Try hard // L.H.

Chapter 44

Luke

My legs started to stretch out as I woke up on the hotel bed. Aurora was curled up against my side and one of my arms was under her.

I let my eyes adjust to the light in the room and looked over to the nightstand to see it was currently nine in the morning. I pulled off the covers from over me and carefully pulled my arm out from under Aurora. She stirred for a moment and then cuddled one of the pillows on the bed in place of me.

I smiled and walked into the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror the first thing I noticed were the red marks on my right cheek from sleeping on the decorative pillows on the bed. Why do those things have beads on them? What the purpose of that?

I splashed some cold water on my face and took my my clothes to get into the shower.

_

I wiped the fog of the bathroom window with my hand and wrapped a white towel around my waist and used another to towel dry my hair.

I stepped back into my room and aurora was still sleeping soundly so I quietly went over to my suitcase and pulled out some boxers and a pair of sweatpants. I was just about to grab a tee shirt when there was a knock at the door

I slung my towel over my shoulder and went over the the door. I unlocked the latch and opened it

Standing on the other side was a girl I had never seen before. I short, tiny girl with light brown hair and eyes. She tilted her head up to look at my and furrowed her eyebrows

"Who are you?" She asked, she was definitely American

"Um, I think that's my line" I told her "who are you?"

"I'm Danielle" she said in a 'duh' tone "Auroras friend" she added when she realized I didn't know who she was

"Oh, yeah she's mentioned you" I said, Remembering aurora telling me about her best friend from back home, but I had never seen what she looked like

"I'm guessing you're Luke then?" She asked me, smiling a bit now

"Uh, yeah" I nodded awkwardly "how'd you know?"

"Well, how else would be in aurora's hotel room half naked?" She laughed and then I became aware that I was only in low rise gray sweats

"Oh, right" I laughed and shook my hand through my hair

"Can I come in?" She asked, peering around me and into the room

"Yeah, Aurora's still sleeping, but come on it" I said and then opened the door wider to let her in. I picked up the first shirt I saw and put it on

"Aurora" I shook my shoulder gently to wake her up

"Hm?" She hummed and rolled over, her eyes opening slightly

"Wake up sleeping beauty" I chuckled and brushed some hair from her face

"Seriously?" She groaned, sleep still raspy in her voice "you're really using that reference"

"Well it's good to know the princess jokes haven't stopped" Danielle said from behind me. Aurora shot up and sat Straight up on the bed

"Dani?" She asked, rubbing her eyes "what are you doing here?"

"I was going to see if you wanted to go out to breakfast" she said, sitting down on the edge of the bed "but I didn't know you'd have company " she chuckled

"I didn't even know he was coming" she told her. Getting up from the bed, wearing shorts and one of my tank tops "he surprised me last night" she smiled and it made me smile

"Well, I don't know about you guys but I am definitely up for some breakfast" I announced

"Yes! Let's go" aurora said "I'm starving"

"Alright" dani clapped her hands together, I grabbed our room key and my phone and put them in my pocket and we all went out the door

_

Once we had gone through the main section of the free breakfast they offered at the hotel, where they had the eggs, bacon, toast and stuff like that. We all decided to go to the make your own waffle bar.

"That's the worst waffle I've ever seen" aurora teased me, poking me in my side

"The batter poured out to quickly" I complained, pouting out my bottom lip. Battering was coming off the side of the waffle iron and not filled in enough in some spots

"You're the one that poured it" she giggled. Then her buzzer beeped, signaling that her waffle was done. She picked up a fork and took her waffle out and placed in on her plate

"I'll just put a lot of whip cream on mine so it won't look as bad" I shrugged. She put some on her and added some chocolate chips on top

"Probably a good idea" she laughed. My buzzed finally beeped and I was putting lots of stuff on my waffle.

"So what would you like to do today?" I asked her as we were walking back to our table, where Danielle was already sitting there eating her food

"We can just walk around the city" she suggested

"We could really stereotypical tourist" Dani said, as she stabbed some eggs with her fork

"Oh and go to the Empire State Building" Aurora chuckled and started cutting up her waffle

"Well I mean luke hasn't seen really any of the city, he'd be so obvious" Dani pointed to me

"Hey! I would not" I protested

"Babe, I think a six foot four guys standing in the middle of the street gawking at everything would be pretty obvious" Aurora patted me on the shoulder

"Basically asking to get mugged" Dani shook her head

"Wait" I said "that actually happens here" I thought that was just a cliche thing people say always happens in New York

Both of he girls in front of me shared a look and began to laugh, Danielle had to cover her mouth to keep food from flying out of her mouth and Aurora laughed so hard she snorted and then covered her mouth

Unfortunately the laughing was cut short when we heard a frantic voice coming towards us

"Aurora!" We heard her mothers voice traveling through the room. She rushed towards us, her heels clicking on the ground and her dad right behind his wife

"Mom?" Aurora questioned standing up from the table

"We've been looking for you everywhere" her father said to her, he looked equally as jumpy as his wife

"What's wrong?" Aurora asked, her voice shaking. Her hand grabbed for mine blindly, as she kept her eyes on her parents. Danielle's face looked like it was about to lose all color

"The jury has finished deliberating" Mrs. Smith told us "we have to get back to the courthouse"