I woke up to the sound of my phone alarm blasting near my ear.
Huh. I guess I put my phone underneath my pillow last night.
Groaning, I turned off the alarm and closed my eyes to try going back to sleep until I remembered that we were driving to the beach house today.
Memories of last night flooded my mind, and I covered my face with my hands, embarrassed that I was practically naked in front of Xander.
If Caleb hadn't interrupted us, who knows how far we would have gone.
I felt Xander stir beside me and decided against waking him up just yet because I knew he had to drive. Carefully I lifted his arm from around my waist and pulled the cover from my body, ignoring the way my body instantly felt cold when I did so.
I made it out of his room without waking him and made my way downstairs to make everyone some coffee. I knew I needed it. "Morning, sweetheart." I jumped at the sound of the twin's mom. I didn't see her as I walked into the kitchen as she was sitting at the small table, which was slightly out of view. They had the main table in the dining room.
"Morning." I smiled over at her before walking over to the coffee pot to check there was enough for two cups. I poured the dark liquid into two cups before adding sugar. I preferred my coffee without cream of a morning.
Mrs. Carter was used to me sleeping around, and I was always comfortable around her. She had even taken me on a few shopping trips for a 'girls day' as she liked to put it. She had always said how much she wanted a daughter, and I never complained. It felt nice to have some girl time, and God knows I wasn't getting it at home.
"Xander has a splash of half and half." I didn't hide my surprise as the words left her mouth. How did she know?
"You're wearing his shorts, plus there's a boy in Caleb's room, and the spare room you usually sleep in when his is occupied was empty when I checked this morning to wake you." Crap, I forgot I asked her to wake me if my alarm didn't do the job.
"I'm sorry, nothing happened." The words stumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them, making me want to dig a hole and crawl inside. She raised her eyebrows and took a sip of her coffee.
"It's about time if anything did happen. You two have been acting like a married couple for years now." She let out a small chuckle, but I didn't find what she was saying funny. In fact, I felt embarrassed that she knew something happened last night. I turned around before my red cheeks gave me away and got the half and half from the fridge before pouring some into the mug.
"When does Mr. Carter come back from his trip?" I asked, changing the subject and brought the cup to my lips. I never knew what their dad did for a living. Every time the topic came up, the twins would dodge around it, but I never questioned it.
"He comes back sometime next week."
"It's been almost a month already?" She nodded her head and glanced at her watch before calling Lee down for school and straightening out her pantsuit.
"I've got to take the little guy to school. I hope you guys enjoy the trip and make sure the boys lock up and feed the dog." I nodded my head and gave Lee a quick hug when he came running in my direction. Mrs. Carter walked towards me and pulled me in for a hug before telling me to be safe and make sure the twins didn't get into trouble.
I heard the door slam as they left the house and decided I better wake up sleeping beauty. I grabbed the drinks and made my way up the stairs, trying not to spill any of the hot liquid.
"Ah, morning sunshine," I said as soon as I saw Xander sitting up in his bed on his phone. The covers pooled around his legs, leaving his torso on show. His tattoo caught my eye like it usually did.
"Morning." His voice was raspy, meaning he not long woke up. He gave me a thankful smile when I handed him the coffee, and I made myself comfortable on his bed. I crossed my legs beneath me and was facing him.
"Sleep well?" he asked after taking a sip from the steaming mug.
"I'm running off five hours of sleep and slept in my makeup, but other than that, I slept quite well." I cringed when I mentioned sleeping in my makeup. I was so going in the shower soon.
"Well, considering I had a girl hogging my bed, I slept decently too." I slapped his leg lightly but didn't say anything.
"Finish your drink," I pulled my phone from my pocket to check the time "we have 45 minutes to get ready." I downed the rest of my coffee which was still hot and got off the bed. Xander gave me a look of astonishment when I downed the drink. I put the mug on his desk and walked towards his bathroom, but a thought crossed my mind before reaching the door.
