Take Me To Hawaii

35. Hide!

This is my extra chapter as a sorry for vanishing :) 

(Edit): This has been edited to help this chapter flow with the rest of the story plans better. If you read the first version, this is pretty much the same but with more detail and fluff.

Take Me to Hawaii - A Tratie Fanfiction - Chapter 35 - Hide - Day 5

Katie next saw Travis before breakfast. He leaned against the dining hall wall in such a strong daze that even Connor's frantic arm movements and ramblings couldn't shake him out of. Connor was loud with his talking and pacing before his elder brother, stopping now and then to drag his hands across his cheeks, smack his forehead or point at Travis.

Katie watched them from afar as his eyes darted across the tiled floor. Those perfect dark blue eyes perfectly contrasting his glowing tan. Travis looked up, forcing Katie to get lost in them before regaining her composure and darting behind the potted plant to her left. She peeked around the large leaves to check if he saw her.

The back of Travis' head was thumping gently against the wall behind it, his eyes screwed tightly shut. After his seventh hit, Travis pushed his hands up into his hair. This only caused it to stick up in every direction.

Katie noticed now how it looked fluffier than usual. It was unstyled and hardly the perfected ruggish mould he typically forced it into. Instead, when his hands pulled away from his head, his curls fell into his eyes. Looser and the least defined she'd seen it, his hair appeared longer. Though each strand normally formed wide ringlets, loose waves hung from his crown glinting with gold as the sun danced across it. Katie couldn't recall a time she had seen him appear so unkept.

But she also couldn't recall a time he had looked better. His appearance alone gave the illusion of a Travis who didn't care how he looked. Not in a slobbish way but in a way that spoke he was confident in himself no matter how he looked. Pyjamas or tuxedo, he could give a speech that every ear would tune in to.

Jesus. What is wrong with her! Why is she so...weak, around him now! Its just Travis. Travis you used to hate and then liked and then maybe slept with but you don't know for sure because you drank too much and you're a lightweight and you a dream about you two doing it and now don't know what's real and what's fake like a really fucked up and pathetic version of 'is it cake'.

The only hint of his distress was the droop of his mouth and the sorrow that filled every blink. If it weren't for the anxiousness radiating from him, he would've looked quite cute: Messy hair, pinkish cheeks from a light burn, glowing skin.

"What are you doing?" A young voice said with an unnecessary judgemental edge to it. When Katie turned to see the owner of the unspoken criticism, she was met with a face she shouldn't be surprised to see. The girl from the airport, still holding her rat, stared at her through her wide-rimmed cat-eye glasses. Katie didn't say anything.

"Oh. Are you avoiding him?" Katie ignored the girl again and turned to walk out of the doors that did not pass The Stoll Brothers. The girl watched Katie walk away before calling out to her. "I'm taking the silence as a yes!"

It wasn't like she was avoiding him, she just wasn't actively looking for him. However, after she skipped breakfast, she successfully avoided him for a few hours later. It was just before midday when she caught a glimpse of him again. Amidst a game of water polo, orchestrated by Maunaleo (Who had more jobs than Miss Rabbit by now), Katie dove beneath the water's surface at the sight of Travis. She pinched her nose and scrunched her eyes tight shut. Her cheeks puffed in the false belief that it would contain more air she could ration during the journey twenty-thousand leagues under the sea...or to the bottom of the pool. Katie let her knees hit the tile gently, placing her feet beneath her in preparation for a quick ascend. When her oxygen tank ran out, she forced herself to the sky and swallowed air greedily when she emerged.