We make our way down and out of the hotel.

I wish I had brought my headphone.

We eventually walk side by side in complete silence, not that I have any problem with not talking, but I don't know if it's just me or if it's actually a bit awkward.

But I think it's me. I'm probably overthinking it.

After a long while, Adrien pushes his hand through his hair and then looks at me.

"So... I was thinking... now that I've told you almost everything and cleared out the misunderstandings or whatever, we should try to... uhm, you know," he scratches the back of his neck and then clears his throat, "Try to move on from that and be like..." his voice trails down again.

I can't understand why he would want to fix things with me... but I guess that benefits both of us. After all, we're going to be traveling with each other for a whole year.

"Two normal people, who know each other since grade school?" I offer, since it looks like he wasn't coming up with the right words, and then everything would've gotten awkward.

He smiles and nods his head, "Exactly,"

I'm not comfortable around him, and it's hard to look over everything just because he told me his perspective... but I can try. I know I won't be able to be around him the way I was with Jace, at least not immediately, but I can try to... over time.

And this whole trip is about moving on from the past becoming a better me, I remind myself for the hundredth time.

We continue our walk in complete silence. Adrien eventually fishes out his phone along with wired earbuds.

For a second too long I stare at him with surprise.

Unfortunately, he notices and starts chuckling. "What?" He asks as he attaches wire to the bottom of his phone.

"Aren't we in the wireless era?"

He starts laughing, "Wireless things need charging... which is not very convenient." He pointedly says as he puts one of the earbuds in his ear.

I try to hold back my giggle and look away. I couldn't imagine someone would ever consider charging as an inconvenience.

"Music?" He asks and holds the other earbud towards me.

The logical answer is no, but the smile on his face makes me hesitate and the tiniest light of hope flickers in his eyes which makes me say otherwise.

"Sure," I reply with a small smile and take the earbud in my hand.

It would've been rude anyway to say no to him.

His smile widens, crinkling the corners of his eyes and he immediately looks down, fixing his eyes on his phone. I honestly can't understand this person.

He opens his music app and I put the earbud in my ear. The wire forces me to walk closer to him, close enough that our hands would be brushing if he wasn't holding his phone.

Why didn't I think of this! It's too late to give the earbud back though.

"Do you want to choose?" He asks, looking at me and I shake my head no.

He nods his head slowly and starts scrolling through songs until finally hitting play on one of them.

Up in the air by Thirty seconds to Mars starts playing.

I push my hands into my pants pocket. At least he's got a good taste in music.

Suddenly Jace's words start playing in my head, he always used to say mine and Adrien's music taste is almost the same.

Almost six songs later we reach the hotel he was talking about. We go in and up to the second level.

Purple lights illuminate the place. A white huge bar in the middle and a breathtaking view of the lake and the mountains visible on one side.

I take off the earbud and hand it back to him as we walk towards one of the empty tables.

Wordlessly we sit where it has one of the best views.

The night surprisingly goes by fast, as we eventually start to talk about where to go next and plan the whole trip. Though at some points I did notice his gaze lingering on me for a second longer than necessary, or his glances towards me and the small smiles he would offer whenever I caught him staring.

After eating our dinner we head back to our own hotel, the same way we came, with the same space between us because of the too-short wired earbuds.

As planned, he spends the whole night in my room as we plan our destinations and the order to go to each.

As we sit next to each other behind the work desk, I can't help but be reminded of our fifth and sixth semester back in Stanford, when he had broken up with his girlfriend halfway through the fifth semester and I helped him finish all his projects and assignments. It was nice to have someone to study with, so we continued it all the way till the end of the sixth semester.

I'm slowly starting notice, if he wants to, he can be an incredibly kind person and a great company but it's hard to predict his next steps... one day he's all good and nice, and the next he's the most vicious person in a world aside from books and novels with psychopath antagonists.

I wonder how long this time his good mood lasts.

***

Day 12

I take another sip from my coffee.

"So... have you guys planned anything special for today?" Arianna asks, her blue eyes twinkling with excitement.

"We have an early flight for tomorrow," Adrien says in a matter of fact tone without looking up from his phone.

"Does that mean we have the whole day to ourselves?" Dylan asks.

I shrug, "I thought it would be good to have a day for packing, or if you guys want to see somewhere Adrien and I have forgot to add to our list,"

Dylan nods his head.

I start chewing my bottom lip before taking another sip from my coffee.

