18 Hours To Us

by Krista Noorman

  Natalie took a deep breath. She was finally here. With her girls. She was supposed to be happy about it, but everything felt off. She thought she would arrive and be ecstatic to relax and celebrate the end of their senior year. One last hurrah together. But instead she found herself fighting back tears.

  “There’s Colton.” Olivia called back over her shoulder.

  Trinity joined her. “Where?”

  “By the pool.” She pointed downward then looked back at Natalie. “Lexi’s not with him.”

  But Natalie didn’t move, and she finally let the tears flow.

  Olivia noticed. “Oh, Natty, what’s wrong?” She walked over and wrapped her arms tightly around her friend.

  Trinity did the same.

  Natalie’s shoulders shook as she let it all out. “I don’t know why I’m crying like this,” she murmured. “I knew it was just a road trip thing.”

  Olivia let go and looked Natalie in the eyes. “What exactly happened between you two?”

  “We kissed,” she admitted.

  “Seriously?” Trinity grabbed her arm and tugged her over to sit on the bed. “Is he a good kisser?”

  Natalie tried to hold back her smile. “It’s more than the kiss, you guys. We became friends.”

  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Olivia flipped her light brown hair over her shoulder.

  “I thought it was. I’m not sure how things are supposed to work now. I mean, he has this whole group of friends and Lexi, and there’s no room for me in his world.” She had known this was what would happen, but she kept remembering what he said. You’re more real to me than anyone else in my life right now.

  “You don’t want to be part of that group anyway, do you?”

  She shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

  “You don’t need their permission to be his friend,” Trinity interjected.

  “I just don’t want the last of our high school year ruined by Lexi and her friends. You guys should’ve read the messages they were sending me. It was like middle school all over again.”

  “You don’t think your relationship is worth a little fallout?” Olivia asked.

  A series of images from the past eighteen hours came flooding back—holding hands by the falls, waking in his arms with his fingers in her hair, kissing in the car, hugging in the ocean. Her heart squeezed. “He’s worth it.”

  “Then screw Lexi and her minions.”

  “Yeah!” Trinity raised a fist in the air.

  Natalie giggled. “I’m so glad we’re here together. I love you both so much.”

  “We love you too.” Olivia pulled her into another hug.

  Natalie sat back and wiped at her face, her thoughts turning again to their moments by the waterfall. “He’s different, you guys. Different than I thought he was going to be.”

  “How so?” Olivia asked.

  “He acts tough, like he has it all together, but he has a sensitive side too. He’s been through so much and is still going through a lot, and I really want to be there for him, but I’m not sure how.”

  Olivia rested her arm across Natalie’s shoulders. “It’s all gonna work out.”

  “I hope so.” Natalie took in a deep breath then exhaled and shook off the lingering tears. “OK, let’s go swimming or something. I can’t think about this anymore.”

  “Sounds like a great idea!” Trinity jumped up from the bed and ran off to change. “To the beach!” her voice carried from the bathroom.

  Natalie hoped beyond hope that she would not run into Colton and his friends, that maybe they would stay by the pool for the rest of the evening. Because as much as she longed to be near him, she wasn’t sure how to act now.

  The girls headed out, found an empty spot on the sand for their blanket and towels, and undressed to go swimming. As Natalie removed her shirt, she saw Colton walking in their direction with Grant and their buddies. His eyes were not fixed on her face, and she blushed, suddenly questioning the two-piece swimsuit.

  Grant and the others ran past them without acknowledgment, which Natalie was thankful for, but Colton’s steps slowed as he neared.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hi.”

  “How are you?” His gaze was filled with compassion, apology, and a hint of confusion.

  “Fine.” She wished that wasn’t a lie.

  “How’s your room?”

  “Good.” Oh, how she hated awkward small talk.

  His eyes remained fixed on hers, and she wished he would look away, because her stomach was fluttering at the intensity she saw there.

  “We have an ocean view,” she managed to say.

