Page 24 of My Kind of Trouble
‘Was it just me who went overboard last night or what? You look fresh as a daisy, and I don’t know whether to hate you for it or to hate myself.’
Lola laughed as she lunged forward, ripping Noa’s tattered bed sheet off of her. The movement felt, to Noa, like her brain bounced against her skull and she couldn’t help her wince.
‘I just hide it well. After seven months travelling, you learn two things: one, that alternating every drink with water is a must, and two, that rotting in dingy hostel dorms does nothing but make a hangover worse. Get your game face on, missus. We have plans for today if you remember and we have to get breakfast.’
Noa groaned overdramatically, which only made Lola laugh more, spurring her on as she bounced excitedly off her bed.
Lola headed toward the shared bathroom with her toiletries to get changed, pausing to turn around and wink in Noa’s direction, ‘You never know, maybe Mr McHotty will be down there after all.’
Noa plastered a confused look across her face.
‘Who?’
‘Alex, duh. Girl that man isfiiiiine. I think I got pregnant just from looking at him last night. You may have made it clear that you don’t want him, but who said I didn’t.’
She sauntered into the bathroom with a swing of her hips and Noa fell back onto the bed, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach that Lola’s words gave her. Lying there and closing her eyes, she let the darkness take her again.
Ryan:
Hey, have you landed?
Ok I know you’ve landed because Alex let me know you are both still in 1 piece. So maybe just ignoring me then?
I’ll take that as a yes. On a scale of one to that time I got drunk and vomited on mum’s new shoes and blamed it on you, how mad are you?
Noa:
More like that time you and Alex toilet-papered my college boyfriend’s new car (his pride and joy by the way) so he broke up with me just so he didn’t have to put up with you anymore. So yeah, not ready to talk yet.
Ryan:
Ok that’s worse. But he was a tool, and I definitely did you a favour.
Noa:
Seriously? That’s where you’re going with this?
Ryan:
Right, not the point. I get it. I’m sorry! If it helps, Mum and Tes have bothbeen chewing my ear off about it since you left.
That put a smile on Noa’s face as she put her phone away, deciding to let Ryan stew in his own decisions a little longer. He could grovel for being such an overbearing ass.
Right now, though, she didn’t want to think about it. She could barely think about putting one foot in front of the other as she dragged herself out of their room. Her head had only just stopped spinning after last night’s escapades, and she was inwardly cursing herself as she shuffled along the corridor, groaning as she went.
After Noa fell back to sleep, Lola had practically hauled her out of bed and shoved her into the bathroom to get ready. Now, the two of them were making their way into the hostel reception for breakfast. It may have been late morning, but it had felt like the early hours, and she knew that both the hangover and jet lag were kicking her ass.
As they approached a long sharing table where the girls from their dorm and a few other new friends from last night sat, Noa’s stomach let out a roar of protest and she flushed. Maybe it had been a good idea to come down here after all.
She inhaled her entire omelette faster than you could even say the word, then stepped out of the hostel, straight onto the busy streets of Bangkok. Thea, Lola, and Hattie had all invited her to spend the day with them and she felt giddy at the thought of having made new friends so early in her trip.
Carly and Bridget were headed to the airport this morning, having completed their month of travelling. It was a bittersweet feeling to have met such lovely people knowing she likely wouldn’t see them again. They’d both been from the US, so exchanging social media accounts would likely be as far as their friendship bloomed. Such was the life when travelling, she guessed. She should probably get used to it.
As Noa stood on the hostel doorstep, everything that surrounded her felt like an attack on her senses. She didn’t know what to focus on first. Her skin was damp with sweat from the permanent moisture that seemed to linger in the air in Bangkok. The humidity was stifling.
The streets were loud, bright, and busy. Shop signs blinked all around them, turning the street into a tapestry of colours that made the streets back in England look drab in comparison. It was overwhelming trying to take it all in and catalogue every detail. She didn’t want to miss a thing.
They rounded the side of the hostel, aiming for a side street that one of the breakfast servers had told them would lead to a tuk-tuk hire shop. Despite the permanent blaring of horns, Noa almost jumped out her skin when a moped got too close for comfort and honked for her to move out of the way even though she was on the pavement. Her hand flew to her chest like she could calm her racing heart, and she scowled in the direction that the driver went. Lola and Hattie both chuckled.
