The Past & the Present (Completed)

Chapter One: A Trip to Romania

The alarm clock rang and I remember getting up first. Louis didn't budge and Andrew rolled over and pulled his pillow around his head, still completely asleep.

Without waking them I tiptoed through the clothes carpeting the floor, we were never good housekeepers, and out to the main room. I started the coffee maker and turned on the range, then grabbed a pan and the eggs and bacon.

It was still before dawn but I always had a hard time sleeping. At the time getting seven hours was a miracle. If I slept longer than that it had to be drug induced.

Next up at the crack of dawn is Maria, muttering to herself in Spanish on her way to the shower. I waved and she waved back without turning her head and trudged on.

The smell of breakfast and sound of the coffee maker being ready slowly lured the rest of my friends out of hiding. Technically it was supposed to be a four person dorm. No one was about to rat us out so we were going to get away with it as long as possible. Finding affordable housing for seven people would be basically impossible. Plus we liked living in close proximity.

"Is everybody packed?" I asked, sliding the scrambled eggs onto a plate and moving onto more delicate cooking, over easy or sunny side up.

"Yes, we packed last night," Andrew yawned and almost engulfed his whole hand.

"Yeah but you always forget something," Louis said, "Remember that time I forgot my phone?"

"Yeah, cause ya borrowed mine most of the time ya sod."

Connor and Niamh (pronounced Neev) were brother and sister. Exchange students from Ireland. Niamh's accent was so thick we could barely understand her, fortunately she could sign in American much more fluidly.

Last of our group to wake up was Quentin. We were seven in total. He was a normal looking guy with brown hair and brown eyes. The cutest thing about him were his freckles. Once when we were drunk he let me draw lines connecting them like constellations. He wasn't particularly tall or muscular, kind of lanky in fact, but he was so sweet and dorky it was hard not to love him.

"Good morning." Quention snuggled up to my back, wrapping his arms around my waist and sighing into my hair.

I chuckled, "The bacon is almost ready. I can't make it cook any faster."

"I know, I'm just waiting comfortably."

"Somebody tell Maria to hurry up her morning routine please, or at least vacate the shower so someone else can take a turn," I said, "We're leaving at promptly-"

"Ten fifteen, we remember."

I was the mom friend. All my friends were so bright and ambitious and sweet, but had the self preservation instincts of worms. So I took care of them and made sure they were safe and did my best to educate them on how to survive. Sure I looked paranoid back then, but now I see even I wasn't careful enough.

Getting out the door was harder than herding cats while blindfolded on an oiled floor. Every time I managed to get everyone out someone remembered something they forgot and two of them would go back in.

We got a shuttle to the airport, unable to find an Uber fit for seven people plus luggage, and when we arrived we all rushed to find the plane right before it left. The professor looked at the group of us and shook his head.

"You're fifteen minutes late."

Hence the reason I aimed to get my friends out of the apartment two hours early, I knew how bad their time management skills were.

Once on the plane, however, the tables turned and it took half my friends to keep me from having a heart episode and dying of fear. Eventually they convinced me to drink something which I only discovered had a mild sedative after I woke up at the hotel of our first layover. Needless to say I was kindly drugged and carried on and off planes for the duration of our arriving adventure.