find out," I told them and got off my stool.
"I'll come with you," Sara followed me and we went up to Lance's room.
I knocked on the door lightly, but there was no answer. I turned the knob slightly and opened the door slowly. Sara and I saw Lance on his bed fast asleep.
"I guess that he was tired," Sara whispered quietly as I closed the door.
We walked downstairs and told everyone else that Lance was asleep. We decided to put off the plans until a little later, when Lance would show his face. We gathered around the entertainment center and watched a little basketball with Nick. Each of us involved ourselves in little conversations.
<> Sara <>
As Aryela, Wendy and Nick were talking, Drew and I sparked up a little conversation in the back of the living room. I was definitely attracted to him physically, no doubt about that, but there was definitely a little something special that I liked about him when we first started talking.
"So you're from Seattle?" Drew began.
"Yeah, just around there. I've lived around there for practically all of my life," I replied. "And you're from Ohio, right?"
"Yeah, but I moved to New York after high school was over. I got this EMT job in Brooklyn and it was something I loved. Well, I still love it, but I'm really happy that I'm here in Barcelona. I mean, it's a trip of a lifetime," Drew rambled on for a little bit.
I smiled slightly. Drew had the most beautiful hazel eyes and I could feel a crush developing for him within myself. Only time was going to tell what would happen between us.
"It's definitely a trip of a lifetime," I agreed, nodding. "As much as I miss all my friends and family, I'm really glad that I'm here. So…tell me a little about your family."
"Well, there are my parents, who are just really great. My mom was really supported of my decision to go to New York even though she really want me to be there by myself. There's my older brother Nick and we're really close. I'm the second oldest in my house. I have two adopted sisters, an adopted brother and a half brother. They're all a lot younger than me and Nick," Drew described. "How about you?"
"Well, my family isn't nearly as big as yours," Sara let out a small chuckle. "I have a couple of brothers, so it was a little tough growing up with two boys, but I love them. I'm extremely close with my mom, I look up to her for everything. I have a couple of dogs too."
"That's cool," I replied. Just as I was about to ask her a question, I was interrupted by Lance appearing at the door of the living room.
<> Lance <>
I hadn't realized that I was really that tired from the flight, but I was. A little nap definitely rejuvenated me.
"Hey, guys," I said, looked at my five roommates in the living room.
"So you're up…" Wendy stated.
"Yeah. I hope that I wasn't really sleeping that long and I didn't ruin any plans," I said, looking at them.
"No, not at all," Aryela replied. "Well, actually, we were going to take a little tour around the city and we just thought that we'd wait for you."
"Thanks. Well, I'm ready whenever you guys are ready to leave," I smiled.
They all looked at one another and got up. The ladies went for a bathroom run and I went to get a quick drink of water. Then we all left.
Since we don't have a car or anything, we just decided to walk a few blocks down, heading toward the direction of where we came from before because we knew that it was the way toward downtown Barcelona.
As we headed more and more into the city, we saw stands on the streets, with some cheap jewelry. The girls instinctively went over to them, as for us guys, we just stood there to wait for them to pick out something they liked.
<> Aryela <>
"This is so pretty!" Sara exclaimed.
She was holding a silver ring and some delicate designs on it. It really was a beautiful piece of jewelry.
"You should get it," Wendy said.
"It's good price. Only 500 pesetas," the old lady who ran the stand said in a thick Spanish accent.
Sara looked at the ring again, trying it on her finger. Finally, she decided to buy it.
After a few more minutes of looking around, the guys started to complain.
"You guys are taking forever here!" Nick complained.
"Oh, come on, Nick, we've only been here for a few minutes," I replied, giving him a face.
"Hey, how about this, we'll split up and meet back here in, say, half an hour?" Lance suggested.
We looked at one another and agreed. "We'll see you later."
Wendy, Sara and I wandered off from that stand to another, and another, and another. Pretty soon, we had bought quite a few things. And before we knew it, it was more than half an hour already.
We walked quickly back to the place where we had agreed to meet. Surprisingly, the guys were waiting there already. We had thought that they might've been late.
"Good job, girls!" Drew said sarcastically.
Sara playfully punched in him the arm. "Shut up, Drew!"
"Sorry that we're a little late, just got a little carried away," I told them.
"It looks like your guys got a lot of stuff," Nick said.
"Well, we got stuff here and there, and that's what it came out to," I explained.
"Ladies, shall we head out to dinner?" Drew smiled.
"Sure," we all replied.
Apparently, they had already picked out a place for dinner. That was pretty impressive for guys, at least that's what I thought.
<> Nick <>
We entered the restaurant that was about a five-minute walk away from where we met the girls. It wasn't too fancy, but it wasn't just a regular fast food restaurant. A waiter led the six of us to a round table as I sat between to Drew and Aryela.
We looked into the menu, which was only in Spanish. None of us really knew any Spanish except for Wendy, who took it in high school.
After some translating from Wendy and the waitress, we each ordered our own meals. Along with the food, we got a bottle of champagne to celebrate meeting each other and living with one another for the next two months.
Drew popped the cork open and because we didn't want to cause a big commotion, we didn't shake the bottle before opening. He poured each of us a glass of the champagne.
I raised my glass and began to speak, "This is for getting to know one another."
"And for living out here for the next couple of months," Aryela said, smiling.
"Cheers!" we all said at the same time.
We each drink out glass of the champagne, while Wendy only took a little sip.
"What's wrong?" Lance asked her, since they sat next to one another.
"She has this little thing against alcohol," Aryela interrupted.
"Oh, I see," Lance smiled.
"Leave me alone! I've never liked champagne anyway!" Wendy protested.
All of us talked for a little longer and then our food came to the table. Our glasses were raised once again for another cheers. However, things turned out different this time. Aryela's glass dropped from her hands onto the table and she blacked out.
back . the real world . next