Connecting the Dots (Shane Madej x OC)

7- Mexico City

My alarm chimes softly, loud enough to wake me up but hopefully not Devon, who's still asleep in the bed on the other side of the room. I quickly turn it off and climb out of bed, my exhaustion dulled by excitement.

Last night I made sure all my things were packed except for a change of clothes this morning, which I quickly slip into and toss my pajamas into my luggage. I rush into the bathroom to brush my teeth, fix my hair and put on a little bit of makeup so I don't look so much like a corpse. Then i step back into the room and pull on my shoes. There's a soft knock at the door, I glance over at Devon and see she's still asleep. Then I grab all my things and head to the door.

"Morning." Shane smiles at me as I pull it open,

"Morning." I whisper, still very aware how early it is.

"You ready to go?" He asks. I nod,

"Yeah one sec," I leave my luggage in the hall and do one final sweep of the room, grabbing my phone charger and backpack and then reuniting with Shane.

"Alright." I say, closing the door behind me and finally speaking at a more normal volume, though still hushed to not wake anyone else on our floor. We walk back to Shane and Ryan's room and head in.

"Checking outta San Jose." Ryan says, spinning a camera to face Shane and I. Shane grabs his luggage.

"Onward!" He says,

"Onward to uhhh Mexico." Ryan laughs lightly,

"Yeah why not." Shane says, Ryan laughs and cuts the camera.

—

We get to the airport with an hour or two to spare, and we spend it walking around the terminal and getting breakfast. The last time i was in an airport with Shane he was practically a stranger, now I'm heading off to hunt ghost with him...

Finally we hear our boarding call. We settle into our seats on the plane, Ryan next to the window, Shane in the middle and me in the aisle. The two pull out their personal cameras and vlog a little bit for the video. I sit on my phone next to them, occasionally snapping a video when they do something particularly dumb.The flight attendants start getting everything ready for take off and about 30 minutes later we're in the air on our way to Mexico City.

—
When we land the sky is dark and it's almost evening, we can see the lights of Mexico City through the windows of the plane.

We deplane and grab all our luggage and equipment and start out of the airport, passing under a sign telling us

" Bienvenidos a Mexico, Welcome to Mexico"

Shane pulls out his camera and records Ryan as we head to the exit.

"So we're here in Mexico, so that's pretty cool. Uh we don't have to go to our next horrible place until tomorrow so I think we're going to enjoy the city a little bit tonight!" Ryan says excitedly. Shane and I laugh and tote our items out of the airport, where we meet up with a driver who takes us to the hotel.

Once we're all settled in at the hotel I change into something a little nicer than the joggers and t-shirt I had been wearing and we get ready to go out into the city.

—

We sit at a table in an authentic Mexican restaurant chatting excitedly as we wait for our food.

"I swear to god if this isn't the best goddamn burrito I've ever had... I'll-ill fight somebody!" Shane says, Ryan and I laugh,

"Woah chill man!" Ryan replies, smiling,

"I will not chill. Mexican food is very important to me." Shane responds, I laugh, the waiter comes up with our food and passes it out.

"Gracias!" Ryan says, I try not to laugh at how much he sounds like a tourist. Before we eat we pull out a few vlogging cameras we brought along to catalog our night out and record the first few bites.

"I guess I won't be throwing hands tonight." Shane says, finishing off his food. We laugh, agreeing that the food was definitely delicious.

After dinner we decide to check out a bar down the street. We order some beers and sit down at the bar to enjoy ourselves. At some point Ryan gets up, I'm assuming to go to the bathroom, leaving me and Shane tipsy and alone at the bar. I say something stupid as Ryan walks away and Shane laughs, swaying as he does.

"cervezas dos por favor!" Shane says in a poor translation of "two beers please". I laugh, the bartender glances over at us, smiles and slides two more beers over.

"Gracias!" Shane says enthusiastically.

"your welcome!" The bartender says in perfect English, I laugh and Shane's jaw drops, he turns to me in drunken surprise.

"What?" I ask, he looks between me and the bartender, who is focused on other costumers by now.

"Did he just- he just spoke English right?" Shane asks, i furrow my eyebrows,

"No no he said De Nada, which means your wel-" i start, deciding to mess with Shane a little,

"I know I know but he didn't say de nada he said your welcome, in english!! Right?!" Shane asks, I break into laughter,

"Yes Shane, he spoke English I'm just kidding with you." I say,

"Oh thank god! I thought.. I don't know what I thought, I thought.."

"You thought you were a human google translate?" I ask, his eyes widen,

"Yeah!" He says, I laugh. Across from the bar I can see Ryan filming, he swings the camera to face a dog outside the bar. He must say something witty because the people around him laugh. I turn my attention back to Shane who's finishing off his beer.

"Jesus Christ!" I say, as he empties the bottle, "wait up!" I grab my beer and start to down it. Shane breaks into laughter.

—

Ryan, Shane and I walk down the streets of Mexico City, stupidly we had decided to walk back to our hotel. Ryan is talking about the history of the city, he always has some random facts on hand. All three of us are just past tipsy, and I stumble next to Shane. Occasionally I'll grab onto his arm for support or he'll lean his arm on my shoulder. We joke around and talk mindlessly, still finding it difficult to string together truly coherent thoughts.

After what feels like an eternity we make it to the hotel. The hotel room has one room with two queen beds and a small kitchenette, it's nice but I'm glad we'll only be spending two nights in it because it's a little bit cramped. We stand on the elevator, swaying side to side in a bit of a drunken stupor, struggle to use our key card for a moment, and finally stumble into our room.

We don't have to go to the island of dolls until the late afternoon tomorrow so I thoroughly plan on sleeping in.

"I'm gonna take a shower." I say, Ryan and Shane nod and I grab my bag off my bed before stepping into the bathroom.

It's nice to rinse off the dirt from the airport, and from the bar, and the walk home, and when I get out I feel slightly less tipsy and much more comfortable. I slip into a pair of pajama shorts and a t-shirt, brush my teeth and walk back into the bedroom to find Shane and Ryan asleep in one of the beds. I smile to myself, Ryan hadn't even changed, he'd just collapsed into the bed.

I slip into the empty queen bed a few feet across from them and fall asleep pretty quickly.