unexpected - ruel van dijk

road trip

i wake up to my mum shaking me awake. it is raining heavily outside and the sound of rain on the roof is heavily audible.

"brynne," she says. "your phone won't shut up." i open my eyes groggily as the memories from last night refill my mind.

"oh shit," i say, grabbing my phone from her hand. "it's ruel" she laughs and shakes her head as she walks out of my room.

i open my phone and go on snapchat, he's messaged me like a million times to wake me up.

brynne: holy shit i'm awake what do u want? aren't you hungover?

i type- playing dumb. i know that he's gonna invite me away with his friends for the weekend, but i don't want to give away that coco spoiled the surprise last night.

ruel: hell nah. my friends and i are picking u up and we're going to the beach house for the  weekend for my goodbye.. celebration.

brynne: goodbye?

i laugh when i send it; wow i'm good at pretending to not know something.

ruel: i'm going on tour for a couple of weeks. it'll be nothing big, just about 10 of us, enough to fill two cars

brynne: alright, i'm assuming you'll be here  in 10?

ruel: you're finally getting used to this ;)

brynne: you're so annoying ruel

i turn my phone off and get changed into a pair of light grey tights and a green cropped hoodie. i quickly run into the bathroom to put on a tiny bit of makeup under my eyes and i tie my hair into a low bun. i then fix up my fringe. 

i then chuck my makeup bag into my suitcase with my clothes and take everything downstairs. as soon as i reach the door i hear a beep of a car horn. i yell goodbye to my parents and run out to the car trying not to get too wet from the rain. ruel jumps out of the driver's seat and walks around to open the boot. i throw my suitcase on top of the others and get in the back seat with taylor and ethan, whom i can only assume to be dating as to how they're sitting with their hands intertwined. 

"hey!" i say as i put my seatbelt on.

"it's so good to see you again!" taylor says, ethan smiles at me. ruel's friend jake is sitting in the front seat. 

"who else is coming?" i ask.

"georgia, emma, zac, charlie and avery" jake answers. i sit in the car and look out of the window as we drive out of sydney. i gaze into the rear-view mirror as we pull up to a set of traffic lights. i see ruel staring at me. i smile and he smiles back, then shifts his vision back to the road as the light change back to green. i have no idea if ruel remembers telling me he loves me or not. my bet is that he can't remember. surely it would've been more uncomfortable in the car if he remembered? 

"so brynne, you're from around redfern?" taylor asks me.

"yeah," i say. "i love it where i live," i smile.

"it's so quick for you to get into the city!" she says.

"yeah, it's only one stop" i reply. ethan turns to me and talks across taylor.

"how do you know ruel?" he asks me. 

"we literally met at a concert last week" i laugh.

"so love at first sight, hey ruel?" ethan jokes and pushes the driver's seat.

"shut up ethan" ruel laughs and shakes his head. i laugh along so i don't look like i'm freaking out. i don't understand why these jokes bother me so much. it's probably because of what happened last night.

"i'm just surprised ruel could wake up this early after last night" i say. the car erupts in laughter. jake turns around.

"coco let us into his house and we poured water on him," he said.

"he was out of bed within seconds" ethan continues. ruel laughs and keeps his eyes on the road.

jake plugs his phone into the aux cord and plays 'see you again' by tyler, the creator. i sing along because it's literally one of my favourite songs. we continue to drive for about another hour and a half. eventually we reach what i can only assume is the beach house. ruel pulls the car into the driveway and we all get out of the car hurriedly, as the rain is still bucketing down. the others have already arrived judging by the other car in the driveway. i hurry around to the back of the car and begin to pull my bag out of the boot. ruel runs around and begins to help me.

"thanks," i smile as he lifts my bag from the back of the car onto the driveway.

"no worries," he says as i pick it up and hurry to taylor as she walks towards the front door of the house.

"we're here!" taylor calls. a tall blonde girl who i hadn't seen before comes running to hug taylor. after she hugs taylor she turns to me.

"hi," i say, "i'm brynne- i don't think we've met." the girl embraces me in a hug.

"i'm avery," she says. "are you the one ruel is always talking about?"

"she is," taylor finishes. i roll my eyes jokingly and laugh.

"it's so good you could make it!" avery tells me, "come upstairs, i'll show you where we sleep" there are a few bedrooms, i'm sharing a bedroom with emma and avery. taylor and georgia are sharing a room with their boyfriends, ethan and charlie. ruel, jake and zac are in the third bedroom. i unpack a few things and then head downstairs with avery to the loungeroom where everyone is spread out across the couch. because of the rain we decide to stay in and watch a movie. 

i sit down next to avery on the edge of the couch and we pull a blanket over our laps. whoever has the remote control decides to put on '10 things i hate about you' and hey, i'm not complaining. i absolutely love that movie. 

about halfway through the movie i look over at ruel, and our eyes meet. i'm not sure for how long he had been staring at me. i smile at him and turn back to continue watching the movie.

eventually the movie finishes and avery, emma and i go up to our room to finish unpacking our stuff and get our room organised. once we get inside the room, avery shuts the door.

"so what's going on between you and ruel?" she asks me and sits down on my bed.

"literally nothing" i laugh awkwardly and jump onto my bed next to her.

"as if!" emma says and sits down as well, "i saw him making eyes at you through the whole movie."

"i don't know" i say. "i don't like him like that".

"fair enough," avery says and winks at me. i smile and shake my head.

"we'll see what happens at his going away party" emma says as she gets up and opens her suitcase to unpack.

i sigh and open my suitcase. no matter how many times ruel's friends make jokes, my feelings won't change. i don't need a boyfriend. i don't want a boyfriend and i could not put myself through the torture of another relationship. it was easier to just deny my feelings and try to pursue a friendship with ruel. 

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what feelings are brynne denying?
what will happen at ruel's going away party?
find out next chapter!!

thank you so so so much for reading this chapter. i hope you enjoyed. i will be trying to be way more active once i'm on school holidays! so be prepared for that.

thank u again for reading, and don't forget to vote and comment. it really motivates me so much to keep on writing.

love y'all!!

xx