"First stop... Brondseur's Lake," Ashton announces, clutching onto the railing beside him as if he was getting ready to jump.
"What are we doing at a lake?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. It was now two in the morning and the sun still hasn't risen yet.
"Haven't you gone skinny dipping, Mia?" Calum says to me, a suggestive smirk on his face. "And on your birthday?"
I rolled my eyes, now knowing what these boys were up to. "No, because I'm not a daredevil."
"How unfortunate," he chuckles.
The train approaches what seems to be a clearing with a large lake in the middle, surrounded my trees. The stars were still glistening in the sky, and in this viewpoint the lake looked beautiful.
Too beautiful to be swam naked in.
"Get ready," Michael warns me, squeezing my hand that still rested in his.
"Wait..." I nearly choked out. "We're going to jump off the train?"
Calum snorted. "Duh. It's not like the train's going to stop for us."
Luke is the first one to jump off of the train, and I watch him safely land on his feet. Calum follows but he tumbles to the ground, then stands up brushing the dirt on his pants as if nothing happened. Ashton lunges off and both Luke and Calum caught him before he injured myself. Michael looked at me.
"You're okay," he assures me. "And you're going to be okay. Don't be scared."
I simply nodded and we both fling ourselves out of the train, still holding onto each other. However, our fingers unlace each other as Michael lands on his feet and I find myself soon crashing into the ground. I let out a scream and Michael quickly runs to catch me, which he's successful in.
I take a deep breath and lean my head on his shoulder. "Don't want to get the birthday girl killed," he tries to joke.
I glared at him. "Wouldn't that be tragic?"
He frowns. "I'm sorry I let you go."
"Whatever," I sighed.
He lets me down on my feet and I look up, watching the train ride off into the darkness behind the trees. I follow the boys toward the lake, and Calum is already taking off his shirt.
"Wait, you guys are actually going swimming? In the dark?" My eyes widened. "Isn't that dangerous."
Luke smiles at me. "Mia, everything in the world is dangerous."
I wasn't sure what he meant by that - because it didn't make any sense whatsoever. I wasn't sure if he was trying to wise, but Luke is Luke.
I crossed my arms. "I'm not going swimming in that. There could be alligators in there... or worse."
Ashton laughs. "This place is called Brondseur's Lake, Mia, it's a tourist attraction that happens to be closed at the moment."
"So basically we can get in trouble for doing this?" I pointed out.
"For a birthday girl, you're such a party pooper," Calum pouts.
I felt like I had to disprove that I'm a "party pooper" which was completely not true. I guess that sometimes when I let my guard down, disaster happens. I don't want disaster to happen on my birthday, or for something terrible to happen when I least expect it.
I guess I overthink... A lot.
"No, I'm going swimming," I decided, making all four boys grin. "But I'm not going in completely naked like you goofs."
