The Paris Trip

As the plane descended, I held my breath waiting for the anticipated bump which signaled the plane touching the ground. I sighed with relief as the plane finally landed.
“You okay, Casey?” I heard Liam’s voice next to me.
“Yep, I’m fine.” I managed to open my eyes and smile.
“THANK YOU FOR TRAVELING WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES, HAVE A GREAT TRIP.” The intercom blared once again.
“Ouch…” Liam chuckled.
“I know what you mean.” I smiled as everyone stood up and proceeded to take out their luggage from the overhead compartments.
“Well, let me get your backpack for you.” Liam got up and stood over me. He opened the compartment just a foot above my head. He reached in trying to get my backpack from the back. I could see his muscular arms flexing. His shirt hiked up a little and at that point I was biting my lips so hard I felt they were bleeding.
“Here you go.” He handed me my backpack, smiling.
“Thanks,” I smiled back, looking for my Paris Group. Leah waved me over with a huge grin on her face.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Liam and made my way to where she was.
“Guess who just talked to me?” She practically screamed in my ear.
“Holy crap? Are you trying to make me deaf?” I giggled.
“Niall, he said he talked to you yesterday and you said that I would love to go out with him sometime!” She hugged me tightly. “Thank you! I love you, you know that, right?” She squeezed my hand.
“Yes,” I smiled.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She said still squeezing my hand tightly.
“Um, Leah. Honey, you’re gonna snap my fingers off…” I said softly.
“Oh! Sorry!” She released my fingers that were now numb.
“Thanks…” I hugged her. “I’ll tell you all about the flight later, okay? I have to say goodbye to Liam real quick.” She nodded in response and winked.
“Liam!” I called as I made my way back to him.
“Casey, I was just about to look for you.” He looked around at the somewhat crowded flight cabin.
“Yeah, I’m sorry Leah needed me.” I looked down at the ground not knowing what to do.
“Thanks, for everything, Casey Lucinda Wilmington.” He smirked.
“Thank you for everything as well, Liam James Payne.” I responded with a grin. I didn’t know what to say to him. How do I tell him that meeting him was a dream of mine? How do I tell him that I was in love with him even before I met him? How do I tell him that I wish that we didn’t have to part ways? That’s the thing, I couldn’t.

“I’ll talk to you?” He had a painful look on his face.
“Yeah,” I looked at the ground, then back at his face. I tried to contain my emotions. Liam was part of the biggest boy band in the world. How would he have time for a small town girl who he met on a plane? For all I knew, he probably didn’t feel the same way about me. Maybe to him I was just another girl in the sea of fangirls.
“Okay, well I guess this is bye for now.” He wrapped his warm arms around me. I buried my head in the crook of his neck. I held onto him tightly, I never wanted to let go of him. I could smell his cologne on the base of his neck, which made it even harder. I sighed as I pulled back.
“Bye, Liam.” I said before I turned around and walked towards my Paris Group and found Leah who was waiting for me. I could feel his eyes on me; I turned around one last time and gave him a small smile and wave.
“You okay?” Leah shook my arm.
“Yeah, I guess.” I followed her and the rest of the group as we made our way out of the terminal.
“Bienvenue à Paris, classe!” Ms. Fleur’s unmistakably shrill voice pierced our ears.
“Sitting next to her was Hell.” Leah muttered under her breath to me. I patted her shoulder, and followed Ms. Fleur. After 45 minutes of going through baggage claim we finally made it out of the airport.
“Everyone, we are going to hotel and taking in the views a little bit on the way! Allons-y!” Ms. Fleur motioned us into cabs. There were five cabs; Leah and I took the second one. We put our stuff in the trunk and hoped into the backseats.
“So, tell me about it!” Leah turned to face me.
“Well,” I smiled just thinking about the flight.
“Well…” Leah repeated, looking at me wide-eyed.
“Well, I’ll start from the beginning, okay?” I said. Leah nodded eagerly. So, I told her everything from how I met him to the goodbye. I told her about his hilarious Loki impressions, which I still managed to laugh at. I told her about the next morning and our run-in to the bathroom; I even told her about the “cream cheese” incident. Leah hung on to every word and reacted by gasping and clapping at the right moments. When I finally finished, her jaw dropped, a clear expression of shock.
“Why, didn’t you just grab his face and kiss him? It’s what I would have done if I were you!” Her hands were dragging down her face.
“Well, I thought that would have been too demanding and just straight up awkward.” I giggled.
“By the looks of it, he seems to be really into you!” Leah slapped my arm playfully.
“I don’t know…” I shrugged. “How about you and Niall?” It was my turn to face her and convince her to “dish”.
Leah giggled and blushed. It was probably one of the first times I’ve seen Leah blush. Don’t get me wrong, we’re best friends and all but I’ve never seen Leah so shy before. She was always a tad bit more confident than me. At the end of the day, we both were good students, we both were quite shy, and we both supported each other.
“He’s so sweet in person! He told me that he would love to meet up somewhere and chat!” Leah was flustered; she was biting her nails and staring into her lap.
“Leah, that’s great! He seems very sweet! I think he really likes you!” I hugged her.
“I just don’t know if he’ll like me. Once he gets to know me, I’m afraid he won’t like me.”
“Leah! That’s insane! Any guy would be crazy not to like you! You’re just being insecure! Come on!” I leaned onto her.
“Yeah, I suppose. Thanks, Casey.” She hugged me. “And, Casey, it’s Paris. It’s a city full of possibilities!” She grinned.
I laughed and answered, “I suppose.”
****
We finally went to our hotel, Hotel Paris France; we got our rooms and our roommates and hurried upstairs. The hotel was pretty fancy, not to mention it was spacious and elegant. Leah and I along with another girl were in one room. Leah and I managed to get a bed to ourselves. We both squealed as we set our bags at the door and ran inside. Leah and I collapsed on top of our bed.
“This room is insane!” Leah got up and looked around. “Oh! Fridge!” She immediately ran up to the silver mini fridge. She swung the door open and looked through all the snacks. “12 euros for a pound cake?” She looked at the plastic card above the fridge that labeled the prices of all the items inside. “Hell no!” She exclaimed as she slammed the door shut.
“Ms. Fleur said we should be leaving at quarter till 6. We’re supposed to wear something comfortable because we’re seeing the Champs-Élysées and we’re going to have to walk parts of it. We’re supposed to freshen up as well!” Ashley, our other roommate said.
“Honestly, I could care less about what Ms. Fleur said. She snores loudly!” Leah said with a disgusted look on her face. I couldn’t help but giggle. But, Ashley didn’t find it funny at all. She was a serious girl; I don’t think I’ve ever seen her laugh before.
“Well, you better do what Ms. Fleur says, she’s the expert when it comes to Paris.” Ashley flipped her hair and made her way to the bathroom and closed the door with a loud bang.
“What the hell is her problem?” Leah asked, dragging her suitcase to the side of the bed and unzipping it.
“Don’t know. She seems really tense all the time.” I shrugged.
At 5:40 we made our way downstairs where the whole Paris group was waiting. I had a small backpack packed with essentials. We were waiting for a few more students to join when I felt my phone vibrate inside my pocket. I reached inside of my pocket and slide my phone out. I gasped as I looked at the message. It was a number that I hadn’t seen before. It said:

