A Few More Hours
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The cabin was dim, lit up with only Lara's desk lamp and the small light mounted on the wall near the door as the moonlight shone through the porthole window, creating faint rays that made floating dust specs visible. It was a beautiful night, the moon was full and the waves were at rest along with the majority of the crew members on the ship. That is, besides Lara and Sam, who had been up for hours.
It was their first night on the Endurance, and far past midnight. Sam was surprised Lara was even awake at this time for she was always so tired with all her constant studying of maps and writing journals. There had been a few nights where Lara would stay up late, but it usually took a little convincing from Sam.
The two girls sat on the top bunk of their bed as Lara wore a pair of blue pajama shorts and a concert t-shirt that she had went to with Sam a few years back, while Sam wore her pink pajama bottoms and a plain white v-neck. They had done this many times during sleepovers, and enjoyed having movie nights together but also just liked to relax and have some girl talk once in a while.
Lara lay with her back on the pillow and a thin blanket over her legs as Sam leaned against the wall, slightly turned towards her. Their legs were intertwined with each others for the beds on the ship weren't very big, but they didn't mind.
"No way!" Sam exclaimed as she dug her hands through Lara's backpack on the edge of the bed that she hadn't unpacked yet, and pulled out a red hardcover book. "Is this our college yearbook?" Amazement in her voice, she flipped it over multiple times, examining the cover. It had the UCL symbol on it in white.
"What?" Lara said shocked, leaning over and positioning herself on her hands and knees. "Oh my god." She took it from Sam's hold. "I didn't even know I brought this. Must've been with the rest of my books."
Sam tried to take it back from her but Lara latched on to it, moving away every time she'd try to grab it.
"Come on, I wanna see it." She whined.
"Oh, god. I don't think that's a good idea, Sam!" Lara never actually looked through it, and since she wasn't as big on having her picture taken as much as Sam was, she feared her face was all over that yearbook.
Sam giggled at how self-conscious Lara could get sometimes. "It can't be that bad."
Lara was now lounging back with her knees up, twisted to the side and propping herself up with her right elbow as she just stared at it with a scrunched up nose and creased eyebrows.
Sam snagged at it once more and Lara let it slip out of her hands, secretly eager to see as well but also insanely afraid to.
Sam leaned back again and crossed her legs, a satisfied look on her face as she slightly flicked her head to the side to push the hair out of her face. She flipped through a few pages, biting her bottom lip. A few moments passed as Lara just listened to the sound of the ruffling paper.
"Hey, look!"
Lara's eyes widened at her outburst, wondering what she found.
"Isn't that that guy you had a crush on for like the longest while?"
Lara leaned in quickly, gripping the book with one hand and moving it toward her so she could see.
"What? I did not have a crush on him!" She defended, playfully angry.
"You so did, Lara."
"Ugh." She groaned for Sam was always the one to bug her about those kinds of things. "He was cute, okay, but I didn't like him like that."
Sam just laughed and shook her head, knowing full well that she was lying.
"I mean, he was, wasn't he?"
"Eh," Sam continued to flip through the pages. "You could've gone for someone hotter like those guys on the football team. Now they were somethin'."
"Yeah, you mean assholes who date slutty cheerleaders for popularity?" Lara joked and Sam realized that was completely true.
She hadn't excitedly starting pointing things out that she saw in a while, making Lara furrow her eyebrows in confusion. She moved in to look, peering over Sam's shoulder.
"What do they even put in these things?" Lara asked nobody in particular. She knew Sam was most likely not listening to her as usual and was more interested in the book. "I mean, I don't get what the big fuss is about with yearbooks."
"Oh, look at this." Sam pointed at a list of names as she read the heading.
"Earned scholarships in documentary film-making and cinematography. And there's me!" She stared at her name for a few moments. "God, I hate when they put the full name." She said irritably and quickly turned the page.
Lara just let out a breath of laughter for she knew she always hated being called Samantha.
She was starting to get into the student picture section, making Lara cringe. "Oh god." Lara groaned, a painful expression on her face as she braced herself. She waited for Sam to start yelling out something again and began to lean back on the wall, the springs in the bed creaking loudly.
