Chapter 16 - Luke

She looked so peaceful. Alexia was sleeping, her hair falling on her face. She looked so cute I resisted the urge to tuck her hair behind her ear.

I finished my movie. When I was done, I decided to take a nap too. I asked a member of the crew to prepare my bed, then changed, lied down, and closed my eyes.

When I woke up, Alexia was reading. She didn't notice that I was awake yet. I got up and yawned.

"Good morning," I said.

"Good morning," she answered as she put her book down.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"It's eight in the evening in Los Angeles, and it's five in the morning in Munich," she answered.

I looked at her. She was already in her normal clothes, her hair tied back in a bun. Her seat was also back to chair-mode, not bed-mode. I wondered how much I had slept.

"I'll go change," I told her.

She nodded, and I went to the bathroom. I changed, washed my teeth, combed my hair, and put some cologne on. There wasn't a shower on board, and I didn't want to smell like a bag of dirty laundry.

I went back to my seat. I passed in front of my mother, who was still sleeping.

"How'd you sleep?" I asked Alexia.

"Amazingly," she said, smiling. "But this is too much for me. I'm used to simple things."

"Well, everyone deserves a break, right?"

She shrugged. "I guess."

I looked around. "Oh, hey. Breakfast is here."

Alexia frowned. "Already? It's five in the morning!"

"I don't know, but I'm hungry," I said.

Alexia laughed. I took a quick look at my menu then ordered a smoothie, some scrambled eggs, and a green tea. Alexia ordered the same thing, and when the food arrived we ate in silence. Alexia held her book open with one hand, as she ate her eggs with the other. I found it funny how multitasking she was.

"So," I said after breakfast. "What do you want to do now?"

She looked at her watch. "We have about two hours left."

"I have some card games if you'd like," I said.

She closed her book and smiled. "Sure."

I opened my ottoman and took out my bag. Inside were two boxes: Uno and just a normal set of cards. I showed them to Alexia and told her to choose. She chose Uno.

It was fun: we laughed, we joked and Alexia was also a pretty good player, so she was a tough contestant to beat. We lost track of time.

Sooner than I'd expected, the captain spoke through the intercom, "Ladies and Gentlemen, as we start our descent, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Make sure your seat belt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins. Thank you."

We put away our cards and got ready for landing. Soon, I could feel the plane descending. I looked over to Alexia. She had her eyes closed and was holding her belly with both arms. I wanted to console her, but I didn't know how.

Then, thirty minutes later, we were on the ground. Alexia looked relieved.

Only one flight to Italy left.

"This way." My mom guided Alexia and me through the airport. In the end, we found the right Gate, and we sat down. I won't go into the details, but the second flight was pretty much like the first. We weren't in first class this time, but it was all the same to me.

An hour and a half later, we were in Italy, Milan. We took a cab to a car rental, where Mom rented a white Toyota. We then drove for an hour. Alexia was in the back seat, while I was in front. It was eight in the morning, but it was still a little dark outside.

Finally, we arrived. We got out of the car and walked into the hotel.

"So Alexia, how do you want to do this?" I asked.

"What?" I could tell she was tired. I doubted she even heard the question. But I could understand: the first time I came to Europe, I slept a whole day after the flight.

"How do you want to do this?" I repeated. "There are two rooms. One has one bed, and the other has two. We're trying to choose who sleeps in which room."

She thought for a moment, but my mom saved her from answering

"Why don't you two share a room? It'll be fun! Plus, I don't think Luke will want to stay with his mother." She glared at me. "Right?"

I gave her a look. Then I nodded.

"Then it's settled!" Julia exclaimed. She handed us our room keys as we headed upstairs. Our rooms were right next to each other.

"Now, I know you're all tired, but we should stay awake as much as possible to avoid too much jet lag," Julia said. "So let's do this. We sleep for two hours and only two hours, then we get back up and go visit the city."

I groaned, but my mom just ignored me. "Sleep well!" she said, then closed the door behind her.

Alexia and I looked at each other. I gave her a weird grin, then put my key into the door lock and opened the door. "After you," I said. She smiled and walked in, me right behind her. The room wasn't that big: two separate queen beds (luckily), a desk, and a bathroom. There was also a small fridge and a TV. It wasn't the best, but it was the best we could find.

"Which bed would you like?" Alexia asked me.

"Oh, I don't mind. Choose whichever you'd like."

"Oh," she said. "Okay, thanks. I'll take the one near the window, then."

"Yeah, sure." Phew. I was actually hoping she would want the one closed to the window. I don't like having cold air blasting onto my face as I sleep.

Alexia walked over to her bed, plopped her bags on the floor, and made herself fall onto the mattress with a big sigh.

"Aaaaah! This bed is amazing!" she said happily.