  “Us too.”

  “Nice.”

  Grant hollered for Colton.

  “I, uh … I gotta go.”

  “Then go.” It came out with more bite than she meant it to, and her eyes rolled as she turned toward her friends.

  Olivia and Trinity kept their eyes on Colton.

  “Hey.” He reached out and brushed the side of Natalie’s arm.

  Every hair on her arm instantly stood on end, and she turned toward him.

  “Don’t be like that.” The gentle expression in his eyes made her long to wrap her arms around him.

  “I’m not being like anything,” she replied.

  “Come on, Natalie.”

  She loved the way her name sounded on his lips. So intimate, like they were the only two people on the beach. But it was also like torture to her.

  “Just go. Wouldn’t want them to see us talking.” She didn’t mean it. She didn’t want him to go, but she was struggling to make sense of their new friendship, worried there was no place for her in his life, and her frustration had gotten the better of her.

  He shook his head sadly and left her standing there watching him walk away.

  When she turned back to her friends, they were both wearing amused grins on their faces. “What?”

  “He’s got it bad for you,” Trinity replied.

  “No doubt about it,” Olivia added.

  “No, you guys.” She looked in Colton’s direction again then back at them. “You think?”

  Olivia and Trinity looked at each other and back at Natalie once more. “Yes!” they replied in unison.

  Natalie watched Colton and the guys move farther down the beach away from them. She wanted to go after him, to walk along the beach with him, to talk and laugh like they had for the past two days. Instead, she was left to think about everything that had happened between them and the probability that nothing would ever happen again.

  22

  His Girlfriend

  When the sun rose on their first morning in Virginia Beach, Natalie was already out running along the shoreline. Even though it was vacation, she still needed to keep up her routine of running and conditioning for gymnastics. She had to stay strong. Running was also the best way she knew to clear her head and help her focus on what was important.

  Her legs felt heavy, her body sluggish, after an unrestful night. After waking around three o’clock in the morning, she’d spent an hour staring at the ceiling before she had crawled out of bed and sat on the balcony wrapped in a blanket, gazing up at the night sky, until the glow of sunrise had called her to the beach.

  Her mind replayed every moment of the trip with Colton. It was starting to feel like a dream. Surreal. Part of her wished she could go back to Saturday morning and take a different route to the school or leave the house five minutes earlier just so she wouldn’t have to feel this way.

  But then she thought about the conversations she and Colton had, the way they had bonded over her mom and his brother, the laughter and teasing, the sights they had seen along the way … the kisses. They had been places together, shared the journey. And it was the best time she had ever had.

  She took deep, steady breaths and pushed herself to keep running. As she neared the resort on her return, she saw a figure running toward her with a build similar to Colton’s and remembered that he also liked to run.
Her heart, already thumping wildly, sped to a rapid pace as the person moved closer, then sputtered back to normal when she realized it wasn’t him.

  “Morning,” the man said.

  “Morning,” she replied with half sadness and half relief.

  She slowed to a brisk walk and caught her breath, stopping to sit on one of the beach chairs at their resort. She squeezed her shoulders and rubbed her neck, still stiff from the accident. Her attention turned to the sky, streaked in oranges and yellows—almost as yellow in some places as Colton’s car. Why couldn’t she get him out of her mind? Was this how it was going to be now? Every little thing reminding her of Colton?

  She headed through the gate that led into the resort pool and on into the lobby. The elevator doors opened before her and out stepped Lexi with the Hannahs at her sides. They looked like triplets with their blonde hair pulled back in identical ponytails, all of them dressed in pink.

  Natalie held in a breath and stood still while they exited, completely prepared for them to say something awful to her. Instead, they walked past without a word.

  She entered the elevator and let out the breath, relieved when the doors finally moved to close.

  A hand suddenly slipped into the gap, and the doors slid open again.

  Lexi stood before her. “Do you want to come to breakfast with us?”

