18 Hours To Us

by Krista Noorman

  “You better be joking with me right now!”

  “It’s no joke.” Natalie left the table and walked out into the resort lobby. “We missed the bus.”

  “Why didn’t you call and tell me that? I told you to call me if you missed the bus. We would’ve figured out a way to get you there.”

  “Dad, it was his fault I missed the bus in the first place, and he offered to pay for gas and food for the drive down. He felt really bad.”

  “He should feel bad. This is unacceptable.”

  “But I made it safe and sound. I’m here. Can’t we just let it go?”

  Her dad was quiet for a few beats. “You lied to me, Natalie. You know how I feel about that.”

  Natalie hung her head. “I know, Daddy. I’m sorry.” Her voice was tinged with shame.

  “I have a mind to drive down there and get you right now.”

  “I’m coming home on the bus in two days.”

  “You better be on that bus, young lady.” His end of the phone was quiet again. “I’m very disappointed in you.”

  “What did I do that was so wrong? Besides lie to you, I mean.”

  He let out an exasperated breath. “Where do I start?”

  “I’m eighteen tomorrow, Dad.” She decided to play the adult card. “It’s time I make my own decisions, don’t you think?”

  “This lack of good judgment shows that you’re clearly not capable of that yet.”

  “I’m an adult in the eyes of the law.”

  “Speaking of the law, that boy took our underaged daughter out of the state without our consent.”

  Natalie didn’t reply at first. She knew he was right.

  “I’m not surprised he would do such a thing, but you … I can’t believe you did this.”

  “You’re not going to get Colton into trouble, are you?” It had been one of her biggest concerns when it came to telling her dad the truth.

  “I could.”

  “Dad, please don’t,” she begged. “I would be humiliated.”

  “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before.”

  “Dad, I’m sorry.”

  “I thought I could trust you.” His voice was quiet and sad.

  “You can, Daddy. You can.”

  “I’m not so sure anymore.”

  Tears stung her eyes.

  “I need to get back to work.”

  “I love you, Dad.”

  There was a long pause before he responded with, “I love you too.”

  Her heart broke at the sound of their call ending. She hadn’t meant to lose her father’s trust. She hadn’t meant for any of this to happen. What if her relationship with her father was damaged irreparably?

  Her appetite was lost, so she headed back to the room and threw herself down on her bed. The tears would not stop, and she let them flow, praying her dad would forgive her for lying to him.

  Regretful and emotionally drained, sleep overcame her.

  Storms were always worse at night, and the one brewing outside was preventing her from falling asleep. That and the fact that she was wide awake because of her unexpected nap earlier. She squeezed her eyes closed, but it didn’t stop her from seeing every flash of lightning through her eyelids. And covering her ears with her hands did nothing to shut out the loud, rolling thunder as the storm grew near. Her friends were sound asleep while she gripped her pillow as tightly as she could, praying for sleep to come.

  As another round of thunder rumbled, she heard a strange buzzing sound and realized it was her phone vibrating on the nightstand next to her head. She opened her eyes long enough to see that it was Colton trying to FaceTime her, and she tapped the screen to answer.

  “Are you OK?” he asked before she even had a chance to speak. His handsome face was distorted by the cracks across her screen.

  “Not really.” She laid the phone sideways on her pillow next to her head and lowered the volume so she wouldn’t wake the girls.

  “I wish I could come over there right now.”

  She whimpered as the thunder cracked loudly, and she almost gave in and told him to come.

  Colton cleared his throat and hummed. He then proceeded to sing her the first verse of “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You”, like he had in the tent that night.

  Natalie smiled into the phone, though it was dark in her room, and she wasn’t sure the light from her phone was enough for him to see her. He was the sweetest, most thoughtful guy on the entire planet.

  “Does that help?” he asked when he had finished.

  “It helped.” She honestly felt calmer just knowing he cared, knowing how concerned he was about her.

