iridescent ↠ grayson dolan ✓

↠ e l e v e n

{ c h a p t e r e l e v e n }
lauren's pov ;

Lauren and Grayson ran through the woods, practically stumbling over their own two feet as the owner of the property shouted after them. They couldn't understand how they were in a private property all this time. Who on earth had a waterfall in their backyard?

Lauren laughed as she passed the sign pushed into the ground. Perhaps she should've taken more careful notice.

It was at least ten pm, and the fresh spring night had a chilly sort of breeze. The man behind Lauren and Grayson seemed to be intent on one thing and one thing only; to find them and, apparently, get them arrested. He had a rather fearful temper as far as they could tell and they had no intention of letting him reach them. Lauren grabbed Grayson's hand. She was a much faster runner than he was. He huffed and panted, and almost tripped every few seconds on the loose stones that made up the path. However, the two managed to reach their trusty mint green beetle in no time at all.

They dove into the front seats of the car and crouched below the dashboard so that they couldn't be seen through the windows. In the reflection of the car mirrors, they could see the intense flickering of a flashlight. Soon, the light was turned off and the man presumably returned to his humble abode.

Lauren put her hand over her chest. Her heart was beating at what felt like a thousand times per second. She looked over at Grayson who peered into the woods with wide eyes. Their eyes met and they burst into laughter.

"Did you see your face!" Lauren snorted. "- when he said that we could be arrested!"

"Spending the entire night in a jail cell waiting to be bailed out by our parents who, mind you, haven't seen us in days? Yeah, probably not the best situation we could find ourselves in." He argued with a huff.

Lauren laughed. "Oh, shut up. It was fun wasn't it? You wanted a heart racing adventure- and that's exactly what you got."

* * *

Dottie's Diner was a half mile away from the waterfall, but it felt much longer than that. It's blindingly bright neon lights could be seen from all corners of Malibu, and it was even more brilliant up close. Lauren had only ever seen or heard of these retro diners in books and movies, but being in one was so much more surreal. It hit her just then about how much she experienced alone on this trip, and how much of the world was left to discover.

Grayson sat across from her in a small but comfortable booth by the window. The red seats and the checkered walls were the epitome of every cliche diner ever to exist.

"You like this place?" Grayson asked, a smile playing across his face as he watched Lauren get excited over every small detail of the diner.

Lauren gave him a grin. "I love it." She looked around at the waitresses on cherry roller skates and the strawberry milkshakes on the counter. Grayson looked as though he was completely at home. "Have you been here before?" She asked.

"Ethan and I used to come here all the time."

"Really? You two seemed to have spent a lot of time here in Malibu."

Grayson swirled the straw around in his milkshake. "We lived in Los Angeles, but had a holiday home here in Malibu."

Lauren nodded. The grand hotel in LA that Grayson could afford now made sense; they were rich. It didn't bother Lauren too much. She couldn't care less about the amount of numbers in his bank account.