Before We Fall || Sky Flaherty

Chapter 48

Alivia's POV

Ben Tyler Cook had declared, with all the gravity of a seasoned philosopher, that the only proper way to close out the first leg of tour was with "a morale-boosting aquatic event." And somehow, even though that phrase didn't make any sense, we all agreed.

So there we were—me, Sky, Ben, Josh, Demarius Joey, Alex, and Iain—sneaking down the back stairwell of the hotel, towels slung over shoulders, laughter muffled behind our hands.

The pool area was deserted, tinted pale blue by underwater lights and half-shadowed by the glass walls facing out into the night. It was almost midnight.

Sky brushed his arm against mine as we walked. "Think we're gonna get kicked out?"

I shrugged. "Probably. You're fast though. You could probably outrun hotel security."

"I'd carry you," he said.

I grinned. "You'd trip over your own feet and we'd both get banned."

"Romantic," he replied.

Ben cannonballed into the water with a yell that shattered the silence, earning a chorus of shushing from the rest of us. Josh followed immediately after.

"I give us ten minutes," Joey said, but peeled off his hoodie anyway.

We swam. We played. We made stupid dares. Josh tried to do a handstand and immediately fell sideways into Alex. Sky dunked Ben, who retaliated by declaring war. Iain built a makeshift "float throne" out of kickboards and demanded tribute.

Eventually the chaos simmered down. People floated, kicked lazily through the water, or hung off the edge of the pool, tired but content. The conversation turned quieter, sleepier, weightier.

Ben was the first to say it. "It doesn't feel like it's ending tomorrow."

Josh, clinging to the edge beside him, nodded. "Probably 'cause it's not really. Four months isn't that long."

"But it's gonna feel long," Iain muttered, tossing water lazily into the air. "No more midnight Cracker Barrel runs. No more two-show Saturdays. No more hotel waffle makers."

"No more falling asleep on the plane and waking up three states later," Alex said, smiling faintly.

Joey laughed. "You say that like it's a good thing."

I rested my chin on my folded arms, floating in a lazy circle next to Sky. "I think I'm gonna miss it more than I expected to."

Sky looked over at me. "Even the early call times?"

I smiled. "Maybe not those. But the rest, yeah."

"You'll have to write me a full report of your civilian summer life," he said. "All the high drama of bodegas and sleeping in your own bed."

"I plan to be extremely boring," I said. "Like aggressively dull. You'll be begging me to come back."

"I already am," he said.

That stopped me for a second. He didn't say it like a joke. He said it like it was true.

"I'll miss you," I said quietly.

"I'll miss you more," he replied, toying with the string tying my swimsuit around my neck. "But we'll be back."

"Yeah," I said, letting the word linger. "We'll be back."

And for now, that was enough.

Josh rested his chin on his folded arms along the pool's edge. "You ever think about where you were when tour started?"

I looked at Sky across the water. He was already looking at me.

"Yeah," I said.

Ben cracked a grin. "You were all shy and mysterious and serious."

"She still is," Alex said. "But now we know she's secretly chaotic."

Sky swam over, tugged me gently toward him. "You're gonna be okay," he whispered.

I nodded, because I didn't trust my voice.

Eventually we peeled ourselves out of the water, heavy-limbed and wrung out. Towels over shoulders, bare feet on tile. The mood had shifted—still warm, still close, but quieter.

In the elevator, everyone leaned on each other like a pile of sleepy kids at a sleepover. Someone cracked a joke about Ben's cannonball form. Josh muttered something about the chlorine burning his eyes. I wasn't really listening.

Sky's hand found mine on the way down the hall, like it always did.

When we reached our door, he unlocked it without a word and let me go in first.

Inside, the room felt familiar and safe—our open suitcases in opposite corners, his water bottle on the nightstand, my makeup bag half-zipped on the desk. The TV was still paused from when we'd half-watched a rerun earlier.

I dropped my towel on the chair, already tugging off my damp hoodie. Sky moved around the room behind me, pulling the curtains closed, flicking on the bedside lamp. The yellow light softened everything.

"You want dry clothes?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yours."

He tossed me a T-shirt without looking and disappeared into the bathroom. When he came back, I was sitting on the edge of the bed, brushing water from my hair with my fingers.

Sky didn't say anything. He just came over, kissed me gently, then again, deeper. His hands found my waist, mine slid under the hem of his shirt. We didn't rush. We never did.

The sounds of the hotel outside faded—the hum of the hallway vent, the distant door latch down the hall, someone laughing in another room.

None of it mattered. Not the end of the leg, not the months we'd have to wait, not even tomorrow. Right now, it was just this. Just us. And everything else could wait.

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do i just upload the rest of this story at once? there's like 3 chapters left and they're ready to go so i might as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

love you all lots!!!