Away from the North

Chapter 10

"How do I look?" Jul asks from his side of the room. I look over and see him walking out from the bathroom and over to his bed. I give him a thumbs up and he smiles.
I grab my dress and shows before walking into the bathroom and turning the shower on. I set my dress on the counter and throw my dirty clothes in the hamper.
I step into the shower and wash my hair with some shampoo and conditioner that I bought the others day. I wash my body and get out, the bathroom smelling like strawberries. I slip on my dress and brush out my hair, french braiding it.
I walk out of the bathroom and slip on my blue flats. Dali barges into the room with her red dress and high heels on and walks over to Jul. He gets up and spins her around before stringer back on her feet. I shake my head and get up, leaving the room so that they can have some privacy.
I sit down on the couch and wait for everyone to walk out so we can leave. Lilac walks out in her white flowy dress and strap sandals. She sits down next to me and we wait for Dali and Jul to get out of the room. Lilac checks her phone and sighs.
"Come on lovebirds! We have somewhere to be and I don't think they'd appreciate it very much of we are late!" I yell. They come out of the room, Dali fixing her hair and Jul proudly smirking.
I shake my head an stand up, walking outside and standing by the car. Lilac unlocks it and I open the door, sliding into the passenger's seat. They like into the car and we start the three hour drive to the government building. We have an ice chest strapped in one of the seats with snacks and drinks.
"I spy something red," Jul says from the backseat. Everyone in the car guesses stuff outside and in the car. I thought it was Dali's dress but it turns out it wasn't.
"Your face when Dali flirts with you?" I suggest. Lilac snorts from beside me and even Dali is trying to hold in a laugh. I look back at Jul and see he has a completely straight face.
"Wait, I got it right?" I ask astonished. He nods and Lilac and Dali start laughing even harder. We play I Spy for a while longer before we get bored. I turn on the radio and we listen to some music while talking about the government building we are going to.
We stop at a town and get out of the car, walking into a fast food restaurant. We order and sit down at one of the booths, waiting for our food to come.
An older man comes over to our table and starts hitting on Lilac. I flare at him and she looks extremely uncomfortable but he doesn't back off. I wrap my arms around her shoulder and kiss her on the head.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't hit on my girlfriend," I growl. He stares wide eyed and then backs off cussing us out. I take my arm off her shoulder and try to get up but Jul pulls me back down.
"We are going to a government building. I doubt it would be a good idea to walk in there with a black eye," he says. I nod and sit back down. Lilac smiles at me gratefully and I pay her shoulder.
" So you two are girlfriends? " Dali asks. I look at Lilac and she just shrugs. I wouldn't be opposed to being her girlfriend, but we never really talked about it.
"We'll get back to you on that," I tell her as a waiter puts our food down on the table. I eat my food, offering some of my fries to Lilac, who takes them. Jul steals a bunch of my plate even though he has his own and Dali steals off of his plate.
We finish our food and walk back to the car, seeing the old man standing by another one. We quickly get in and drive away, seeing the old man staring at us creepily until Lilac turns a corner.
"Well he's a creep," Dali says. I nod and we keep driving the hour we have left. There are long bouts of silence, everyone nervous about going and talking to the government people. Lilac drives over a bridge and then we're in a huge city.
There are malls and stores everywhere, many people walking around on the streets to get to them. The traffic is horrible and Lilac takes the time that we're stuck in traffic to put the location of the building in her car's GPS.
We get out of the traffic and off the highway. She drives through some roads and finally we arrive at a building. We still have half an hour before we need to sign in and do checks so we sit in the car and play scrabble.
Dali hands everyone some gum and we chew it. I sit back against my seat and make another word to put on the board. The music from the car is playing softly in the background as we play the game.
Jul tries to insist that can't is a word but you aren't allowed to use contractions in the game. He groans and puts his letters back, trying to make a new word.
Dali's phone chimes and we look to see who won. Lilac won by five points to me and Dali and Jul both lost with the same score. We put the game away quickly and Lilac turns off the car.
We get out and walk up to the building. It looms over the street, at least twenty stories high. We walk up to the doors and a security guard open a them for us. Here goes nothing.
We walk into the building together.