Two Way Street

I sighed as we stepped off the plane in America really early in the morning. Or, I guess it was really late at night there. I was still running on UK time, which always happened when we went to a dramatically different time zone.

“Ugh,” Louis groaned, rubbing his eyes. “I’m so knackered.”

“You should have slept on the plane,” Niall responded matter-of-factly, yawning to show everyone that he had definitely taken his own advice.

“I didn’t want jet lag,” Louis reasoned as we made our way to the front of the airport, where our bags and car were waiting. “I figured that if I slept, I wouldn’t be tired when we got here at nighttime, so I would get all out of whack. But if I waited, and slept once we got here, then I could stay on a normal schedule.”

“I hate to tell you, mate,” Zayn piped up, “but it doesn’t work like that. You might sleep to the proper times, but your body’s still going to feel all weird and disoriented. There’s no way to avoid jet lag.”

Louis stared at Zayn before muttering, “Wanker,” under his breath and storming ahead.

“I don’t think he wanted to know the truth,” I chuckled, nudging him in the side.

“Guess not,” he responded with a smirk.

“Don’t you have something to do?” Harry teased as he walked up behind me, widening his eyes as a hint.

“Oh, yeah,” I remembered, pulling my phone out of my pocket to turn it on. Surprisingly, I didn’t have any texts from Mara, asking where I was or anything. Not that I wanted her to worry, but…

Shaking my head to get rid of the thoughts, I dialed her number and put my phone to my ear as we stepped outside into the chilly night air.

It rang a couple of times before Mara’s familiar voice filled my ear, but it was all wrong; automatic, with forced enthusiasm. “Hey, this is Mara’s phone. Clearly, I’m not around right now, but if you leave a message, I’ll try to get back at you. Actually, no I won’t. I’ll just check the message to get rid of the annoying little icon in the corner of the main screen, and then I’ll ignore you if I don’t like you, which is probably why I didn’t answer. But whatever, leave a message if you want.”

Just before the beep sounded, I hung up, gnawing on my lip. “What’s up?” Niall questioned, nodding at me once we were all settled in the car.

“Mara didn’t answer,” I mumbled. “I told her I’d call when we landed.”

Louis snorted. “Okay, she’s definitely sleeping. It’s only six in the morning there. Give her a break.”

“Yeah, Li. Did you really expect her to stay up all night for you?” Harry teased. “I’m sure you’re not that good in bed.”

I shoved him and rolled my eyes. “What does that even have to do with anything?”

“Because then she’d want to get on your good side…?” Harry trailed off slowly. Zayn and Niall burst out laughing at his nonsense, while Louis had his nose buried in his phone. “You know what? Never mind. I’m tired. Leave me alone.”

I shook my head, trying not to show him my smirk. “Ah, don’t hurt yourself, mate.”

Harry grumbled as the car pulled to a stop. “This is the hotel, boys,” the driver announced in his deep voice.

“Thanks very much,” Louis granted as he climbed out of the car.

“Thank you,” I seconded before stepping onto the sidewalk.

The night was really warm in California, yet not humid in the least. The difference in weather from London was something I would never get used to, no matter how many times I traveled to America.

“Alright, so how are we doing the rooms this time around?” Niall asked, yawning, as we walked into the main lobby of the hotel.

“Um…” Harry trailed off, “I think it’s you and me in one room, and Zayn, Louis, and Liam in the other.”

“Cool,” Louis nodded, heading toward the elevator.

“Lou!” I called after him. “We have to get our key first. How are you going to know which room we’re in?”

“Oh, yeah,” he mumbled, shuffling back toward us. “I forgot about that bit.”

A few minutes later, we were all checked in, and we were ready to go up to our rooms. Naturally, they were on the same floor, across the hall from each other.

“Goodnight!” Harry bid, opening the door of the hotel room, Niall following close behind.

“’Night?” I responded too late.

“I’m sure they’re really touched by that,” Zayn snickered, putting in the keycard into the slot in the door.

“Shut up,” I grumbled.

Zayn took the card back out, a red light flashing above the opening. “Ugh. Why isn’t this working?” he grumbled.

“Oh, come on,” Louis laughed. “If Harry could figure it out, I think you can.”

After Zayn failed again, Louis swooped in and took the card. And opened the door on the first try, a soft ding his reward.

“It doesn’t like me!” Zayn insisted, smiling sheepishly.

“Mhm. The card has feelings,” Louis patronized. “Come on. Let’s go to sleep.”

“I have to call Mara again,” I informed them.

“Ah, right,” Zayn rolled his eyes, “I forgot you were married.”

I gave him a snarky look, but I was interrupted by Louis before I could say anything. “It’s fine. Call Mara. Just do it in the bathroom so Zayn and I can sleep.”

He threw his bag on the floor and went to take off his shirt, climbing immediately into bed.

Groaning, I put down my suitcase and disappeared into the bathroom, wondering how the sleeping situation was going to work, since there were two beds for the three of us. But I had a feeling that if I asked, Louis would chew off my head. And I quite liked my head.

I closed the bathroom door behind me and sat on the edge of the tub, putting the phone to my ear to hear the empty rings on the other end.

When Mara didn’t answer again, I immediately called back, refusing to accept the possibility that she might be sleeping and wouldn’t answer my calls.

But ten calls later, I started to get anxious. She told me that she was going to answer…kind of. Well, she said she loved me. And that counted. Right?

After a couple more calls, I finally gave up, even though my heart was racing with fear. But I kept my voice as calm as possible as I left my voice message. “Hey, Mara... We’re here at the hotel, and we’re all checked into our room and everything. And, uh, sorry for all the missed calls.” I stopped and coughed, feeling my face fill with a blush. “I might have gone a little overboard. I guess I just didn’t want to settle for not talking to you. Anyway, just call me when you wake up. I’ll keep my phone next to me. I love you, Mara, and I miss you already. Goodnight.” I stopped and laughed. “Or, I guess it’ll be morning when you listen to this. So good morning.”

I thought about saying something else, but I realized I was rambling, so I just hung up the phone, hoping that she didn’t notice the bit of dead air at the end.

After a minute of staring at my phone, waiting for it to ring with a call from Mara, I got to my feet and went into the hotel room.

Thankfully, Louis and Zayn had figured out the sleeping situation and were sharing one of the beds, both of them already fast asleep.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, I climbed into bed, and I fell asleep immediately, my phone resting right next to my head on the pillow.