Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter Twenty-three (Long Chapter Ahead)
♱
Ariana awoke to an empty bed. Arms were no longer encircled around her, instead, the deafening sound of the working blowdryer rung from the occupied bathroom. She sat up in the bed, feeling the chill of solidarity raise the hairs on the back of her neck. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, the blow drying came to a halt, and out came a freshened Nika. She was slicking her hair back, picking rogue strands to tuck into the pony she was making.
"Mornin'," she said, yanking at the hair tie around her wrist, "You woke up just in time."
Ariana glanced over at the clock sitting by the bedside table. It read 7:33am. She watched the older pace back and forth around their hotel room, grabbing gear here and packing up her things there. After a minute of pure hustling from the Croatian, she looked up at the doctor, sliding her knee guards on.
"Why're you ready so early, breakfast isn't for another hour." Ariana said groggily, the strap of her top sliding off her shoulder.
"I was actually about to wake you," Nika said, a smile on her face. She walked around the bed, crawling onto her side as she leant over to plant a kiss on Ariana's exposed shoulder. Her hands gloved the younger's, bringing it up to her lips. "I wanted to surprise you."
"Surprise me with what?"
"The last time I woke up next to you, I helped win against South Carolina. I mean, you're basically my lucky charm, and I wanna really juice the most of that. So," Nika hopped up, propping herself off the bed to yank the blinds open, "I know there's a really pretty park just south of the hotel and they're famous for the best pretzel cart in all of Iowa City. I thought it'd be nice to just buy you a pretzel for breakfast." She visibly gulped, shaking her head, catching her own excitement before she got ahead of herself. "If you want to. If you wanna sleep more, I totally get it."
Ariana felt words clump in her throat, gaze clinging onto the hopeful glint in the older's expression. She swallowed thickly, jumble of thoughts forced back down before an answer rung clear in her mind.
"I—Yeah, I mean, why not?"
The Croatian beamed from ear to ear. She hadn't noticed the apparent weight bore on her shoulders until she felt them raise in relief. Her hand found the back of her neck as a soft smile plagued her otherwise sharp features.
"Perfect." She pointed towards the bathroom, "I'm all ready, it's all yours, princess," she snickered, teasing in a playful tone, "Don't take too long though, we're on a time crunch."
