Izzy's POV
Finals week came and went, all of us meeting that Friday night to get one last dinner in the dining hall. We spent the week packing up some of our things to bring when we left campus. I triple checked to make sure I had everything I needed in my bags before going over to meet them. Luke and I weren't leaving until tomorrow afternoon, but I wanted to be ready to go.
I was the last one to get there, Luke was already out with Michael so they got there first and grabbed a table. I plopped down in the seat he had waiting for me, saying hi to everyone as I did. I put my plate down as we all dug in.
"The hotel's booked for the 29th to the 8th, so we have over a week there." Sophie was filling us in on the game plan for our road trip.
We were all meeting on campus on the 28th, the day after Calum was flying back. Michael agreed to put him up for the night at his parent's house, since I guess they were excited to see him again. Sophie's parents were dropping her off at noon so we could get an early start. She found a small hotel along the way that was 4 hours into the trip, so she called and had two rooms booked there for the one night.
Luke and I were the closest to the school, so we were supposed to get there first and set up the car since Brett was letting us take his SUV. It was the only way we could all fit together, considering mine and Luke's cars were only a comfortable four people. Michael and Calum were getting a ride from Michael's mom and were planning on picking up Ashton on the way. Sophie planned it out perfectly, making sure no one would have to leave their car on campus and possibly get it towed.
We were glad all of the parents were excited for us, so they wanted to help any way they could. And Brett was a life saver for trusting us with his car. I didn't know if he really didn't care about it or if he knew he had enough money to replace it, but it was a brand-new Cadillac Escalade. I wouldn't have trusted us if I were him, but I wasn't going to complain.
"Okay, we'll be here a little before noon to wait for you guys." Luke said, letting everyone nod in agreement.
After dinner, we all said our good byes and wished each other a merry Christmas. They were all leaving early in the morning so we knew we wouldn't get the chance to see them again. Luke offered to drive Calum to the airport, though, so they both had to be up at 5 am. We went back to our rooms at 10 to make sure they got enough sleep.
We agreed to exchange gifts on the first night we got to the city. We wanted to have a little Christmas celebration, and it was my birthday so we could kill two birds with one stone. It took some convincing, but I told them not to bother getting me separate gifts for both occasions, one small something was plenty for me. I hadn't actually gotten any gifts for either Christmas or my birthday in years, so even being able to spend the time with them was enough.
I woke up to an empty bed on Saturday morning. I barely remembered Luke sneaking out of my room, but it was now 7 so I knew if he wasn't back already he would be soon. I rolled over and tried to wake myself up. I hated the fact that I was up at 7 without an alarm, but it was better than sleeping the day away.
I brought my phone into my bathroom and put music on so I could shower. I only had a couple things left to pack, so I wanted to get ready and be able to finally put them in my bag. I stripped out of the clothes I slept in, turning the water on right after. I let it warm up before stepping in.
I shaved first to get it out of the way, and when I started lathering shampoo into my hair the curtain was pushed open. Luke stepped right in, wrapping his arms around my stomach as he did.
"Good morning." He said smoothly, kissing the back of my shoulder.
"Morning." I giggled, turning around in his arms after rinsing my hands free of shampoo.
"You're up early." He said, planting a kiss on my lips.
"I wanted to finish packing all my shit up." I said quickly, leaning my head back to rinse the bubbles out of my hair. Luke was shameless, he pushed me out of the way really quick to wet his hair and used my shampoo. It smelt like roses, but he didn't seem to care. I just put conditioner in while he washed the shampoo out.
"Come here." He said, grabbing the body wash and putting some in my hands before his own.
He lathered it all over me, lingering a little on my boobs. I rolled my eyes at him, knowing he couldn't control himself. I did the same for him, getting his whole body sudsy. Some very cringe worthy teasing later, we both stepped out and dried ourselves off. I went to wrap the towel around myself, but he pulled my arms toward him before I could.
"You're so beautiful." He mumbled into my neck, making me blush uncontrollably. I was just glad he couldn't see it. He kissed up my jaw and finally to my lips, pulling away before it turned into anything else.
I finished wrapping myself up and stood in front of the mirror to comb my hair. Luke left the bathroom to grab the spare clothes he had in my dresser, leaving me to look at myself. I started feeling my cheeks, noticing that they were filling in the slightest bit. I felt disgusting, and I knew I had gained weight in the last month from eating more.
"Stop it, Izz." Luke startled me. I shot my head in his direction to see him leaning up against the doorway into the bathroom. He only put boxers on, putting getting dressed on hold to check on me.
"I'm fine." I said quietly, going back to combing my wet hair. I felt him staring for a few moments after, but he disappeared back into my room to finish getting dressed.
When I finished in the bathroom, I found him laying on my bed on his phone. I made my way to my dresser, pulling out a bra and underwear to put on. I dropped the towel to the floor and slipped on the underwear, noticing his eyes were all over me. I picked up the bra and quickly put it on, turning back around to find something to wear.
"You look the same to me." He said, making me turn my head to look at him. He was giving me a stern look, wanting me to believe him. I didn't, though, and I just turned back to keep digging through my drawers.
I threw on a long sleeve tee and some joggers, not really caring about my appearance at this point. I threw the last few things into my bags and put them together next to the door. I plopped onto the bean bag in the corner, letting my eyes close and body go limp. It wasn't until I felt someone's presence in front of me that I looked up.
"Let's go get breakfast." Luke said, standing over me like a giant from how low I was sitting. I scrunched my nose, not really in the mood to eat after looking in the mirror.
"I just want coffee." I said, standing up and walking past him to grab my phone. He stood still, giving me a weird look as I waited for him at the door. "Are you coming?"