Hey Casey! It’s Niall! I grabbed Liam’s phone and looked up your number. Hope ya don’t mind :P He doesn’t know that I had his phone haha. I just wanted to tell you that Liam’s been acting really different since we got off the plane. He’s been distant… can we all meet up? Bring Leah too? Xx

What did he mean by Liam acting distant? I definitely wanted to go. I would take hanging out with Niall and Liam over Ms. Fleur taking us around Paris and lecturing us about French History with her annoying voice.
I immediately called Leah over and let her read the message. She squealed with excitement.
“We are going, right?” She stopped jumping up and down for my answer.
“I was going to tell them that it’s going to be difficult. Ms. Fleur said that if we broke any rules on this trip we would be on the first flight home!” I said, conflicted.
“I want to go though! Please?” Leah begged.
“Leah, it’s going to be-“
“PLEASE?!” She interrupted and got on her knees. Many people stared at us and started pointing.
“Leah, please! People are staring.” She grabbed my legs and continued to beg. “Leah! Please! Le- OKAY!” I said, finally giving in.
“Thank you!” Leah got up and hugged me tightly. “We won’t get caught! I hope…” She added.
“Really reassuring!” I said sarcastically. I unlocked my phone and replied to Niall’s text saying:

Hey, Niall! It’s going to be kinda difficult. Our teacher is kind of strict but Leah and I will try to make it! How about we’ll tell you where to meet us? Thanks! ;) –Casey

His reply came within seconds, it said:

Sure! Great! Tell Leah that I can’t wait! Xx ;) -Niall

I chuckled as I read it. I passed my phone over Leah. Her face lit up as she read the message.
“Come on now! We will be going to Champs-Élysées! Then we will have dinner at Café Victoria! No one wonder alone! Alright now, let’s go!” Ms. Fleur motioned for us to get into the cabs.
“Psst! Casey!” Leah nudged me. “I’ve got an idea. Text Niall and Liam to meet us tonight! That too, at Café Victoria.” She grinned.
“Have you lost your mind?! We’ll be at the restaurant with the rest of the Paris group, including Ms. Fleur! She’ll catch us!” I exclaimed.
“I know that everyone will be there. But, Liam and Niall can book seats on the other side of the restaurant so that we can sit with them and Ms. Fleur won’t see!”
“Leah, she’ll know that we’ll be missing from the table. She’ll go looking for us!” I rubbed my head.
“There are 16 other people on this trip. Ms. Fleur will be too distracted to notice. If she does notice by any chance we can have a backup and say that one of us wasn’t feeling well and the other was helping. It’s not like she’s going to break down the bathroom stall and make sure we’re in there. Also, I heard things from the people who went on the trip last year. They said that she actually drank a few glasses of wine and that she was a little out of it. Technically, she’s not suppose to be drinking on a school trip but that didn’t stop her from sneaking a few glasses.” Leah finished.
“I actually think that could work. It’s not like we’re leaving the restaurant or anything…” I tapped my chin. It actually could work! “Okay, I’m in!” I smiled at her.
“Yay!” She squeaked. I quickly texted Niall the plan; he responded after a few minutes and confirmed it.
Oh Paris, je t’aime… <3

Notes