Ellis

Thea jumps back from the guy spewing brown liquid from his mouth and she gags a bit too. If I also have to deal with her throwing up I think I'll call this whole night off.

"That is absolutely disgusting. It's fucking 11:00 and he can't hold his liquor," Thea rants as I maneuver us around the puking guy and into safer territory.

I've lived in New York City my whole life so I never understood the obsession with it from tourists, but watching Thea take in everything is really amazing.

Her dark brown eyes are wide as she takes in the blinking lights of all the bars that surround us, as she watches the taxis speeding by with their horns blaring, and the large amount of people swarming the streets then disappearing inside various buildings.

And we are just on some random street, we haven't made it to the heart of the city where the lights and billboards shine and the people never seem to stop talking. But I don't know how far we will actually make it.

"Where do you want to go?" I ask.

"You're the tour guide," she says raising her eyebrows, "guide me."

I laugh and grab her hand, it's soft and fits nicely in my larger one. She allows me to pull her along, like she trusts me wholeheartedly even though we've known each other for less than an hour.

"I just don't want to take you anywhere you've been before."

"Well, lucky for you the only place I've been is the inside of that disgusting bar," she says scrunching up her nose.

"Well then let's go." I smile at her and she grins her blonde hair falling into her face. She lets go of my hand briefly just to tie it back into a knot on the top of her head.

I lead her towards the stairs of the subway and begin to walk down and then notice that I don't hear her footsteps behind me and no one else seems to be around. Silence in the city is always a little eerie.

"Thea?"

"I'm not going down there," she says.

"But how else are we going to get around?" I ask.

"With our legs?" She looks at me like I have ten heads, her eyes bulging out and her cheeks look slightly red.

"The city is huge! We can't walk everywhere."

"I don't want to go down there," she whines.

"Why?" I ask.

"Rats."

"Oh my God, Thea. I will not let the rats eat you." I grab her hand again and start basically dragging her down the cement staircase into the humid air of the subway platform.

Her eyes are trained on the floor looking back and forth, most likely checking for rats. I laugh as I lead us towards the turnstile. I hand her my metro card and say, "just slide the card through then push the bar."

She slides the card and the bar doesn't budge. I've been down here enough to witness hilariousness that is tourists attempting to figure out how to work the subway. I almost want to laugh as she fails for the fourth time but I'm lucky we have gotten this far.

"Like this," I say and push the card through, reach around her, and push the bar she rushes through in a hurry like the gate will close and she will be locked underground for all eternity.

I push the card through and the bar and head towards her, "I think New Yorkers purposely make everything difficult so out-of-towners never want to come back. Because I know I never want to come back."

"Because of the subway?"

"And the puking guy," she adds.

"I haven't even guided you anywhere yet! Give New York a chance first," I argue.

But what I'm really saying is to give me a chance because I think this could turn out to be one of the best nights of my life.

"Fine, Ellis. Will you guide me already?" She says holding out her hand smiling.

I take it again just as the subway pulls up in front of us blowing hot air in our faces and making Thea wrinkle her nose in disgust. We grin at each other, step onto the train, and start our adventure.

**Yay! hour two done only 28 more to go :)

Please vote and comment!! I'd love to hear what you guys think.

-Brooke