"Look over there Amy!" squealed Bella, pointing out the taxi window to the pink and orange hues blanketing the western side of Chiang Mai.
Amy sat up, still half-asleep, and peered out the window. It really was a beautiful city, she thought, but after a long day of travelling, she was too tired to appreciate it in full.
Her travelling companion, on the other hand, hadn't slowed up since they left Brisbane. The two girls had planned to travel through Thailand over the brief period between finishing high-school and starting university. They had each saved up for the best part of two years, finally managing to pay back Bella's father for their tickets just a month before departing.
The girls planned to make their way down Thailand spending a few nights in each city. Both being just 18 years of age, they had decided to fork out on cheap hotels rather than stay at dodgy backpackers' accommodation, much to the delight of their parents.
The taxi pulled up at the door of a fairly decent-looking building. The driver stepped out and began unloading their luggage from the boot. Amy blinked a few times and stepped outside before paying the driver and entering the hotel with Bella.
Both girls exchanged delighted glances as they looked around the foyer. It was pretty spacious and well-decorated, Amy thought, given how cheap a twin room was. A large painting of an elephant, as well as some smaller pieces of cheap artwork, hung on the walls above two brown faux-leather couches either side of a glass coffee table. Some lavender and other flowers were displayed in vases all around the room.
Together, Amy and Bella walked up to the reception desk and checked in. A young Thai woman with straight, black hair and heavy makeup directed them to the elevator, which would take them to their room on the third floor.
It took more effort than Amy anticipated to drag her tired body and heavy backpack up to the room, so when the two girls finally got inside Amy dropped her bag on the floor and flopped onto the bed nearest the door. It was even more comfortable than she'd hoped - a soft, double bed with a thick purple duvet on top and two decorative sprigs of lavender placed by the pillows. Bella threw her bag onto the adjacent bed and walked over to check out the bathroom.
Amy heard water start running; Bella must have decided to take a shower. The idea of a shower sounded brilliant, so Amy reached into her bag and grabbed a singlet and a pair of short-shorts to change into before walking over to the bathroom to jump in the shower after Bella.
She tossed her clothes on the small black metal seat in the corner of the bathroom. It was a decent enough room, Amy thought. A large mirror stretched over most of the back wall, from the sink right up to the ceiling, and the shower had a big frosted glass door with some spiral patterns around the bottom, between which Amy could see the lower half of Bella's legs covered in soap.
Amy looked at herself in the mirror. Surprisingly, her makeup still looked pretty good after a long and stressful day. Her shoulder-length, ginger hair was a bit of a mess, but her mascara still highlighted her bright blue eyes.
Bella got out of the shower, leaving the water running, and put a towel over her naked body - though not before flashing herself to Amy. Her dark brunette hair rested on her left shoulder as she dried her face with a hand towel.
The two girls had been friends for years and had seen each other naked enough times that it no longer phased either of them. Amy took off her t-shirt and undid her bra, letting out a sigh of pleasure as she did so. It felt amazing to get her breasts out after being stuck under her top for so many hours. She unbuckled her belt before removing her jeans and hopping in the shower.
Amy stood there for a minute enjoying the feeling of the warm water running over her hair, face, and breasts. She washed her body with the cheap lavender-scented shower gel before jumping out to put on some fresh clothes and reapply her makeup.
The girls decided to go out and get some food. Amy had been dozing off as the taxi drove to the hotel, but Bella was sure she had seen plenty of cheap-looking bars and street vendors just a block away.
The area Bella had in mind was literally just around the corner from the hotel. It was full of tourists, many of them similar ages to Amy and Bella. An abundance of bars lined both sides of the street, all boasting 2-for-1 mojitos and cheap beer. Both girls were pretty hungry and keen for a drink after the long day, so they wandered into the first cheap restaurant that looked half-decent.
It wasn't particularly busy; a few groups were sat at tables scattered across the room, but it was a quieter atmosphere than many of the bars nearby. At the back corner was a group of four guys in their early twenties chugging back bottles of Tiger beer and laughing raucously.
Amy and Bella sat down at an empty table. A young waiter rushed over and took their drink orders - two mojitos, both double shots. The girls chatted for a few minutes before ordering their food, which was a bit of a lucky dip as the menu had no descriptions apart from the generic "spicy noodles" or "sweet and sour sauce" alongside some pixelated photographs. Not that either of them was fussed; they just wanted to eat.
The pair chatted about their various plans for the trip over dinner. Amy had become somewhat less groggy after knocking back a couple of cocktails and some food, so she was beginning to notice the group of young men across the room more and more. While Bella was rambling on about some rom-com she'd watched on the plane, Amy exchanged a brief glance with one of the guys, who smiled slightly before turning back towards his mates. He looked about 20, with short, dark-brown hair and some stubble. He was about 5'11", maybe 6', and wore a grey singlet with the Chang beer logo on the front.
Bella stopped talking.
"Shit, sorry", Amy said, aware that her friend must've noticed her lack of attention. Bella turned her head around to see what had caught Amy's eye. Amy could see her scanning the group of men for several seconds before turning back around to Amy, grinning.
"You slut!" Bella joked, "our first day in Thailand and you're already after the D".
She wasn't entirely wrong. Amy had been too focused on her senior exams over the last couple of months to care about chasing after guys, but she had been secretly hoping to experience some physical intimacy during their holiday. So had Bella, who had broken up with her boyfriend earlier in the year and mentioned her desire to "get back in the game" to Amy just before they left.
"He's pretty hot, don't you think?" Amy asked. "That guy in the grey singlet".
Bella turned around to have another look. "Yeah, I'd say" she replied.
The four men were talking quieter than they had been before. One guy tapped the shoulder of his friend wearing the grey singlet and gestured over towards the Amy. The man in the singlet stood up, quickly regained his balance by putting his left hand back down on the table - there must've been over a dozen beer bottles in front of the men - and began walking over to where the girls were sitting.
Noticing this, Amy gave Bella a brief smile before taking another sip of her drink.
"Hey," said the man in the grey singlet as he reached the girls' table. Amy instantly noticed two things. One, his voice was slightly deeper than she had imagined - not that she had imagined it being especially deep, but still, it was enough to grab her attention. Two, his arms were sexy as hell up close. He wasn't a bodybuilder by any standard, but he had just enough vascularity in his forearms that Amy and Bella both noticed.
"We, um, just thought that you two might want to come over and have a drink with us," he said, clearly not a natural pick-up artist but with enough alcohol in his system to feign confidence.