  “Wish I could calm you down the way I did last time.”

  “Colton.” She couldn’t let on that she had been thinking the same thing.

  “Well, I do. I’m just being honest.”

  She was thankful that the darkness hid her grin.

  “Hey, it’s after midnight now,” he said.

  “So.”

  “So … happy birthday.”

  He was right. She was now eighteen.

  He held the phone closer to his face and smiled. “I’m glad I was the first to say it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “So now if the cops pull us over, I don’t have to worry about getting arrested.”

  Natalie giggled at that.

  “I’ll let you get some sleep now.”

  “Wait, I wanted you to know that I told my dad.”

  His eyes widened. “You did? How did he take it?”

  “Not good.”

  She could see him hang his head a little. “He hates me now, doesn’t he?”

  “He was angrier with me for lying to him.”

  “I’m sure he’ll forgive you,” he said.

  “I hope so.” Her throat tightened at the thought of her relationship with her dad being forever broken.

  “Hey, can we hang out later? I have a gift for you.”

  “You didn’t have to get me anything.” But knowing that he had warmed her heart.

  “I wanted to.”

  “That’s sweet.”

  “Well, you know me.” He gave her the cute dimple smile.

  Her stomach fluttered. She couldn’t help it. The way he smiled at her was everything.

  “So, I’ll see you later then?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Goodnight, Nat.” His phone began to turn away.

  “Colton …”

  “Yeah?” He faced the camera again.

  “Thank you for calling.”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “Goodnight.”

  “Night.”

  26

  Calming the Storm

  Eighteen years old. Natalie woke with a hopeful feeling after her phone call with Colton. She had no idea what the future held. Heck, she had no idea what the day held even, but she knew good things were coming.

  She sat up in bed and stretched. Glancing around the room, she noticed streamers and balloons and colorfully wrapped packages on the table. She slowly crawled out of bed and walked over to see the pile of gifts and cards from her friends. She wasn’t sure how they had dragged themselves out of bed to do all of this or how they did it without waking her, but she loved it.

  Natalie walked to the sliding glass door and slid the curtain back enough to open the door and step outside onto the balcony. The weather was still gloomy and literal grey clouds hung over her special day, but she wouldn’t let it dampen her spirits. She was determined to enjoy every moment of her birthday.

  “Good morning.” Olivia peeked out the door behind her.

  “Morning, Liv.”

  Olivia joined her on the balcony and wrapped an arm around her. “Happy birthday.”

  Natalie leaned her head on Olivia’s shoulder. “Thank you. The decorations are so pretty. How did you do that with me sleeping?”

  “Very, very carefully.” She giggled.

  They stared out at the waves beating aga
inst the sand, and Natalie realized this truly was their last hurrah. Once they returned home, there would be finals to take, graduation to prepare for, open houses to attend, summer jobs to work. The next three months would go by in a flash, and they would go their separate ways.

  “I love you, Liv.”

  Olivia rested her head against Natalie’s and gave her a squeeze. “I love you too.”

  A droplet hit Natalie’s nose, and she opened her hands as rain began to fall.

  “Want to open one of your gifts?” Olivia made a move toward the room.

  Natalie’s eyes brightened. “I want to open all of them.”

  The girls giggled and raced back into the room to escape the rain.

  Natalie plopped down on the bed with Trinity and squeezed her leg through the blanket. “Time to get up, Trin.”

  Trinity groaned. “Nooo!”

  “But it’s my birthday.”

  She opened one eye and looked back over her shoulder at Natalie. “Happy birthday, Natty.”

  “Thanks. I want to open presents now, so get up!”

  Trinity slowly rolled out of bed, and they flipped the lights on as Natalie opened Trinity’s gift—a cute yellow sundress she had seen in one of the shops the other day but couldn’t really afford. The other packages from Trinity were matching sandals and jewelry. Then she opened a cute scrapbook Olivia had made for her of pictures of the three of them throughout their friendship.

