Polaroid (YumiKuri)

Chapter 14

1 Day Before

Christa's POV

"Do you always sleep this late?" I poked Ymir's neck for a fifth time. It was 4 in the afternoon.

"Not always this late, but give me a break. We were up pretty late these past few nights." she put her hand on my cheek as she rolled over. "Wanna do some sightseeing? We can go to Times Square. I hear it's beautiful at night." she said, sitting up.

"It's 4:12. I wouldn't exactly call that 'night'". she groaned loudly and fell back in our bed.

"If you would have said yes, I had a pick-up line already worked out. I practiced it in front of the mirror and everything." she groaned loudly.

"When did you have time to do that? You fell asleep in the car, and I carried you in here b-" she cut me off.

"For Pete's sake, just say yes and let me have my moment." she hit me in the gut with a pillow.

"Fine. Yes, your Majesty." I bowed, mockingly. She grabbed a pair of sunglasses out of her backpack and whipped them on.

"But it won't be as beautiful as you." she took off the sunglasses and smirked at me.

"Okay, that was really bad, I'm going to go get ready."

~~~

"Timmess Squuaree..." Ymir dragged on the destination for the third time to a non-English speaking taxi driver. He mumbled something in a language neither of us understood and started the taxi.

"Think we're going to the right place?" she nudged my arm with hers. The taxi driver waved his hand.

"Es sei para onde estamos indo, garota estupida." he said. I looked and Ymir and shrugged.

"No idea what that means." Ymir crossed her arms over her chest.

~~~

We did get to Times Square eventually. Traffic was really bad, plus Ymir might have made the poor guy stop so she could get Dunkin' Donuts. It was around 5:30 when we were actually getting out of the taxi.

"So, what do you think?" she put one hand on her hip and the other around me.

"It's tall and loud and everything smells like smoke." I paused. "Isn't it great?" she laughed at my sudden burst of happy.

"Okay, cutie. What should we see first?" she said, starting to pull me into the crowds. I reached into my purse and found my Polaroid camera.

"First, we need dorky tourist sweatshirts." she nodded and we headed for a gift shop. Ymir got a big white sweatshirt that said I LOVE NY and I got a tank top with the 'I heart New York' thing on it. We changed in the same stall of a public bathroom.

"Now what?" she asked. I couldn't help but notice that her hands were never completely out of the oversized sleeves. Sweater paws were adorable on Ymir.

"Lets go take a picture with that cop on a horse." she pointed at an overweight man sitting on an unfortunate horse. Ymir laid down on the street in front of the horse to pose, even though I told her how dirty it was. After I took the picture and she go up, her sweatshirt was covered in dirt.

"See? What did I tell you?" I brushed some dirt off of her face. She held my hand pressed to her cheek and guided my face to hers. We broke after a few seconds because someone catcalled and called attention to us.

"Should we go get dinner or something?" she asked, pulling me away from the small crowd that formed around us.

"Why leaving so soon?" one guy stepped forward and put his hand on Ymir's shoulder. His friends laughed and one of them whistled. Ymir rolled her shoulder, jerking his hand off her.

"Leave us alone, douche bag." she put her arm around my neck and tried to pull me away.

"Aw, come on, we're just messing around! No hard feelings?" another guy held out his hand to Ymir. I reached up and slapped it away from her.

"She said leave us alone." I grabbed her arm from around my neck and pulled her down the street. Fast.

"I'm sorry about that. People can be dicks." she said when we slowed down.

"I don't care about them. It's fine. We should get something to eat, though." I said, grabbing her hand.

"Yeah, we should." she added, laughing.

~~~

We found a sandwich place to get dinner in. Ymir and I split a burger.

"We'll need to leave at about 7 a.m tomorrow. Think you can be up that early?" I joked, poking Ymir with my fork.

"I will, I will. I don't want a repeat of two days ago." she shoved a fry in her mouth. I chose that exact moment to whip out the camera lens and take a picture on my Polaroid.

"Hey, what was that for?" she shoved more fries in her mouth.

"I don't know, just a photo of a cutie in her natural habitat." I started shaking the photo.

"Sure, but you do realize I'll have like five chins in that picture, right?" she managed to eat even more fries. "

"Wanna try again?" I held the camera up to focus on her. Ymir looked at the camera and smiled. The photo printed out of the camera and I put in face-down on the table. She reached for it, but I slapped her hand away.

"Aren't you going to shake it?" she asked.

"Shaking it only makes it process faster. After we eat, it'll be like a big reveal of how beautiful you really are." she rolled her eyes and took a bite of her burger.

~~~

After we finished eating, I flipped over the Polaroid picture. Ymir was smiling, with the glare of a Forever 21 ad behind her. I couldn't care less; she was more beautiful than any model I've ever seen. Her smile could shine brighter than any building in this city.

I wish that smile didn't leave.