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My lips twitched as I fought a smile, trying to be serious.
“There’s a deadly disease that causes people to only see the bad side of things. My abuelo likes to refer to this as pessimism.”
“Your grandfather is the ringleader of this whole conspiracy, and I’m not a pessimist.”
“She’s a realist,” Gracelyn joked, forcing her voice to be deep and masculine.
I started to laugh, the sound coming from my throat akin to an angry toad’s battle cry. “Shut up.” I playfully swatted her arm.
“Ow.” She poked out her lip and feigned being hurt, making her hazel eyes go big and round.
“I can’t take you two anywhere,” Mel reprimanded with a laugh. “There’s our shuttle.” She pointed to a sleek white bus idling nearby.
We approached and waited patiently for the passenger in front of us to climb on board. I glanced back at the resort and withheld a dejected sigh. This would be our last trip for god knows how long, and that reminder made it hard to ignore what was on the horizon.
Melantha got onto the shuttle first. I followed behind her, and Gracelyn shadowed the rear.
“Sit anywhere you’d like,” the driver instructed in an upbeat tone, his bushy mustache lifting with his smile.
I thanked him with a small one of my own and then skimmed the interior. The seating was set for two per row with already a few people up front.
Ignoring the stares aimed at her silver and lavender hair, Mel breezed by all of them, stopping at the halfway point to the back.
Directly to the right of where she’d chosen to sit was a cluster of four guys that with a passing glance, appeared to be around our age.
I wasn’t a fan of confined spaces, so I placed my suitcase in the baggage cubby above us and then claimed the seat nearest to the aisle. Gracelyn sat by the window, leaving Mel no choice but to sit behind us.
“How long does it take to get to the airport?” Gracelyn asked.
“I think thirty minutes,” I replied, pushing my sunglasses up to rest atop my head.
“I was going to ask if you needed help, but you looked like you had it.”
“Huh?” I glanced over at the guys sitting on the other side of the aisle, nearly doing a double take as I got my first actual look at them.
If this were a cartoon my jaw would have dropped through the floor.
“Your bag,” the one closest to me said, nodding his head towards the luggage cubby.
“Oh, well. Thanks for considering,” I quipped, immediately cringing inside. Thanks for considering? Way to be super awkward Lana.
“Anytime,” he replied smoothly, brandishing an amused grin. His teeth were so white I wondered if they were real. I didn’t want to ogle him, but then again, yes, I did. I mean, damn. Where the hell had he been hiding at these past two weeks?
One of his most notable features were his eyes. They were gorgeous. I would call them blue, but that was like saying the sun was yellow, such an average adjective that was hardly accurate. This was more a myriad.
His eyes reminded me of the sea, vibrant and serene, deep within them something churning that I couldn’t identify.
Our staring contest was short lived as two more girls got on the shuttle and passed between us, both looking as hungover as I was, only way more put together. I shifted my attention off the eye candy across the aisle and did my best to get comfortable, toying with the necklace my abuelo had gifted me after the ‘incident’ I chose not to discuss.
Once the last passengers were on board, the driver turned his radio on low and we began to move.
Me and Gracelyn watched out the window until we could no longer see any part of the massive building.
And that was that.
We’d be on a plane heading home soon. Vacation was officially over.
My self-righteous act of denial wasn’t far behind it. I was going to miss staying up all night without needing to wake at the ass crack of dawn and pretend I knew what the hell I was doing with my life. Maybe it would be better for someone else to map the whole thing out, give me a much-needed shove in the right direction.
