The hotel was exquisite to say the least. Rosaline had really outdone herself this time. Then again, when didn't she? Winding staircase, carpeted floors, beautiful paintings and a ceiling so high I'd most likely crack my neck if I tried to appreciate it for too long. Boy did I want to because it was that beautiful. Keeping high-pitched squeals from escaping my mouth and scaring off the receptionist was quite possibly the hardest thing I'd ever done. I was practically bouncing on my feet with kinetic energy. This trip was going to be, without a doubt, absolutely amazingly spectacular. 

Before I knew what I was doing, I'd pulled out my camera to shoot pictures of the four most amazing people in the world that were going to share this trip with me. Rosaline Matthews, my older sister from another mother who was currently getting us rooms. Zahra Queen, the only one that joined me when I was high on laughter and life and finally, quiet little Alia Rivers who was shoving away my camera with a blush lighting up her cheeks as I attempted to take her picture.

"Okay all done. Room 204. Here are your keys ladies," Rosaline said. 

Rosaline passed out the copper keys as a butler came up to take our suitcases. I waved off his help and rolled it on my own as I walked beside my girls.

"Keep it in until we get to the room Davina. No need for them to throw us out when we just got here," Rosaline warned.

 I nodded, barely containing my excitement as the wheels of the suitcase Alia had given me began to squeak on the now linoleum floored hallway. The horrid sound was beginning to attract quite a lot of stares and I fought to keep a blush of my face. Noticing my embarrassment, Zahra stuck up a finger to the onlookers. Immediately, heads turned away and Zahra returned her attention to Rosaline.

"She can squeal if she wants to Rose. They have our freaking money," Zahra said. 

"Not now Zahra," Rose snapped.

 Zahra shot Rose a glare but still continued to tread along beside her. Rose was probably the only person in the world that could shut Zahra up.

"Davina are you going to be sick? You look like you're about to puke," Alia questioned in a soft voice. 

She put her hand on my shoulder. Puke. Hell no. I wasn't going to puke in this fancy hotel. That would cost more than I could ever afford in a lifetime. The nervous excitement was getting to me, along with the overload of Recees cups I'd had on the plane ride here.

"Yeah she's about to puke a mountain full of words. Geez Alia why are you always so clueless," Zahra snapped. Alia looked like an abashed child as she looked down at the floor.

"Sorry," she muttered.

The little puppy. Who hurt my little puppy? I shot Zahra a glare before jerking my head towards Alia.

"Zahra apologize," Rosaline requested with a roll of her eyes.

"Why are you such a-" The woman was interrupted rudely as an unholy squeal escaped my throat followed by the mountain of words as she'd called it moments before. In the safety of our room, I could scream to my heart's content without judgment. Only Alia seemed to be listening, her doe eyes fixed on me with unvarying focus, as I started my ramble.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! This place is amazing! Did you see the high ceilings? Like holy shit I felt like royalty. Also, oh my god, the carpeted floors. Don't even get me started on the floors. It's Persian carpet to be exact. I can't believe people walk on those. I wanted to just lie down on them and never get up again," I ranted.

"Well thank goodness you didn't," Rosaline said. 

She interrupted my rant with a snort as she set about unpacking her suitcase on the bed closest to the balcony. Oh my god there was a balcony. Even Rosaline's rigid propriety couldn't ruin my mood as I ran to open it. Second floors didn't grant much of a view but the fresh air was good enough. I turned back to Rose with a wide, albeit slightly crazy smile. It was, after all, the first trip I'd been on in 10 years.

"Rose thank you so much. I owe you my life, I swear. You are my queen," I exclaimed.

She really was, for funding my trip and for giving me a break from home life that had begun to erode the shell of happiness I tried to keep intact for the past 22 years.

"You can keep your life. Just don't go all batshit crazy on me D," she said.

I squeezed the life out of her with a bone-crushing hug before back flipping into the plush bed on which Alia was already lying, fast asleep. The girl never really made much sense but she was sweeter than sugar so she stuck with us, always.

"Oh Diana's definitely going to freak once she sees the size of this bathtub," Zahra announced.

 I was off the bed in an instant like someone had put an adrenaline shot on my butt and almost fainted at the sight of a gold rimmed bathtub big enough to fit all four of us if need be. Zahra cackled as I lay down in it and shut my eyes. If only I could afford this back at home.

"I could sleep here. You know what, I'm going to sleep here," I said.

 A blanket and a pillow was all I needed and that combined with jet lag would be enough to have me asleep in 20 seconds tops.

"I don't know about sleeping but we could crack open a bottle of wine in here and start up a nice bath while we're at it," Zahra said with a mischievous smile. 

I couldn't help but return with a smidgen less enthusiasm.

"On the first day? Rosaline will drown us both," I warned.

"Who the hell cares?"

It was precisely that line that lead to us both waking up in the morning, with water surrounding us, wearing nothing but our underclothes, wine glasses perched on the rim of the tub, to the angry face of Rosaline and a concerned Alia. Without thinking, I put my head under the water to hide from the burn of her gaze that seemed to penetrate my soul. Damn it we were screwed. We must have dozed off in the damn tub. Damn it.

"Davina get your head out of the water," Rose snapped.

Slowly I appeared from out of the water with a sheepish smile that quickly turned to a frown as I noticed Rosaline's penetrating glare and red-rimmed eyes. Had she been crying?

"Rose, don't get mad." Rosaline cut off Zahra with an icy glare.

"Mad! I'm not just mad! I'm furious. I leave for one night to share a room with my boyfriend because he'd leaving tomorrow and I get a call first thing in the morning from Alia whose telling me the two of you had drowned in the bathtub. Do you have any idea how worried I was, how worried both of us were," she yelled.

