Ch 53: run for the hills

                                    

                                          
I can't believe it either...but here's another part! If you're still reading, thanks! I'm hoping to finish it officially this year.
After dropping off their luggage at their hotel, the members were all told to explore the city. Each "ship" was given a camera to document their adventures and assigned to a different area of the city, which unfortunately meant that Shivani got to spend all of her time with Bailey...which was about as fantastic as it sounded. Her only saving grace was the city itself.
San Francisco was beautiful. There was simply no other way to describe it. They had gotten down at the Embarcadero train station and were walking along the Pacific Ocean. While Los Angeles had been warm and sunny, a thick layer of fog covered San Francisco. In the distance, the Golden Gate Bridge stood tall as if announcing to the world that this was the greatest city in the world. 
There were street vendors along the pier and Shivani was making sure to look at the trinkets of every single one. For one thing it was helping her avoid talking to Bailey and for another, it reminded her of home. The streets of Udaipur were also lined with street vendors selling cheap, colorful souvenirs and food. They were walking past a giant sign that had a ship's steering wheel on it and said "Fisherman's Wharf." Immediately Shivani's stomach turned. Maybe it was the vegetarian in her, but the smell of the seafood from the stalls made her nauseous.
"Are you okay?" Bailey said glancing at her. They hadn't spoken one word to each other this whole time and Shivani could almost pretend like he wasn't there. Almost. 
She glared at him. "I'm fine."
"You sure? You've been very quiet this whole day," he said.
"We have a performance tomorrow, so I'm trying not to waste my breath on unimportant things." She glanced at him. "Or people."
He raised his eyebrows. "Woah, woah, woah. Lucky for you, I have a camera to document this hostility." He shoved a camera in her face and said, "You hear that Uniters? Ms. Paliwal over here is bullying me."
She pushed the camera out of her face. "If anyone's a bully, it's Simon. For making me spend time with you." She focused on putting as much disdain into her voice as possible, but it was hard because she was simultaneously trying not to vomit.
"For the record, I'm no happier about this either," Bailey said. "I have to spend the day with someone who would obviously much rather be with her boyfriend."
Shivani looked at him, trying to decipher his tone. "You know what? Of course I'd rather be with Noah. I'd actually rather be with any other person in this group. But does the universe care? Nope. So here I am, in a beautiful city, stuck with you."
Bailey looked at her, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. 
"What?" Shivani asked. She didn't like feeling like she was under some sort of microscope.
He gave her one of his signature smirks. "You spend a lot of time thinking about me, don't you?"
If the smell of the fish wasn't going to make her puke, this conversation was about to. "I hate you."
"For the record, the opposite of love is indifference not hate," he said in his irritating, all-knowing way. 
"What's your point?" She asked.
"You care about me," he said. Then he started walking away from the seafood stalls and towards the boats while Shivani stood there trying to understand what just happened. "Just so you know, it smells better over here," he called still walking away, "But feel free to keep standing there and pretending like you're fine."
Even though she wanted to argue, the idea of moving away from the stench of the seafood was so appealing she silently followed Bailey.
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Fisherman's wharf had a collection of small cute stores on a pier that overlooked Alcatraz island. Though it was crowded, Shivani loved it because crowds always energized her. There were a collection of cute stores including one for left handed people.
"I'm going to get a crab cake," Bailey said gesturing to a restaurant called "The Hook." "Do you want anything?"
Even though Shivani was still not thrilled to be stuck with Bailey, that was very nice of him to ask. But she still didn't want to owe him anything. "No I'm fine. I'll just walk around recording things."
He nodded. "Okay. I'll text you and we can meet up after I get the food?"
"Yup." She walked around filming cute little stores. It was weird to be all alone in a new city, but she liked feeling independent. Someone had done a whole set up for a proposal and Shivani watched, entranced. In India, public proposals were not as common so she'd never actually seen one before. She wasn't sure how long she was there for, but she couldn't stop watching. The girl was blindfolded and was being walked to the location with her friends where the groom nervously stood with a ring in his pocket. When she took her blindfold off, she was surprised, but immediately started crying as her boyfriend got down on one knee. Before he could say anything, she said "Yes!" and everyone started clapping including Shivani who was feeling a little teary eyed herself.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she let out a small scream. She turned and saw Bailey. "Where were you?" He asked, sounding irritated. He held a small plastic bag in one hand.
"Here," Shivani said, giving him the same energy he was giving her.
He rolled his eyes. "Why weren't you answering your phone?"
"My phone? You didn't even call my phone! Why would I have-" She was pulling out her phone to prove her point to Bailey, but stopped when her phone wouldn't turn on. "Oops. I guess it died."
"Oops?" Bailey asked. "That's all you have to say? I was so worried! You can't disappear like that on me okay?"
Now Shivani was confused. "Okay?"
Bailey cleared his throat. "No I just mean...I bought you fries and I thought they would get cold."
"And you were so moved by the fact that I might have to eat cold fries that you just freaked out on me?" Shivani asked, surprised that Bailey remembered she was vegetarian.
"N-no. I just...fine I was worried about you," Bailey said.
Shivani smiled. It was nice to have the upper hand with Bailey. "The opposite of love is indifference," she said mocking him.
He raised an eyebrow and took a step towards her. "Careful, Paliwal. I might think you have feelings for me."
Shivani coughed and just like that her upper hand was gone. She felt her cheeks heating up and Bailey laughed. "Come on, let's go join the others at the hotel. Shawn just texted us to head back. And now you can finally go see that boyfriend of yours." He looked at her. "Unless you've forgotten about him already?"
She rolled her eyes, but somehow Bailey had made her forget about Noah. She didn't know how she could continue spending more time with him.
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