I pulled at the drawstrings of the shorts to undo them, making the shorts drop onto the ground, leaving me in my underwear. I noticed Xander was still on his phone again and frowned. "I'm going in the shower." He looked up from his phone, and his eyes went straight towards my legs. Thankfully the shirt covered my hoo-hah. I took his staring as a sign to turn around and pull the shirt over my head, so I was in nothing but my underwear. "Want to join?" I asked over my shoulder.
Before he had time to get up, I ran to his bathroom and slammed it behind me, locking the door. "Tough luck!" I shouted to him from the other side of the door.
The handle of the door jiggled before he realised it was locked. "Come on, Taylor, you can't just do that." He groaned against the other side and banged on the door.
"I just did," I smirked even though he couldn't see me and pulled off my underwear before climbing in the shower and turning it on. Coldwater blasted over me, making me jump back.
I wasn't in the shower long. I didn't need to wash my hair because I washed it yesterday, but I needed to wash my face and body. When I was finished, I climbed out of the shower and wiped the steam off the mirror. I jumped at my reflection. Mascara was smudged under my eyes, making me look like a raccoon, and not in the hot way that Taylor Momsen pulls off.
I sure did look like a catch with day-old makeup on my face.
I rummaged through some drawers that had some aftershave in and smiled when I found some wipes, I hated using wipes to take off my makeup because it was so bad for your skin, but it was the only thing I had right now. After wiping away as much of the makeup I could, I swigged some mouthwash. I would have to brush my teeth after getting changed because my toothbrush was in my bag.
I wiped some of the water off the floor with a dirty t-shirt in the corner of the room and secured the towel around my body before unlocking the door and walking into the room.
My duffel bag was on the floor by the bed, and I was thankful Xander brought it in here, his closet door was wide open, and I could hear some shuffling.
Xander walked out from the closet in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and a smaller towel in his hand drying off his hair. "Thanks for bringing in my bag." I thanked him when he looked up and walked over to the bed to look through my bag and pull out an outfit. I decided on some denim shorts and a black crop top that I could pair with my vans.
The Californian weather was still quite warm in the daytime now that it hadn't rained for a few weeks, and I didn't fancy sitting in a hot car in jeans.
I picked up my clothes and made my way to the bathroom, but before I could reach the door, Xander blocked my path.
"You know you haven't apologised for earlier." His arm leaned on the door frame as he towered over me. It only just occurred to me that we were both in nothing but our towels, one wrong move, and I'd be naked.
My eyes scanned his tanned skin, and the way the water droplets ran down his chest made him look even hotter. Was it weird that I found water droplets on his skin hot?
"Oh, I'm so so sorry." Sarcasm escaped my mouth, and the smile on his face grew. My eyes averted to his other hand that was now coming towards my face, his touch soft as he placed his fingers under my chin to lift my head slightly.
All thoughts of getting ready left my mind when his lips touched mine. I was thankful I used mouthwash now, and from the taste of his breath, he had too.
The clothes in my arms dropped to the floor as my hands reached into his damp hair. I pulled him down closer towards me. I couldn't deny the attraction I felt towards Xander, and it only grew when he pushed me against the wall. A moan escaped my lips as he tugged on my bottom lip with his teeth. His hand gripped my jaw as the other one trailed down towards my thigh.
Goosebumps spread across my body when he lightly dug his nails into my skin and trailed his hand towards my inner thigh. Tingles shot up my body as his hands moved further up, but just like that, he was gone.
"Karma is a bitch."
~
All the cars were loaded with everyone's luggage, we didn't need to buy food just yet in case it went off on the journey, so the coolers were filled with alcohol. The journey was only like an hour or two at maximum, so there was no way the food could go off, but Chris suggested it.
We clearly had our priorities right.
We were all sitting in the living room as the guys sorted out the route they wanted to take to the house. Caleb wanted to take the scenic route, but Chris wanted to go the fastest way because he was tired.
