Chapter 1:
It was the summer holidays from uni and we were all wondering what to do with the summer. That's when one of my uni mates came up with interrailing for the summer. Interrailing for those that don't know is a train pass that allows you to travel across 30 countries in Europe. For four English lads, this seemed like the greatest idea ever, we could spend the whole summer checking out majestic European cities and landscapes. So, we all planned to meet up on the second week of our summer break at Stanstead Airport and fly to Paris to begin our interrailing. It was with my uni roommates, David, Will and Michael.
This whole thing was devised by Micheal, he made all the arrangements in terms of the hotels and places we are going to visit. These three guys were my first and only friends since I started uni last year. We were put in halls together and became fast friends, well to be honest, I became more like their maid / cleaner since none of them would tidy and they tolerated me since I was useful.
The three guys looked like your typical 20 year old English lads with identical high fade haircuts and relatively muscular bodies. Michael was the most muscular out of the three of them and that was due to the fact that he was part of the rugby society and played every weekend. On the other hand, I was a lanky 20 year old kid with shaggy long black hair up to my eyes. I was the complete opposite of them physically.
During our uni year, they were all about bulking and even suggested I start bulking up and joining them at the gym; but no matter what I did I couldn't bulk up, ironically, I lost weight during my bulking period. Therefore, I stopped bulking and tried to also stop going to the gym; but the guys told me they got used to having me at the gym and insisted that I went with them. I usually just waited on them at the gym, I wiped down equipment they used and brought them water and drinks. I got strange looks from other people at the gym, but the guys were adamant those were looks of jealousy since they didn't have any friends who came down to hangout with them while they were working out. I am hoping through this trip, they would start to see me more as a friend and less like a maid.
I hugged my parents and waved goodbye to them by the departures gate of Stanstead Airport. I hurled my backpack containing only my essentials to my back and went into the airport to meet my friends. All three of them were huddled together watching something on Michael's phone.
"Hey guys," I yelled across the airport in a laddish manner.
All three of them rushed to put Michael's phone away like they were caught doing something wrong.
"Hey Charlie. All set? "greeted Michael.
"Yeah ready to go," I replied.
"Lets go through security then," commanded Michael.
"Alright lads. Europe and her big tities await," snickered Will while putting on aviators and launching himself towards the security line.
We passed through security and got to into the plane with no problems, but once inside, there was a problem with the seats. Dan had booked them three seats upfront with extra legroom while he had booked me a standard seat all the way at the back. I didn't want to make a fuss in the plane, so I left them at the front and made my way to the back of the plane. Once I got to the back of the plane I tried to put my backpack on the overhead luggage cabin when I was interrupted by a flight attendant.
"Sorry Sir, I am afraid your ticket doesn't allow you to store any overhead luggage. You will need to store this in the hold luggage and I will need to charge £40 for it," said the Flight attendant.
I was annoyed but I didn't want to argue with the flight attendant and cause an incident. Therefore, I relented and gave her £40 while looking back at my three friends to see if they were having the same problem. All three of them were comfortable siting down and didn't seem to have their backpacks taken away. It must have been a mistake on Michael's part; I hoped that he hadn't made any more mistakes with the tickets. I sat down in the uncomfortable plane seat and put on headphones and started to listen to an audiobook. I was lost in the audiobook when I received a text from Micheal asking me to bring them 3 cokes and 3 bags of spicey nuts because the front trolley had run out of those items. This seemed hard to believe. However, I waited until the flight attendants came down with the trolley and asked for those items. Michael and the lads were laughing and having fun when I brought them their drinks and nuts. They grabbed them rapidly without even saying thanks.
"Deez nuts," yelled Will and the others started laughing. David got out a vodka and mixed it with the cokes.
I feigned a laugh at Will's comment and made my way back to my seat. I guess they are starting early with the drinks. We landed in Paris with no other incidents. We got out of the plane and went to the baggage reclaim section. To my horror, we watched as all the luggage came through the baggage carousel except mine. We went to the help desk and the attendant confirmed what I had suspected, the airline had lost my luggage. They asked for my address in order for them to send the backpack to me once its found but Michael suggested that I give my parent's address since we will be travelling around Europe. I agreed with his logic, however, this meant that I had nothing to wear on the trip. Michael put his tree trunk arms over me and assured me that we can share clothes. I didn't have any other options and therefore I agreed with him.
As we got out of the airport in Paris, it was already 11pm and we decided to head into our first hotel to get a good night rest. The hotel wasn't much, it looked like a typical eurotrash hotel, all that mattered to me was that it was clean.
"I booked two rooms. Why don't me and Charlie take one room and David and Will the other. It will be easier to for us to room together Charlie since we are sharing clothes," said Michael.
We all agreed and made our way into our rooms. I entered first into our room to find a small bed and a dusty wooden desk next to miserably small window. The whole room had an unnerving smell of bleach.
"There's a problem, we only have one bed," I expressed to Michael.
"Aww well, guess we got to make do," Michael replied unphased.
Michael moved passed me and inspected the room and seemed pleased with it. He opened the door to the ensuite bathroom and turned its light on.
"I think I got an idea. You take the tub and I take the bed. You are smaller than me so you can fit in the tub," Michael commanded.
I guess I am not going to get a goodnight's rest then. I had to admit his twisted logic made since he was nearly a foot taller than me, but I still didn't understand why we couldn't go to the reception and ask for a different room.
"Why don't we ask for another room?" I enquired.
"No it will cost too much," he said sternly.
Throughout my year at uni with him, I learnt that when he used that tone that was the end of the discussion. All three of us always listened to Michael when he used that tone. I removed my jeans and got into the tub with my shirt and my boxers. It didn't take too long for me to fall asleep in the cold bathtub.
Suddenly, I was woken up by icy cold water hitting my genitals and my chest. It was Michael using the showerhead on me.
