His Second Chance Mate

Chapter 7

I woke up to a numb nose and a sore shoulder. I pulled the window closed, trying not to move too much and wake Katie. I couldn’t do much about my sore shoulder with Katie still asleep on it. I detached my phone from the charging port and opened Candy Crush. I’d whizzed passed the lower levels but now that I was in the 4000’s I wasn’t getting anywhere without using the boosters. Still, I preferred to use up my lives than the boosters, so I was basically stuck.

Katie woke up almost an hour later, stretching blearily. I tried not to laugh at her hair and inconspicuously rolled my shoulder.

“About 6.”

I answered Katie before she could ask her question and she grinned at me. She left to use the bathroom and was back in two minutes, shuddering.

“I absolutely hate using those! Why is it easy in an airplane, but so embarrassing in a bus?”

“Because, we don’t know the rest of the people in the plane. We’ve never seen most of them before and likely won’t ever see them again. Unlike these people, whom we’ve seen almost every day for the past 4 to 14 years.”

Katie blinked at me in shock. “That was a rhetorical question, but thanks I guess.”

I nodded with superiority. “You're welcome. It’s the exact reason I’ve avoided the bathrooms until now.”

Katie glared at me. “I would have too, if it wasn’t urgent. Besides, isn’t holding it in like really bad for your bladder?”

I nodded. It was bad for my bladder, but even the thought of walking past those many students- all of who would know I needed to use the bathroom and were possibly counting down how long I took in there and imagining what I was doing was worse.

Of course, I knew that using the toilet was a human necessity and absolutely no one was sitting around timing how long I sat on the toilet, but for some reason, my brain refused to accept that simple bit of logic. I figured no one else thought this much, just to use the bathroom, so I never told anyone. It was easier to say that I didn’t need to go, or that I was uncomfortable with public restrooms. There was probably a name for my stupidity in someone’s psychology textbook, but I was just thankful that I didn’t have to urgently go to the bathroom while on this bus.

Katie pulled out some snacks and we both shamelessly stuffed ourselves with junk food. All we’ve done these past two days was use our phones, eat, talk, sleep and repeat.

I ran out of lives on Candy Crush so I switched to Insta and aimlessly swiped down. I followed more meme pages than actual people, but it was starting to get annoying. It seemed every page was copying of the other. There was a limit to the number of times you could see the same meme before you lost interest.

I switched to Netflix and selected a random episode of to watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S, because I didn’t feel like choosing what else to watch and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. was always a safe bet.

Soon enough, we slowed down, clearly entering a more populated city. I turned my phone off and connected it to my charger before looking out the window. It was pretty dark outside, something I hadn’t noticed until now. According to my phone, it was past 9 and my stomach growled suddenly.

It had been almost 8 hours since our brunch, the few snacks we’d had notwithstanding and my stomach seemed to realize that it was empty.

I was about to give in and ask Katie to open up her junk stash when we stopped near a hotel. I looked to Katie in confusion, though she looked just as confused as me. Unlike me though, she immediately turned around and started asking people what was happening.

Soon enough, she had an answer. Maybe, she was meant to be a journalist.

“We get to have a shower!” She nearly squealed in her excitement.

My spirits perked up. A shower meant rooms and possibly beds!

Though I’d been excited about the novelty of spending several days without showering, I was reaching my limit. I clearly wasn’t made for a no shower lifestyle, no matter how much easier it was. I’d dozed comfortably in these seats, but not for more than 3-4 hours at a time. I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed too.

The hotel wasn’t a five-star hotel or anything, but it had hot water and big clean rooms and that was more than good enough for me. Katie secured our key early on and rushed me to our room. It was one of the bigger ones and we had four roommates. There were two beds- just big enough for two teenage girls each, and the hotel was bringing up two singles.

Katie pushed me into the bathroom with a grin and a wink. I hurriedly stripped off my clothes and settled on the toilet, in too much of a hurry to even feel embarrassed about rushing into the bathroom first. I jumped into the shower stall, taking one of the quickest showers I’d ever had.

I didn’t know how the camping grounds were like, but considering that every attempt to build hotels or any other kind of accommodation in the forest had failed, I doubted we’d get hot water showers there.

