Chapter 4

It was happening. The windows were open, the music was turned up to an unreasonable level, and the two of us were shouting the lyrics to each other as the wind blew through our hair. No, this isn't a clip from our little show, this was real life. But Mr. Schue would have been proud if this was the show. He was playing the drums on the steering wheel while I sang into a half-full water bottle. See my optimism and happiness here? We sped down the highway, only minutes away from our final destination, like we still had hours left and hundreds of miles still to go. And as the sun started to set, it all began to feel like a picture perfect moment.

"Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere

Just a city boy

Born and raised in South Detroit

He took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere

A singer in a smoky room

A smell of wine and cheap perfume

For a smile they can share the night

It goes on and on and on and on…"

Honestly, it was probably one of the coolest moments in my life. I mean, I never do stuff like this. Whenever I'm driving or going anywhere, I usually just listen to my soft rock stations and allow myself to mellow out. But being with Cory just makes me open up and feel like a liberated person. We just sang and sang and sang, sang like no one was watching, sang like no one was listening, sang like no one was in the cars around us, and sang like we didn't have a single care in all the world. I honestly gave Cory a lot of credit. How that man can play the drums on the steering wheel while still keeping the car straight while singing while navigating the streets is a huge task, and like anything else in life, he killed it. If it were me, we would have been in a ditch somewhere a few miles back.

"Man, I can't remember the last time we sang that song," Cory laughed after the song had ended.

I pushed the hair away from my face. "A whole 24 hours ago, maybe?" I responded as I took a sip of water from my water bottle microphone.

"Feels like ages ago," he smirked as he signaled to get off at the next exit. We were only minutes away from all of our friends at our house for the week. As excited as I was to see everyone else, I secretly wished that it was just us two escaping from the world for a week, going to some private island where no one would be able to find us, somewhere only we would know about. And I speak like Cory has the same sort of feelings that I have and that he would go on a trip with me to this secret location, but that's okay, he doesn't necessarily need to know my fantasy plans.

About twenty minutes later, we pulled into the driveway of our vacation mansion for the week. It was stunning, to say the absolute least. It was a large three story beach house with intricate Spanish-influence details surrounding the property. Honestly, I had lost my breath when I first laid eyes on it. It was so much more beautiful in person than in the pictures on the rental website. All of our friends' cars lined the driveway in front of us, and I swear, from inside the car, I could hear Amber's loud and infectious laugh. This is going to be fun.

Finn hopped out first, slamming the car door behind him. I quickly followed as I snatched my purse from the floor and left the vehicle. Close on his heels, we walked up the stairs to the house and let ourselves in.

The inside of the house looked just like the photos. Elegant, sophisticated, and spacious. A long hallway was cluttered with some suitcases and bags, along with coolers, and I knew that as soon as everyone had walked in, they all must have dropped their bags and ran around like they were on the newest season of The Real World or something. We followed the sound of laughter and talking to the second floor, and as soon as everyone saw us, they all stopped what they were doing and greeted us warmly.

"My love!" Dianna squealed as she ran over to me and gave me a warm hug. Her short blonde hair brushed up against my face and she smelled like chlorine. Damn it, she went in the pool without me.

I hugged her back and greeted her warmly, along with everyone else. Really, I hugged everyone. You might think that it's normal to greet everyone with a hug, but each hug is a whole personal transaction with a special greeting and message. And yes, they all smelled like chlorine. They all went in the pool!

Darren was obviously the last one out. He was still in his swim trunks and his curly brown hair was still wet, and as if that wasn't enough, the red t-shirt he was wearing clung like saran wrap to his wet chest. He gave me a soggy hug, getting some pool water on my white tank top. "Sorry about that," he chuckled as he looked down at my chest. His damp shirt made my shirt just wet enough that it became slightly see-through.

I laughed as I pulled my shirt away from my chest. "It's okay," I replied. "Not like anyone hasn't seen my bra before," I remarked, referring to all of the times that the boys "accidentally" came into our changing room or "forgot" to grab something out of one of our bags.

Dianna tugged me off to the side with a devilish grin on her face. I knew something was up. "The room situation…" she started to say as she let go of my arm.

"Yeah, what's going on with that? Where do I bring my bags?"

She giggled and shifted her eyesight to the side to give Jenna a look. "Well, when we all got here, we claimed our rooms. First ones here get first dibs, and so on. You and Cory are obviously the last two to get here, so…"

I smirked. "Okay, so we'll share a room. No biggie. Bunk beds, two twins, what's up with the room?"

"One full size bed."

Alarms went off in my head. Every butterfly that found its home in my stomach was fluttering around like they were on fire. I was going to have to sleep in the same bed with the man I love for an entire week. No big deal, Lea. Just try not to flood the damn room! Plus, this was a serious, serious issue that needs addressing. My bed back at my apartment is a full size bed. No big deal. But, Cory is a pretty big guy. Like, his legs are probably the size of my legs and half my torso. In photoshoots, I have to stand on crates to reach a proper level for a picture to be viewed seriously. How were the two of us going to fit in this one bed together? And really, what was Cory going to say about it? My worst nightmare would be Cory letting me have the room to myself and he sleeps on the couch for the week. If that happened, well, I would be pretty upset. Why wouldn't he want to share a bed with me? I mean, we are best friends. No big deal.

"You're so ridiculous," I whispered and laughed as I tossed my head back. "You all planned this, didn't you?"

Dianna pushed a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, the hell you don't," I replied as I playfully slapped her on her arm. "Where is our room, anyway?"

"Down the stairs on the right. It's the one that has the big teal comforters."

Quickly, I galloped down the stairs found the bedroom right away. Dianna said this was a full sized bed, but this looked like a glorified twin sized bed to me. I knew it already. Cory and I were going to either have to spoon or sleep back to back to make this work. As I was looking at the bed and observing the room, I heard heavy footsteps clomp down the stairs behind me. "Where do you want me to put your bags?" Cory asked as he walked into our bedroom.

"In here. We have to share this room," I reluctantly replied, studying his face for some sort of reaction.

Cory looked around the room quickly before nodding his head. "Okay," he replied nonchalantly. "Let me go get the bags. Want to give me a hand with some of yours?"

I nodded before looking back at our bedroom, unsure of how this sleeping arrangement was exactly going to work. "Sure."