Knight

Bonus | 04

Freshman year of college, about a week before Christmas

Mason Maloney

It wasn't really part of my plans to be spending the day before my year anniversary with Sam stuck in a car with him and Bella for twenty hours, but that was how it ended up. It was just how the end of the semester landed and I had a final the day before. Bella, on the other hand, was a different story.

She and Pete had gotten into an argument just a few hours before we left school so the two of them refused to ride in the same car. That left Pete and Christo in Ross's car while we had to take Bella. We had planned weeks in advance that it would be best to put three people to a car so we could all switch off driving.

We had already been in the car for almost four hours and I was beginning to get restless.

"Are we stopping soon? I have to pee," Bella said from the backseat.

"There's a rest stop in three miles," Sam replied, glancing at the gps on his phone.

"Perfect."

"I should tell the others we're stopping," I said, picking up my phone from the cup holder. This caused Bella to let out a loud groan.

"I don't want to see him," she exaggeratedly complained.

All I did was roll my eyes in response as I texted him to let the others know we would be stopping soon.

"What even happened between you guys?" Sam curiously wondered.

"He's an ass!" Bella exclaimed.

"He's always an ass," I reminded her. "And you've put up with it before."

"This is different," she whined. "He doesn't want me to go to his house on Christmas."

This caused me to turn around in my seat, sporting a shocked expression.

"Really?"

It was no secret that Christmas was Bella's favorite holiday. Her family always went all out on Christmas morning with a huge breakfast hosted at their house. It surprised me that Pete didn't want to spend Christmas with her. The two of them had been dating for a year now. It was pretty much expected that they would spend Christmas together.

"Did you go last year?" Sam asked her.

"No, we were only dating for like two weeks so I didn't suggest it," she responded. "But when I said something about it this year he got all weird and said that he didn't want me to go."

It was hard not to feel bad for her. Sam and I had plans with each other for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Not to mention, we spent those days together last year after only officially dating for a few days.

"Did he tell you why?" I asked.

"No! That's why we fought," Bella said, crossing her arms over her chest as Sam took the exit for the rest stop. "And I do not want to see him."

As soon as Sam parked the car, Bella jumped out and scurried toward the bathroom. No more than a few seconds later, Ross pulled up next to us, Christo sprawled out in the backseat asleep.

"Where's Bell?" Pete asked when we all stepped out of our cars, Ross opening the back door to lightly shake Christo awake.

"Bathroom," Sam replied, leaning against his car with his arms crossed.

"She doesn't want to see you," I blurted out, earning a kick in the shin from my boyfriend.

"She's being dramatic," Pete responded with an eye roll.