Falling into Hope [GxG]

Chapter 16

The sun filtered in perfectly illuminating Hope's face. Her full rosy lips slightly parted, each freckle seemed to glow, and her long thick eyelashes highlighted. She looks like an angel. Then again, I honestly believe she could be one.

"Are you going to stare at me all morning?" I felt slightly embarrassed, but I just covered it up with a smile.

"I just might." She turned her face into the pillow, and I could hear a muffled giggle. She rolled her face back out to face me and had a smile that was radiating pure happiness.

"Are you ready?" I couldn't stop myself from getting lost in her eyes. All the varying shades of green mixed into one; they just leave me in a trance every time. I couldn't find my words at that moment, so all I did was smile and nod my head yes.

"I'm glad they pushed our flight back because waking up at four in the morning would not have been fun." I hummed.

"You've got that right. We need to hurry up though it's eight and our plane boards at noon." She popped up with excitement skipping her way to the bathroom to get ready.

It didn't take us long to get dressed and head out the door. We had already packed up the car with our luggage the night before in hopes of having a few more minutes of sleep.

"Alright, you two get in the back so we can get to the airport." Hope and I looked at each other with big smiles and scrambled towards the car. My parents, Hope, and I carried on some small talk on the way to the airport, but for the most part, Hope and I just sang lyrics at the top of our lungs and danced like a couple of fools.

"Alright, we're here. Hope your parents are somewhere... Oh, they are!" My mom said, pointing towards Hope's parents. They engulfed Hope into a hug, then one by one made their way around to all of us. They stepped back and looked at Hope and me.

"Call me if anything, and I mean anything happens." Hope just had this glow of happiness all around her as she smiled.

"I know. Now you both come here and hug me before I go." They both looked at her and smiled, but it didn't reach their eyes. You could tell that they were scared. I get that because they have always kept Hope on a tight leash. They pulled apart, and Hope looked at me with her hand outstretched. I smiled and grabbed it while using my other hand to grab the handle of my suitcase. Her parents stopped me, and her mom brought me into another hug.

"Please take care of our baby girl." She whispered into my ear. I smiled and looked at her.

"Always. Alright, we love you all. See you in a week." I turned back towards Hope and took her hand in mine.

Checking in our bags didn't take long since we only had one small one apiece. We didn't see a point in packing a lot, seeing as we were going to spend a lot of time hiking and staying in youth hostels. We decided to start in Amsterdam, make our way to Belgium, then Germany, spend a night in Switzerland, and finish up in Italy.

We got through TSA quickly; thankfully, the lines weren't long at all. Right now, we are boarding our flight. I'm thankful that my parents travel a lot for work so that we can have first-class seating. This flight is going to be like thirteen-fifteen hours.

"You ready?" I asked Hope as we got told we were cleared for take-off. She smiled, but I could see how nervous she was just by looking into her eyes. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it lightly.

"I'm right here. I know it's your first time flying, but I know you're going to love it." Her smile started to reach her eyes now. She turned and looked out of the window, still holding my hand tightly as the plane started to speed its way up down the runway.

Soon I felt that weightless feeling in my stomach, I always felt when the plane first came off the ground. I heard Hope gasp, and I lightly chuckled. I look over, and I find her staring in awe out the window.

"I told you that you'd like it." She turned back to me with a huge beaming smile. She brought me to her and kissed my cheek.

"This is so amazing. Thank you for taking me." I just smiled, fighting heat, trying to make its way up my neck to my cheeks, trying desperately to make them blush.

"Thank you for coming with me." She just gave me another kiss on the cheek and diverted her attention to looking out the window once more. She never let go of my hand, and I was content with it staying that way.

It took us a few hours to arrive at our one and only layover of the trip before being on our final leg to Amsterdam. It wasn't a long layover, which is to my liking. I don't like them really short where you are running to the next terminal, but I don't particularly appreciate it when I have to wait over an hour.

Hope was already used to the routine now. We boarded the plane, and she made sure to take the window seat just like last time. I smiled at how giddy and excited she was for the long flight. Soon we were off again hand-in-hand. I just leaned my seat back and made myself comfortable enough to go to sleep. The warmth of her hand radiating warmth throughout all of me made me feel safe; I smiled, drifting off into a rare welcomed sleep.

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"Wake up, sleepyhead. We're here!" Hope excitedly yelled. Maybe she didn't yell, but seeing as I had just woke up, it seemed that way. I just smiled and pushed my tired limbs up from the seat. I stretched and felt every vertebra in my back pop. That felt amazing. I took a deep breath, got our bags from the overhead bin, and then we just stood there waiting to get off the plane.

We didn't wait too much longer to get off the plane; being in front definitely has its perks. Once we had all of our luggage, we caught a cab outside to the youth hostel we were staying at. We picked a youth hostel not too far from the airport, so we arrived in about twenty minutes.

The youth hostel was big and made of brick. It had a tram stop outside, a bar/restaurant inside, and a cinema inside as well. There was no way we would be bored for the next twenty-four hours.

Once we got to our room, we sat our stuff down and grabbed our backpacks.

"What do you want to do first?" I asked, looking over to Hope.

"I don't know about you, but I am starving." As if on cue, my stomach growled.

"I'll take that as a yes. I heard there's a really nice restaurant right down the street. Then we can adventure, sound good?" Hope looked over at smiling that million-dollar smile.

"Definitely, let's go!" She grabbed my hand and led me out the door locking up before we made our way downstairs.