PRANKS and KISSES | 1 ✔️

Chapter 13: Unlikely Combinations and Unexpected Revelations

If I had a choice, I would rather squeeze myself inside the compartment of Rush's SUV and endure the three hours drive towards the campsite looking like a kidnap victim in CSI than spend another second stuck here in the backseat of Parker's gorgeous Hummer.

Whoever thought of this seat plan wanted blood. No kidding.

Here was the arrangement: Parker was behind the wheel since he was the assigned driver going to the campsite. Sitting on the passenger seat, just an arm-length away from him was none other than Roe, whom I didn't even know would join the trip until she came running towards me for a hug when they picked me up twenty minutes ago. Natalie and Shawn sat on the second row back seat, then Hunter and I on the third row.

Pen insisted we follow this stupid seat plan like it was a matter of life and death. No one dared to disagree with her especially after she warned us that she had a premonition that the trip would be a complete disaster if we changed seats. Apparently, Pen had miraculously (or should I say conveniently?) developed a psychic power just an hour before the trip. I would have been amazed if I wasn't so nervous at the thought of being in an enclosed space with these unlikely combinations.

I didn't want to spoil the fun but let's be realistic here, Parker and Roe just inches away from each other? We would be very lucky if we arrived at the campsite with both of them still breathing.

We were on the road for only twenty minutes and Roe and Parker had already threatened each other's life a total of six times. Seven if you included Roe telling Parker that she would loved to kick his ass out of the car and ran him over with his Hummer but in a way that wouldn't kill him immediately because she wanted to see him writhing in pain first.

Talk about psycho tendencies.

I had to give it to them though; they sure spent an awful amount of time thinking of creative ways to get rid of each other. My favorite was when Parker told Roe he was praying every night that an alien spaceship would come and take Roe away from Earth because only a distance of at least one million light years away from her would make him feel safe again. Roe retorted that she wished Parker would be trap in an episode of The Walking Dead and be eaten by hordes of zombies flesh by flesh.

The weirdest thing? They said all of those dreadful things to each other in a sickly sweet voice, like they were exchanging sweet nothings rather than death threats.

Shawn and Natalie, on the other hand, spent the first five minutes of the ride in awkward silence but after hearing Roe and Parker's sweet bickering, Shawn commented that Roe and Parker fought like Siths and Jedis, it rubbed Natalie off the wrong way. The usually shy girl told Shawn to stop inserting Star Wars related characters to the conversation because obviously, Roe and Parker fought more like Griffindors and Slytherins. Soon, the two of them were already arguing furiously over which fandom was better.

It was a complete mayhem.

It was becoming problematic on my part because I didn't have anyone to talk to, leaving my thoughts free to wander towards the guy sitting beside me. And Hunter at five o'clock in the morning was a walking and talking temptation. He was incredibly handsome with his hair even more ruffled than usual and his bruised left eye made him sexy and dangerous in the morning light. His minty scent was tickling my nostrils and the heat coming from his body was doing weird things to my senses.

Out of the six of us, it seemed like he was the only one amused by this arrangement.

"Well, isn't it fun?" I heard him say as he brought out three packs of chocolate chip cookies from his backpack.

My stomach started to growl at the sight of food. I hadn't had time to eat breakfast because I woke up late and had to rush out of the house since I didn't want to keep the others waiting.