Waves, Sunsets, & Coffee

Chapter 4.0

     I woke up, not being able to move my body so I started to panic, only to see muscly arms wrapped around me. I look to the side to see Liam fast asleep.
     I felt my heart start beating faster. My cheeks start to warm, not knowing what to do.
     Clearly, I want to pee, but I don't want to wake him up just yet.
     So I stare at his peaceful face. His curly hair fell down on his face, so I brought my hands and gently moved them away from his face.
     I looked closer and only now did I notice his faint freckles on his face. Cute, if I'm going to be honest.
     I don't know why, but my hands unconsciously brought themselves to touch his face, feeling his soft skin under my fingertips.
     He seemingly groaned and I removed my hand from his face, when I felt his warm hand hold my own and brought it back to his face. I was shocked at the sudden action, and yet I don't resist.
     He opened his eyes to reveal those beautiful dark brown eyes. It was mesmerizing, and soon I was brought back to my senses and jerked my hand away from his face and looking at someplace else besides his face.
     I was embarrassed to say the least, and so I excused myself.
     I grabbed my coat and shoes, and went out of the room.
     It was still early in the morning as the whole place was surrounded by mist and very cold and humid air. I sigh as I walk to the small playground on the other side of the inn and sit on the swing.
     I stayed on the swing for I don't know how long, but long enough for Liam to take a bath as he walks towards me with wet hair.
     "Hey." He says as he sits on the swing beside me.
     "About earlier..." He starts when I stop him, "That... I don't know what I did. Let's forget about it yeah?" I say and he nods.
     I gave him a smile and walked back towards the room when Emma stopped me.
     "Morning." She says, drinking a cup of hot coffee.
     "Hey. Where'd you get hot water?" I ask.
     "Oh over there." She says, pointing at the small shelter.
     "Thanks."
     Soon, Enzo called on everyone to go on the van to resume the car ride.
     I was about to change seats with Keith, as I wanted to stretch my legs better which I don't get to do much. Okay fine. Only because there was still the awkward tension between Liam and I.
     Well I'm now okay and forgot what happened but he isn't even though after I told him to forget about it. I tried to talk to him during breakfast but he was giving me single word answers so I decided it was best to stay away from him for a while.
     Just as I thought things weren't good between us because of the small incident, the driver's door opened and Liam went in, buckling himself up.
     "Hey!" He greets me happily and I stare at him with confusion. Just a minute ago he wasn't talking to me and now he's all sunshine and rainbows.
     I swear men can be a lot more emotional than society perceives them to be.
     "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" He asks and I shake my head, strapping myself with the seatbelt, ready for the drive to continue.
     "You guys all settled?" Liam asked the group as he started the engine. The guys replied with a series of yes, and with that, we started driving away.
     "You never told me about the breakup." Liam randomly says.
     "Oh you didn't know what happened?"
     "If I did, I wouldn't be asking you right?" He sarcastically says and I roll my eyes.
     "You were in a relationship?!" Enzo exclaims from the bag and I scoff at him.
     "Yeah dumbass."
     "No shit man. I can't believe a guy fell for you! Thought that shit was mission impossible kinda shit." Enzo comments and I found a small bag, like a pencil case and threw it straight at his face.
     "Oh fuck."
     "Wait, so what happened?" Alec asks, bringing back the conversation.
     "Eh well saw him with another girl, kiss—" I was cut off by Alec who was saying stupid shit.
     "See that's how you women are. You know, just because us guys are with other females, doesn't mean we're cheating. So much for gender equality. Oh and the fact that you girls are allowed to have male best friends while us men can't even breathe the same air as women do! This world's shit!" Alec explains as I try to keep my laughter in, waiting for him to finish.
     "You done making your point yet?" I ask.
     "Yes. And I rest my case."
     "Well sorry to burst your bubble, but as I was saying, right before you cut me off, he was locking lips and playing a game of who can make their tongue reach the other person's throat with another girl." I explain that left him dumbfounded and speechless. I shake my head at his dumbass as his mouth hangs open.
     "Well... shit. You okay man?" He asked and I gave them a nod.
     "Of course I'm good. I talked to him after a few days. You know closure shit and all. Oh and saw him having a girl grinding on his lap in the park, in front of children. Such an asshole."
     "What a disgrace to men!" Enzo says and Emma and I scoff at him.
     "Like you don't play and fuck with a new girl every week." Emma says and the guys go all "ooo" at him.
     "First of all, they come to me. Second, I ask if they're taken and shit and yet they always say they're single. Not my fault that I find out the next day, another boyfriend wants to beat me dead." Enzo explains his lame excuse. I swear this guy is living on sexual fuel.
     It's close to six at night and the whole group's asleep aside from Liam and me.
     This is by far the longest time I've stayed inside the car. We left the inn at around seven in the morning, and since then, we haven't stopped at any gasoline station as there wasn't any along the way.