The past two days have been crazy and great at the same time. I never thought hanging around Arianna would be this fun. I mean it was obvious she's a cool person but I never thought she'd even bother to socialize with me, but she did.

In the past two days, we've spent our time in the best way possible. Starting from the lake tour, visiting the magnificent Château de Chillon, St Pierre Cathedral, Palais des Nations, Reformation Wall, and almost all the museums in this city.

My feet still ache from all the amount of standing and walking. Turns out Arianna is one of those girls who are obsessed with selfies and posting stories on Instagram.

Ironically she even managed to push me out of my shell and pose on a couple of her pictures with her.

Suddenly Arianna starts drumming her hands on the table making all of us look at her.

"I have an idea," she starts, a playful smile on her face.

Adrien rolls his eyes and Arianna snatches his phone out of his hand and sticks out her tongue.

He glares at her and places his hands on the table, "What?" he asks with irritation.

She smiles widely, "Now that I have your attention," she starts and pauses, putting Adrien's phone on the table and straightens herself. "I want to start a YouTube channel," she announces with excitement.

"And what does that have anything to do with any of us?" Dylan asks curiously, narrowing his eyes.

She huffs and pushes her pink her behind her ear, "I want to make a YouTube channel for this whole trip." She says like she's explaining 2+2 to a kid.

"So the whole world knows where we are and what we're doing? No thanks." Adrien retorts.

"No!" Arianna whines. "Come on! It'll be fun," she exclaims.

I look between the three of them, each holding a very different yet resolute expression. I take another sip from my coffee.

"We can get YouTube famous... we can get rich," she adds with a sheepish smile.

Dylan starts chuckling at that.

Adrien huffs, "Says the girl who got a Mercedes C-class coupe for her sixteenth birthday,"

Arianna dramatically gasps, "That's not fair!" She leans into her chair and in fake British accent says, "It's every heart's desire to become rich, to feel the pleasure of earning money, my dear,"

I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling.

"Plus, it'll be useful, my major is art, and-" she starts.

"You're an art drop out," Adrien interjects.

She rolls her eyes, "That's not the point," she snaps and continues with a sweet smile, "And you two are electrical engineers,"

"I'm not getting the connection here," Adrien says with annoyance.

"You're so stupid, I wonder how you graduated. You've majored in these things," she says.

Adrien looks at her incredulously and she holds his stare with her pointed one. I bite my lip in an attempt to hold back my laughter.

Dylan looks between them with confusion. I press my hand to mouth to cover the on growing smile.

"We study the devices that for example if put together, make a phone," I slowly say.

"Oh," she looks at me with surprise. "So... you're saying these app things have nothing to do with you guys?" She asks.

Adrien shakes his head and I smile at her.

"Well, that doesn't change anything, I still think we should do this," she says and leans back into her chair.

"No we shouldn't," Adrien stubbornly says.

"How bad can it be?" Dylan finally says, earning a wide smile from Arianna.

"What do you say Eleanor?" She looks at me with hopeful eyes.

I shift uncomfortably under her cheerful gaze and shrug. "I think," I start, trying to find the right words I slowly continue, "You should do whatever you want to do,"

"That's ma girl!" She enthusiastically says, "We are doing this!" She half squeals.

Relief washes through me, it looks like I didn't say the wrong thing.

The feeling of someone staring at me makes me look up only to see Adrien's aqua green eyes fixed on me.

Is he mad at me?

I start biting my bottom lip. Unfortunately, I can't understand the meaning of the look on his face.

He sighs and looks at Arianna, "Fine, just don't make us do weird shit so you can get viewers,"

"Promise," she says with a wide smile and looks at me, "What do you think I should call it?"

I stare at her blankly, thinking and trying to come up with a name while Dylan announces all the ridiculous name ideas that cross his mind.

"A year around the world, maybe?" I suggest after everyone's done with saying theirs.

"I think 'Our crazy life' sounds better," Dylan says.

"No, I like Eleanor's. So it's final," she enthusiastically says, her hands up in the air as she says, "A year around the world,"

I smile at her.

Then my eyes land on the entrance door. I look in complete disbelieve as he walks into the hotel dressed in a dark grey suit. I blink a couple of times to make sure I'm not mistaking it.

Unfortunately, I'm not.

What the hell is Theodor doing here!

+++

((So I know nothing much happened in this chapter and my plan was to combine it with the previous one but then that would've been too long and I highly doubt anyone likes long chapters.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this chapter? What is Theo doing there? What are your thoughts on the four of them? And if you enjoyed the chapter don't forget to vote!))