Like Strong Poison

Trip Time

Chapter 3

All I could think while we finished the dishes was that Austin Mitchell had asked me to go to a party with him.

What!

OMG!

Say yes, say yes!

But the words that actually left my mouth were;

"I'm sorry Austin I have this thing I have to finish."

"Thing... What sort of thing?" The smile dropped from his face. And suddenly took up residence on mine.

"My bio project!"

"Oh okay!"

I think that I must have stunned him with that because for the rest of the time we were washing up not another word was said.

*****

With the dishes finally finished we both walked through to the living room where Austin sat down on the two-seater couch and patted the empty space next to him for me to sit. I walked over to the three-seat sofa where both of our moms sat and took the spot between them.

"Oh honey, isn't it just wonderful?" smiled my mom as she put her arm around my shoulders and gave them a light squeeze. She must have seen the question in my eyes from behind my lenses. "Your daddy has won employee of the month, isn't that just great?"

"Hey daddy, that's great news," I smiled. "So what did you win?"

I don't know what I'd said that had been so funny but at that moment all of the adults laughed.

"The youth of today!" Austin's father said through his laughter.

"Oh, come on now Lloyd," said his wife putting her hand on my knee. "I was just as impetuous when I was her age and I'll bet you were too. "

"Well yeah Susan, I guess you're right there," said Lloyd Mitchell in his deep, booming voice. "Well young lady, what would you say to spending the rest of your summer break with us? "

I don't know why but my eyes automatically shifted over to where Austin sat and I saw the huge grin creep across his lips.

***

The next morning I woke up late but I didn't mind. I was still sort of hoping that my father's prize of an all expenses paid road trip holiday his managing director's family had all been part of a strange dream. Then my mother's voice called up the stairs and put an end to that thought.

"Cassie Stockard, get your butt out from under that duvet right now. Breakfast's almost ready and we have to meet the Mitchell's in less than two hours."

It took me another ten minutes to climb out of bed and face the day ahead. I walked into the kitchen still dressed in the shorts and T-shirt I had slept in and sat myself behind the plate of bacon and waffles in the same seat that Austin had occupied at the dinner party the night before.

"Cassie, just look at you, you're not even dressed yet!" mom said as she placed a glass of orange juice down next to my plate.

"Mom, do we have to go?" I asked.

"What do you mean? Of course we have to go. It's not every day we get invited to go on holiday with Lloyd and Susan Mitchell!"

"But mom, I'm not feeling too good."

"Oh no you don't young lady, we're going and that's all there is too it!"

"But..."

"No but's Cassie, get that food inside you and then get changed and packed. That's the last I want to hear about it."

****

Grudgingly I had almost finished packing my bags for the road trip when I heard my text alert tone and picked up my phone from the bedside table and saw a number that I didn't recognize. I pressed the number and read the message.

'Hey, it's Austin. Just wondering what time your mom said to meet us at?'

'Austin? How did you get my number?' Was the message I sent the message back.

'Your mom gave it to me before I left yesterday. Why, is there a problem?'

Is there a problem? Half of me said that there was. The other half smiled at the fact that I now had his number too. Most of the girls at school would probably have committed bloody murder to get a hold of that, at least the ones that didn't already have it.

'No problem.' I lied. 'Mom said that we're meeting up sometime after one.'

'Ok thanks!' he replied.

I quickly put Austin's name into my small number of contacts and set my phone down, then I went to have a shower.

*****

Seven hours later our two families finally got off the plane in Paris. We picked up our luggage and walked to the main exit. I was shocked when I saw the Limo Mr. Mitchell had hired for us.

"Only the best for you guys." Mr. Mitchell smiled as he signalled for the driver to load our bags into the trunk. It was definitely the best part of the trip so far.

"Wow, this is so exciting Mr. Mitchell, thank you." At that moment I was glad my mom had forced me into going. Who would have thought this time yesterday that I would be in a Limo in the centre Paris?

"That's okay sugar, and if you think this is something just wait till you see the Winnebago we're going to be travelling in.

****

We arrived at the hotel and were assigned our rooms. The good thing was that all the rooms were on the same floor and close to each other. The bad thing was that somebody, somewhere had made a huge had totally messed up. Instead of reserving two double rooms and two singles we only had two doubles and one single.

The first room I went in to was the single. It was much larger than I had expected but the down fall was that there was only one bed.

"Okay I bags this room." Austin's voice made me jump. I hadn't even heard him come in. "Or I guess we could share it if you like," he said with a grin.

"There's only one bed." I told him, unimpressed.

"Cool, then you can have the couch and I'll have the bed," he asid as he sat down and bounced a couple of times on the mattress.

"Hey, who says that you get the bed?" I asked as I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Okay, well I guess we could both share the bed if that works better for you Cassie."

"What!" I yelled at him. "There's no way I'm sleeping in the same bed as you!"

"And why not, are you scared that you might get a little carried away or something?" Austin asked me

"No it's just never going to happen, okay!"

He walked towards me until he had me cornered against the wall. The scent of his cologne almost had me under its spell again as he moved his lips close to my ear.

"Come on Cassie, it's only for one night," he whispered, "And you never know you, might just like it."

His words tickled my ear and made my insides flutter with excitement.

"Why are you doing this?" I hardly recognized the hiss that was my own voice.

5 hours ago

"Doing what?" he asked as he moved even closer to me.

"Teasing me," I moaned. I felt his delicate stubble brush against my cheek and I was lost.

Then I heard those three words escape his lips, "Because I can!"

Here's part 2 of chapter 3 OMG! How do you guys like it? Make sure to comment, vote, and tell all your friends! One more thing! How do you think if I started a contest will you guys be joining in? If comment below 😘