We walked through the glass doors of the airport, one hand holding my suitcase, the other holding Todd's hand. He brought me to the gate and kissed me goodbye. I waved until I couldn't see him anymore and that was it. The intercom came on for everyone to board the plane. I took my seat next to an elderly couple who were already fast asleep. I started to think about Todd when the plane took off. I wouldn't see him for another 2 weeks. I met Todd almost a year ago in my first college class. He took the last seat next to me. We quickly became friends and helped each other study. Todd has always been smarter than me. We loved to be outdoors and go on adventures together. As I look down, I wonder what he's doing and where he is. When we first met, he was extremely shy, and it took him about a month to finally warm up to me; I think that might be due to the fact that he is constantly reading. Our relationship to this point has been very casual and non-worrisome. I think thats partly because I'm not totally in love with him.
I've never been the type of girl to have millions of friends everywhere I go. Therefore, I'm inclined to believe that I keep Todd around for company. It's not that i don't like him, its just that nothing is new and exciting, we don't agree on a lot of the same things, and he loves his friends that I can't stand. I consider Todd a rose among thorns. I think we've stayed together because we both don't consider our relationship the main focus of our lives. We agreed to stay together while I'm away. by this time, my flight is halfway over. I decided to take some sleeping pills and catch some sleep before we land in Madrid.
I wake up several hours later to landing instructions and slight turbulence. We land within the next hour and I grab all my bags and rent a taxi to the first hotel. I've never been to Spain, so everything is new. sights. smells. the people. culture. everything. I'm amazed by the cities aesthetics and the hustle of all the people going to and from. When I arrive at the hotel, I pay the driver and grab my bags. I walk into this elegant and classy 5 star hotel. I immediately see my student group and our group leader. He instructs me to come over and register. After almost an hour, the rest of the group has arrived and we are given roommates and instructions for the next morning. I am assigned a room with a tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed girl named Mila. She comes up to me and introduces herself. We grab our room keys and head up to our room on the 37th floor. From this high, all of Madrid can be seen. The city is so simplistic: old buildings, petite light, and symmetrical streets. The many rivers are crystal clear and curving throughout the city. Off in the distance, I can see the mountains with little dots that I can make out as cottages and farmhouses. I imagine a family coming into the city to come to the markets for supplies. I fall asleep looking out the window, thankful for rest.
Mila wakes me up at the crack of dawn: clearly a morning person. I groan, turn, and go back to sleep, but within a few minutes I'm up and getting ready for the day's adventures. We meet with the group at a local cafe for breakfast and discuss the days events. From across the outdoor cafe, a spot one of the boys in the group looking at me. He has dirty blonde long hair and tan skin, with blue piercing eyes. I blush and quickly look away. I had momentarily zoned out of the instructions from the group leader but quickly tune in for the dangers of Spain. Mark, our group leader, explains the dangers of being robbed, getting lost, getting hurt, and reminds us to always be with a buddy. He suggests everyone break up into fours (two boys and two girls) and decide what to do together. Almost immediately, that same boy cam up to me, and introduced himself as Andy. Andy brought his roommate, Liam with him. He suggested that we all be a group of four. I was against this idea because of the way Andy made me blush. I also thought about Todd back at home. This wouldn't be fair to him. But before I could reject, Mila screeched and agreed. we decided to spend the day in downtown Madrid at local shops. Then later, we would hike cliffs along the Mediterranean Sea and go swimming in the many natural pools along the way. Mila grabbed me and the four of us took off to downtown Madrid. Liam walked ahead with Mila, eager to get a head start on the day's explorations. Meanwhile, Andy hung back with me and tried to strike conversation. I couldn't help but laugh at his corny sayings and contagious smile. We walked through local owned shops, tried new foods, and met people from the area. Andy helped me with my Spanish when he noticed me struggling to buy some fruit. After eating a quick lunch, we headed for the cliffs on the outskirts of town. Liam and Mila seemed to be hitting it off pretty well. They were always slightly ahead of us while Andy and I usually walked a little bit slower to fully take in all the beauty of this city.
The cliffs were covered in hiking trails, stone steps, and surrounded by wildflowers of every different color on both sides of the pathways. We made our way along these paths and finally came to a private beach. the steps down were very steep. The guys headed down first to check everything out. While Mila and i waited, we talked about everything we had seen that day from the food to the wildflowers. Then we talked about how sweet and caring the boys are. before we could say anything else, the boys came back and said that we could make it down to the rocky beach. We headed down the steep stairs; to no surprise, Mila and Liam went first. We were almost down, when a piece of the rock slipped broke off from underneath me. Andy was right by my side to catch me. I felt a rush through my body when he picked me up and looked into his eyes. I thanked him as he grabbed me. From this point on, Andy held my hand to make sure I didn't fall of the side of the stone steps again. At first I resented, but he insisted for my safety. Again, I couldn't help but laugh at his witty remarks. We got down to the beach, the four of us swam in the crystal clear water and took numerous pictures on Mila's polaroid. We all played around like 4 best friends that had known each other for years.
  We enjoyed a sunset laying on the beach and listening to the waves crash into the nearby rocks. Then we packed up and headed back to the hotel for dinner. By the time we got back, it had been dark for over an hour. After we ate, the four of us showered, changed, and met back down in the lobby. Liam asked Mila if she wanted to go out for drinks. Mila agreed and didn't hesitate to ask Andy and I to come. We decided to go to a nearby bar, famous for its music, dancing, and drinks. I had never seen a bigger bar in my life. With two bars on either side, booths in the back, and a stage and dance floor in the middle, we assumed we'd be here all night. Our assumptions came true. after ordering a few drinks at the bar, we went out and danced to the music. I was very impressed with Andy's dancing skills. And man did he know them all. I got so caught up in Andy, that I completely forgot about Todd and my life back home.   For the first time, I felt happy and carefree with my life. At first, I thought I was crazy for feeling this way about someone I had just met earlier that day, but then I put my worries aside and realized that maybe this is what it's suppose to feel like. After several hours of dancing, drinks, and music, Andy walked me back to our hotel room, kissed me on the cheek, and went back to his room. I got ready for bed and laid down thinking about the days events. Just as I was falling asleep, Mila came in and we both went to sleep.