I feel something warm and hard against my cheek moving up and down slowly. I try to open my eyes but with the sleepiness drowning on me, I can't. After a few moments, I decide I need to wake up so I flutter my eyes open and due to my stubbornness, I accidentally hit my head on the wooden side of the bed. I groan and grab my head with both of my hands in irritation and slowly stand up. I rub my eyes, adjusting the blurriness as I am finally able to look around myself. But what I see, is not what I imagined at all.
Lance is sprawled across the bed and is breathing heavily, as if he's so happy in his sleep that I'm not on top of him anymore.
"Crap!" I say to no one in particular. What in the world is he going to say once he finds out about this?!
He's not going to find out about this. No way. He can't.
I grab a few strands of my hair and place them behind my ear. I run my fingers through my hair brushing it gently, trying to calm myself. I stand up straight and sit on the sofa which makes a squeaky sound as I lower myself into it.
Lance stirs up in his sleep and I gasp, not mentally prepared for what is going to happen.
I run to the bathroom and lock the door behind myself. Shaking, I grab the hairbrush and brush my hair rapidly with my heart constantly beating.
When I open the door I already see Lance sitting up and going through his backpack.
I watch him for awhile, his facial expression going from bored to downright angry.
"Christopher, where the hell are you?!" He shouts, not bothering to look up from a paper he's holding in his hands.
"R-right behind you," I squeak, walking slowly over to him.
"Explain this," he says, showing me a picture of us. Us sleeping together. On the bed. My head against his chest. His arms around me. "Have you fallen in love with me that badly that you would go so far as to photo shopping us together? I know our backpacks look alike so you must have accidentally put this in mine."
I place a hand over my mouth and my eyes widen at the picture. "I would never do anything like that!"
But with protesting comes hardship. The hardship being that Lance doesn't believe me. The door flings open and in comes Kacey dressed fully in heels and a long dress that shows off her arms and legs.
She runs over to Lance and takes the paper from his hand, ripping it into pieces. She forcefully kisses him on the lips, making me shriek and stand up. Megan rushes inside the room and tears them apart.
Lance sits on the bed in shock, his signature swollen pink lips parted and not believing what has just happened. I purse my lips together and turn right in time to see Megan slapping Kacey on her right cheek. My eyes widen at the loud sound.
"What did I tell you?!" She screams at Kacey.
Kacey holds her cheek and tears spill down from her eyes. She runs out of the room and shuts the door behind her- hard.
Megan runs a tired hand through her hair and looks at me. "I'm so sorry, Crystal. I told her not to go to your room, but she did what I didn't want her to do and..."
I'm still in shock, but not as much as Lance is. He's still sitting on the bed with his head down, staring at his hands.
"Lance," Megan calls. He doesn't answer, but I'm sure he's listening. "I'm the one who took the picture."
Lance finally looks up and stares right at Megan, along with me.
"You two looked so peaceful sleeping together on the bed that I thought it would be a cute picture to take," she explains. "I'm sorry. I won't invade in your privacy anymore."
We don't say a thing. It's nice that Megan thinks of Lance and I together, but all I can think of right now is Kacey. Why is she here? How did she come here? And most of all: Why did she cry? All I can think of is the reason why she cried. I can't help but feel terribly bad for her. Even though she kissed Lance, I could care less of the reason. I want to know why she cried, and why Megan went so far as to slap her across the face.
I get up from the sofa and walk out of the room to look for Kacey. I ask around but no one knows where she went off to. Right when I'm ready to give up, someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around to find Lance looking at me with guilt surrounding his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he says, glancing away from my eyes.
"It's okay."
"Liar," he says, finally looking at me.
"What?"
"She kissed me. Don't tell me you felt nothing."
"I don't care if she kissed you," I lie. Obviously, I'm not sure about my feelings just yet.
"Liar," he chuckles.
"I'm not lying!"
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," he winks.
I'm about to strangle him with another comeback when someone taps me on my shoulder- yet again. I turn around to find a guy, a hot one indeed, looking at me with a smile.
"Would you like to dance?"
"Dance? Am I really in the..."
I finally look around myself and mentally slap myself on the forehead. Why am I suddenly becoming an idiot?
"I'm sorry, I really didn't know about this dance floor... thing," I tell him. He laughs and takes my hand in his. Lance takes my hand away and forces me behind his back.
"Oh, I didn't see you there," the guy says to Lance, winking at me.
"Then I guess you need some glasses because I was literally talking to this girl a minute ago until you rudely interrupted," Lance says, annoyed.
"I'm sorry- my name is Crin. Mind if I steal her for a few?" He smiles at me.
"I do mind, now get lost," Lance says stubbornly.
"I don't mind," I say, moving to stand next to Crin. "I could use some fun in my life." I really do not want to dance, but just want to get Lance angry and jealous for once.
"You can do ahead and dance with him, but remember that I can officially fire you from the restaurant," he says, grinning to himself.
"Fine," I grumble and wave to Crin sadly before walking away. "Nice meeting you."
I'll probably never see you again in my entire freaking life. Big freaking whoop. So sad.
Now that my life kind of revolves around the restaurant and Lance, I can't do anything about anything. I need to celebrate the few days we have on this cruise before going home and facing torture with the amount of work I have to do. I wish Lance and I could work around on a schedule so I won't have to see him all the time. When I see him, my eyes go wide and my heart starts beating and I can't focus on anything while having him there. And I screw up everything.
