We reached a red light, and I glanced over at Ellie quickly. She was sitting in the passenger seat, her head turned towards me, with a broad grin on her face. I sighed, and looked back to the road. "What?"
"I'm still just struggling to believe you're actually coming with us. I'm expecting the illusion to dissolve at any moment."
I grinned. "That seems like a dangerous hallucination. Who's driving the car, then?"
"I have a vivid imagination. I'm probably still in bed, dreaming all this." She laughed. "I just love that it's too late for you to back out now, anyway. Your mom will kill you if you go home. But you do realise that it will be two weeks - of partying, and going to the beach, and playing drinking games and whatever else we can think up."
"I do." I sighed. "Still though, there are good points."
"Yeah, god forbid you find normal things fun. What are these things you're looking forward to?"
I shrugged. "Louis and me. Getting our own room. That's going to be..."
"Oh my! My poor innocent soul has no idea what you could mean by that." She raised one hand to cover her eyes, and fanned herself with the other.
"Like you're not the one who-" I cut myself off, smirking. "Never mind."
She settled back in her seat with a smug expression as we made the short drive to Sarah's house. We pulled into the driveway when we got there. The gate was open, so I drove right in, and we hopped out. Louis was standing at the front door, so while Ellie ran down the path to the back of the house, I went right up to him and he kissed me.
He grinned as we came apart. "Hey. I missed you."
"I missed you too." We'd seen each other the day before, but I knew that I really had. Even a dozen hours apart was too much, the way I felt. Was that ridiculous? I didn't really care. We'd be together all day, every day, for the next two weeks, at least. I was pretty damn happy about that.
His grin faded slightly, and he cleared his throat. "We um... went to see Eric this morning."
"Oh, shit." I ran my thumb along his cheek. "How'd it go?"
He sighed. "Okay, I guess. John and Jess didn't want to come. He never really liked Eric, and doesn't want to 'fix' anything, and she... well, she still feels weird about being around him."
"Right." I pulled his head down, and kissed him on the forehead.
"But Mel came, and she was even nice." He shrugged. "And Vince was there to help smooth things over. He's hanging out with Eric today, and for the holidays, probably."
"That sounds okay, then." I grimaced. "And you told him about us?"
"Yeah." He exhaled deeply.
"How'd he take it?"
"I... don't know. I think he's pissed at me now, but he didn't say anything." Louis looked really worried. "Am I a bad friend?"
"Only if I'm property." I raised my eyebrows.
He chuckled, and looked up at me. "I could be into you being my property."
"I kind of thought you were mine." I leaned into him, pushing him up against the door.
"What a mix-up," he said softly. "We'll have to head down to the deeds office. Sort it out."
I grinned, and pulled him into another kiss. I could never get tired of kissing Louis. His breath was minty today, so he tasted amazing, and he clearly still had some of his grapefruit face wash, even though he'd been telling me it was running out. I wondered if he'd bought more - at full price - just because I'd complained about the possibility of him not smelling like that anymore.
"Get a room!" Melissa's voice rang out behind us. "And then let me in, so I can watch."
Louis and I pulled apart slowly as her bag landed in my car with a heavy thunk. I turned to her as she marched up to us. "Hey, Mel."
"Hey, lover-boy." She wrapped her arms around me. "Any chance you want to ditch Louis, and share a room with me instead?"
"Go ahead." Louis rolled his eyes. "Jay snores."
"I don't!" I said indignantly.
He chuckled. "You do, actually."
"Very cute snoring, I'm sure." Melissa winked at me. I laughed.
"Totally adorable." Louis smiled, and leaned around Mel to give me a quick kiss. "I'm going to go get my bag."
I extracted myself from her grip. "I really hope that's not true."
"Well, if it is, at least it's nice that he puts up with it." She shrugged. "You must be fantastic at gay sex."
"Your dad definitely thinks so." I smirked.
"And he would know." She laughed. "Come on, we're all having drinks before we head out."
I grimaced. "I'm driving, and you guys are pre-drinking?"
"Sara has fancy waters. You'll live." She grabbed my arm and led me through to the back.
Jess passed us on her way back to our car. John and Gary were standing by the drinks, and Sarah came up to give me a hug. "Hey, I've got news."
"News?"
"Yep. Brian and Alli are definitely not dating. So we're not going to be in-laws." She scrunched up her nose.
"Bummer." I made a sympathetic face. "You're sure?"
"Yeah, she's dating this other guy. He's friends with your brother. His name is Craig, I think." She saw my expression. "Oh, god, is that a bad thing?"
"Uh..." Craig wasn't a bad guy, but he was definitely a bit strange. He'd visited Brian at our house before. "No, he's... okay, I guess. Just... odd."
Sara laughed. "Well, I guess we'll see. Do you want a water?"
"Yeah, thanks."
I grabbed the bottle she passed me, and she flitted off to talk to Ellie. Louis came out of the house with his bag, and walked around me on his way over to chat with Mel. I gave his shoulder a squeeze as he passed.
John and Gary were standing in the shade, and I hadn't said hi yet, so I walked over to them. "Hey, guys."
"Hey, Jay." John shook my hand, and Gary gave me a stoic nod and raised his drink at me - also a water.
"So, you guys excited for the trip?" I asked.
"It'll be nicer when we get there. Not drinking sucks." Gary grimaced. "But yeah, it'll be awesome to have some time away from everything, before the year ends and uni starts."
"I just need a break from my family."