She heard Sam gasp before she started laughing hysterically. "Lara, you look like you just saw a ghost!"
Lara gasped, her mouth now wide open and her eyebrows angrily folded. "I do not!" She snatched the book from Sam who was too busy laughing her ass off.
Oh god. She was right. She looked at Sam, then down at the book, then back at Sam who was leaning back on the bed and holding her stomach from laughing, not knowing what to say for she was insanely embarrassed, and Sam wasn't helping at all.
"Did- did the photographer look like a zombie or something?" She said in between giggles, trying to catch her breath.
"You know what," She had no idea what she was trying to say. "Yeah, well, at least I had boobs back then, unlike you!"
Sam gasped loudly. That definitely stopped her from laughing. "That's not true!"
Lara couldn't help but start to giggle at how adorable she could get when she was angry.
Sam knew that Lara was right though. Her breast size was always something she hated about herself, she'd just never admit it. "Well, they got me a lot more guys than yours did, that's for sure!"
Lara laughed and Sam couldn't help but join in. They began to catch their breath and Lara held up the book again, continuing to look at the student pictures.
"Hey Sam, remember that girl we hated that got sprayed by a skunk on campus and wasn't allowed in the building after?"
Sam chuckled, remembering how her and Lara just watched from a distance trying to hide their laughter but clearly enjoyed watching her run away screaming. "Yeah. They say she had to take baths in tomato soup for a week." She shook her head, smiling. "How embarrassing."
Lara turned over the book and faced it towards Sam with a smirk on her face. It was open to a picture of the girl and Sam burst out laughing again as Lara just giggled, a wide grin on her face.
A sudden creaking sound caught their attention, making Sam snap her head around to the door behind her as a bright light illuminated the tiny room. They saw Roth standing there, peeking his head in and Sam cleared her throat, trying not to laugh.
"Girls, it's 1:30 in the morning." He kept his voice low. "People are sleeping, walls..." He lightly knocked on the wall. "...are thin."
Lara hunched her shoulders, a little embarrassed but a grin still on her face. "Sorry, Roth." She apologized quietly, a slight chuckle still in her voice.
"Sorry." Sam whispered.
Roth only gave them a tired and irritated look, which he clearly was both of those, and then shut the door.
Sam turned around and faced Lara again with wide eyes and sealed lips, both just looking at each other quietly for a few moments, but couldn't help as their chests tightened and let out a few breathy giggles.
Sam sighed and looked at the girls picture again, her voice much quieter now. "Man, I hated her so much."
Lara leaned back on the pillow, the corners of her mouth still lifted in a grin, then she groaned. "My stomach hurts from laughing." She put a hand on her abdomen.
"Well, that's what you get, Croft." Sam said jokingly as she pushed the book back into Lara's backpack. She had to shift other things in there to try and make room.
"What do you mean? You're the one that wanted to open it!"
Sam lifted her finger to her mouth as a signal to shush her, raising her eyebrows at Lara who just rolled her eyes at how goofy her best friend could be sometimes.
A few moments passed in silence when Sam folded her hands in her lap. "You wanna do something?"
"What?" Lara squinted her eyes at her in pure confusion.
"We can go explore the ship." There was an innocent tone in her voice, in other words - what Sam used to convince Lara when she wanted her to do something.
Oh, great. It's college all over again. She thought. "Sam, really."
"You think when I've somehow managed to keep you up this late I'm gonna just let you go to sleep?"
Lara looked down, pursing her lips.
"Come on, Lara." Sam patted the girl's knee and shook it gently. "God, I really need to work on teaching you how to live more." She swung her legs around and crawled over to the edge of the bed where she began to climb down the bunk ladder, the entire bed structure creaking.
"But we really shouldn't be out of our cabins at this time."
"No one's gonna know!" There was that innocent concept again, and Lara knew she was gonna start with the puppy eyes right away.
She thought about it as Sam was now on the ground and moving next to her, stretching up and resting her arms on the wooden platform of the bed. Lara knew she was almost always right whenever she told her how restricted Lara could be sometimes.
Sam waited with an overly excited expression on her face, knowing that she was fully winning this one.
Exasperated, Lara sighed loudly and finally got moving. "I'm so gonna kill you if we get caught, Nishimura."