I'll Meet You There

22

Day 3

Poppy's POV:

After we got up the next morning, there was an alarm blaring. I mockingly flashed my hands at the alarm, glaring at where I thought it was coming from, frustrated that it had woken me. Colby thought it was because of his blow dryer and I turned to him. The front door opened and we saw Heath pressing the doorbell.

I frowned at him. "You're rude."

"No, I'm not, Calliope."

"Poppy. Yes you are."

"Poppy, Heath, that's enough," Elton said.

We readied to leave, and once again, Heath was behaving a little like a dad. He had water bottles in his backpack. We ate breakfast, though I didn't eat much.

After breakfast, we headed to Cairo.

While waiting for our car to go, Elton noticed a machine gun two feet away from Colby and I. Talk about nerve-wracking. One of the soldiers told Elton to delete the clip, but instead, he deleted another clip. Sneaky.

We walked into a museum to explore. We made our way towards our guide and Sam said, "Our guide's so cute."

"Which one?" Elton asked in a teasing tone.

Sam placed a hand on Heath's shoulder and Colby glanced to me and smiled. "It's obviously Poppy."

I stared at him with a small frown. Me? Cute? Sure.

According to the rules, we weren't allowed to film a majority of the four hours in the museum. Elton filmed the bit he was allowed to. We looked around the hotel. There was a lot of amazing history here, which I enjoyed.

We saw Ramses' body. I've never seen a mummy before, so it was cool, but freaky to see. Everything was in amazing condition, considering how old the mummy was. Once we were finished, we headed into the gift shop because naturally, we had to be touristy.

We went to Old Cairo and entered through an old subway station. Sam joked about going to Hogwarts and tried jumping through the wall, but didn't make it through.

We walked inside and came to where Mary and Jesus had stayed for six months. It had become a church in 300 A.D.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what it would have been like. I tried to imagine the wise men coming to give their gifts to baby Jesus so many years before.

Elton made a joke about doing an overnight challenge here, which probably wouldn't work. I stood back and studied the small barn. I sent a quick text to my family group chat letting them know that I saw where Jesus and Mary stayed in Egypt.

Our guide led us to another portion of the church and as soon as we walked inside, Colby looked out a window and said, "This is some Assassin's Creed shit."

I frowned and told the boys, "We're in a church. You're not supposed to curse."

"Yeah, Colby," Sam added. Then, referring back to what Colby had said, he said, "It sounds like it too."

We left the church and Elton started petting a dog he had found. Colby got emotional over the dog and wondered if it had rabies. Heath and Elton wondered if the dogs barked in Egyptian.

Colby began petting the dog again, and then we made our way to a temple and handed the guy at the front desk our shoes.

Inside the temple, some fans came up to Colby, and they wanted a picture, but then shied away. Colby was given a book that he couldn't read and gave a strange look.

Outside the temple, there were a couple boys playing soccer. Elton wanted to see if they could shoot a goal past us. Elton would be going first. More and more kids showed up. They kids got a couple goals past him, and he wanted to continue trying. He failed once again, and then stopped a goal. The ball soon disappeared and we made our way to the car with the kids calling Elton's name behind us.

We drove to our next location, and Heath was the designated camera man.

As soon as we arrived, we left the car and walked through a tunnel. Sam was jokingly trying to climb the walls and Elton was encouraging him.

I rolled my eyes and said, "And this is where I leave them."

I left them to do whatever they were going to do and heard feet behind me and saw Colby. "I don't wanna witness someone get hurt."

"Neither do I. Are you enjoying Egypt so far?"

"Yeah. Hey Colby? Um, you remember Chuck, right?"

"Yeah, what about him?"

"Well, we're not dating, but he's pushing me to, well, you know, and I don't want to."

"Have you told him?"

"Multiple times. He doesn't listen. I'm scared he'll try to or actually do something."

"Poppy, I'll protect you from him. I promise."

"Thank you."

He gave me a light smile. "You're welcome."

The other guys soon appeared.

The five of us walked to a market and Sam found a magic lamp and dubbed the genie Francis.

Sam put Francis down, and we walked up a flight of stairs to a blacklight room. Elton kept saying we would die, but of course, we didn't.

There were cats everywhere, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Elton pet a gray one and then I pet the same one and various others. Elton said, "I think Poppy found her happy place."

Colby smiled and said, "She definitely did. She adores cats."

Colby pulled me away from the cats and we made our way to a faux Gucci store, which had a bag for $17. Elton noticed a guy playing music and singing, and almost all of us were enjoying the music. Heath began singing along, but kept messing up the words. That kind of thing tends to happen when you don't know the song.

We made our way to an Egyptian cafe for tea. Sam moaned and Colby showed off a little by blowing smoke out. He didn't offer it to me, as he made that mistake once. Vaping isn't for me.

The evening took us back to the pyramids. We were seated in a row of chairs in the middle while we waited for the show to start. Colby made a joke that it would be a concert with rock music and not Egyptian.

When the concert started, we watched the pyramids light up with the fireworks and during certain points, was synchronized.

The concert finished, and Heath joked about getting a camel to get Taco Bell. Elton and Heath joked about Colby picking me up on a white stallion. He raised an eyebrow and turned to me. "You'd like that, wouldn't you, Poppy?"

I shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not."

"Tough crowd."

Sam grinned. "Aren't they cute?"

"Shut up," Colby mumbled, his cheeks bright red.

Heath asked how much horsepower it would be and Elton said, "One."

We walked over to the horse and Elton began petting it. A kid climbed on it and rode it away.

As soon as we reached the hotel, we said goodbye to our driver. Tomorrow, we'd be headed to Luxor, which meant we'd need a good night's sleep.

I got ready for bed, and laid in bed awhile before falling asleep.