Love Burns

Chapter 7

Olivia

God, I love this city. I know I've said that at least a hundred times by now, but even that doesn't perfectly describe how I feel about New York. Tati and I took the subway out to the Met museum today. It was huge and our feet hurt from walking. I obviously enjoyed looking at all the art pieces but Tati on the other hand...Let's just say, I was thankful that she didn't kill me.

After that, we went to grab a bite from a halal food truck but the line literally gave me a heart attack. So we settled for sushi instead, which was actually pretty good, dare I say, even better than the ones in LA. Later we went to a Knicks game. I, personally am not a fan of basketball but Tati forced me to. She loves the Knicks which is why she wanted to come to NYC in the first place. It was a Knicks Vs Warriors game and the final score was 123-110. I've never watched an NBA game before, but I've to admit, it was pretty good. I instantly thought of someone who was also a basketball player and a pretty good one — my mind instinctively added. I still hadn't forgotten the look on his face when I'd introduced him to Noah. Was he jealous? Did I want him to be jealous? Of course not, that would mean that I find him attractive, which I don- my thoughts were rudely interrupted by Tati begging me to buy her one of those ridiculous foam fingers.

"Liv, look, literally everyone has one"

"Tati, I'm not buying you a stupid foam finger."

"They're not STUPID! They're a keepsake! Please!" She started showing me her puppy eyes which always scared the crap out of me, so I relucted and bought her the freaking foam finger.

Christmas day would be incomplete without gifts, so Tati and I decided to explore at a Winter Market and buy each other gifts, I bought her a green and pink beaded necklace and she bought me a 1,000 piece puzzle. Then we saw this Gingerbread house kit and we knew we had to make one. So, we bought the gingerbread house kit and some eggnog and went back to our hotel. Mine came out horrible if I'm being honest, but Tati's looked like an actual house

"Liv, I love you, but your Gingerbread house doesn't even look like a house"

"Well, what if that was the point? It's not supposed to be realistic anyway."

"God, just admit that you can't even make a Gingerbread house."

"I think you've had too much eggnog" She was right though, I suck at making Gingerbread houses. After drinking an ungodly amount eggnog, we finally drifted off to sleep.

The next day, Our first stop was the Richard Rogers Theater where we were going to watch the Hamilton musical. Now, Tati again, was extremely bored THAT'S what you get for forcing me to buy you a ridiculous blue finger. Initially I thought everyone was exaggerating when they said this musical was incredible, but now, I actually think that it was better than what they described. I think it's probably one of the best musicals of our time. By the time, the musical got over it was almost time for the most important part of our trip — Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center

I love ice skating, I know, it sounds ridiculous because I'm literally from LA where we don't even know what snow is. But my aunt was big on ice skating as a kid, she used to take us to Vermont when we were younger, and while Tati developed a hatred towards skating, I loved it. I loved how free it made me feel and it was one of my favorite things to do, only second to fencing of course. Tati told me to just skate by myself but I was determined to get her on the ice this time. She wasn't awful at skating but she definitely had been out of practice, but after a while she got the hang of it.

"This is actually fun."

"Told you, you were missing out."

"I haven't seen you like this in a long time."

"Like what?"

She thought for a while, and replied, "Relaxed. You've been so stressed about your assignments and fencing matches lately, I swear, I could literally see steam coming out of your ears."
I laughed. "Now, you're just being dramatic." "Whatever you say." She was right, I'd been a little stressed lately, while it was partly because of fencing and assignments, the real reason was that I'd heard about my early decision to Columbia University, and it turns out, I got waitlisted, and the chances of the people on the waitlist getting accepted are close to zero. I'd worked so hard on school just to get waitlisted. Honestly, I thought coming to New York would make me feel more hurt but actually, I'm glad Tati forced me. If she didn't I think I would've just spent Christmas sitting at home and thinking about Columbia.

"Oh my god, Olivia, look it's a proposal." I'd heard of people getting proposed to at the Rockefeller Rink but I never thought I'd actually witness it in real life. It felt like I was in a movie or something.

"That was so cute. Please tell me Qu- I mean your future boyfriend one day will propose like that."

I swatted her arm, "Shut up Tati, I told you, I don't like him. He's just a little less annoying these days."

"One day, we'll laugh about how dumb you're being right now and I hope that day comes soon."

After doing most of the touristy stuff here, we went back to our hotel and waited till 9pm to go to Times Square and watch the New Years Eve Ball Drop. But we reached there at 9:30 because literally everyone in New York has plans for the New year.

"Why is it taking so long?"

"Tati, it's just 10 pm."

"Well they could've started with the DJ already."

"That starts at 11, sweetie."

"God, why did I let you drag me out of bed for this."

"Because if I didn't we'd be stuck all the way at the back and we wouldn't even be able to see the ball drop."

"I hate it when you're right."

"I love you too."

Finally at like 10:30 the DJ started playing some throwback jams and Tati and I danced for two whole hours till there was almost 10 seconds left for the ball drop. "5-4-3-2-1-Happy New Year!" We were surrounded by a sea of couples who were kissing. Which was honestly the worst place to stand when you're single during New Years. Honestly, the ball drop wasn't anything too impressive but it was so touristy and so cliché we just had to do it. And before I knew it, it was a new year and I was on the plane back to LA.