Paradise

Chapter 16 - Catching Up

I woke up with a yawn as I stretched my limbs. The sun's rays filled the room through the tightly closed curtains. I found Logan laying next to me and it looked like he was waking up to for he was fidgeting and rubbing his eyes. When did he take off his shirt?

"Good morning." I said with sleep still clouding my eyelids.

"This is a great way to start my day," he said with his eyes half closed and a smile, "Seeing such a beautiful sight." He reached over and moved a strand of hair so he could kiss my cheek.

"Oh please, I probably look like a mess right now." I said blushing and closing my eyes slightly.

"On the contrary, I wouldn't mind waking up like this every morning. I would be set for the rest of my life."

Waking up next to Logan filled my stomach with flying butterflies by the dozens. It made my heart flutter similar to those butterflies in my stomach. Not to mention, it made a smile form from ear to ear without any sign of fading away.

"When did you take off your shirt?" I said trying to not make it obvious that I was staring at his ripped stomach.

"Does it bother you? You know, me being shirtless pressed up against you?" He teased mockingly.

"Shut up!" I said trying to stop my face from turning red.

"I can't sleep with a shirt on... Or socks. I just get too hot. Oh and I crashed like 5 minutes after you did. I just couldn't take it anymore"

I reached for my phone on the nearby night stand. The time read 9:26 am. My phone was just about to die considering I had about 30 or so missed calls from my dad, 37 from Brooke and surprisingly I had 8 from Bethany and 13 from Jennifer. None from my mom though. There were dozens of texts from both Bethany and Jennifer reading things like "Avery, where are you???", "I know you are ignoring us," "Answer us dammit!", "We're worried about you.", "Your dad told us about what happened... Why didn't you tell us?? We're your two best friends."

Logan must have seen the worried look on my face for he sat up, resting his chin on my shoulder, "What's going on?"

After our enormous argument over me answering Brooke's phone calls, I didn't know whether or not to inform him on what's going on or keep him in the dark so our happiness can continue. My negative thinking got the best of me as I decided that ignorance is bliss, "Nothing. I uh... I'm just checking the time. It's almost 9:30, why are we up?"

"He straightened himself up so he was facing me directly, his face was merely a few inches away from mine, "Because we have the entire day ahead of us. I have a few ideas on what we can do today." He said as he pressed his lips against my forehead.

I set my phone faced down on the nightstand awkwardly, hoping he wouldn't notice. My eyes darted back from my phone to him making sure he didn't catch on, "What did you have in mind?"

"The Nutcracker is in town. Well, in Santa Barbara that is. I was thinking maybe-"

Before he could finish I cut him off, "We have to go! 'Tis the season, right? I love The Nutcracker and I've always loved watching ballet!" I could feel my half asleep face light up with joy.

He laughed at my excitement, "Okay, okay. We'll go. It doesn't start until 7:00pm so we have plenty of time until then. What else do you want to do today, Lancaster?"

Right as I was about to answer, my phone vibrated. I froze in my place as I felt my heart skip a beat. It's a wonder that the vibrating of my phone didn't wake us up last night.

Logan asked, "What's that?"

I panicked and went with the first thought that came to mind, "It's... I uh... It's my alarm. I set it last night so we wouldn't wake up so late."