Flutter |h.s|

01

Grace

I have no idea how so much clothes fit into my one piece of luggage. Of course I have a carry on, but for three weeks in Europe, most people bring two giant suitcases. My carry on is also full of cameras and film, which was a joy getting through airport security. So really all my clothes are all packed tight in one medium sized suitcase.

There also wasn't enough time to get a luggage tag either so I improvised with this dumb piece of ribbon wrapped around the handle. It probably won't make it past Paris.

The past week has been rough to say the least. There were a lot of tears shed and a lot of money spent on wine and ice cream. Holly's probably gonna want me to pay her back for that. Actually, she probably won't but I'm still gonna pay her back. I had to practically force her to take my money for this trip. Thankfully we haven't fully booked this trip. It's more of a pay as you go kind of trip.

That's why Elias, my brother, decided to join us. That, plus if he stayed home he would have probably killed Jesse for breaking my heart. I appreciate him wanting to defend me, but the last thing I want is for either of them to get hurt. It's most likely gonna be a while before I'm completely over Jesse. But that's more of a 'my life is completely different now and going nowhere' kind of problem. Not a 'I still love him' one. Well...

I don't know how Holly got me to haul ass all the way to London. Or to agree to a three week European vacation. It's actually 23 days, but let's just say three weeks. She purposely booked it to be 23 days since it's supposed to be my lucky number. I guess once this vacation is over we'll see how lucky that number really is.

"Grace, there's yours." Holly says as she points to my luggage coming around the corner of the baggage claim.

When it's close enough I grab the handle and pull it off the belt. Luckily that stupid pink ribbon is still attached. I'm gonna have to buy a real luggage tag or something.

My bag was the last one we were waiting for, so once I get the handle up we start following the signs to the exit.

It was a mess getting through customs honestly. The line was so long and we probably wasted an hour of our day just to be helped through in like minutes. All three of us just want to get to the hotel already and take a shower. Airports are so disgusting, especially being in a plane for 7 hours.

The second we exit the airport, we're met with a sea of taxis, waiting to pick up their next customer. We're also met with the yelling attendants, hurrying people into these taxis so the next one could come in. It's a hectic mess, but an organized, hectic mess.

Before we know it, an attendant grabs our bags, bringing it to the trunk of a taxi. We follow close behind, not wanting the cab to leave with our luggage and not us. Once he and Elias get our suitcases in the back, he's ushering us into the car, closing the door behind us.

I look over at Holly, my eyes wide, mouthing, 'What the fuck?'

We can't help but laugh as the driver speeds off as Eli gives him the name of the hotel. The driver just nods, probably going to that hotel a hundred times a day.

My head turns to the window, taking in my first glimpse of London. It's technically not my first time out of the country. We used to do family vacations to the Bahamas or Aruba every summer, but that's about the extent of my experience traveling the world.

I guess it's good that I'm traveling, I won't have time to think about what happened. We're planning on hitting as many cities as possible while we're here. We decided it would probably be easier to start in London. We planned out the first week of cities. London, Dublin, Paris. We have a short list of cities we want to visit, but we still need to shorten it.