  They sat for a while flipping through the album, reminiscing about all the good times they had shared together, laughing at the funny moments and tearing up at the sweet ones.

  “Thank you both. I love all my gifts.”

  “There’s one more,” Olivia announced as she handed Natalie a card and package that had been hidden behind the chair.

  Her heart skipped a beat, thinking it might be from Colton.

  “This is from your Dad.”

  Natalie chewed on her bottom lip as she carefully took the medium rectangular package from her and ran her fingers over her name in her father’s handwriting. She opened the card first with its photograph of a little girl dancing on her father’s feet and a sentiment about dancing her way through life. He had added the words and flipping above the word dancing. Inside was a brief handwritten note telling her how much he loved her and would miss her when she left for college in the fall. Her heart squeezed. She missed him, and she regretted keeping the whole truth about the trip from him. And when she opened the package and found a beautiful leather-bound Bible with her name embossed on the cover and a note on the dedication page that read “You will always find the truth about life within these pages”, she began to cry.

  “Oh, Natalie,” Olivia said. “It will be OK. Your dad will come around.”

  “I really hurt him.” She sniffled.

  “He’ll forgive you.”

  Natalie wasn’t so sure.

  The rain prevented the girls from doing anything outdoorsy for Natalie’s birthday, so they spent the day roaming through the same shops they had already visited, having ice cream inside while staring out at the empty beach, and hanging out in the room watching TV and wasting time on their phones. Their last full day of vacation seemed like a total bust.

  Olivia and Trinity insisted they all dress up and go to dinner at the resort restaurant downstairs, though Natalie didn’t feel much like celebrating. But once she was in her new yellow dress with the matching sandals, her hair curled and half pulled up, and her face made up for once, her mood shifted. Amazing what a little makeup and new clothes could do to lift the spirit.

  Natalie walked with confidence to the crowded restaurant, but she became unnerved when she spotted Colton and Lexi seated at a table across the room from theirs.

  Olivia and Trinity both turned to see what had caused her dumbfounded expression.

  “Forget about them,” Trinity told her.

  “Not worth it,” Olivia added.

  She only wished she could forget.

  Natalie did her best to ignore them and enjoy the chicken parmesan, which reminded her of talent night at that little Italian grille. When the girls had finished eating, the waitress brought out a small cake her friends had decorated for her, complete with lit candles, and the waitstaff sang her the birthday song. She blushed the entire time. The only time she appreciated that much attention was when she was at gymnastics competitions.

  “Make a wish and blow out those candles,” Trinity said.

  Natalie peeked over at Colton. Had he even noticed she was there? He wasn’t looking at her, but his date was. Lexi’s eyes were firing warning daggers in her direction. Her mind flashed to Lexi and Grant lip-locked at the amusement park and a surge of anger shot through her.

  She turned back to her cake then closed her eyes. Most girls probably would’ve wished for Colton and Lexi to break up—she wanted that more than she was willing to admit to anyone—but it’s not what she wished for as she took in a deep breath and puffed out the candles.

  “So …” Trinity said.

  “So, what?”

  “Your wish.”

  “If I tell you what I wished for, it won’t come true.”

  Trinity let out a little snort. “That’s a bunch of bull.”

  Natalie simply shook her head and smiled.

  “Won’t you even tell me what you wished for?”

  Natalie’s head jerked to the left when she heard Colton’s voice. There was still a twinge of pain in her neck from the accident, but she didn’t care. Colton was standing over her, his hand resting on her shoulder.

  She smiled up at him. “Not even you.”

  “Happy birthday.” His smile lit up his face. “You look beautiful.”

  “Thanks.” A blush colored her cheeks.

  “Like you were meant to ride in my car.”

  Natalie glanced down at the yellow of her dress and smiled.

  “Did you have a good day?”

  She shrugged. Getting better. She couldn’t stop smiling.