Zahra and I chose to keep our mouths shut as Rosaline ranted. She really did look like Medusa, as her curly hair seemed to grow more and more wild and untamed as she talked. Combined with the severe pounding headache that was just making itself known, it was definitely not turning out to be the most pleasant start to our first day on this vacation. I only had myself to blame for that.

"You scared us guys. Please don't do that again. You could really drown," Alia admitted.

 Her wide-eyed scared look had my heart clenching a bit. It must have been terrifying to wake up and see two of your friends passed out in a tub, especially if you were as naïve and innocent as she was.

"I'm sorry guys. We must have been drinking and we forgot to climb out of the tub," I said with true apology in my tone. Rosaline's glare softened just a bit.

"You guys are such idiots. Alia can you get them some towels," Rose asked.

 I slowly clambered out the tub followed by Zahra and Alia wrapped a fresh towel around both of our shoulders. We proceeded to dry off in silence with Rosaline still glaring at us with admittedly less fire than moments before.

"Rose it was my idea," Zahra started.

"Of course it was," Rose replied. Zahra flinched at the tone.

"What's that supposed to mean," Zahra asked angrily. 

"It means you don't think before you do something. You're so bloody impulsive and you drag her along too," Rose lashed out. 

Oh no, two tempers that could cause a hurricane if unleashed except Rosaline's anger had already subsided and I watched with growing horror as tears filled her eyes.

"Hey dude, please don't cry. I didn't think that would happen," Zahra said awkwardly. 

Zahra pulled Rosaline into an awkward hug as the tears began to flow like a waterfall from the latter's eyes. She'd really been frightened.

"You had me really worried. And Sam probably thinks I'm a psychopath with the way I rushed out of his room," Rose admitted tearfully. 

 I laughed in relief that a fight had been avoided as I grabbed the hair dryer. To my slight embarrassment, I realized I was still in bra and panties that were over 5 years old with Mickey Mouse drawings covering them. Whatever, I couldn't do anything about them. I slowly began to untie the knots in my jet-black hair as Rosaline's sobs turned to sniffles.

"Alia honey did you really have to tell her we were dead," I questioned softly.

Alia took the hairdryer from my hand to dry my long hair herself. It was things like this that melted my heart and had me like a defensive mother over a puppy whenever she was concerned.

"You weren't moving and I got scared Davina," she said meekly. 

"That's cause we were sleeping moron," Zahra snapped. 

She walked out of the room to fetch us both some clothes. Alia's shoulders dropped and I swear, for a moment, I felt my hackles rise.

"Hey don't be mean to her. Come here baby," I cooed.

I pulled Alia in for a hug and she hugged me back tightly, making me realize how scared she'd really been. God last night had been such a stupid decision.

"You two can hug later. Breakfast at the hotel closes at 10 and its 9:30. We need to go," Rose demanded.

 Somehow, she'd already wiped her tears, put on a coat and was waiting at the door with the hotel key card in hand. How she had moved so fast was beyond my comprehension.

"Yeah coming," I said.

I let Alia go to get dressed as I continued to dry my hair and stare absentmindedly at the humongous bathtub that had caused all of our troubles. Water still filled the tub and I moved to drain it.

That's when it struck me. I froze with a hand on the bathtub ledge as the water's billowing steam made my eyes begin to water.

The water was still hot. Boiling hot to be exact.

We'd filled it yesterday night. It had been close to 10 hours. The water should have been freezing cold by now. Just to check that I wasn't hallucinating, I dipped my hand under the water once more. It was still very hot.

"Zahra get in here," I called out. 

I couldn't keep the slight shakiness out of my voice. Shit the alcohol was making me hallucinate things now.

"What is it," Zahra asked. 

She entered the room wearing yoga pants, a cropped top and a concerned expression as she saw my face and heard the tremor in my voice.

"The water, it's still hot. We filled it yesterday."

Zahra dipped her hand in as well. She didn't look nearly as concerned as I was as she pulled her hand out.

"Yeah you're right. Must be some kind of heating system this fancy hotel has," she replied. 

"That's a thing," I exclaimed.  

The breath went out of me with a sigh of relief as I withdrew from my arched position over the bathtub. My ridiculous brain had already run through many explanations, each more terrifying and unrealistic than the previous one. It was just like me to go jumping to conclusions.

"Yes dummy. What else could it be," Zahra ask jokingly. 

"I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking," I muttered. 

"Don't over think it and get dressed before Ms. Perfect explodes," Zahra warned. 

Zahra slung my clothes over my shoulder before heading for the door where Ms. Perfect was already waiting with an impatient expression.

"Aren't you going to dry your hair," I asked. 

Zahra was still dripping water all over the floor like a wet dog and of course, she just seemed to notice it. Running a hand through her brown hair, she just shrugged.

"Nah I'll be a rebel for the day," she announced with her trademark smirk. 

"When are you not," I playfully questioned with a roll of my eyes. 

I slammed the door in her face to change. Outside, I could already here Rosaline voicing her thoughts about Zahra's wet hair and the latter giving zero shits about it. After fixing my hair up into a loose ponytail and doing my best to hide the dark circles under my eyes, I opened the door with a loud slam that had them both stop their bickering.

"Let's go. Time for breakfast," I said. 

For fun, I hoisted Alia on to my back as Rosaline shut the door behind us.

"Don't do airplane arms Davina," Rosaline warned. 

I cackled before doing exactly that as I ran down the hallway, much to her annoyance and much to my extreme joy. In that moment, the bathroom incident was the furthest thing on my mind and soon it faded completely as thoughts of a delicious breakfast entered my mind.     

Vote and comment below if you enjoyed the first chapter of this brand new book! This was more of an introduction chapter. Things will pick up in the next chapter, I promise. 

Also, in my mind, Davina would be played by Emma Watson (Picture above) 

Love

-ASH