Take Me To Hawaii

11. The Realisation Hits

Take Me to Hawaii - A Tratie Fanfiction - Chapter 11 - The Realisation Hits - Day 1

When she awoke, the sun was streaming in through the window. It grazed across Travis first, his bed being closer to it and she took account of how his hair appeared metallic in the light. The ends glistened like bronze with gold flakes and Katie wondered if he'd gotten highlights in the few hours she was asleep.

 She analyzed him in an attempt to decide how awake he may be. He wasn't snoring so couldn't be sleeping heavy if at all but with his back to her, she couldn't quite know whether he was awake or trying to get more of a lay-in on their first proper day of vacation.

"Travis?" She whispered, not wanting to disturb him if he actually was asleep. She'd learned from the last time she'd spoken to him after he'd just awoken that he was not a morning person and especially wasn't a morning person when he'd been woken up. "Travis, are you awake?"

No response. 

Katie pulled the cover off of herself as slowly as she could, attempting to not make a noise. It dragged off of her skin and left her exposed to a breeze that came gently through the crack beneath the door. She tiptoed across the carpet, grabbing her clothes and the spares of underwear her dad had thought to pack in her carry-on before heading to the bathroom.

One glimpse in the bathroom mirror had Katie glad that Travis hadn't turned to see her. The braids she'd put her hair into the day before were disheveled, strands poked out of each twisting and turning, like streams branching off of rivers and her bangs...Oh god her bangs. She thought they were bad when they'd first been cut, slightly too short with how they barely reached her eyebrows, but now? They'd grown out over the last year and served their role as framing pieces better but - according to the reflection that stared back at her - had decided to take a lesson with Elphaba and were now defying gravity. Each piece stuck out in a different direction as if wanting to explore all the air around her head. She pulled her hand across them in an attempt to smooth them down but only forced them to stay flat on either side of her face. Great, now she looked like she was made of pixels like Alex from Minecraft. Unsatisfied with them she tugged at the bands that secured each plait into place. She took Travis' comb, her own hairbrush residing in her suitcase that was currently MIA, and brushed her out from the base. The waves the braids had made started unevenly across her head, higher at the front from the Dutch style and lower at the back and all in all, stuck out awkwardly giving her even more of a square shape. Great. How could this get any worse? She'd lost her luggage, slept in some guy's shirt, and now was having a bad hair day. 

"Argh" she grumbled at her reflection, half expecting it to laugh at her and make its own hair perfect just to flaunt what she couldn't have. Instead, a figure stood behind it, a second reflection, as the door opened back up.

"Everything okay?" Travis asked from behind her, his eyes going wide as he saw the issue before quickly trying to hide his shock with a smile Katie knew was all but honest. "It looks...great?"

"Don't lie to me." 

"It looks like you tried to use a balloon as a hairbrush," Travis spoke gently, nodding out an airy yet cautious laugh.

"I didn't say be overtly honest!" Katie laughed. She tried brushing each rebellious strand back into a ponytail, but her shorter pieces still took to the sky.

"Now you look like a DIY Chia Pet." Travis crossed his arms as he leaned against the door again.

"You're just being mean now." Katie balked, her eyes finally meeting Travis in the reflection. His lips were clamped shut in a fine line attempting to hold back a laugh that shook his shoulders silently. "Did I wake you?"