Day 59

My feet still hurt from all the walking. We only sat when we were on the train, if Arianna allowed us, because she wanted to have the perfect shots for her channel. We didn't even eat proper food, not that I'm complaining. I would choose gelato over lunch any day. A huge statement coming from me, since the only edible item with that status for me is french fries.

Today started from Pitti Palace, crossing the lake and visiting every tourist attraction up to Galleria dell'Accademia. Might I add, it was one of the most awkward videos Arianna has ever persuaded me to be in the frame with her. The girl has no shame when it comes to judging a statue's penis, facing a camera being shot by two guys.

Busy fussing in her makeup bag, she lets out an approving sound as she finds what she's been looking for. "Okay, straighten up," she faces me.

I obey as she leans to me and applies a coat of lipstick. With a satisfied smile, she pulls away and takes in my appearance, the result of her past forty-five minutes' hard work. "You look hot." She giggles, and heat rushes up to my face.

"I don't feel good about going to a club," I mutter, avoiding her gaze.

She rolls her eyes and walks to the bed, plopping down on it and putting on her heels. "Isn't this year about doing different things?"

"Yes, but not necessarily this drastic change. And honestly the first party I went, served me enough." I rub the back of my neck, careful not to ruin my hair Arianna spent considerable time styling. Shocker note, you can style short hair!

"I know, Adi told me what happened, but I promise nothing like that will happen," she assures with a grin. She stands and readjusts her tiny dress, strides to me, offering her palm.

I glare at her and she giggles. I stand up and pull down the tight skirt she forced me to wear. It's too damn short. I can't even move my legs without worrying it'd slip higher and reveal more skin.

"Don't do that." She swats my hand and goes to her suitcase, picking up a shoebox.

"I told you I can't walk with something that doesn't reach to my mid-thigh,"

"Girl, if I had that body, I would've walked around naked," she states and turns to me, opening the shoe box.

I roll my eyes as she holds out the ridiculous black heels for me. My guess is on three inches.

"I'm not wearing that." I cross my arms in front of my chest.

"Oh my god Eleanor, you're gonna kill me tonight, I bought these for you." She places them on the ground. With unnecessary seriousness, she includes, "Now be a woman and put these on,"

I titter at her comment and shake my head as I take a step backwards.

"You can't wear that skirt with sneakers!" She whines and pouts with her best puppy dog eye imitation.

I glance away, pressing my lips to a thin line. "I can't walk in heels,"

"Those are the unimportant details." She waves her hand, dismissing me.

With reluctance, I put on the shoes, keeping my balance with the help of the desk.

She beams at me and locks her arms with mine. "And now we practice," she announces.

That's what we do for fifteen minutes. She helps and supports me as we pace up and down my hotel room. Before remaining aside, offering tips while calling me at least three times a robot walking on jelly.

After we are both pleased with my progress, I trudge to the bathroom to see the final result.

As I stand in front of the mirror. For a wild second, I don't recognize the girl staring back. Arianna has done wonders. Smokey eyeshadows, neat and perfect, curled hair with a silver beret pinned to it. I can't remember the last occasion I didn't have my glasses while going out. My black silk cowl tank top causes my eyes to seem almost black, and it stands in stark contrast to my pale skin. I adjust the neckline to cover higher up my chest but it's useless, too much skin.

Mom's voice echoes in my mind, scowling 'too revealing clothes are not for good girls'. I push it aside.

But makeup surely transforms a person.

For the first time, I don't despise my reflection. But definitely not worth the effort.

I won't be waking up extra early to paint my face or fix my hair. Yes, my confidence might need improving, but I'm too lazy for something as hard and time-consuming as makeup.

With careful steps, I walk out of the restroom and we tread to her suite, where the guys are waiting for us.

She grins, giving me a thumbs-up, and unlocks her door. We are greeted by the yells of 'watch out' or 'die motherfucker' accompanied by banging sounds of their video game.

Arianna rolls her eyes and enters the room, "We're ready," she calls loudly, but both of them ignore her. I bite my lip from bursting into giggles.

She huffs and takes out the keycard from its place. The lights instantly go out, followed by their groans and shouts of dismay. With a satisfied smile she puts it back in and walks further inside, placing her hands on her hips, she repeats herself, "I said, we're ready,"

"Took you long enough," Adrien mutters.

"Why did you shut off our game!" Dylan complains.

Busy with closing the door and not tripping, I don't listen to her reply and focus on the ground as I make my way to them in small strides. This is going to be a hell of a night, I can barely stand straight.

"We were sure you two had forgo-" Adrien stops talking as I reach Arianna and place my palm on the wall to steady me.

