Between You & Me || Luke & Jai Brooks

Chapter XXIX - 'Where the Heck Am I?'

I wake up warm beside Luke, snuggled into his broad chest. The mattress we're on is soft and cosy and the sheets are thick. I roll onto my back before opening my eyes, and blink a few times until the pale, rose pink ceiling comes into focus.

Wait.

Rose pink?

Where the heck am I?

I sit up abruptly and gaze around. Not my room. Not Luke's either. The walls are dusky pink and cream coloured and the bedspread is gold spangled. A huge curved window behind my head spreads light across the room. It's absolutely beautiful. Or at least it would be if I knew where the heck I was.

I decide on whether or not to wake Luke but he looks so peaceful. My watch says 8am, so it's pretty early. I lean over to kiss his cheek, and catch sight of a clock on his bedside cabinet. It reads 1pm. What the hell? Then it clicks.

"I'm in freaking America!" I yell, sitting right up. Luke groans and runs a hand through his hair without opening his eyes. "Sorry Lukey!" I whisper, sliding out of bed.

All of a sudden I'm twelve again and it feels like Christmas morning. I take the stairs two at time however as quietly as I can and when I reach the bottom I'm in an open room, with a white tiled floor and more large windows. Their house is gorgeous, better than Luke's super fancy apartment in Melbourne. The side of the stairs has patterned glass panes instead of rails. I turn to the right out of the tiled room and enter into a kitchen, where I see Jai up, making breakfast.

He sees me as I come in, and smiles. "Hey, Megs! Sleep well?"

I get the feeling he's mocking me. "How long did I sleep for?" I question, and sure enough, his face breaks into a large cheeky grin.

"Well you fell asleep partway into the flight here and slept through till now so..." he checks his watch, "-about 11 hours." He laughs.

I can feel my flush rising in my cheeks. "How much sleep did you all get?"

"Well apart from Alicia, who probably got 4, maybe 2?" He laughs again at my expression. "I didn't even bother sleeping. There's no point, really. We have an interview today so they'll only get 4 hours max."

He hands me some bread and I pop it in the toaster, taking the peanut butter and jam as he passes it out to me. "An interview today? Are you all crazy?"

"It's with Popsugar. They only had today or in about a month, and we want to advertise our EP and movie before we bring them out in hopefully less than a month." He explains, buttering his own toast.

I shake my head. "Jeez."

He grins. "Yeah, it's a busy life, but it's worth it."

We make our breakfast in comfortable silence for a while, then Jai speaks up. "Do you like it here, so far?"

"Oh my god, yes, it's gorgeous! I think I'm gonna need a tour though." I laugh. The kitchen is beautiful too, as modern as I've always dreamed of having. Jai shares a look with me, and I don't know how to explain it. It's the kind of look that warms you to the end of your toes, a look full of understanding and caring and trust. One that tells you in one glance that you can count on them. That you understand each other. A peaceful look. And I feel the ends of my fingers tingle.

Then the door creaks behind us and Beau lets himself in. I only have the chance to glance at him before he sweeps me up into a bear hug and squeezes me around the waist, swinging my legs back and forth. Beau's a good inch or two shorter than me but he's a hell of a lot stronger than me.

"Do you love it or do you love it?!" He yells, running and chucking me onto the nearest sofa. Which isn't as soft as I'd expected. I hit the back and slip off the side, squealing. Beau's brotherly love stretches to laughing his ass off instead of apologising profusely and picking me up. Jai even goes as far as getting onto the ground to laugh.

"You guys suck." I grumble as I climb off the ground.

"What do you need me to do to them?" Luke's voice calls from the doorway. He yawns as he walks through, a sleepy grin on his face.

I fold my arms. "Nothing. I'll do it myself." I swing a punch at Beau's arm to punctuate my last word, and hear at least 3 of my knuckles crack simultaneously. "Holy crap."

Beau absolutely loses it.

Luckily Luke is used to my stubbornness because he ignores my request and tackles Beau flat down to the ground, wrestling him on the carpet of the living room. I leave to all three brothers attacking each other and pick up my breakfast on my way upstairs.

The house really is gorgeous, and huge too. When I get to the hallway with the bedrooms on it, I find doors that line all the way up the corridor. Alicia and Skip's is right next door to mine, Mel and Jai's across from mine, and James' next to theirs. Mel wakes up when I crack the door open and her face lights up automatically as she takes in the room.

"I can't believe we're here! In fucking Los Angeles!" She exclaims, throwing her hands in the air and yawning. Then she slides straight out of bed and dances across the room to throw the drapes and window open. "We're here!" She bellows, laughing, out the window.

Some people would be embarrassed if their friend did that, but I join her and start screaming out the window with her. What can I say? We're crazy.

It takes us a good five minutes to get all of our excitement out, then Mel's first to collapse on the bed, and I lay down next to her, laughing.

"Can you believe we're actually here?" She asks in wonder. "We always talked about it, but we never really meant it."

I just beam. "I know. I know."