Chantel
What a fucken mess.
I open my eyes and realize, I don't have my phone because the fucken freak took it. I rubbed my face partially from frustration. Now how the hell am I supposed to post stuff on my platforms? How am I supposed to text the guy?
At least I had the chance to power off the phone, I thought. At least Cody won't hear my notifications and see who's texting me. That would probably merit my phone being crushed under Rico's jeep courtesy of Cody.
"Good morning sleepyhead." I heard Nicole say, sitting in the bed next to me. She had her paper map on her lap and a coffee mug in her hand.
"What are you drinking?" I ask, still half asleep.
"I made you a hot cup of coffee, just the way you like it." Nicole said with a big smile on her face.
"Holy shit Nicole, what time did you wake up?" I complain as I shimmy up the headboard beside Nicole.
Nicole giggles, "About two hours ago."
I look around the room, " And is the beast awake too?" I ask, referencing the ass hole who took my phone.
" He is. And I tried to convince him to give you back your phone, but he said no." Nicole said, passing me the coffee.
I slip a little of it and let the heat on my lips radiate down my spine, "I guess I'll have to convince him myself."
Nicole smiles as she leans closer to me, "unless you plan on sleeping with him, that'll probably be the only way he'll give you back your phone."
What a perv, I thought. The audacity of Cody thinking that I would have sex with him to get my phone back. Like that was even going to be an option. Rico said to wait til we get home to crack open this fucken nut's head, I say we do it on this trip.
I'll get my phone back!!
"Hey guys. Got breakfast for everyone. We need to eat and get going." Cody says as he comes through the door with a bag in his hand.
Fuck head, I say in my head.
"Here Nicole, an everything bagel with cream cheese." Cody says passing a wrap bagel to Nicole.
"Thanks." Nicole says, grabbing it.
"A cheese, egg and bacon on whole wheat English muffins for the big guy who doesn't want to play college football." Cody announces as he passes Chris his food.
" Yeah, yeah, fuck off Cody."
Cody laughs, " Next, is the multigrain bagel with sausage, egg and cheese with hot honey sauce, cause that's the kinda HOT guy he is." Cody says as he gives the breakfast to Rico.
I swear. This asshole purposely left me last. I bite my lip trying so hard to not tear this jackasses head from his body, but God so help me when I do, I'll ...."
"And for the love of my life, I know you're lactose so I asked for a lactose cheese to go in your everything bagel, lightly toasted with butter on the button half of it." Cody passes me my wrapped breakfast with a genuine smile. You know the kinda smile that says, I know you better than you know yourself smile.
I choke on my own breath, "Thank you Cody." I say as I take my breakfast from him.
I'll kill him later.
" We've got about three hours before we hit a public park," Rico says, as he munches his food, "That's where we'll park the Jeep and hike in for a couple of days." Rico said, breaking my connection with Cody.
"I agree," Cody said sitting back on the bed, taking a bite from his breakfast sandwich, " I call shotgun." Cody shouts with a mouth full of food."
"That's fine. I'm sleeping in the back with our two beautiful ladies." Chris says with a smile.
"Speaking of ladies. Did you ladies have a nice sleep?" Cody asks, looking directly at me.
I look right back at him. There's no way I'm going to let this fucker get the pleasure of seeing me sweat without my phone, "Yes! It was a fantastic sleep." I said with a smile to Cody.
He takes another bite of his sandwich, still looking at me. Ha! I got him. He can't think of anything to say to me now.
"You see what happens when you don't have your phone to worry about." Cody finally says.
Shit. He found last words to say.
I have a tight smile, until my coffee mug touches my lips.
"Ok. I'm done," Rico suddenly said shooting himself out of his seat, "I'll start packing the car." And he grabs a few of our bags and walks out.
We each start to throw our breakfast wraps out and grab our belongings out of the room.
I put my sunglasses on. I didn't put any makeup on. I really don't know why. It's literally the first thing I do EVERY morning. But this morning I didn't. It didn't even dawn on me until right now as I step outside into the morning sunlight.