I had Harley, the twin's dog, lying on my lap, which was crushing my legs, but it was so worth it.
"I told you not to drink so much last night," I said in a smug voice as I put a piece of gum in my mouth. I hated journeys that were longer than an hour, but mints helped me feel less queasy.
"No need to be a know it all," Chris grumbled before arguing with Caleb about which route they should go.
"I'm driving as well, so I vote for the scenic route." I rolled my eyes when Carter decided to speak up. Yes, I was back to calling him by his last name. I was annoyed by what happened this morning, plus as soon as everyone showed up, he went back to his usual douche self. By normal self, I mean he had been making snide remarks about everything I would do.
And for that reason, I made sure to sit as far away from him as possible.
"Xander! You're supposed to be on my side, man." Chris whined and flopped back onto the couch, making it move backward from the force he used. He was such a drama queen sometimes.
Harley lifted his head when Chris moved but placed it back down when nothing else happened.
The boys continued to bicker about God knows what, so I turned to Cass and had a conversation with her about the night before. "Oh, I've got some gossip to tell you later about last night." Who didn't love some juicy gossip?
"Pre-drinks?Just us girls before the bonfire?" I asked. It was a tradition that we had a bonfire on the beach the first night we arrived. Usually, I stayed inside while the boys set it up, but I'll have the other girls with me this year.
"Sounds like a plan. Where did you disappear to last night?" She wiggled her brows suggestively at me, which led to her receiving a slap on the arm. "What?! One minute I saw you talking to that Gage guy, and then the next, you were gone."
"You're such a stalker," I mumbled and crossed my arms over my chest as I leaned against the back of the couch.
"Yeah, Taylor, where did you run off to last night?" My head snapped up to my best friend, and the mischievous look in his eyes told me he knew exactly where I was. Or more so who I was with. I could ask him the same question, but that meant exposing Jake, and he wasn't ready for that, so I settled on glaring at him instead.
"She was with me last night," Xander spoke up, but I could tell from the smirk he was giving me that I would hate his following words "having sex."
My mouth hung open at his words. "Fuck off! We did not have sex last night."
Chris burst out laughing beside me, "Good one, Xander, but even we're not stupid enough to fall for that one."
"I mean, from what I saw last night, I would say Xander is telling the truth." Caleb was currently at the top of my hit list right now, some best friend he is.
I looked around the room and noticed everyone was looking at me expectedly. "We did not have sex." I clarified, but they didn't look convinced. "I hate you," I said to Carter, who looked like he was enjoying annoying me.
"That's not what you said last night." He brought his hand up to his mouth a cleared his throat before talking in a high-pitched voice, attempting to sound like a girl. "Oh, Xander! Fuck me harder, baby!" He was cut off from saying anything else from the pillow that hit him in the face.
"Okay, now we know you're lying. Taylor doesn't seem like the girl to scream 'baby' during sex." I rose my brow at Chris' words. How would he know? "What? I was friends with Josh until your dumbass made him move to another state." A few people chuckled at his words, but I couldn't help but notice Xander's scowl on his face as soon as Josh was mentioned.
"I was not the reason he moved away. He has shit going on." He didn't look convinced by my explanation, but before he could say anything else, Jake interrupted him.
"Anyways, learning about Taylor's sex life has been fun and all, but we should get going." He stood up from the floor and stretched. I followed suit and put my shoes on before making my way towards Caleb's car. There was no way I was sitting in Xander's car.
Caleb made sure all the windows were shut and set up the alarm before locking up, "Let's get this convoy going, boys." Jake climbed into Chris' car while the others got into Xander's.
I fastened my seatbelt and connected my phone with Caleb's speaker. After what he's just done, he doesn't have the privilege of picking the music.
"So," he looked over at me as he put the car in gear and pulled off the drive, "you and my brother, huh?"