Chapter 1
By Rachel
I reached my
hand over to the night table, feeling around for what I should have been
looking for, and slammed my hand down.
Finally, the
shrill ringing of the alarm clock had stopped, and now I could possibly sneak
in a few more minutes of rest before my best friend and cousin, who were
staying at my house, got up themselves.
I rolled back
over onto my back and pulled my blankets up over my head, hoping one of the
other guys had gotten up when they heard the alarm so we wouldn’t be late
getting to the airport.
After I had my
eyes closed for what seemed like only seconds, I heard a faint knock at my
bedroom door but decided to ignore it.
After a few
more seconds, the knocking stopped, and I heard the door open as someone
quietly walk in. Next thing I knew, I
felt the bed sag as someone sat down and started gently shaking me.
"Hey
Frick, wake up, man. You were supposed to get up almost forty-five minutes ago.
Kev said we have to leave for the airport in about an hour," the voice I
recognized as my best friend Nick’s told me.
"No,
Frack," I mumbled as I rolled over on my stomach and buried my head into
the pillow, hoping he would go away and let me sleep.
"Yes,
Frick," he said in a slightly irritated voice. "You can sleep on the
plane, come on, Kev is almost ready to leave. You need to get up." When he
received no response from me after a few seconds, I heard him let out a loud
sigh and stomp out of the room
"Finally,
some peace and quiet," I thought as I buried my head deeper into my soft
pillow. The next thing I was aware of was something cold hitting my back and me
sitting up quickly in bed. I was greeted by the smiling and all too cheerful
face of Nick who was dressed in a clean pair of jeans and an Adidas shirt,
innocently holding a empty cup in his hands.
"Good
morning, Frick. Welcome to the land of the living. Get your butt out of bed
before Kevin..." started Nick, who was interrupted by the unmistakable
voice of my cousin Kevin.
"Before
Kevin what, Nick?" I heard from outside the hall as I quickly tried to get
out of the comforts of my warm bed. In my rush, I got caught up in the blankets
that were now thrown off the bed, and landed on the floor with a loud THUD,
just as Kevin was about to enter the room.
"What was
that, you guys? Are you okay?" asked Kevin as he looked in the room to see
what all the commotion was and saw me sprawled out on the floor near my bed,
dressed in my boxers and now wet T-shirt.
"Morning
Kev," I said as I gave him a sheepish grin while I set to the task of
untangling myself from the blankets.
"Brian,
you were supposed to be up almost an hour ago, cuz. We have to meet the rest of
the guys at the airport and you are just getting out of bed," chided
Kevin, as I successfully got untangled from the blankets and got up from the
floor.
"I know
Kev. I’m sorry," I quietly said to my expressionless cousin, while I
grabbed what I was going to wear today out of my closet and made my way to the
bathroom to take a quick shower and get ready.
"Hurry
up, Brian," said Kevin, as I shut the door and rolled my eyes.
Geeze, I thought as I started the shower and quickly
got in after taking off my clothes. I didn’t even wait for the water to warm
up, as I usually did. I just hoped that the cold water would wake me up.
After taking a
quick shower that lasted about ten minutes, if that, I got out of the shower
and changed into my clean clothes, as I brushed my teeth and brushed my then
uncooperative sandy blond hair.
With a sigh, I
collected my dirty clothes and dropped them in the wash hamper and then turned
around to collect my toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, and deodorant and
exited the bathroom, stopping only to drop the items in my arms into my open
duffel bag.
I ran down the
stairs only to see Nick sprawled out on the couch, watching TV and Kevin
sitting in the kitchen, reading the newspaper.
"Hey
guys," I said, as I grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl on the table
and took a big bite out of it.
A mumbled
"Hey" was the only response I got.
"I’m
feeling the love," I mumbled loudly enough for them to hear, as I ran back
up the stairs to get my bags and to make sure I had packed everything.
When I entered
my room, I looked around and was pleased to not notice anything that I had not
packed in my bags that I would need, so I walked over to my bags and zipped
them up as I hummed a random song that popped into my head. I then picked up my
bags and almost fell back from the force of the new weight. I knew the majority of the weight was
probably from the winter clothes I had to pack, for we were going to stay a
majority of our break from tour in Colorado to do some skiing and snowboarding,
amongst relaxing and enjoying our time off.
"Bri, you
ready?" I heard Nick call, as both he and Kevin arrived at the top of the
stairs to retrieve their bags from the guestrooms where they had stayed the
night before.
"Yeah,
coming Nick" I said, as I took one last look around my room and grabbed
the keys to my Jeep and the house off of the desk, only to throw them at Kevin
seconds later as he passed by. With a loud grunt, he bent down and picked them
up, stuffing them in his pocket while he walked down the stairs without saying
a word.
"How
rude," I whispered to Nick as we both followed Kevin down the stairs. Nick
nodded sleepily, as we reached the bottom of the stairs and walked out the door.
I took one last look around the house as I locked the doors and walked towards
my Jeep to find both Nick and Kevin loading their luggage in the back.
Within minutes
we were packed up and ready to go. I sat in the driver’s seat, as Kevin sat
beside of me on the passenger’s side, and Nick lay down in the back seat,
trying to get what sleep he could in the thirty minute drive to the airport. As
I was backing out of the driveway, I reached over to turn on the radio, only to
have Kevin turn it off moments later as he mumbled "Sleep." I
shrugged, as my older cousin rested his head against the window and fell asleep
within seconds.
"What an
exciting ride this is gonna be," I thought as I veered the Jeep onto the
interstate, making my way to our next destination, the airport.
***