With curiosity, I peer up to see the reason he has stopped and my eyes lock with his green-blue ones, looking somewhat darker than usual. Perhaps because of his top to bottom black clothing, with the few first buttons of his button-down shirt undone. A necklace, with a cross pendant resting on his bare chest. His lips parted as he scans me, his cheeks tint bright pink and he looks away.

Dylan whistles and I drop my head down to cover the heat rushing to my face. "Look at you!" He acclaims.

Bringing my hand to push up my glasses, only to realize I'm not wearing them and awkwardly rub my middle finger above my eyebrow before grasping my other elbow.

"Okay, she knows she looks mind-blowing, now let's go," Arianna urges.

I shoot a grateful glance at her. She blinks in understanding and then winks before focusing back on the guys.

"What?" she snaps.

I move my gaze to Dylan, standing and adjusting his navy blue shirt.

Adrien studies me and Arianna with a frown. "You're coming like that?" he asks, staring at her as he pushes the sleeves of his jacket up.

"Duh,"

"I think both of you should put something on," he states, pushing both his hands into his pants pockets.

Arianna's index finger points at Adrien, ready to protest but he is faster saying, "We're in a foreign country, and it's better to not take risks. I can't-"

I open my mouth to point out that according to Google Florence is actually pretty safe, but he holds up his palm. "Google knowledge does not count Eleanor," he asserts and before I have the chance to argue he adds, "Do not start with the entire world goes around by the data found in it." He raises his eyebrows, arching one of them.

Am I that predictable? He knew everything I wanted to say before I even uttered a word.

I shove aside the irritation and suppress the urge to glare or roll my eyes at him.

"We're comfortable in these, and if you 'can't risk it' stay here and let us have fun," Arianna air quotes the phrase.

He drives his hand through his hair, "I won't save your asses if you get in trouble," he declares.

"Whatever, nothing will happen. And we can handle ourselves quite well," she replies, matching his glare. A beat later she locks her arm with mine. "Let's go have some fun!" she enthuses.

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

We walk into the packed club; the music vibrating the cells in my body as it reverberates from every surface.

My heartbeat drums in my ears, my grip tightens on Arianna without even realizing, until she squeezes my hand and mouths 'relax' with an encouraging smile. My palms get clammy. Dylan zigzags to the other side and we follow him.

Arianna looks around, her eyes stay on Adrien. She snatches my clutch, "The grumpy one has to watch after our stuff," and pushes our things to his chest.

He glowers at her, and I try to stop myself from laughing. She leans over and pinches his cheek. I lose it and giggles bubble out of me, as Adrien swats her hand, glowering at her and she titters along with me. The thudding of my heart subsides and returns to its normal pace. Dylan slides the colorful drinks across the counter of the bar, earning glares from everyone sitting in between where we stand and he is.

"Your usual," he announces as he nears, looking at the other two and then turns to me. "I didn't know if you wanted alcoholic or not so I got you a lemonade,"

I smile and thank him.

Maybe clubbing isn't that bad. So far, everything's been going well. I sip my drink. Taking in our surroundings more carefully, I notice a couple of girls, a few feet away from, staring at Adrien. Also, another group standing further don't bother to not stare at us, more specifically Adrien, and sometimes Dylan.

I glance at them both. Their clothes seem fine, if something is amiss or needs fixing I definitely can't tell.

Adrien doesn't touch his liquor and Arianna leaves hers after a gulp. Dylan downs his.

Arianna shouts over the upbeat tune, "Dance floor's callin'." And grasps me.

I wiggle out of her hold. In a loud voice she says, "Eleanor, nobody stands in the corner,"

"Come on." Dylan puts his arm around my shoulder. With both of them on either side of me, they push me toward the mass of dancing drunkards, and settle on a spot that is less crowded.

"I'll be back in a minute," Arianna informs and rushes off.

My gaze follows her as she goes to Adrien and as she reaches him, Dylan grabs both of my hands. My head snaps to him. He moves my arms in weird ways and I laugh, "Start jumping, and you'll rock," he claims.

"I can't jump with these," I incline to my shoes.

He rolls his eyes and points to a few girls. "Look at theirs," and he is right, their heels are literally double of mine. He imitates their movements, making me guffaw till my stomach hurts.

Arianna's arm falls over my shoulder, pulling me down to her in the slightest.

She moves with the rhythm and urges me to move along with her, starting with swaying to the music. Dylan spins me around and Arianna takes his place, her hands grasp mine and guide me.

And somehow, the two of them make me dance while giggling and forget, even for minutes, we're standing in the middle of hundreds of people. Or how ridiculous I must appear and how embarrassing I'm behaving.