     Right now, I'm close to closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep. Something I can't do just yet as I had to make sure Liam won't fall asleep on the wheel.
     "Hey. You wanna change?" I asked him, offering to let me drive since he's been driving for almost eleven hours now.
     "Do you have Canadian license?" He asks and I pull out my license in black sleeves, opening it like how FBI people do. I've been waiting to do this for years.
     "Yeah it says Aus-tral-ia" he says, reading what was written on the sleeve syllable per syllable. I rolled my eyes as I pointed at the license.
     "It's an in-ter-na-tio-nal license dumbass. Thought you were the smart one." I argue back and he sighs as he parks the van on the side of the road.
     "How long 'till we get there?" I ask him.
     "You offered to drive and you don't know the way?" He argues back.  
     "I offered to drive because you were about to fall asleep."
     "My point still stands." God this guy.
     "Just another couple of hours." He answers anyway.
     "So, how are yah?" I asked.
     "What?"
     "How. Are. You?" I repeated for this dumb guy. For someone who's smart, he can get really dumb sometimes.
     "I know what you said. I meant, why are you asking?" He clarifies.
     "God Liam. You asked "what" that's why I repeated what I said. But anyways, it's just that ever since I got back here and stayed at your place, I never really got the chance to ask you how things have been going on in your life while I was gone."
     "Nothing much really. College is college, and business is doing good."
     "Business? Oh right I almost forgot. You own Artgasm right?" I asked and he nods.
     Liam took up business courses and his family bloodline is full of business men and women so he's following their footsteps.
     He got the skills and all so he made Artgasm. It's a small cafe that offers art therapy to anyone who needs it. I think it's nice of him to do so because with the world changing, and the population's getting bigger, more people are now suffering from mental health illness, and art is one of the best ways to relax and destress.
     "So how's the business going?"
     "Well I just got to build another branch.. One in Vancouver which you already know and went to before. The other one's at Toronto."
     "That's amazing. What about the people?"
     "What do you mean?"
     "The people who go to the cafe. Are there any usuals?" I ask, curious.
     "Yeah there's actually a lot that I had to make schedules and events. It's for the people who come in regularly." He explains and I smile at the fact that he's succeeding in life and has achieved one of his goals. Spread mental health awareness and hope to people.
     "You? What about you? Any interesting things happened aside from the break up?" He asks and honestly, I don't think interesting things happen in my life. Well yeah, except of course the break up.
     "Well, let me think." I think hard and ended up empty handed. "Yep, I got nothing."
     "You must be doing something in your life." He says and I give him a light smack.
     "Okay okay how 'bout this. Have I told you I joined the university's mma kinda thing club?" I tell him.
     "No shit. Mma as in mixed martial arts?" He clarifies and I nod.
     "No you didn't." He says, unable to believe me and I roll my eyes at him.
     "Here. Check my phone." I hand him my phone as he opens it and I tell him the passcode.
     Soon, I heard the video with Lucy screaming.
     "Yeah! That's my best friend! Woo! Go get 'em girl!"  Lucy screams through the phone and I laugh.
     "No way this is you." Liam says even though he saw the video of one of my competitions. I was battling with another girl and I can't ever forget her. Ruby Reel, known as 'The Steel' inside the ring and I can tell you why.
     The first punch I landed on her face earned me bruises that didn't go even after a couple weeks. I swear that girl had steel transplants done. I'm not even exaggerating. Her muscles are really like pure steel.
     "Oh damn." I heard Liam say and I think he was at the part when Ruby punched me straight in the face and kneed me in my stomach.
     God that was an embarrassment since I fell down and she continued to beat me up until I was forced to tap out if I wanted to keep my organs inside in the right place.
     "And the winner is... Ruby, "The Steel" Reel!" The commentator announces as the crowd goes wild. Yep, it was my first loss, but it did teach me a couple things.
     "Damn she beat you up good Lex." Liam says and finally he believes me.
    "Yeah yeah yeah. Check the other vids. I won on the other ones." I tell him and he checks to see the others as I drive into the night.
     I would casually hear him cursing and making pained noises as if it was him getting beaten up. I laugh at his reactions and let's say, I got lost in him, looking at him, just laughing there with his deep dimples showing.
     I smiled at the sight, and it all ended too soon as bright lights flashed in front of us and a loud honk made me look back to the driveway.
     "Shit!" I shouted as I immediately turned the wheel, avoiding the other car going the opposite way. Oh god. We were inches away from a gruesome accident.
     I stepped on the breaks as I looked back to see if they were alright.
     Liam was, to say the least, shell shocked with his eyes and mouth wide open, grasping his seatbelt hard.
     Luckily, no one was hurt and only confused faces of my friends are seen, while some of them, like Madds and Alec are still fast asleep.
     "What happened?" Keith asks, adjusting her focus to the scene.