By the time I stepped out of my shower, new clothes were waiting me on the counter. Smiling, I hurriedly pulled them on. To say Katie was an angel was an understatement.

I exited the bathroom, to see the remaining five girls talking near the sofa.

“The bathroom’s free.” I cleared my throat. “Thanks for letting me go first.” Not that they'd let me. I'd barged in before they'd even come up. I tried to smile, but it felt awkward. Probably my guilty conscience.

One of the girls piped up. “It’s no problem, babe. We just came in anyway. Who called dibs next? Wait. Where’s Katie?” She looked around the room, but no one answered.

A muffled voice sounded from the bathroom. “Nice people finish last, suckers!”

We all broke down in laughter. Katie had snuck into the bathroom as soon as I’d come out.

I set Katie’s clothes in the bathroom, grabbed a hand towel and quietly closed the door behind me. I started drying my hair with the towel. I’d stopped using a hair dryer ages ago.

I hesitated between sitting on the bed, or joining the group on the sofa. I didn’t really know anybody at the sofa, but I didn’t want to be the only one sitting on the bed, especially when everyone else was sitting together. Luckily a knock sounded at the door, taking the decision out of my hands.

“I got it!” I almost sprinted to the door. There were several of the hotel staff, bringing the extra beds. The girls rushed to help, but the staff were quick and efficient, leaving almost as soon as they came.

I followed the girls to the sofa, perching on the edge, mindlessly drying my hair with the hand towel.

A tap on my shoulder brought me back to reality.

“Want me to do it for you?”

It was the girl who had spoken the last time. She looked vaguely familiar, so I probably knew her from middle school.

“Huh?” I said like the i***t I was. She was holding her hand out and I stared at her in confusion.

“Do you want me to dry your hair? I do it for my sister all the time.”

No one had dried my hair for me for ages. My mom had stopped years ago. She smiled at me and I found myself unconsciously handing the towel over to her and giving her my back. She had a seriously magical smile.

She immediately set to massaging my hair dry so thoroughly I almost fell asleep sitting there.

“Madeleine? Mad- Madeleine?”

Another tap on my shoulder brought me out of my doze. I jerked upright, blushing.

“Sorry, what?” They knew my name? I suddenly felt even worse because I didn’t know any of their names with any degree of certainty.

The girl with the magical smile- and magical hands- continued massaging my hair. One of the other girls answered with a grin.

“We were just wondering what you wanted to eat for dinner. We’re all starving!”

“Me too! But, um, anything’s fine by me.” I smiled, eyeing them sideways.

The magical smile girl finally set the towel down. “Your hair is really nice! I loved drying it!” She blushed. “Not to sound weird or anything.”

I couldn’t help but join the laughter of the other girls.

“Thanks! You’re really good at this. I almost fell asleep.”

One of the other girls answered with a smirk. “We noticed.”

The girls burst into laughter, and I couldn’t help but to join them. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like people were laughing at me. It was a nice feeling. A really really nice feeling.

The last girl finally spoke up. “Let’s go out to eat or order something. Room Service is way too expensive.”

I nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”

She grinned at me. The other girls shrugged, nodding.

Katie exited the bathroom with a flourish at this moment and there was a rush as the magical smile girl and one of the other girls raced towards the bathroom. Katie jumped out of their way, settling in beside me.

The magical smile girl lost and returned, smiling good-naturedly.

“Damn those track kids.”

The girl who’d grinned at me last laughed loudly. She hadn’t even attempted to get up and go to the bathroom.

“You are a track kid, Dani.”

So, Dani was the name of the girl with the pretty smile. Katie, like the absolute mind reader she is, immediately introduced me to everyone.

Starting with the girl with the magical smile, she went in a clockwise direction.

“That’s Daniella. The one who’s in the bathroom is her best friend, Shriya. They’re both on the track team.”

I nodded trying to store all the names in my mind, only to be interrupted by Daniella.

“She ain’t my best friend. She’s clearly the worst kind of traitor!”

The rest of us laughed at her declaration. Dani attempted to look angry but ended up laughing with the rest of us.

