Chapter 15

We padded up the front steps of the house in the early hours of the morning barefoot – we had both lost track of our shoes at the beach. Cory dropped his somewhere in the sand near the water, so we suspected his got taken away by the waves, but my espadrilles went completely missing. I suspected that sand drifts covered them in the middle of the night, but Cory said that it would be impossible. I don't know, though – nothing seems impossible to me at this point. The sun was starting to rise, and the sky was still a deep indigo blue. The clouds had not gotten their color from the sun yet, and the sky hadn't completely brightened.

Cory woke up on the beach first, when it was still in the middle of the night. He was able to shake me awake off of his chest, and we were able to use only the light of the moon to guide us back to the ramp that led to the car in the parking lot. And as Cory drove us back to the house, I fell asleep in the passenger seat with my head against the window.

I reached out and turned the knob on the front door of the house and it didn't budge. The door was locked and I didn't have the key. I looked back at Cory. "You have the key?" I whispered to him, being careful to keep quiet and not wake anyone up.

He patted his pockets and checked the inside of his wallet quickly, and then he looked up at me with wide eyes. "I don't have it," he muttered quietly. "It must still be on the nightstand."

I covered my mouth with both of my hands, partly in shock, and partly because I wanted to just start laughing. Of course we would have to wake someone up to answer the door for us when we were trying to fly under the radar. They already must have figured we couldn't find a place to eat for dinner, considering we never came back, and frankly, I was insulted they didn't send a search party out for us. Of course, the guys were up to Cory's plan all along, so they must have filled the girls in.

"Okay, let's think," I whispered to Cory as I leaned against the railing on the porch. My dress was almost completely dry, although it was crunchy from all of the absorbed salt water. "It's six in the morning. Would anyone still be awake right now?"

Cory let out a deep breath and tucked his hands into the front pockets of his shorts. "Well, I don't know how much anyone had to drink tonight. My best guess would be that Chris would be our best bet. You know how lightly he sleeps. You could flush the toilet down the hallway and he would be wide awake at the sound."

"Should we try giving him a call?" I suggested. "It might be the only way into the house."

He nodded before scooping his cell phone out of the pocket of his shorts. Quickly, he found Chris' number in his phone book, dialed it, and placed the phone up to his ear. Cory didn't wait for longer than a few seconds before Chris had picked up the phone. Cory spoke to Chris quietly, but quickly, and Cory was able to convince Chris to come down and open the door for us. After his conversation, he slipped the phone back in his pocket, and we waited at the door patiently.

"Thanks for tonight, Cory," I whispered to him as we both walked up to the door and waited for it to open.

He bent down and gave me a small kiss on my forehead. "It was my pleasure."

We didn't wait long at the door before it swung open, and Chris was there to greet us. He looked tired, as if we had just pulled him out of bed, and we apologized profusely, but quietly, as we entered the house. "I want a full explanation about this in Dianna and Jenna's room pronto," he hissed his request, pointing at our two messy outfits and my frizzy hair and disheveled makeup.

"Goodnight," I lied to Chris before giving him a small kiss on the cheek and a wink of the eye, and with that, I followed Cory into the bedroom.

I could hear Chris mutter something under his breath before he began the walk up the stairs to Dianna and Jenna's bedroom, but I didn't ask him to repeat himself. Instead, I was close on Cory's heels. Right away, he walked over to the nightstand, and sure enough, there was the key. He chuckled as he picked it up to show me, and I just responded with a smile and a nod of my head.

"You taking a shower?" Cory asked as he pulled his t-shirt over his head. This man wasn't being discreet in the slightest.

"I don't know, are you?" I smirked as I rested my hands on my hips. I was thoroughly interested in what he was going to say next.

He chuckled before tossing his t-shirt onto the floor, starting a new dirty laundry pile. "I might take a two-second one real quick, just to wash all the sand and salt water off. I'll take a real one, like with shampoo and everything, tomorrow."

"Good idea," I agreed. I could tell that what he was suggesting was a solo venture, and I didn't pursue it any longer. "You going first?"

With a quick nod of his head, he grabbed a pair of grey boxers and red basketball shorts out of his suitcase. "Yeah, but like I said, I'll be fast."

"Okay," I responded, and he walked past me and entered the bathroom. He shut the door quietly behind him, and left me alone in the bedroom.

You see, that wasn't just my friend Cory going to take a shower now. That's actually my boyfriend. My boyfriend was just behind that little thin wooden door getting naked and wet. Yep, picture that, ladies. If I wanted to, I could go in there and take a shower with him. If I wanted to (but wouldn't in a million years), I could pee in front of him. I could tell him gross things that he'd never need to know about women, or I could complain about my family to him, all because I simply could. This was a whole new world, and brand new territory, for us to discover.

Almost as soon as Cory closed the bathroom door, I quickly, but quietly, padded out of the bedroom and right up the stairs. All of the lights were off, which left the house eerily darkened, only to be slightly lit by the beginnings of the sunrise, but under the crack of Dianna and Jenna's bedroom door, I could see that their light was on. Chris must have woken them up, since the three of them didn't share a room. Shit, I had explaining to do.