"Yeah." He said quietly, but I could still sense the irritation in his voice. He made his way over to me, walking right into the hall as I closed the door behind us.
The entire time we sat in the café he just kept staring at me. I tried to make conversation, but he was dismissing it every chance he got. It didn't make me feel any better to know he was pissed at me for feeling this way. I finally gave in and grabbed a bagel, bringing it back to the table to start eating it.
"Thank you." He said, finally looking at me without the blank stare. I nodded a little, wanting to let him know I wasn't happy, either. I ate half of it, but that was good enough for him.
We stayed and talked for a while, just killing time before we left for Brett's house. It was almost 11 when we got back to my room so Luke went to make sure he had everything he needed. I was scrolling through my phone in my bed while I waited for him to finish, but a memory popped up on Facebook that made my heart shatter.
It was 5 years since the memory took place, but it was one of the last pictures I took with my parents. We were all posing in front of the huge Christmas tree they had in the middle of the city, and it just reminded me that I was going to see that same tree in just over a week. It was the last family vacation we went on.
I spent the next several minutes snooping through my mom's Facebook page, having deleted her years ago. She had a couple pictures of her and my dad up, and it looked like they traveled a lot all of a sudden. Now that I was out of the picture they probably did anything they wanted to.
When I felt tears falling down my cheeks I quickly wiped them away, not wanting to waste them on two people that gave up on me so easily. Right on cue, Luke waltzed right back into my room, seeing my tear-stained face immediately and rushing over to me.
"What happened? Are you okay?" He frantically asked, grabbing my face in his hands to look at me. I sniffled and pulled away from him, not wanting to get into it.
"I'm fine, don't worry about it." I said quickly, locking my phone and throwing it on down on my bed. He looked between me and the phone suspiciously, and before I could stop him he was already unlocking it. His eyebrows furrowed at the sight of what it opened onto.
"Is this your mom?" He asked carefully, giving me a sympathetic frown.
"Yeah. A memory came up on Facebook and I went to her page and... I don't know. They look happier now." I said quietly, not letting anymore tears fall. He put my phone down and crawled on top of me, hovering over me as he put his forehead against mine.
"We're making new memories." That was all he said, but it made my heart swell. I pushed the thought of how my family used to be out of my head, replacing it with the thought of us going on our own adventures. A smile crept onto my face before I kissed him, grabbing a hold of his face to pull him into me.
His phone ringing was the only reason we pulled away from each other. It was Brett and he said he had to take it, so he left to go to his room. I figured we were leaving soon, so I went over my room one last time to make sure I didn't leave anything behind that I would need. By the time I was finished, Luke was at my door with his bags telling me to grab mine.
We locked our rooms for the last time this semester, going down to the lobby together and walking out to our cars. I had to take mine with me so it wouldn't get towed, so I threw my bags in and followed Luke on the half hour drive to Brett's house. He pulled over in front of the house to let me park first, wanting his car to be behind mine in case he needed it.
We grabbed all our things and made our way to the door, Luke walking right in like last time. I saw that Brett's car wasn't here, and when he wasn't there to greet us I knew he just wasn't home. Luke led me to a spare room upstairs, telling me to put my bags in the corner. We decided to unpack later, knowing that this was going to be our home for the week until we left for the trip.
We went downstairs and turned the TV on, cuddling up on the couch to watch for the next few hours. Somewhere along the way I fell asleep, but when I woke up Luke wasn't sitting with me anymore. I looked around the room until I heard voices coming from the kitchen, so I poked my head over the back of the couch.
There were five guys standing around the counter, one being Luke and another Brett. I didn't recognize the other three, but I saw everything that was laid out on the island. They had stacks of money everywhere and plastic wrapped blocks of coke stacked variously around the kitchen. They were all drinking and snorting away, not even noticing when I started walking toward them.
It was dark out, so it was at least 5 already. I was surprised that they were starting this early, but by the looks of things they had been going for a while. When one of the unknown guys looked up at me I froze, watching as they all turned to me. When Luke saw that I was awake he stumbled over to me and wrapped me up in a hug.
"Hey, baby." He slurred, sounding more drunk than anything.
"Hi." I said awkwardly, pulling away from him. I watched him as he turned back to the guys, leading me to sit on the stool next to him.
"Izzy, welcome welcome." Brett said, smiling at me and holding his arms out.
"Hey." I said quietly, taking note that they were literally all plastered.
"This is Jake, Evan, and Keenan. They all work for me." Brett introduced me to the three random guys, pointing his finger sloppily as he said each name. I waved to them shyly.
Once that was done with, they went back to discussing business. I heard Luke tell them how busy this last week was because of finals and students studying. I didn't even see him sell that much, but I guess he also had the kids who worked under him. It's like I didn't even exist at the moment, they were just zoned in on what they were doing.
"Izz, you want any?" Luke finally asked, holding out a rolled dollar bill.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Brett asked, looking between us like we hadn't done this multiple times before.
"She's bought off me before, dude, it's fine." Luke chuckled, putting the dollar bill in my hand.
I stood up and walked over to him as he cut me a couple lines. The last time I touched this stuff was the night Luke and I snuck away at the party, but it was the first official day of winter break so I really didn't care. I just snorted them all, not really paying attention to the surprised looks on everyone's faces. Luke just smirked at them all, knowing damn well that I could hold my own.
When the rush went away, I sat back down next to Luke. Brett laughed, reaching behind him into the fridge and opening a beer before sliding it over to me. I took it as his official seal of approval. We sat and drank for a while, and I listened to them intently as they talked about Brett's plan for the holidays. It felt good to be included, and Luke kept glancing my way every once in a while, just smiling at me to let me know he was happy I was included, too.