  “Breakfast? With you?” Natalie couldn’t believe her ears.

  “Yeah. It’s the least I can do.”

  Natalie shook her head. “You don’t owe me anything, Lexi.”

  “I do. So, please, come.”

  She had an uneasy feeling about it, but her curiosity was piqued. Why was Lexi being so nice? Especially after all the mean messages during the trip. The only thing she could gather was that Colton had told her to stop. “Breakfast.”

  “See you at the restaurant in an hour?”

  Natalie nodded hesitantly.

  Lexi removed her hand from the door and gave a cutesy wave as the elevator door closed between them.

  With the edge of a towel, Natalie swiped across the fogged mirror in the bathroom and stared at her reflection. Colton would be crazy to let go of a beautiful girl like Lexi for someone as simple and plain as her. She shook her head. She really had to stop thinking about him or she would ruin her entire vacation.

  Natalie wandered from the bathroom. The sound of Trinity’s subtle snoring filled the room. The three of them had stayed up late talking and catching up—mostly about Natalie and Colton’s trip. Trinity had fallen asleep first, and Natalie and Olivia seriously considered digging through her bag and freezing all her bras like they had when they were young girls at slumber parties. Natalie vaguely remembered glancing at the clock with heavy eyelids around one o’clock as Olivia started to tell her something, but she couldn’t remember what because she had drifted off.

  She should’ve been more tired than Trinity and Olivia, considering she’d woken up in the middle of the night and hadn’t gone back to sleep. But Natalie had never been one to sleep in. Occasionally, she would sleep until nine, but she’d been up early every day for most of her life and had developed an internal alarm clock.

  When she was a baby, her father would put her in a stroller and take her along on his morning runs. As she had grown older and was training harder for gymnastics, she would run along with him, which soon became their morning tradition. Running alone on the beach earlier made her miss him and exacerbated her guilt over lying to him about the trip. A dark cloud hovered over her that she knew she couldn’t avoid for long. She had to come clean, and it had to be soon, or it would eat away at her. It already was.

  Once dressed, she combed through her hair and twisted it up into a messy bun atop her head before plopping down on the end of the queen bed Olivia and Trinity shared.

  Olivia groaned.

  Trinity slapped at the air, totally missing Natalie.

  “Good morning, sleepyheads.” Natalie’s voice was light and chipper.

  “Why?” Olivia mumbled. “Why can’t you sleep in on vacation?”

  “Because it’s a beautiful day.” Natalie yanked the covers off of her friends. “And I’m hungry. Who wants to go to breakfast with me … and Lexi?”

  “Pass.” Trinity yanked the covers back over her head for a second, then flipped them down and sat up. “Wait, did you say Lexi?”

  “I ran into her by the elevators, and she asked me to breakfast, but I really don’t want to go alone.”

  “I’m there.” She flipped the blankets back and her legs over the side of the bed. “But I’d rather sleep for another four hours.”

  Natalie rolled her eyes. “How about you, Liv? I need my girls with me.”

  Olivia squinted as she opened her eyes, focusing on Natalie’s face then over at the clock on the nightstand. “Yeah, I could eat.”

  Natalie giggled and watched as Olivia sat up and stretched her arms above her head.

  “I’m afraid this is some kind of prank Lexi’s trying to pull on me or something.” Natalie stood and walked over to the glass doors. “She’s being way too nice to me since we got here.”

  “Yeah, you never know what’s going through that evil mind of hers.” Trinity let out a villainous laugh, which had them all giggling.

  Downstairs at the breakfast buffet, there was no sign of Lexi and the Hannahs, so the girls found a seat off to the side by themselves.

  “Do you think Colton told her to be nice to you?” Trinity asked as they scooped scrambled eggs and sausage onto their plates.

  “That’s what I was thinking,” Olivia added.

  “I don’t know. He told me he was going to get her to stop with the cruel messages and those stopped. But I’m not sure him saying that would be enough to get her to make nice.”

