~DIVERGENT~ Paradise

Day 1

"Excited! I'm so excited!" Christina yells as we make our way onto the train platform. "Two weeks of fun and sun and relaxation."
"I'm holding you to that relaxation bit."
"You're not sticking your nose in a book the entire time, Tris. We're going to have fun, and you're going to enjoy it. That's an order!"
I laugh. "Okay, okay. But I still get some book time, you promised."
She rolls her eyes but quickly forgets everything when she starts jumping up and down as the train approaches.
It's a little over an hour train ride down near the coast, where we'll grab a cab and head to port. The boat doesn't leave for three hours, but we wanted to get checked in early and poke around the city for a little bit.
After we check in, we're given special wristbands that we have to wear the whole trip. They give us access to every area of the ship, as well as comp us all of our food and drink. Mine is plain white and Christina's is white with black stripes, signifying that she's over twenty-one.
With an hour to spare, Christina wastes no time finding a cute little boutique on the boardwalk. We goof around, trying on pairs of sunglasses that cover half of our faces, and giant, floppy sun hats that touch our shoulders. Christina is determined to document every moment of this trip, so we take a zillion pictures too. Serious faces. Silly faces. Duck faces. Normally I wouldn't let her go this crazy, but this is supposed to be a fun vacation, so I let my guard down a little and oblige her wishes.
We each buy a hat and a pair of glasses, so the woman working behind the counter stops giving us dirty looks, and head out to board the ship.
"Do you think they'll notice I'm not staying in my room?" I ask as we push our way through the throngs of tourists who are boarding too.
"What do they care where you sleep? It's not like they were willing to accommodate your situation. And what are you going to do? Stay in the room
with him?"
"Nope. And let's not mention it again."
"Deal. One question though. What are you going to do if you run into him? It's bound to happen. We're confined to this ship for most of the cruise."
"The same thing I've been doing all these months. Ignore him."
"Good girl," Christina says as she flings her door open.
"Well, this looks nothing like the brochure," she says as she drags her things in. She's right. We are supposed to have a queen sized bed, and this thing looks like it's barely over a twin, our 'window' is a slightly larger porthole, that doesn't open, and there is a questionable stain on the carpet.
"I guess this is a case of, you get what you pay for. No matter!" she exclaims loudly. "It's not like we're going to be in here much!" She's right, but it still sucks. I hope this is no indication of how the rest of the trip is going to go.
"Hey. Let's go up the the deck and wave at all the people like they do in the movies!"
"Do they actually do that?" I ask, unsure if that's a real thing or not.
"Who cares! We can pretend!"
She giggles and takes off running, and I follow.
When we reach the deck, there are crew members handing out small boxes to everyone.
"I knew it!" Christina says as she opens her. It's filled with some streamers and confetti. "This is going to be so cool."
We find a spot and wait patiently for the ship to blow it's horn, indicating the official start of our cruise. I have to admit, this is pretty exciting. I look at the people surrounding us and see the happiness in their faces. Couples kissing, families with small children, older couples enjoying their time with each other; all of them smiling. I try my best to not ruin this moment by thinking about my own situation.
As I look from person to person, taking in small pieces of their happiness, a pair of deep blue eyes catches me off guard. As soon as I see them, they're gone, but the intensity I felt in those few seconds makes me curious. I stand on my tip-toes and look left and right around the people near me, but I don't find them again, so I shrug it off and turn my attention to the people waving goodbye to us from the boardwalk as the horn sounds.
Christina and I toss our streamers out into the ocean, and ask the couple next to us to take a few pictures as we sprinkle confetti all around. We laugh and hug each other, and as the ship is slowly tugged away from it's dock, I decide that it's time; no more dwelling on the past. The next two weeks are going to be spent finding out who I really am.

"First things first, get that cute butt of yours into a swimsuit and lets find a place to relax by one of the pools," Christina says as soon as we get back to our room.
"I'm not going to argue with that."
I dig through my suitcase and take out one of the suits Christina picked up for me. It's black, with a distressed sort of filagree pattern all over. I slip it on quickly and throw the tunic on too.
"You know, I didn't buy that for you so your could wear it the whole time. Besides, that suit paired with your tattoo? It makes you look like a bad ass. You should own that."
I reach down and run a finger over the three ravens in flight on my collarbone. "You really think so?" I ask.
"I do. That's why I picked that suit. Sort of a bad ass secret biker chick vibe."
"Chris, I am about as far from 'bad ass biker chick' as you can get. Besides, I'm only wearing it to the pool."
"I knew if I worked hard enough, I'd get you out of that shell of yours."
"Hey now. I can just as easily keep it on," I tease. Christina throws a towel at me, and I scoop it, and my book, up and run out the door.
We find a spot that isn't too crowded and settle in. I order a virgin strawberry daiquiri, but Christina orders herself a beer and a margarita.
"Two drinks?" I ask.
"Shh. One's for us to 'share'." She wiggles an eyebrow and I smile.
I spend most of the afternoon alternating between reading, napping, and taking a quick swim to cool off. Christina is fairly buzzed, but I only took a few sips of the margarita she ordered us.
We decide to hit the buffet for dinner. We each grab two plates and pile a little bit of everything on them.
"We look like pigs," Christina says as she shovels mashed potatoes in her mouth.
"I think that's just you," I say with a wink.
"Hey!"
There's a stage for entertainment, and we watch as two guys, who are wearing hardly any clothing, come out and start doing all these crazy tricks with fire.
"Oh, my," Christina says, completely ignoring her food now. "Time for some dessert."
"Ew Chris, gross."
"What? A little eye candy is a good way to top off the day." I blush a little, but she's not wrong. Both of them are very tan, and very muscular. And their outfits don't exactly leave much to the imagination. "I wonder if this wristband gives me full access to them," she says as she tugs at her wrist.
"Christina!"
"What? A girl can dream."
Sometimes I envy Christina's lack of, well, anything. She always speaks her mind, she's never shy about anything, and she always goes after what she wants. I keep up with her well enough, but sometimes it's hard. My upbringing was more reserved than hers, and breaking out of those old habits takes time. I don't mind though. She's actually been a good influence on me, and I'll never forget her face when Isuggested we get tattoos.
Everyone needs a way to express themselves.
After the 'eye candy' leaves the stage, a cheesy, in house cover band comes on. "Okay," Christina says, "Desserts over. We can go."
We shower and change and try our best to get comfy on our cramped bed.
"I'm so sorry, Chris. I can get an extra blanket and sleep on the floor and-"
"Like hell you are! You think I'm going to let you sleep where someone was probably murdered?" she says, pointing to the questionable stain.
"Ugh. Thanks for that image."
"Sorry. I know it didn't happen, but you would think they could at least replace that section of the carpet or put down a rug."
Instead we prop our pillows and make the best of the situation. I flip through the movie channels on the little TV and laugh.
"Titanic Tris?" Christina says. "Jesus. This ship is going to kill us, isn't it? Whatever. I'm ordering room service. If I'm going to die, it's at least going to be full of junk food."
The two of us eat our room service ice cream in bed and cry at the end of the movie, as usual, before finally passing out from pure exhaustion.

Thanks for reading!
Be brave,

Christina🔥