     "Uhm... sorry..." I say slowly as their eyes went wide from realization.
     "Alex! Oh my God. Liam!" Keith scolds us both.
     "What?" Liam exclaims.
     "Why did you let her drive?! With us in the car!" Keith exclaims and I honestly got offended a bit, but I gotta admit, I am one to blame for this.
     "I was close to sleeping and she offered to switch. You guys were asleep, so I decided it was for the best." He explains.
     "Oh God."
     "Hey chill out. It was an accident. Besides we're still alive right? And the two are unbothered. See? Everything's fine." Liam tells the group as we look back to the two still dreaming and snoring.
     Those who are awake sent a death stare to Liam and I.
    "Alright alright! I'll drive." Liam says and we switch back again.
    "I'm really sorry. Heh. Forgive me?" I tell the group and they sigh.
    "Just... keep your eyes on the road next time Alex. We still have dreams to achieve." Keith says and I nod as we go back on the road with Liam on the wheel.
     Damn. What. An. Experience.     
     "We're almost there." Liam informs the group and the two sleeping beauties finally woke up excitedly.
     "Alright. So there's seven of us and I got to reserve Cottage one. It has two bedrooms and a pullout sofa bed. So two in each room while the other three stays on the sofa bed." Madds says from the back seat as her family has connections with the place.
     "First to the rooms claim it." Alec says.
     "There's gonna be a disaster when that happens." Emma says and I agree, and so Keith made a proposal.
     "Does anyone have a pen and paper?" She asks.
     "What for?"
     "I'll be writing "bedroom" four times and whoever gets that stays in the bedroom. While there would be three other papers with nothing in it. If you get that, you stay on the sofa bed." Keith exclaims and the group agrees to do what she proposed.
     Once Keith was done, she folded the strips of papers and shook them inside an empty jar.
     "Here take one." She says to the group, starting with the ones at the very back and then us. I took one for Liam as well since he was driving.
     "Alright open them."
     "Ugh no!"
     "Why this?"
     "Yes! Bleh I got the bedroom."
     "So did I!"
     "Yah lucky assholes."
     The group argues as some of them didn't get what they wanted. I opened mine, and it says there, in Keith's handwriting is "bedroom."
     "Alright!" I exclaim.
     "Hey check mine." Liam says and I open his paper and it also says bedroom."
     "You got the bedroom." I inform him and he nods.
     "Hey who got the other two bedrooms?" I ask the group and Madds and Enzo raise their hands.
     I notice Emma's annoyed face not because she got the sofa bed, but because Alec got the sofa bed too, together with Keith.
     Ten minutes in, we all saw a signage that says "Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages". 
     "Woah." Someone commented as we were greeted with the most amazing view ever. Mountains and beaches surround the place as it were lit by lights from the cottages.
     Damn this place is cool.
     After talking with the front desk, the hotelier let us into our own cottage. We thanked him as he left us and soon, everyone explored the place.
     "Hey Madds. Let's get the masters." I whispered at her when the other two guys were distracted by the view.
     We silently walked to the room when Enzo noticed what we were doing.
     "Oh no you're not!" He shouts as he runs to the master's room, racing Madds and I
     Luckily, even for her short legs, Madds was part of the track team back in highschool and she easily outruns Enzo.
     "Hey no fair!" He says and Madds pushes the poor guy away to the other room. I laughed at the two as I went into the amazingly spacious room.
     In the middle is a king sized bed and to add to that, we have the perfect view of the mountains and the ocean.
     I placed down my bags and so did Madds as we decided it was best to  fix our things before exploring the place.
     After all of us had settled, we went to the private fire pit.
     Luckily, I bought marshmallows and all we need now is some good music and a good cup of hot coffee.
     Emma ordered us coffee and hot chocolate as we sat by the fire pit, enjoying ourselves.
     "We've been planning a trip for years, and now we're here."
     "Yeah finally we got to color our drawing."
     I was enjoying my cup of hot chocolate, yes you heard me right. I wanted to have a nice long sleep tonight so coffee is out of the picture, but just for tonight.
     Alec came back when he excused himself and with him is an acoustic guitar.
     He sits beside Emma, clearly avoiding Keith and I see the hurt in her eyes. I gotta talk to that girl soon.
     He strums the guitar and once he is done tuning it, he plays the familiar tune of a song.
     "So what we get drunk
     So what we smoke weed
     We're just having fun
     We don't care who sees
     So what we go out
     That's how it's supposed to be
     Living young and wild and free"
     We all sing together our song, just having fun.
     This is the perfect night out with friends, something that we've been dreaming about for years, and finally, we're here.
     A chill night out with friends, good alcohol, and a song to sing to forget our problems even for a while.
     The night ended with some of us drunk from all the drinking so Keith, the ever so responsible one told the group to get some sleep, and so we did.
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A/n picture is Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages that I got from their website