Love Burns

Chapter 6

Olivia

Before I knew it, the  most wonderful time of the year was here again. Yes, I'm a basic bitch and think that Christmas is the most magical season ever. Something about this damn holiday makes me feel like a kid all over again.

Obviously, I had to start my holiday festivities with a huge mug of hot chocolate and reruns of my favorite Hallmark Christmas Specials. Again, call me cliché but I love these movies. Yes, they're cheesy and over the top and completely unrealistic but again, isn't that just Christmas in general? Which is very thing I love about this holiday in the first place. The Christmas trees and decorations, ice skating and drinking some warm, delicious hot chocolate. Well, another fun thing about Christmas is that it's my birthday. Yup, I know, it sounds ridiculous. My parents always told me that I was the best present that Santa could've gotten them. I still like to believe that I was the best thing that happened to them.

"Let's go to New York City."

"Tati, we can't just go to New York City whenever we want."

"Well, I already booked the tickets months ago, and I'm asking you out of courtesy. Come on! I know you've been dreaming about skating at Rockefeller Center since you were 10. "

I laugh, well, she's not wrong, I've always wanted to visit New York City, especially  during Christmas. "Please Liv , I know you want to go too, and trust me it'll be so much fun! Just imagine you and me, walking around manhattan-"

"Okay okay, fine, you won. I'll come with you to NYC!"

She jumps towards me and hugs me tightly, so tight that I almost couldn't breathe, "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I promise, you WON'T regret it!" I laughed at her enthusiasm, I should really stop overthinking and just live in the moment or whatever.

We started blasting our favorite Christmas jams and started packing. We were planning to stay there till new years. I couldn't believe I was going to watch the ball drop LIVE AT THE TIMES SQUARE! Damn, I was actually going to New York. We finished packing pretty quickly and rushed to bed. But I was so excited, I couldn't sleep. And before I knew it we were dragging our suitcases through the terminal trying to get through TSA and find our gate. We somehow managed to get there on time and there began, one of the best trips of my entire life.

The view when we got out of JFK airport was beautiful to say the least. Even though we saw the sign "Welcome to New York." it still hadn't hit us, but now, it hit us, like a taxi that almost hit me, because I was too absorbed by the view. Now don't get me wrong, New York is a bunch of really tall buildings just stacked next to each other, but even though it's a 'concrete jungle' as some people would argue, it's still beautiful, because beyond these concrete walls, there are thousands of people who have so many colorful dreams. And now, I'm finally here. The city where big dreams are made of.

Tati and I spent almost the entire day just walking around Manhattan. Obviously, we went to Central Park and saw the penguins in the Zoo. We also took the subway and went to a local deli which had the best pastrami sandwich I'd ever eaten in my life. I finally got to try the 1$ pizza from Joe's pizza which was on my bucket list since I was 10. And finally, we were just walking around in the Upper East Side. Taking in the incredible view. Words or even pictures don't do justice to how incredible this city looks.

We finally checked into our Airbnb which wasn't too shabby. It looked pretty old and run down from the outside, but the interior made up for it. It looked like we entered a 90s hotel. We finally got into our room and my stupid decision of not sleeping the night before finally got to me, because as soon as I lied down on the bed, I fell asleep. And with that, day 1 in NYC came to an end.