Love Always, Ireland

-5-

"Annie!" Kristy's drunken voice interrupts my sleep, followed by the sound of her hand beating on my door.

"What?"

I'm exhausted. The dim red light on the clock reads 5:02 in the morning, and it took forever for me to fall asleep last night. The room is incredibly dark and cold; my bed is warm. I don't want to get up to answer the door.

"I lost my keycard, and I gave you my spare. Open up!"

I groan and crawl out of my covers. She stumbles herself into the room as soon as the door opens, as if she was leaning against it to hold herself up in the hallway. This is a typical Kristy move, and she knows it. Thus, I have her spare keycard. I can't count the number of times she has locked herself out of our dorm in the last four years.

"I hate you right now."

"Annie, those guys were so nice last night!" She places herself into my bed, her dress and heels still on.

"Come on in, Kristy. Make yourself at home." I roll my eyes and motion to the room with my hand.

"We all went out to dinner and then to that club. That castle was amazing! Then I went back to this guy John's house and oh my god the things that man did to me with his tongue!"

"You're really loud." I hold my hand up to her and crawl into my bed beside her.

"Are you ever going to have sex?" she asks, pulling the sheets over us both.

For fuck's sake, Kristy! Travis Sparks is on the other side of the wall!

"Someday. Now shush!"

"Are you scared to try it?"

"Shhh!" I repeat. "No."

Lie.

"You need to leave your virginity in Ireland! Come home a new woman!" she yells, followed by many drunken giggles.

Please pass out now.

"Kristy! Shut up. I told you the walls here are thin."

I attempt to push her over in the bed so I have more space, but she's dead weight at the moment. She smells like she drank the entire bar.

"Ouch!" She giggles as she reaches beneath her. "You shouldn't sleep with your phone!"

She grabs my phone and the earbuds out from under herself. The screen lights up as the music continues to play.

"Yuck, why are you listening to Travis Sparks? You hate his 'Young Love' song. You will not use one of his for your project, or are you?"

"He wrote that song that I won with. I was seeing if he had another that would work to keep the sound the same."

I pull the phone from her grasp and turn it off. It's tossed to the floor, where hopefully she forgets what she saw.

"You won?" she squawked.

"Do you even school while you are here partying? Yes, I won. Were you aware that you are in the top four?"

"No. Didn't have time to look. Can we go to sleep now?" she asks, as if I was the one who has been keeping her awake.

I push her over more and place my head on my pillow, staring at my wall to my left. It's quiet over there, but I'm slightly panicked that Travis may have heard some of what Kristy just said. Although no one in their right mind is up this early on the weekend.

My two days with Travis Sparks swirl in my mind as I attempt to fall back asleep. It's killing me to know why he's here, of all places, and how long he's staying. I'm also wondering if I'll be working from the bar again tomorrow, because I already know I want to.