My phone suddenly rings. I pull it out from my pocket and smile a little.
"Crystal! Bring Lance to the room please," Megan screams through the phone and hangs up as soon as she says it.
I turn back to Pink who's busy fiddling with his phone. I grab his forearm.
"Megan's calling us back," I say.
Lance takes my hand off his forearm and scowls. "Stop touching me," he whines. A pain tingles in my chest as if someone was ripping out my heart but slowly.
We walk back inside the room in silence and in complete silence.
"Crystal and Lance, OH Lystal! So, there is a swimming party in the deck of the ship and I think we should go!"
"Lystal?" I ask.
"Yeah! It's easier," she exclaims. When she notices Lance and I staring at her with complete confusion, she elaborates, "It takes away too much energy from me to say both of your names separately which is why I'm saying Lystal."
"It takes away too much energy to say both of our names?" Lance asks in annoyance.
"Yes, it is," Megan says, looking Lance up and down as if he's nothing to her. "Now get ready for the swimming party! I'll leave you two alone." She gets up from the bed and pats my head before making her way out of the room.
Swimming party! No this can't be happening. I don't like water, well I do it's just I am afraid of larger amount of water. The pool and the ocean just reminds me of an embarrassing and horrifying moment of my life. I don't want to even think about it. I make sure I don't get caught with Lance with my unusual behavior. I look through my suitcase for a suitable dress to wear.
Since I'm not going to be swimming like Lance is, I settle on a white dress. It hugs my waist with a cute pink belt and it's pink sequins surround the bottom of it. The dress isn't that short. It's a bit below my knees which is perfect for me to handle. Layer after layer of white cloth is below the pink belt.
I take few strands of my hair that is a bit above my ear. I braid it and clip it up to the side while leaving my other natural silky hair untouched.
I step out of the bathroom to see that Lance isn't even in the room anymore. I close the room door and walk over to the deck of the ship. The wind blows my hair into my face as I step out. My gaze travels to the deep pool in front of me which is not the normal size of a pool. I'd say it's like an ocean!
The pool is crystal blue that is slightly moving side to side from the movement of the ship. I try to stay as far away from the pool as I can, which goes well until someone decides it's time to play "Push People Inside of the Pool."
Help, I can't swim.
I sound like a constipated fish. No! I'm already losing my breath. My white dress gets soaked, slowly flowing above me, showing my bra and panties.
I move my arms side to side trying my best to swim. But I don't feel like I am doing it right. I am going deeper and deeper inside the pool. Does this pool even have an end?!
"Crystal?" someone asks. I can't even open my eyes.
"Crystal!" they say again.
Yes, I'm Crystal. Crystal fucking clear now due to the stupid white dress. Come over here and help me!
As if they rocked into my mind, the person jumps into the water and pulls me up and out. I breathe heavily as the person lowers me into a chair nearby.
Lance, of course. It's always him in these situations. His auburn hair is wet. Drips of water is dripping from his chin.
He glances at me, then at my dress and blushes. He drops down next to me and sits so close. His arm snakes around my waist and he pulls me closer.
"You don't want others to see through your dress, right? So stay as close as you can against me," Lance says while turning his head to the other direction, not looking directly in my eyes like he usually does. His wet hair is slight covering his face and is nearly touching my cheek. I can see a bit of his blushing face. So cute.
I can feel his heart beating very fast. Or is it my heart that is beating very fast?
He takes out his phone and dials his mother's number. She answers in a heartbeat.
"Bring a towel, mom," he says and hangs up, slipping his phone inside his pocket. Megan walks out and hands me a towel. As soon as she does, Lance quickly takes back his arm from my waist as if I electrocuted him. Not bothering to care even though it set a pain in my heart, I wrap it around myself in comfort.
"No! Lance, why did you move it was such a cute position, I wanted take a picture!" Megan says enthusiastically but slightly pouting like a child. I sometimes wonder why Megan was so mean toward me in the beginning, but I like her now.
"Mom!" Lance groans.
"Shut up, don't be a baby," Megan scolds him. "Let's just take one picture of you two as a memory here." She sets up her camera and holds it in front of our faces. "Smile!"
Lance grimaces as I give the camera my brightest smile.
"Lance if you do not smile-" she begins to say but doesn't need to finish because Lance is already smiling at the threat. Megan snaps a few pictures and smiles as she lowers the camera. "Lance, you can go ahead and swim if you want."
Lance gets up and walks to the pool to get ready and swim. Megan takes a seat next to me and puts a hand on my lap. "I'll send you the picture," she says, winking at my now-red face.
I give her a little smile and rest my head on her shoulder. "It's nice to spend time with you, Megan."
"It's nice taking pictures of Lystal. It's definitely the highlight of my days," she admits, throwing an arm around my shoulders.
______________________________________
Kawaii456_016n: There is a big surprise awaiting for you guys in the next chapter. MWHAHAH! You guys will have to wait to find out! MWHAHAHAH! Oh and thanks for reading our book!
Various: Make sure to check out some of the other stories/ books we are working on!
We hope you enjoyed the chapter <3
I hope you have a great day!!