I let myself into the bedroom, and as soon as I had opened the door, Jenna squealed as best as she could under her breath, and Dianna clapped her hands together as if she had just watched a Broadway play. Chris sat on the edge of Jenna's bed with his legs crossed, and with bright eyes, he spoke. "Spill it!"

"Spill what?" I asked as I played coy. I shut the door behind me and I leaned up against it. I tossed my head back, looked up at the ceiling, and smiled the biggest smile I had left. I couldn't not speak about it any longer – it had to come out. "It was the most romantic night of my entire life!" I gushed.

"What happened?" Jenna asked as she leaned forward on the bed and clutched her pillow around her chest. She and her boyfriend Michael had been together for so long that she had always said that she'd forgotten what romance felt like. She lived vicariously through her friends, stating that we needed to go and make love for her. I personally think she's insane. So does Dianna.

"Okay, so, he took me to this desolate beach at sunset, you know when we both left to look for the place to eat for dinner tomorrow. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect, the water was warm, and he just looked scrumptious. First, I started going down to the water, but he wasn't following, so I stopped until he got there, and then once he got to me, he took my hand and we went into the water together…" I repeated the entire story as it happened, and I must have been rambling for at least ten minutes, filling them in on every detail and word of conversation that I could remember. The whole time I retold the events of the night, Jenna clutched her pillow and cooed, Dianna laughed and ooh'ed and ahh'ed giddily, and Chris had his handed folded and propped them up against his chin as he eagerly listened. And after I had finished telling the story, I pressed my lips together and looked at Chris. "How did you know something was up between me and Cory? We never told you anything."

"You didn't have to," he coyly smiled. "What else are you two doing out for hours and come home looking like you had hot sex up against a sand dune? I'm surprised you don't have a sea creature in your hair."

I reached for my hair and combed through my thick, sticky waves with my fingers self-consciously. What if I had a starfish stuck in there or something?

"I'm so excited for you two," Dianna finally said. "It really took you two long enough. Who would have ever suspected Cory had all those feelings?"

"I know!" I gasped as I dropped my hands and placed them behind my back. "If I would have known all the things that I know now back then, this whole thing would be one big different story. And now we have that one place that is just ours, where we can go to whenever we wanted, or really whenever we're in the area, and think back to this special night. Or we can go to that place if we want to just escape from the world for a while, just get away from everything. You all know how important that is to me."

Jenna cleared her throat before speaking. "I don't know. You always told us you wanted to go somewhere with Cory that only you two knew about, like you did just now, your special little place, but…" she started to say, before trailing off.

"We have it. That beach is our place," I told her with a confident nod of his head.

"No," Jenna replied, and it threw me off a bit. "Cory found that place with the guys. He didn't find it on his own, so it's not this place that only you two know about. It's a place that you and Cory know about, along with Mark, Harry, Kevin, and Chord."

"Mhm," Chris nodded his head with a pouted bottom lip. "Truth. You need a new place."

"What?" I hissed before giving Dianna and glare. "What do you think, Di?"

She paused before she answered, and I already knew it wasn't a good sign. "I don't know," she replied. "I love the sentimental and special idea of your place being the beach, and it could still be a place. But I don't know if it's your place."

"Well, where is our place supposed to be? The beach was the most secluded destination that I've ever seen," I claimed as I got frustrated. "I don't know where else our place could be."

"We can't help you with that," Chris informed me with a small frown. "That's the place where only you two know. We can't give you suggestions because you'll be right back in the same place you started."

I let out a heavy sigh before I took a step away from the door. "I should get some sleep," I said as I walked over to Dianna, Jenna, and Chris and gave them all hugs. "I'll figure this all out tomorrow."

We all said our goodnights, and I left the bedroom to go walk back downstairs to mine. Dianna, Jenna, and Chris all had very valid points, and I admit, they weren't wrong. But now, I had to think of a new spot, somewhere special and secluded and unique that we could refer to as our own. And we could keep the beach too.

I headed back into our bedroom and I noticed that Cory was already in bed. I smiled softly and walked over to my suitcase that was on the floor. I pulled a pair of pajamas out from a pile and placed it on the bed. Since I wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not, I figured it wouldn't be the best idea if I went into the bathroom and turned the shower on. It made a strange whirring sound that could wake up a hibernating bear, and I just couldn't disturb my new boyfriend. Quietly, I slipped out of my dress and let it fall to the floor. It hit the carpet with a heavy thump, and as the sound was made, Cory shifted in bed. I froze, standing beside the bed in only my bra and underwear, hoping he wouldn't turn his head to look at me. The first time he would see me as his girlfriend in lingerie couldn't be dirty, salt-water soaked and dried ones. I slipped my clean pajamas on quietly, vowing to wash everything, including the sheets and pillowcases tomorrow.

I tiptoed around the bedroom and shut off all of the lights and closed the curtains. The sun was starting to rise higher in the sky, and I had to block as much of it as I could to get a decent night's sleep. And when everything was done and suitable, I made my way over to my side of the bed, pulled down the covers, an slipped in between the sheets. I pulled the covers up over my shoulders, leaving only my head above the blankets.

Under the blanket, Cory's hand took mine, and he held it tightly. "Goodnight, Lea," he whispered.

"Goodnight, Cory," I smiled.