  “Yeah, that seems odd.” Olivia took a bite of her eggs.

  “This is so confusing. I’m not sure if anything he told me was true or if he was just saying things he thought I wanted to hear.”

  “Why do you say that?” Trinity asked.

  “He said he wanted to break up with her, but if he’d done it, there’s no way she wouldn’t be out to get me right now.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he was being sincere.” Olivia gave her a reassuring smile.

  Natalie managed a weak smile in return. “I’d like to think that the Colton I got to know on our road trip is the real Colton. I really would. Everything just feels different now, and I don’t even know how to act around him.”

  “Just be you,” Olivia said. “You’re who he got to know, so don’t be any different than you were on the trip.”

  “It’s just not the same. I can’t be with him when he’s with his friends. And there’s no time when I can really talk to him this week. It’ll have to be up to him, I guess, because there’s no way I’m pulling him away from his friends without knowing if he really wants to talk to me. It would be embarrassing if he blew me off in front of them.”

  “True,” Olivia replied. “But I don’t think he would blow you off. Not after the way he was looking at you last night.

  “I was just gonna say the same thing,” Trinity said. “He wants you in his life. I can tell there’s more there.”

  “Don’t lose hope,” Olivia added.

  Natalie let out a deep breath and took a bite of her eggs.

  “Did you ever imagine you would end up in a car with Colton for two days?” Trinity asked.

  She shook her head. “It still sort of feels like it didn’t happen, which is probably why I’m so confused about the whole thing.”

  “It’ll work out.” Trinity chewed her sausage. “I know it will.”

  “Me too. And we’re on your side,” Olivia assured her. “Always.”

  “I know.” Natalie knew how lucky she was to have such devoted friends. She scanned the room as she finished off the last bites of her breakfast. Still no sign of Lexi and her friends. She wondered if that had been Lexi’s plan all along—to lure her to breakfast alone and then stand her up.
r />   “So much for Lexi being nice to me.”

  Trinity and Olivia rolled their eyes in reply.

  After a perfect day of walking along the boardwalk, shopping for souvenirs, and taking pictures by the statue of Neptune at the park, the girls returned to the resort in the late afternoon to spend a little time at the pool before dinner.

  Natalie slathered on the sunscreen, already feeling that her cheeks and shoulders were a little warm from all their walking in the sun that day. She spread her towel over one of the lounge chairs and settled onto it, leaning back to relax.

  “Cannonball!” someone shouted as they jumped into the pool, sending a large wave her way.

  Natalie screamed as the cool water doused her from head to toe.

  Olivia and Trinity, who were standing far enough back not to be affected by more than a few sprinkles, cracked up at their wet friend.

  Natalie wiped her eyes and looked at the culprit.

  “You look even hotter wet.” Grant gave her a flirty grin and swam away.

  She narrowed her eyes at him.

  Lexi stood across the pool watching the scene, wearing a skimpy bikini and a not-so-friendly expression.

  “Sorry about him.” Colton was suddenly standing over her.

  Her pulse quickened.

  “I have to agree with him, though.” He winked and jumped into the pool behind his cocky friend.

  Natalie held in a smile and lay back with eyes closed to let the sun dry her.

  Trinity and Olivia settled in next to Natalie and kept chattering about this or that, but Natalie wasn’t really listening. Just knowing Colton was nearby was enough to distract her from everything else.

  Natalie peeked toward the pool. Colton was playing a game of chicken with Grant, Lexi, and one of the Hannahs. He seemed to glow in the light of the sun—golden highlights in his honey-brown hair, skin tanned from a day in the sun, green eyes sparkling as they caught the reflection off the surface of the pool. She forced her eyes closed again and savored the warmth of the sun against her face, trying her best to tune out their laughter. Her thoughts returned to the little green tent on the mountaintop, lying in Colton’s arms, his fingertips running through her hair, his hand caressing her back. Then they were in the car, his hands holding her face, his lips …