A Year with IM5

Chapter 21

Elizabeth’s POV

I had a lot to think about in a little bit of time. I love Cole and didn’t want him to leave for LA without me but, I hate planes. Just the idea of flying scares me. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I decide to just forget about it and go to sleep. I fell asleep right there in Cole’s arms and there is no other place I’d rather be. I wake up when I hear my door open but I didn’t move. Then I hear Dana start whispering to Cole.

“Dude, you better get up. Dustin will be waking up soon and he’s gonna flip if he finds out about this.”

I keep pretending to be asleep. Dana walked out of the room and Cole whispered in my ear, “I love you,” then he gave me a kiss on the forehead and he slowly got out of the bed and out the room. I kept my eyes closed and I guess I fell back asleep because Dustin came in and started yelling but he wasn’t mad, he was just being Dustin.

“C’mon you are so lazy! I leave tomorrow and I wanna do something.”

“Dustin we all know you wanna do something.” I say half asleep.

“Not like that stupid.” he says taking the pillow out from under my head and hitting me with it. I jump up on the bed and jump into his arms. He pretends to drop me and I scream. Then he puts me on the bed and starts tickling me. “St-to-op” I say in between breaths. “Never!”

“Pl-lea-se.”

“Only if you promise to get out of bed.”

“Fine I pr-promise” I say and then he stops tickling me.

“So, I think I’ve come to the conclusion we will always act like 5 year olds no matter what our actual age is.” he laughs.

“Are you trying to say I’m immature?” I said as I put my hand over my heart and pretended to be hurt.

“Very.” he answered back.

“I love you dork.”

“I love you even more nerd.”

“Nerd? I’ll have you know I had a B in English for almost a month.”

“Haha and that’s why you are a nerd. Let me guess an 89?”

“Maybe.” I answered back, “What do you want to do anyways?”

“I don’t know but something other than sitting around the house.”

“There’s the hangout”

“Okay, but it’s just going to be us, right?” he asked.

“If you want it to be.”

“If you don’t mind”

“It’s fine, I owe it to you there’s been a lot of drama this week”

Dustin left and I got ready. I put on my favorite high waisted navy shorts and a white and navy striped crop top with a red anchor on it. I left my hair down and then put on my normal makeup. After I’m ready I go downstairs and all the guys, including Dustin are trying to find something to eat. I decide to cook for them before we leave. As I was making pancakes they all left to get dressed. The guys were doing a small concert at the mall today. I wasn’t paying attention to much of anything until someone grabbed my butt.

“Those shorts look really nice on you.” the person said as, I turned around I realized it was Cole.

“Thanks babe.” I winked back at him.

“Why do you have to be so sexy” he whispered in my ear.

Before I could answer I was interrupted by David and Dana mocking me and Cole.

“Thanks babe.” Dana said in a feminine voice making fun of me. Gabe walked through the door and confusion hit his face immediately when he saw Dana and David. 

“Can you just hurry up already?” Dustin said as he walked through the door.

“That’s what she said.” I mumbled under my breath. Apparently I wasn’t too quiet because the whole room broke out in laughter. I finished making the pancakes and then me and Dustin left.

We were heading in the right direction until Dustin made a wrong turn.

“Where are you going?”

“You’ll see.” he told me. We drove for a little while until we got to the edge of some woods.

“I swear Dustin, if you are trying to murder me....”

“Yes, I dragged you al the way out her to murder you.” he said sarcastically.

“Why are we here?” I whined.

“You don’t remember?” he asked.

“Obviously not.”

“I’m surprised.” he said getting out of the car. I got out too and we started walking down an overgrown path. It looked semi familiar but I couldn’t remember why.

“Remember now?” He said as we made a way into a clearing. A small beach was right in front of us. Then everything came back to me. Our endless nights here, the games we used to play, the jokes we would tell, but most importantly the secret no one knew about. The secret was ours and no one else’s. No one knew and no one will ever know what happened on that summer night.

“Are you okay?” my thoughts were interrupted by Dustin.

“Yeah I’m fine”

“The secret is still ours right, you still haven’t told anyone?”

“Two years and counting” I said back.

“Ok” he said and we sat on the beach for a while. Then it all came back to me. The warm water, the gorgeous reflection of the moon shining on top of the water, the billions of fireflies, the one thing that would change my life forever. I shivered thinking of it. “I think it’s time to go back” Dustin said putting his arm around me. We walked back to the car and went to the hangout. The whole ride there was quiet including most of the lunch. 

“Hey Elizabeth?” Dustin asked breaking the silence.

“Yeah”

“Would you mind if I shared our place with Ryleigh?” he asked. Ryleigh was his girlfriend of 1 year, they were really cute together but she was really mean when it was just me and her.

I didn’t say anything in response.

“If you don’t want to it’s fine.”

“I wouldn’t mind but, I don’t want her to find out the secret and when she gets there she will start asking questions and then you will be forced to tell the secret.”

“It’s okay.” Dustin said tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

“You sure?” I asked back.

“Yes.”

We finished eating then hung out on the beach and pier for a little while. When we came home the guys were all asleep in the game room.

“Goodnight” Dustin said kissing my forehead.

“Goodnight” I said and walked to my room. I got in bed and almost immediately fell asleep.