Wake Up

3

My eyes flicker open and I blink from the bright sunlight streaming through my window, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light. Luckily, I slept really well. It looks like having someone with me before I fall asleep actually does help. A lot. Which, sadly means I need Grayson.

I just hope the awkwardness between Grayson and I will fade soon or this little deal of ours is going to be way more difficult than it has to be.

Anyways, getting back to this morning, I get up and do my usual morning routine. I check the time and realize it's 9 am. Wow. I slept a lot, for me at least. I walk downstairs to be greeted by the savory smell of breakfast. Almost instantly, my tastebuds water and I hurry down to see what's cooking.

When I get down I see Grayson at the stove cooking what looks like eggs and bacon. He must've heard me coming down since he turns around at me.

"Good morning, sleep well?" He asks and I blush slightly, not used to this sudden attention.

"Yes, and good morning to you too!" I reply and he gives me a faint smile before turning back to his food. I debate on what to eat for breakfast but before I have time to grab anything Grayson hands me a plate full of food. I sigh since I was eyeing up the cereal but I'm appreciative of Grayson cooking for me. Cereal can wait till some other time!

"I hope you like eggs and bacon" He says and strolls over to the table.

"Yeah I do, thanks!" I say, and I sit down to eat. I dig in and the taste of bacon spreads across my tastebuds. Let me just say, this food doesn't just look really good. I'm actually kind of surprised at how good Grayson is at cooking. Must've gotten it from his mother.

Once I'm done, I thank Grayson again before heading back up to my room. School is starting tomorrow so I decide to do my laundry so that I have a decent selection of clothes for the first day. Not that I really care about looking amazing the first day, everyone knows me anyway. I guess I shouldn't look like a slob because technically I'm Grayson's "girlfriend" right now. Just the thought of it makes me want to cringe.

Don't get me wrong, Grayson is surprisingly an okay guy ,but him and I actually dating? As if.

On that thought, I wonder how I'm going to explain to my best friends that I'm suddenly dating Grayson Chase. Should I tell them it's fake and just get it over with? I mean they must know me well enough by now to know we aren't really dating. It probably won't take them very long to catch on.

But maybe I shouldn't tell... just to ensure that Grayson's ex doesn't find out that we aren't actually dating... if that happened our deal would be over with. I feel really bad thinking about lying, honestly I'd hate to do it to my closest friends but sometimes things are better left kept between two people.

I put all my clothes away and ponder on what I should do for my last day of freedom. Maybe I could hit up the local coffee shop and read or maybe I could take a bike ride around town. I decide to explore the house a little bit so I can get familiar with it a little better.

As I exit my room, I slam the door into something and quickly look to see what I could have possibly hit. I stop when I see Grayson on the floor rubbing his forehead and struggle to hold back from laughing. I somehow manage to mutter, "Oops! Sorry I didn't realize you were outside of my door." Grayson gives me an annoyed look which makes me let out a howl of laughter.

Grayson starts chuckling too and I give him a hand to help stand him up. Once we're done, I wipe my eyes that had watered from laughing so hard. "It's alright." Grayson replies with a chuckle and scratches the back of his head. His face seems a bit pink. Did I just embarrass Grayson Chase? Who knew that was possible?!

"Are you embarrassed, Grayson Chase?" I ask mockingly, watching his cheeks get redder. I feel satisfied and give myself a mental pat on the back.

"No." He replies, still embarrassed but shrugs it off. His face then turns back to normal and I wonder what he's about to say. "So, I was thinking since we have to play as girlfriend and boyfriend maybe we should get to know each other better? Just in case people expect us to know a lot about each other." He asks and my eyes widen.

"Oh yeah, sure that's a good idea" I say, my cheeks turning pink this time. I was hoping Grayson wouldn't notice but I can tell he did when he smirks at me triumphantly.

"Who's the embarrassed one now, Presley Lockhart?" He asks and I playfully punch him in the arm. I let out a fake cough to change the subject off of my cheeks.

"So what did you have in mind?" I ask and wonder what we could do to get to know each other.

"There aren't many things we could do to really get to know each other so I figured we could walk to the beach and just talk I guess." He replies, scratching the back of his head again.

"Alright, give me ten minutes and I'll be ready to go." I say and he nods, walking away from the doorway. I go back in my room and take a deep breath, lifting a weight off my shoulders that I hadn't realized was there. I put on suitable clothes for the beach and grab my purse in case I need money for something.

Once I get downstairs I see Grayson waiting there for me, with an expensive looking camera in his hand. I walk up to him and he notices me standing there, and he grins at me.

"You ready to go?" He asks and I nod, grinning back at him. "So, first thing to know about me that most other people wouldn't know is that I'm into photography. I figured I should take my camera since you can pretty much always get good pictures at the beach." He says and I nod, surprised at his hidden hobby.

"That's interesting! I honestly would've never seen you as a photography kind of guy... the more you know, right?" I giggle and he smiles at me. "Well, I guess it's my turn now. Something that I like to do is take a bike ride around town. Something about it just makes everything so peaceful. It lets me clear my mind when I need to." I admit and he nods.

I look at where we are and I'm surprised at how far we've walked already. Although, the beach is pretty close to home. I can start to hear the waves crashing on the shore.

I look up at him, and realize he is already looking at me. All of the sudden I start to feel... I don't know. Where did those feelings come from? I look away before Grayson can notice. I doubt it was anything. I probably just had something on me.

"Is there something on my hair?" I ask and start to feel through the top of my hair to make sure there isn't like a leaf or something. Grayson snaps out of whatever trance he was in and mutters a no.

That was interesting, but I'm not going to ponder over it too much. There is no way that Grayson has feelings for me and there is definitely no way that I'm developing feelings for Grayson. He was probably just having one of those things where you get lost in thought, I assure myself. Then, a comfortable silence settles between us as we continue to make our way to the beach.

↠↠↠↠↠↠

Author's Note:

hello! sorry for the lack of posting, I'm really going to try to post more for you guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to vote, comment, and share! Sorry for it being so short, I wanted to get a chapter out to you guys ASAP!

Thanks for reading! Oh and also thank you guys for 100 reads! It means a lot to me and I hope this book will go far!

- Madison :)