My eyes land on Adrien, his attention fixed in our direction. I can't identify from this distance if he's watching the three of us or just me. Guilt spreads in me and I excuse myself from them and approach him.

"I can hold these, you don't need to spend the entire night here," I speak over the music.

His eyes linger on my mouth, a moment after I stop talking, and with hesitance shakes his head. Adrien leans to me the slightest bit, my heels leaving less than an inch of height difference. He explains, "It's fine, I've spent more than enough nights in these places, enjoy your night, I'll stay here if you need anything." He flashes a small smile.

I nod, not knowing what else to say or do.

Minutes pass, my feet hurt, making me regret not bringing a pair of sneakers.

Adrien straightens and fishes out his phone, holding it farther away from himself, squinting. He glances at me, and I give him a reassuring expression. With long strides, he makes his beeline out of the club.

I readjust my sitting position, keeping an eye on our clutches and Dylan's jacket.

Placing my elbow on the bar, resting my temple to my palm, I watch between our stuff and Arianna and Dylan, dancing together. Closely. I try not to pry, it's none of my business. The way they're moving, though, leads me to wonder if they've ever been more than friends.

I push the thought aside. They've been kind to let me in their tight group. More than I could have asked for.

A man stands next to the stool with our belongings, smiling at me. I look elsewhere in an instant, training my gaze on our things.

"posso offrirti da bere, bello?" his loud voice carries over the noise. To quit fidgeting with my fingers, I focus on translating what he said. My eyes widen as the meaning slowly dawns on me. 'can I get you drink, beautiful?' Oh, no. I only have to tell him no. It's not hard, not scary, just say no. Digging my fingernails into my skin, along with a hard swallow, I answer, "No." My heart loudly thudding. But I think I sounded rude, given how he's staring at me. For the sake of politeness I add, "grazie,"

"You not Italiana?" he asks and I shake my head. He steps towards me, and I almost lose my balance as I lean away. "You like here?" he questions in a heavy Italian accent.

Please leave. "It's very nice," I reply in English, hoping to get rid of him faster.

He pushes his black hair out of his face with a toothy grin.

I peer around, Arianna and Dylan are busy together, with slow breaths I struggle to calm my rapid heartbeat. But the man keeps talking and throwing weird looks at me. Staring at my chest and checking me out from head to toe, I try my best not to shift under his leer.

He asks, "Why a beautiful girl like you is alone?"

I swallow, "I'm not, my friend will be here in a moment,"

He takes a step towards me, and I lean further away. "But you are prettier than she," he says with his disgusting smile.

I shouldn't have been polite to him.

"He'll be here at any time. Please leave me alone," I attempt to sound strong and emphasize 'he'.

"But a pretty girl should not be alone, come." He leans forward, his hand reaching to me.

I retreat from his touch. "Please go, I'm really not interested," I state in a firm tone over the music. My entire body shuddering.

A warm arm snakes around my waist, startling me enough that if I had the courage, I might have screamed. But as I glance up, heart thundering in my ears and eyes wide, relief washes through me as I take in Adrien's furrowed brows and glare. His lips pressed into a thin line before he speaks, "Is there a problem?" He doesn't waver the slightest as he holds the man's stare.

I drown out their voice as I focus on calming myself.

By the time my breathing goes back to normal and the trembling has subsided, the guy's gone. But Adrien's expression tells a bomb is ticking somewhere underneath his vacant features.

Long moments pass, my head throbs from the loud music, but he remains quiet, only crosses his arms in front of his chest. I don't dare to meet his gaze, anger is radiating off of him.

I wonder if on this trip I've been destined to discover the maximum fury level of Adrien Clark. If so, tonight might be close to something in Amsterdam's order. Maybe a little higher. I'm realizing he's ridiculously short-tempered, not only with me, but in overall with everyone. Although I'm still trying to figure out the things that piss him off. What I've gathered so far, and to my misfortune, it's a very vast range of circumstances.

He places himself before me, eyes ablaze, boring into me. I peek through my lashes, thick with mascara, and study him.

He raises his eyebrows, arching one slightly. I don't know what he expects me to say, so I mumble a thank you.

Apparently, that was not what he was expecting. His nostrils flare as he opens and closes his mouth a few times before giving up and looking at the dance floor, breathing heavily.

"Do you like guys flirting with you?" He directs his focus on me.

"What? No! Why would you say that!" I react with wide eyes, pulling up my neckline.

"Because it seems you enjoy the attention," he talks with icy rage, words cutting through the music. "Because you never mind when anyone flirts with you." He points his index finger at me, his statement dripping with accusation.