And it has nothing to do with what Cody had said about my face last night. What an idiot he is? What girl would want to be with a guy who says they don't need makeup? Even if I look good without it, which I don't, why wouldn't I want to better my look?
"Hey duchess! Are you coming?" I hear Cody say as he holds the back door open for me.
I walk over to the open car door debating what I want to do to him. Kill him, hate him, love him or all the above?
I sit in my seat next to Chris. I smile at him as I see Nicole on the other side next to Chris.
Smart move, Chris, I thought, putting yourself in the middle.
"So I'm DJ this morning!" Cody announces, "any requests?"
"Taylor swift!" Nicole yells.
Cody looks back, " Not yet. Too early in the morning for happy breakup songs. Next!!"
"Some Latin vibes, mi amigo." Rico suggests.
Cody makes a sour face, "Nah. Too early to shake it up too."
"My man! Play some rap beats!!" Chris shouts out.
"Nope." Cody answered.
"Seriously Cody. Why are we guessing if you're going to choose the song anyways?" Nicole says, annoyed by the guessing game Cody is playing.
"How do I live without you, by LeAnn Rimes." I say in a monotone voice, leaning my head back on the head rest.
God. How did these guys forget? I look at Nicole and Chris who are both staring at me.
"What?!" I said looking at them, "did you guys totally forget that's Cody's favourite movie? Con Air? "
"You remember?" Chris said in shock.
"Yes and the song, it's Cody's favorite song." I said, fiddling with my fingers.
"Give the sexy beauty a prize. She's got the right answer!!" Cody says in an announcer's voice.
Then the song plays.
Rico grabs his phone from his lap to look at it, "Shit." He says low.
"What's wrong?" Cody asks, looking at Rico.
"My Mom's texting me again."
"So?" Cody starts, "text her back."
"I can't." Rico says as he changes lanes.
"Why?" Cody asks, sounding a bit confuse.
"I don't know what to say to her." Rico said.
"Hey mom. How are you and Dad doing? I'm having a great time with my besties." Cody says.
"What if they ask what we've been up to?" Rico asks Cody.
I see Cody looking at Rico with no emotions, " You lie."
"Otherwise Cody will take your phone." I add.
I'm sorry. I had to.
"No, that was different, Miss Chantel. Your fingers don't stop fiddling through your phone. You lost it because you're not telling me the truth."
I said nothing. Sometimes, with Cody it's best to not fight him. You may not want to hear what he has to say.
But then again, maybe I'm in the mood to hear it.
"Do you want to know what I was doing on my phone?" I ask.
I felt Nicole grab my hand. I look at her and Chris, who's reactions on their faces looks like they see a ghost.
"I was texting a guy I met." Now, let's see if he has something to say about that.
Cody said nothing. I felt victorious inside.
"That's bull shit!" Cody said in a matter of fact manner.
"No!" I utter, " I met him about 2 weeks ago at the mall."
Cody jumps in his seat, turning around to me. His eyes, angry and hurt. I swallow the guilt hard down my tight throat.
SHIT! I said screaming inside my head. I think I went too far.
"Cody!" Rico said, holding Cody's shoulder.
Cody slides back into his seat, saying nothing to me. I close my eyes, regretting that I even opened my mouth. I lean on the window. Everyone is silent except for the ending of Cody's favorite song.
"For fucks sake, now what!" Rico yells as the Jeep's engine races up and starts a knocking noise.
Rico pulls his Jeep to the side of the road and jumps out again. Cody slowly gets out and both walk to the front of the Jeep and lift the hood.
"OH Fuck!!" We hear Rico scream, then he starts screaming in Spanish.
Chris climbs over Nicole, " This doesn't sound good." He says in a low voice, as he opens the door and jumps out, "Talk to her." Chris tells Nicole as he stares coldly at me. I can tell he's not happy with me. Things just went from bad to worse.
