And Then, There Was Fire.

sixteen.

A week later

Lauren's tired eyes opened as the warm breeze hit her face, causing her to shift in the passenger seat of Trey's Challenger as the engine loudly roared on the interstate. She looked over to him as she watched his lips move to the lyrics of the music that blared through his car. Looking at the time on the car's centered display, she realized she had slept for almost three hours now that it was just after eight in the morning.

Trey glanced over to her once she began to stretch and sit up in her seat, finally watching the bright sun beam through the half-opened windows on her skin. She reached over to turn his music down, leaning forward as she began to stretch her back.

"Morning, sunshine." He greeted her before she could say anything after her yawn.

"We finally hit daylight." She spoke softly, being that they began their long road trip around midnight from Virginia. She gazed out of the windshield, watching the interstate's exit sign titled 'Jacksonville' pass by, with an orange peach on the bottom. "Florida?" Her neck snapped over to Trey with excitement written on it.

"It's not vacation." He answered dryly while focusing on the road, still refusing to tell her where they were heading to and why.

"Well, how much further do we have?" She whined. "It has to be somewhere in Florida unless you plan on driving into the ocean."

"I bet your water-loving ass would like that too, huh?" He smirked while glancing over to her.

"No matter what it is we're doing, promise me we get to go to the beach before we leave. I haven't swam in tropical salt-water in years. Please, Trey!" She begged, causing him to double glance at her due to how serious she was, like a child in a pet store.

"You're mad serious." He began laughing.

"I'm dead serious." She replied nonchalantly, causing his head to lean against his headrest as his laughter calmed.

"Alright. Fine." He smiled genuinely, looking back over to her. "I promise."

"No, pinky promise me." She held her pinky out, causing him to laugh again.

"So childish, yo." He scuffed, taking her pinky with his and quickly tugging on it.

In a short matter of time, Lauren fell back to sleep. Their circadian rhythm had been interrupted due to Trey's idea of leaving overnight for the ten-hour drive to a place where he wanted to arrive at before noon. Lauren insisted on starting the first leg of the drive, only because she was eager to find out where they were going. Naturally, Trey was difficult and still kept it a secret by telling her to just get onto i95 and head south until he was to wake up and swap with her.

A few hours later Lauren opened her eyes again, this time noticing the silence rather than the loud, blaring music in his car. Her head remained against the headrest as she faced her door that was now opened, watching Trey standing there above her with his arms leaned against the top of the door and the roof of his car.

"Where are we?" She asked, noticing the palm trees in the background behind him and the smell of salt-water.

"St. Augustine." He replied, continuing to stand over her.

"You just been creeping on me like this the whole time?" She asked, slowly raising herself up as she looked around out of the windows, observing the quaint, historical city.

"You were out cold. Kind of didn't want to wake you." He said as he reached his hand out to her. "Come on, he's waiting."

She took his hand and stepped out, noticing that their small weekend duffel bags were already on a golden cart in front of the large, sliding glass doors of a Ritz Calrton Hotel. She realized that Trey was referring to a young staff member who was standing by the cart, waiting to follow them inside as another stood in front of the car, waiting to valet park it.