Chapter 26
"Wow, you guys look like shit," was the way Alex greeted us once we got out of my car after parking in front of his house.
With the caravan of cars already parked, I assumed we were probably in the last ones to arrive.
"Thanks Alex, we really needed that," Lexi shot back.
"There's a reason why I tell you guys to not come here hungover," he replied, laughing at us.
"Shhhhhh, shhhhh Alex," I told him, holding out my index finger like I was trying to silence him, and then headed to his car to go lay down on his back seat.
Alex narrowed his eyes at me. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Wake me up once we get to the Creek," I told him, and made myself comfortable before closing my eyes.
I needed more sleep. I needed to sleep for a whole freaking week.
It had been such a long time since I had felt like shit like this because of a hangover. I really didn't like it. I could endure sleep deprivation caused by restlessness or because I'd been running or reading or doing something. The tiredness that came from having drank too much the night before was different. Because it was not just being tired, it was being in pain too.
"Do something with your boyfriend," Alex told Lexi.
Clearly, she did not listen to him because she came to snuggle with me on the back seat. "Wake us up when we get to the Creek."
I wrapped my arms around her waist, and tucked her head under my chin, sighing contently.
"Last chance to turn around and go back to your room and keep doing what we were doing earlier," Lexi told me with a little smirk.
Honestly, it was... tempting. I really should not be thinking about it right now. It would probably be dangerous.
"Both of you, out of my car. Now," Alex said sternly.
We reluctantly complied, though we whined about it all the while.
"Are we not driving out with you?" Lexi asked with a frown.
I leaned my head against her shoulder and closed my eyes. Lexi patted my cheek.
"No, you're with the twins and Ashley," Alex said. "I'm waiting for Fred to get here, so he'll drive up with me, Travis and Connor. Justin, Jimmy, Peter and Davis are in another car, and Dwayne, Janna, Mark and Catherine in another."
"No Clark and Shawn?" Lexi asked.
"No Clark and Shawn," Alex repeated.
"Ah, so sad, who's going to make inappropriate comments all the time if they're not there?" Lexi said sarcastically.
"If you're looking for inappropriate comments, I'm your man.," Trevor said to my Pumpkin.
"Back off Trevor," I glared at him.
"Anytime. Just say the word," Trevor mouthed to Lexi, wiggling his eyebrows at her and blew her a kiss.
I kicked in his general direction, making him laugh.
"When is Fred supposed to arrive?" I asked.
I hadn't checked with him to make sure everything was okay on his side to come with us, and I felt like a bit of a jerk now.
But I was glad he'd made arrangements and could be there.
"In about an hour," Ale replied.
"Should we wait to all go there together?" Dwayne asked as he put stuff in the trunk of his car.
Alex shook his head. "Nah, you guys should go first that way you can start setting this up and check if everything is okay. It rained a bit lately. It might make things complicated for the tents."
"We need to have proper installations at one point," Peter pointed out.
"Someone is going to need to buy that piece of land to be able to do that first," Cameron replied.
Mark turned to me and grinned. "Blake?"
I rolled my eyes.
But... like, maybe? I would have to look into it. Josh might know where to start. He did know a lot of the county office people, for disturbing reasons from what I had gathered.
Most things Josh did was for disturbing reasons after all, so it wasn't that surprising.
Anyway, that would be for another time. For now, I just needed to get in Cameron's car.
Lexi and I transferred our things from my car to his and then got in our seats.
Ashley, Lexi and I were on the back and Trevor and Cameron in the front.
"Ready to go?" Mark yelled out, sticking his head out of the window of his car.
Everyone honked in agreement, and we drove off.
Lexi was sitting in the middle, and I spent the whole car ride dozing off against my girlfriend's shoulder, while she ran a hand through my hair comfortingly.
She did not seem as affected by the hungover as I was. Maybe she had drank less. Maybe she had a better metabolism.
Maybe she didn't have a whole week of sleep deprivation under her belt.
I really did this to myself. I had no one else to blame.
One thing was for sure though, this car ride was a lot more pleasant than the last time we'd driven up to the Creek.
The twins were idiots, but fun idiots, not problematic idiots.
It was wild to think about how much things had changed since that last trip. It had barely been two months ago.
The last time we'd been on this road, I had very little fate of ever being loved by Lexi Grayson.
And now I was contemplating doing naughty stuff with her in a tent tonight.
There was constant chatter in the car, but I barely registered any of it. It was like white noise.
I doze off enough to be surprised when we finally parked at the Creek.
"Are we already here?" I asked, yawning and stretched my arms over my head.
"Yep, get out you snoring sleeping beauty," Cameron said.
I scoffed. "I don't snore."
Lexi scrunched her nose. "You did snore a little bit."
I gapped in faux horror. "I do not snore."
Ashley made an apologetic grimace. "You did."
"Well, this is embarrassing," I mumbled making everyone laugh.
Things were different right from the moment we parked because no one was sprinting away.
Usually when we parked at the Creek, the first thing we did was just run towards the water, but this time around we all sort of just of walked there and stood on the deck, unsure what to do.
"Are we really going in the water?" Justin asked, looking at the Creek like it might bite him.
"It's late October. It's literal madness. We're already crazy to plan on sleeping in tents at this time of the year, we'll definitely die of hypothermia if we go in the freezing water too," Peter replied.
He made a very valid point.
"So what Peter is saying, is that he's a little chicken shit?" Jimmy snorted.
"You wanna go swim?" Peter challenged him, motioning to the water. "Be my fucking guest."
"Well, someone's gotta go first," I said, and caught Lexi completely by surprised, swinging her over my shoulder and headed for the edge of the deck.
"BLAKE! NO! NO, NO, NO!" Lexi yelled trashing in my arms.
"Someone's gotta do it for the team Pumpkin," I told her and slapped her butt.
"BLAKE! I WILL KILL YOU! I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL!"
All the guys were cheering me on to actually do it and throw her in.
"Your threats do not scare me," I replied, laughing, as I tried not to drop my trashing girlfriend.
"BLAKE!" she yelled again, and I was satisfied enough with her freaking out that I set her back on her feet, right by the edge of the deck, smiling like an idiot at her.
"There, Pumpkin, happy?" I told her, while the gang shouted in exasperation, disappointed with me.
I wanted to mess with her but I wasn't that bad of a boyfriend. I knew I would feel her wrath if I had actually thrown her in.
I was expecting her to punch me, and for some manhandling in general.
What I had no expected was for her to grin evilly at me and then, out of nowhere, pushed me, making me fall back in the creek.
The sting of the cold water was... brutal to say the least. Air was knocked out of my lungs, and I felt my whole body freeze.
My head did not go under water, but that did not help that much.
It was still freaking brutal.
"LEXI GRAYSON!" I shouted, my teeth already chattering, my whole body shivering.
And my girlfriend was just laughing manically, warm and out of the water.
She ran away before I could get out of the water fast enough to catch her.
I pulled myself out painfully slow. It was like my muscle had forgotten how to function.
"You okay there Blake?" Mark asked, laughing.
I just gave him a thumbs up, my arms wrapped around myself.
Lexi did good to run away.
I was gonna throttle her.
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Happy Monday my little Pumpkins!
And a lil late Merry Christmas! :D
I'm at my mother's house right now and I completely forgot that it was Sunday night/Monday upload. I'm completely out of it, time wise. I've been running around for four days. XD
So, I'm going to go to sleep now. I hope you had a nice Christmas if you do celebrate it. And I hope you're enjoying my Twelve Days of Christmas uploads!
Alright! See you guys next week! I love y'all! <3