  “Can we meet up after dinner to talk?”

  “Sure.”

  He smiled the most adorable smile at her. “Cool. I’ll text you when I’m done here.”

  She nodded.

  He squeezed her shoulder then walked back across the restaurant to Lexi, who looked ready to breathe fire.

  Olivia cut a slice of cake for Natalie and placed it in front of her. “Oh my gosh. You two are so smitten.”

  “What?” Natalie feigned innocence.

  “You have a permasmile.” She cut a piece for Trinity.

  “I can’t help it.” She pressed her lips together, trying to stop the smile from spreading, but she failed.

  “Eat your cake.” Olivia pointed to her plate.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Natalie took a bite of red velvet cake with the creamiest white frosting. Her eyes practically rolled back in her head. “Oh, that’s really, really—”

  Her praise of the cake was suddenly interrupted by the sound of glass breaking, followed by yelling— well, more like shrieking.

  “Are you serious?” Lexi stood next to their table, yelling at Colton. “You’re doing this now?”

  Natalie couldn’t hear Colton’s response, but he reached for her arm, trying to get her to sit down, and she batted his hand away.

  Lexi’s gaze suddenly fell on Natalie, and before she knew it, Lexi was making a beeline for her.

  “You!” Lexi shouted. “You did this!”

  Colton was on her heels.

  “I did nothing.” Natalie knew Lexi probably wouldn’t believe anything she said, but the desire to defend herself kicked in.

  Lexi wagged a finger at her. “I told you to keep your mouth shut. You’re going to be so sorry for this.”

  “I didn’t tell him.”

  “Tell me what?” Colton’s eyes flew from Natalie’s to Lexi’s.

  There was panic in Lexi’s eyes. “Nothing.”

  “What are you talking about?” He looked at Natalie again.
“Tell me.”

  Natalie shook her head slightly, afraid to break the news, afraid of what Lexi might do.

  His expression was almost as serious as it had been when Natalie accidentally called him king. “One of you better tell me right now.”

  “She’s been cheating on you with Grant,” Trinity squeaked out.

  “Trinity!” Natalie and Olivia both spoke at the same time.

  “Come on. He deserves to know.”

  The color left Colton’s face for an instant, then rushed back with a force. He clenched his jaw, muscles twitching, eyes narrowing at Lexi. “How could you do that?” He shook his head in astonishment. “How could he do that?”

  “I’m sorry, Colt. Please. Please don’t leave me.” Tears sprung to Lexi’s eyes.

  “We’re already through. I told you.”

  Natalie’s heart sped up. He finally broke up with her? It was awful that he had found out about Lexi’s indiscretion this way, but joy rushed through her, knowing he had already ended things.

  Colton’s eyes met hers, and she saw pain and confusion there. A sinking feeling in her stomach replaced the flutters of joy she had felt only moments before.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered.

  “I’m sorry,” she replied quietly.

  “How long have you known?”

  Natalie hesitated. “A couple days.”

  The hurt in his eyes was unmistakable. “You should’ve told me.”

  “I didn’t think it was my place.”

  He looked from her to Lexi and back again. “I have to go.”

  As soon as he was ten steps away, Lexi sank to the floor next to Natalie’s legs and began to weep. In that moment, Natalie’s heart went out to her. Despite her terrible choices, she was still a girl with feelings, and Natalie had a strong urge to help her.

  “Are you all right?” Natalie laid a hand on her shoulder.

  Lexi’s hand shot up and grabbed her wrist. Her eyes fixed on the wall of windows overlooking the ocean, and she bolted to her feet with Natalie’s wrist in a death grip.

  “Ow! Lexi! Let go!” she cried.

  Lexi yanked her up from the seat. “You’re coming with me.”

  “What, where?” She attempted to twist her wrist out of Lexi’s hold, but she was overpowered.

  “Lexi!” Olivia and Trinity both cried, following after them.