“Don’t say that about my sister!” The girl who’d grinned at me attempted to kick Dani, who dodged expertly. 

She turned to look at me.

“I’m Shreya. Shriya and I are twins. Not identical.”

“Obviously.” I reflexively replied, in Snape’s voice, before I could stop myself. Shreya didn’t looked annoyed like I expected her to be. She grinned approvingly and repeated the ob-vi-ously the same way I said it, before cracking up.

“Another Potterhead!” I nodded eagerly and we grinned at each other. I hadn’t ever met another Potterhead in real life. Actually, I never talked to people long enough to find out.

Katie waved an arm, interrupting our connection.

“Yeah, yeah. Stop. And this one right here is Mackenzie.”

Mackenzie looked up from her phone and smiled at me, holding up a peace sign, before giving her attention back to her phone.

“Everyone, this is Madeleine.”

Mackenzie interrupted. “Yeah, yeah, we know. But anyway, I’ve been doing some researching, while y’all have been arguing and there’s a really nice and cheap pasta place not too far from here. Is everyone okay with pasta?”

We all nodded in perfect synchronization, causing us to break into laughter again.

“Perfect then, I’ll just call them and see if they have place for six.”

Mackenzie got up and walked away to make the phone call.

“What about Shriya?” I asked. Shreya nodded. “Don’t worry about her. We’ll eat anything.”

She nonchalantly got up and stretched, slowly walking to the bathroom door. As if they’d timed this, Shriya opened the door almost immediately. Shreya stuck her tongue out at Dani and slipped into the bathroom. Dani didn’t understand what had happened until a few seconds, before standing up in outrage.

She pointed a trembling finger at Shriya, dramatically, as if accusing her of murder or something equally terrible.

“You....you guys used your stupid telepathic twin connection again, didn’t you?”

Shriya shrugged elegantly, pretending to blow on her nails.

“Maaaaaybbbeeeeeee.”

Dani sat down heavily, crossing her arms and pouting for a few seconds before breaking into a smile. She was really entertaining to watch.

“You have a really pretty smile!” I blushed as the words slipped out of my mouth, but Dani looked delighted.

“Thank you!” She chirped.

Shriya only shook her head, letting it fall into her hands.

“Now, you’ve done it. She’ll be insufferable now. Nothing can save us now.” I giggled as Dani swatted her best friend.

Mackenzie bounced into the room. “Reservation confirmed, bitches!” She gave an impromptu celebratory wiggle.

“Madeleine and Katie, since you guys are already ready, why don’t you head down to the restaurant. If you send us pictures of the menu, we can tell you what to order. Then, the food will be ready by the time the rest of us get there.” Mackenzie looked super proud of her planning.

I nodded, looking over at Katie for confirmation. The plan sounded good to me.

Shriya interrupted. “If only you were half as good as organizing things unrelated to food...”

Mackenzie simply swatted at Shriya as she passed her and settled down in a chair.

Katie nodded and stood up, pulling me to my feet.

“Sounds great to me. I’m absolutely starving, so if I eat all your food just because you didn’t arrive in time, you can’t blame me. Fair warning and all that.”

She grabbed our purses and pulled me out of the room amid loud protests that made me grin. She only slowed down in the hallway. We stepped in an elevator with several of our classmates. Katie said hi to some people as I stood quietly, in the corner. I recognized a few people, but I didn’t really know them well enough to say hi.

We exited as soon as the doors opened and walked to the entrance. Both of us came to a stop as the same realization hit us at the same time. We grinned at each other.

“You didn’t get the name of the restaurant, did you?” 

Katie shook her head. She looked at me hopefully, but I shook my head too.

Katie groaned, before calling Mackenzie. I could hear the laughter our question produced. It was a full two minutes before we got an answer. As soon as she did, Katie hung up on them, with an exasperated look on her face.

I grinned at her. “I really like them. They seem like they’re nice and they’re really funny.”

Katie nodded. “Me too. Even though they can laugh at every single freaking thing.”

Shaking her head she grinned. Pointing to the left, she started down the sidewalk. “It’s this way. Come on.”

We linked arms and hurried down the sidewalk.