To be honest, that was a pretty good reason for me to skip town. Probably second only to the fact that Louis was going to be there with me. Two six-year-olds, home for the holidays, without the excuse of school work to get me out of looking after them? Not ideal.
Mel and Sara were being told some story by Ellie, who was gesturing wildly and making them both laugh. John and Gary carried on whatever conversation they were having before I arrived. Jess emerged from the pathway to the front of the house looking relaxed and happy. I hadn't talked to her yet either.
"Hey." She looked up as I approached.
"Hey. All set?"
"Yeah, thanks." She grinned. "It'll be nice going in your car. It's big, and there'll only be four of us." Her and Mel would be in the back. Luckily they were getting along with each other again.
"It's a pity Angela and Sue couldn't come." I'd kind of thought they would - they'd been hanging out with us so much.
"Those girls you're friends with, from the dance? Yeah, that sucks."
After unceremoniously dumping her boyfriend, whose name I still hadn't remembered - not that it mattered now - Sue had immediately dragged her family off to London to look for apartments and tour the music academies she was sure she'd get accepted at. And Angela was still seventeen, so she didn't want to come with for a two-week long drinking binge. It seemed like she'd had plans to spend the time with Caitlyn, anyway. Much to Sue's outrage. I'd probably see them more, later in the holidays.
"You excited?"
I don't know why I felt the need to make sure everyone else was also enthusiastic about the trip. It was probably just because I was so over-the-top happy to have a getaway with Louis, and needed the reassurance that they were all going to have a great time too.
But it was just what I wanted. No parents, no school work. Definitely no Eric or Jamie, which would be nice. I heard Nick would probably be going, but that was different - we hadn't talked, but I kind of thought him and I were probably okay now. I'd be unlikely to bump into him anyway.
Jess grinned. "Yeah, totally. I am on a mission this trip."
"Oh, yeah?" I raised my eyebrows.
"Yeah." She nodded stoically. "Find a guy who seems straight, hook up with him, and never see or speak to him again, so the fucker can't ruin it. I need a win."
"You really do."
"But yeah, I just kind of want to let loose." She shrugged. "Have some fun. Maybe not wreck relationships and friendships along the way."
"Sounds like a good plan. I'll enable you, but keep an eye out."
"Thanks." She chuckled.
I looked back at the group. Most of them looked like they were about finished with their drinks. But someone important was missing. "Is Louis still at my car?"
"Yeah, I think so." She glanced behind her. "He was looking at something on his phone."
"Okay, cool. I'm just going to go check on him."
She nodded. "I think we're going to finish up here in a sec. I'll try to herd everyone."
"Great." I headed past her, and down the pathway to the front of the house.
Louis was sitting in the passenger seat, with the door open, tapping away on the tablet in his lap, his phone in his other hand. He seemed engrossed in whatever it was he was doing, so he didn't even notice me walking up to the car. I slipped my arm around the back of his seat, and started kissing his neck.
"Hey," he said softly, reaching up and ruffling my hair. He didn't stop what he was doing though, which I thought was pretty rude. I was going to have to try harder. I redoubled my efforts with my mouth, and ran my free hand slowly across his shoulder and down his chest.
"What are you doing?" He let out a breathy laugh.
"Just saying hi." I pulled back, grinning broadly. "What are YOU doing?"
I glanced at the screen of the tablet. It had the schedule for the music festival that would be the main attraction for the first week of our trip. His phone had the calendar app open, and there seemed to be a lot of short events listed there. I held back a laugh. I hadn't even known there was an official schedule.
He sighed. "None of them have decided what they want to do this afternoon, after we get there. Mel thinks we should do three different things, and two of them majorly overlap. And I haven't even asked anyone else what they were thinking of doing, and-"
He went quiet as I dragged him into a kiss. The tablet flopped down on his lap. I pulled away. "So you're sitting here sulking?"
He groaned - only partially out of frustration. Our faces were nearly touching, and my other hand was still on his chest. "I'm not sulking, I'm trying to-"
I kissed him again, and that groan, I knew, wasn't frustration at all. I reached my hand down, and squeezed through his pants to confirm my suspicions of what that groan was for. I was right, of course. We'd only been doing stuff for a couple of weeks, but I was already pretty good at reading his sounds and motions.
He tossed the tablet on to the driver's seat, his phone onto the dashboard, and wrapped his arms around me. I hummed happily as our tongues wrestled back and forth, and our hands roamed freely over each other's bodies. The world melted when I was with Louis like this, and neither of us seemed to care about time. Or even schedules.
Eventually, though, voices rang out from the pathway to the house, and I pulled away. "I think we're going to have to stop this."
"Unfortunately, yeah." He gave a breathy laugh.
I adjusted myself quickly, and walked around the car to hop behind the wheel. He'd put the tablet back in his bag by the time I got in, so I buckled up, and waited for the others to get in. "Everyone's stuff is packed, right?"
"Yeah, we got it all in. Jess does not travel light." He grabbed his phone. "Oh god, we're leaving now, and we still haven't-"
"Hey, it's fine." I braced myself on his seat, and he turned to face me as I closed in. I gave him a quick peck on the lips. "It's a long way. We'll figure it out."
We waited for the others to get in, glancing at each other every few seconds. It was going to be a lengthy drive, and I was already raring to go. But I was fairly sure that once we got there, Louis wouldn't need a schedule to decide on the first thing we'd be doing. I smirked, and started the car.
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