"That is not true!" I defend myself in a pitched voice and cross my arms in front of myself. "And it isn't like anybody flirts with me, so I really don't get it where this is coming from," not that it's any of your business.

"You can't be serious. Dylan was flirting his ass off till halfway through Denmark with you, and you enjoyed it. The same goes for Jeffry the whole night in Amsterdam and now this dude," he lashes out. His hands flying everywhere while he shouts.

"Okay, first of all, those two never flirted with me and I was getting rid of this guy," I reason with him.

"With smiling at his bullshit?" He crosses his arms, staring at me with incredulity.

"I was being polite!" I fire at him.

He furrows his brows. Long seconds of silence stretch between us. Finally he states, "I'm not buying that,"

"Nor will I explain myself to you anymore," I shout.

He glares at me for a solid minute before pushing his hand through his hair and walks away without a glance back.

What is wrong with him! Whatever I do, he has an issue with it. I huff and study the racks filled with different glasses and bottles of alcohol.

So much for my first time going to a club.

It doesn't make sense! Even if for a wild moment I imagine that Dylan and Jeffry did flirt with me, why would he mind?

I was getting rid of that freak... or trying to. And I didn't beg him to come and help me out, that he's giving me an attitude.

I don't understand why he jumped down my throat. Maybe the phone call had ruined his mood? But still, that's not fair to target me to all his anger because of whatever problem it brought for him.

"Hey," Arianna stumbles to me, a lazy smile plastered across her flushed face. "The heels are killing me," she groans with annoyance as she puts our stuff on the bar and seats herself on the stool. She sips her drink, her eyes linger on a spot before she turns to me with furrowed brows.

With tilted head and confusion, she asks over the deafening beat, "Did you and Adi have a fight?"

"No," I reply equally loud but sharply, and she raises her eyebrows. I mouth why and she shrugs and downs the liquor.

I recall the direction she was watching and train my gaze in that way. And there, in the far corner of the club in a dark area, is Adrien. His phone illuminates his features and glasses as he types feverishly.

I huff and take a sip from my lemonade.

"Let's go back on the dance floor!" Arianna says hopping down her stool.

"I think I've been there enough for one night," I reply with a smile and she rolls her eyes.

Before she gets the chance to answer my comment, a guy places himself between us, his attention fixed on her. His red button-up shirt, with the three buttons on top, undone and his black pants give a weird vibe. Even though he is shorter than her. Bulky with almost no neck, he has the confidence of a man believing to be better looking than Leonardo DiCaprio in the age he starred in Titanic.

He talks in an accented English, making it complicated to decipher his words, but it's probably in the same context of the previous dude who wouldn't stop talking to me.

I stare at his exposed arm, covered in wild tattoos. I don't believe in gut feelings, but something is off about him. He backs a step and directs his comments to both of us, insisting we join him. "I'm sure I can make it worth your while." He ogles with a disgusting smirk.

"I said, no. We're not interested. Get away or I will kick your ass," Arianna pushes back her shoulders, looking him dead in the eye.

The man chuckles, "Ah, feisty, I like it." He nears her and wraps his meaty palm around Arianna's wrist. He starts, "You'll love it, I'll-" but is cut short when she slaps him hard.

I gasp as I slide off the stool and cover my mouth.

A humorless laugh escapes from him, I glance all over the place, Dylan is busy dancing with a girl and Adrien is nowhere to be seen.

He grasps her upper arm, jerking her towards himself. She twists and shifts to free herself, shrieking profanities at him.

Standing there in utter shock, I gawk at them, my limbs going numb. I urge my mind to push aside the clouds gathered in it and try to come up with an idea to help her. I scan the bar and the beer bottle stands out.

The thundering heartbeat echoing in my skull subsides as in a matter of second I decide, or rather my muscles act of their own accord. My fingers enclose on the neck of the bottle. Everything turns into slow motion and the next thing I know is the force of the glass hitting the man's head and breaking. The remaining drink spills out and I stand there with my hand frozen in that spot.

+++

((Well :)))))) Eleanor and violence =))))) but she did stand for Arianna, so Idk, what do you think? She did the right thing or wrong?

Anyway, sorry I didn't update last week, I got sick like fever and all, couldn't keep my eyes open XD no, it was not COVID cause I've been locked in my house for over five months because of this ridiculous Coronavirus.

So what do you think about this chapter? El's first time going to a club, Adi and El's fight and finally El hitting the guy XD honestly, I really enjoyed writing that  scene =))

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, lots of love <33 

Also, I might update tomorrow too, so yeah =)

Stay safe. Take care <3 ))