Nicole and I sat in silence. " You know I had to tell him. Right?" I said to Nicole hoping she would agree with me.
Nicole turns her head quickly. Her eyes looking at me like lasers, " Why? What made you think you had to tell him now?"
"Come on Nikkers. He was going to eventually find out. You all of you knew about it, at some point it was going to slip out. Plus he's not my boyfriend. I'm not cheating on him. We are NOT a thing." I said shouting out loud feeling frustration and regret.
"Maybe so, but Chantel, we are on a road trip. Away from home. We are going to be in each other's space for the next few days and now, you telling Cody about the other guy now impacts all of us." Nicole grabs my hand. " I know you want your phone back, and if you had waited a few more days, Cody would've probably given it to you. Now, I don't know if you're going to get your phone back at all and the rest of us are going to be walking on eggshells until he cools down."
Nicole's right. Cody may have a big mouth and get under your skin, but he always has our backs and he really would do anything for me and I completely threw the boy from the mall news in his face, knowing how upset he would be.
Chris taps on Nicole's window. Nicole rolls it down, "What's up?" Nicole asks.
Chris looks upset and having a hard time talking.
"Please Chris, it can't be any worse than it got in here." Nicole said.
"Actually. It just did."
We could hear Rico screaming outside on the side of the road, holding his head, pacing back and forth as Cody tries to console him, " I told the asshole to change the belt!!"
"Our hiking starts now from here." Chris said
"To where?" I ask nervously.
Chris looks at me, " To the park."
"That's a three hour drive. Walking might be a day or two, depending on the winding of the road." Nicole said, calculating the timing.
Chris nods his head, "Yeah."
Cody comes over by Chris. He pats Chris on the shoulder, "Okay, so we lost Rico. He's sanity is officially gone." Cody looks at Nicole, " Don't just sit there looking all cute, grab the essentials and let's start walking."
Nicole and I get out of the car and walk to the back of the car.
"Chantel, you're going to have to leave some stuff behind." Chris utters as he picks out his bag.
"Why me?!" I ask.
"BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE MOST SHIT THAT WE DONT NEED!" Cody yells pulling the tents out from under everyone's bag.
I look at Cody. My eyes start to water. He's been upset with me before but not like this. I turn away from everyone to wipe my eyes.
"I'll help you sort your stuff, Chantel." Nicole volunteers.
We grab my bags and we move down away from the guys as they repack their bags.
I bend down in front of my bags. Nicole does the same in front of me.. I can feel that Nicole is looking at me,
"What am I supposed to leave behind Nicole?" I ask as I sniffle, trying to not break down.
"We can leave the rest of our things with the Jeep. I'm sure Rico can get a towing truck nearby to take the Jeep to an auto shop." Nicole said, consoling me.
"Nikkers, you all brought a bag each. It's my stuff that stays behind." I remind Nicole.
"And Rico's Jeep. His baby. Hence the reason he's crying at the front of his Jeep." Nicole said with a slight smile.
Nicole looks in my bags, " I know this is hard, but maybe keep your camera and lights here. These make the bags heavy."
I pull the camera and lights out of one bag, "okay, is that it?" I ask.
Nicole opens the small bag, filled with my makeup, moisturizers and hair products, "and most of these too."
I look at Nicole, "NO," I say, "Nicole, I need these. I look like a mess."
Nicole smiles at me, " You're beautiful Chantel. You're not even wearing anything on your face now. Just take a few products."
Tears run down my face. Nicole sits on the ground and holds both my hands, "Chantel. You don't need these things to be you. You make you. Try that on this trip. Try to be you. It's me and the guys. Your besties. We love you, not your makeup, your hair, your clothes or that you have a million followers. Just you."
I smile at my best friend. I don't want to be a nuisance to anymore on this trip, " Okay. Can you pick some things for me Nicole?"
Nicole's eyes go wide, "me?"
I smile at her, " yes. I trust you."
Nicole smiles at me and we start digging through my stuff.