The New American Dream

Part Four: Amsterdam | Chapter Forty

"Oh, for fucks sake! Allie!" I heard Cassie's voice and it pulled me out of my sleep.

I jerked up. "Huh? What? Who? When?" I was completely disoriented.

"How long have you been drawing? Did you sleep at all?"

"I mean you're the one waking me up..." I mumbled sleepily, rubbing my eyes. I realized that I wasn't in my bed, but instead on the floor and stopped in my tracks. "Why am I down here?"

"Good question actually. You tell me."

I now saw that Cassie was sitting upright in her bed, seemingly having only just woken up too, her blanket was still partially over her. Her hair was tousled and her clothes that she had fallen asleep in were deranged, her eyes still looked sleepy. It would have looked cute, hadn't she been fixing me with a death glare.

I tried to remember the last night. "Oh dammit..." I said. "I think I fell asleep. I just wanted to finish the damn linework. Oh no!" I exclaimed and looked down on my drawing in a panic, inspecting whether I had accidentally ruined it by falling asleep over it. Thankfully I didn't find any lines out of place and sank back against the wall with a relieved sigh.

"Is it still intact?" Cassie asked empathetically, but there was also annoyance mixed into her tone.

"Yes, thank god. I didn't ruin it." I got up and picked the paper up, closing the pad and putting it safely on top of my suitcase. Only then did I realize how my entire body hurt from sleeping in such a crooked position, there were certainly some nerves pinched. "God, how long have I been sleeping in that position, my entire body hates me." I stretched my limbs.

"Well it's eight. Do you know when you fell asleep?"

"I hardly look at the clock when I'm sleeping," I stated. "Oh damn, do you think we'll still be able to get breakfast?"

Cassie fell back into her bed and closed her eyes for a moment. "Let's just chill for a bit and then get breakfast downtown."

In that moment there was a knock on the door, I crossed the room and opened it to Jace.

"Morning ladies. Are you ready? You'll miss breakfast."

"We're skipping that. And I hardly think we look ready," I told him and marched back into our room, Jace right behind me.

"Hi Cassie," he said when he spotted his sister still in bed.

"Hey Jace," she gave back and sat back up.

"Did you just wake up?"

"Yup. And I actually slept in a bed."

Jace looked at me with confusion written all over his face. He always looked so cute when he was confused.

"Apparently I fell asleep on the floor while drawing last night," I sighed.

Jace laughed at the thought of that.

"Hey Allie, when was the last time you checked the time then?" Cassie asked, getting back at the question of when I must have fallen asleep.

"Uh... lovely... lovely weather we're having today, yes?"

Cassie just squinted at me and that was enough to get me talking.

"Alright, okay! It was three-thirty."

"And then what? You decided 'oh let's just continue this, it's not that late just yet'?"

I grinned apologetically. "Maybe."

Cassie groaned. "Yeah. You definitely need someone to look after you, imagine what you'll do if you're left to your own devices! We have to move in together."

_____

Everyone else wanted to go to the Dungeon, but we decided to skip it. Instead we got ready very slowly and went to a cafe to get breakfast. I got myself a huge bowl of fruit salad, a chocolate croissant and an iced strawberry tea. This was, as well, a great opportunity to vlog.

I enjoyed the morning immensely. It was nice having breakfast with your best friend and just being able to sit back, relax and chat. We had never done that before and I thought we would have to repeat it sometime soon.

After breakfast we just walked around Amsterdam, it was our last day after all.

"Hey, look!" I heard a familiar voice behind me. "Allie, Cassie!"

I turned around and saw our friends walking towards us.

"Hi," we called back. "How was the dungeon?" I asked.

"Scary. I think you would have loved it," Nate told me and smiled at me. He seemed to be back on track.

"We had a wonderful breakfast, so that was nice too," I said and deliberately brushed my hand over his arm. Sometimes contact was necessary and I thought Nate could use it. "Hi," I said and smiled at Dan when he approached.

He gave me a quick kiss and took my hand.

"Guys, this is our last day, we should make the best of it." Kendall said.

"Any ideas?" Bram asked.

"Yesterday the lady at the craft store Cassie and I went to told us about this gallery. She gave us an address and told us to go check it out, tourists usually don't go there," I informed them.

"Come on, art again?"

"You could use some education on that, you know," I countered.

"You know," Cassie chimed in, "I actually googled the address yesterday. Apparently it's very modern and contemporary art and it's interactive. You can take pictures with all of it."

"Oh, so like that Instagram gallery in L.A.? Where you can go and take pictures with all this cool stuff for Instagram pictures?" I asked.

Cassie nodded. "Apparently. This is only art in a loose sense, I think we all could enjoy that."

"Okay sure. But we have to do something else afterward, please," Kendal said with an apologetic smile.

"How about we go out and eat at a restaurant tonight?" I proposed. "All together. We haven't really been doing that. Let's put on some nice clothes and go to a restaurant."

"We could go eat sushi," Jace suggested.

Everyone was satisfied with that, so it was settled.

_____

The gallery was spectacular. It felt like you entered into another world when you stepped inside. An Instagram influencer paradise, as it seemed. They seemed to play a lot with lights and glittering objects that reflected the lights.

I wasn't the most confident in front of a camera but even I didn't want to miss out so I put on my best faces and endured the process. To be fair, the pictures did come out pretty well. It seemed that Dan's mom had taught him a few tricks.

"Do you think we should take some just for the band? We could use a new profile picture for YouTube." Nate suggested.

"That's a brilliant idea. I've been thinking about getting an Instagram for us as well, maybe a Twitter. That way we can reach more people and keep it a bit more professional than just our personal pages."

The other's agreed it was a good idea and we took several pictures in front of differently colored backgrounds. This impromptu photoshoot turned out to be a lot of fun, even I had to admit that.

"Imagine ever doing a proper photo shoot," I said.

"I think that would be pretty amazing," Cassie agreed as we posed in front of a blue backdrop, the light was reflecting off many mirrors and gave the whole thing a fantastical look, almost unreal.

"I could ask my mom about that," Dan suggested.

"Would she do that?"

Dan laughed. "She's my mom. Of course she would."