I followed her example and lay on the bed. Wow, these beds really were comfortable. These Swiss people sure knew how to sleep properly.

"I'm not even going to change," Alexia announced. "Goodnight."

I laughed and agreed with her. "Goodnight."

Alexia passed out immediately. I just looked at her. I know I sound like a creep, but in my defense, she is adorable when she sleeps. Small breaths, messy hair, smeared mascara. Beautiful.

I stared at her for a while, then put my head down on the pillow and fell asleep.

Two hours later, we were all up, and I could tell Alexia wasn't very happy about it. She had brushed her hair and tied it up in a ponytail, which showed her beautiful face. She had changed into long skinny jeans and a white long-sleeved blouse. She completed her look with a black coat and black boots.

I had also changed (obviously. Okay, maybe not obviously). I was now wearing long jeans and a blue shirt. I then put on my blue pullover and finally a black jacket. I then put on some white Adidas.

We all walked out of the hotel, took the bus, and headed towards the city center. It wasn't far, just a few minutes. We got out and took a table at a restaurant. When the waitress came to get our order, she didn't even flinch when we told her we wanted to eat breakfast, even though it was lunchtime.

Luckily, everyone in Switzerland speaks English pretty well, so it's wasn't too hard to communicate with her.

We ate calmly and then paid (in Francs, which are so weird). We then walked around. Since it was Christmas time, there were a lot of people around, shopping for last-minute gifts or just chilling. There was a pretty cute street market, and Alexia bought a necklace for her mother.

It was so funny when Alexia wanted to pay for the piece of jewelry. The guy selling said, "Vuole comprare questo?"

Alexia just nodded, and the guy went. "Sono dieci franchi, signorina."

Alexia stared at the man blankly for a moment, then asked, "What?"

The guy probably understood than she didn't speak Italian, so he switched to English. Sort of. "You like dis? Ten francs." he said, pointing at the necklace. Alexia passed the man an orange piece of paper. I know, Swiss money is so weird.

"Do you want in a bag?" the man asked again. Alexia nodded. "Yes, thank you."

The guy dropped the necklace in a small box, which he then put in a bag. He handed Alexia the bag and thanked her. "Dank you."

Alexia just smiled shyly. She then walked over to me.

"That was-" I started to say.

"Shut up," she said, interrupting me.

I laughed and we continued our tour. By the time we were done, my feet were hurting and my muscles were sore.

I begged my mother to go back to the hotel, but she wanted to buy groceries for dinner to bring to our rooms. We just bought some sushi.

By the way, stuff in Switzerland is very expensive. I mean, a bottle of water is 3.5 francs, which basically the same thing in dollars. We spent like eighty francs on sushi. And each of us just bought a set of 12 pieces.

Okay, that sounds like a bad thing. Stuff in Switzerland is expensive but is done well. The sushi was delicious. The necklace didn't brake after two days. And that's what I like about this country: it may be a bit high-priced, but their products are honest and well done. Also, people are really nice. They greet you when you walk in a shop, they smile brightly and they switch languages just to make you comfortable.

So, anyone who wants to go somewhere nice, Switzerland is the right place to go.

Anyway, we got back to the hotel. Alexia and I plopped onto our beds and turned on the TV. Surprisingly, there were some English channels. After a while, we found an episode of Big Bang Theory, which isn't bad, so we decided to watch it while enjoying our food. As I said before, it was all delicious.

We watched TV for a while, Alexia FaceTimed her family, but at about nine o'clock at night, my mother came over and asked if we wanted to take a small walk to the lake. I was already so tired that I said that we could go tomorrow. My mom complained a bit, but our problem solved when we saw Alexia sleeping soundly.

My mom took this moment as a chance to talk to me. "So, how's it going?" she asked.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You and Alexia," she said. "How's it going?"

"Excuse me?" I said. "Are you really asking me that?"

"Yes!" my mom exclaimed. "I really like her. You have my permission to date her."

"What!?" I said, outraged.

"Shhhh! You might wake her up!" my mom whispered.

"There is nothing going on between Alexia and me, okay?" I explained. "We're just friends."

My mom's face fell. "Aw, that's a shame."

I didn't really know how to answer that. "Uh, why?"

"Because," she said. "You two would be very cute together."

"Oh, gods, mom!" I said. "Stop saying that! Nothing is going to happen!"

"But why?" my mom whined. "I'm shipping you!"

"Okay, goodnight mom!" I said. I shut the door right in her face. I know I was being mean, but c'mon. She kind of deserved it.

I slumped back on my bed and stared at the ceiling. I looked at my watch. 9.09 P.M.

It was still pretty early, but I didn't care. I was so tired that I barely had time to change before falling asleep.