Into the Light

30

Images of Anna and I in that tub flooded my mind, before I could stop them. "There's also a note right here on the wall. It says there is a pool and a jacuzzi on the roof. It's on the ROOF, Colby! How rad is that?!" she exclaimed. "Totally rad," I answered, laughing. "Can we go up there tonight? To check it out?" she asked, turning to face me. I pulled her to me, and pressed my lips to hers for a couple of seconds. "Anything you want," I murmured against her lips. "You're too good to me," she replied, then leaned her head against my chest as she hugged me. "You deserve some good in your life, Anna," I replied. "Thank you," she whispered. "YO! I need to hit the head! Hurry up," Brennen yelled from outside the bathroom. Anna and I smiled at each, then I held the door open for her to pass through. "Bout time," Brennen said, dancing from one foot to the other. "I'm about to piss myself." He darted in behind me, and closed the door. I laughed and turned towards the beds, just in time to see Anna climb up on one of them. "What are you doing?" I asked, watching her get to a standing position. "I'm enjoying my time in a ritzy hotel," she replied, then started to bounce up and down on the mattress. "You're jumping on the bed," I mused. She giggled, and kept bouncing. "Come on! Jump with me!" she exclaimed. I sighed and shook my head. "I can't believe I'm doing this," I replied, then slipped my shoes off. Once I was standing on the bed, Anna held both of her hands out to me. I took them, and we started to bounce around in circles. Honestly, it was fun. It felt like truly being a child again, and not having to worry about the adult issues that always followed us around. "You guys are nuts," Corey laughed out. I glanced over to see him recording us with his phone. "Don't post that," I said, before dropping Anna's hands, jumping high and spinning in a circle. "Yeah, like I'd post you with a girl," he replied, rolling his eyes. He got up and grabbed his Bluetooth speaker from his bag. After setting the music up, he kicked off his shoes and stood on his mattress. We all just laughed and jumped around. Brennen joined us as soon as he came out of the bathroom. After a while, we were all breathless and wore out. I jumped up, then landed on my butt. Anna laughed and did the same. I fell back on the mattress, and put my arms behind my head. She yanked a couple of pillows down from the head of the bed, and stuck them behind her head. "That was fun!" she replied, smoothing her hair away from her face. "Yeah, I have to admit it. That was way more fun than I thought it would be," Brennen said. "Wait, I thought we were supposed to go to the others room, or them come over here. What do you think happened?" Anna asked. "They're probably just resting," I answered. I pulled out my phone and shot a text to Sam, just to make sure that everything was okay. "Yeah, we're good. Just hanging out," he replied back. "Cool. I guess we can leave in about 30. That good for you?" I texted back. "Yup," he answered. I put my phone up and just lay there, next to Anna, listening to the now quiet room. "Colby, wake up brother." God, why wouldn't they just leave me alone? I just needed another 5 minutes. "Colby, wake up! We need to get going, if we're still planning on going out tonight," Sam said again, and shook my shoulder. "We don't have to go anywhere," Anna's soft voice said. I pried open my blurry eyes, and met Sam's gaze. "There he is!" he said, grinning down at me. "How long have I been out?" I asked. "Not long," Anna interjected. "Maybe 20 minutes. If you're tired, we can just hang out here." I sat up and shook my head. "No. I made these plans specifically for you. I don't want to sleep. Didn't mean to go to sleep just then." My mouth felt as dry as the Sahara, so I got up and grabbed a water from the little mini fridge that was in the room. "Okay, is everyone ready?" I asked, after taking a long swallow of the cold liquid. "Not quite," Sam answered. "But almost. Kat's just fixing her hair." I took another swallow of water, and nodded. "I need to do that too. And brush my teeth. Won't take me more than a few minutes." "Yep," he said, then walked through the door on the other side of the room. "I thought that was a closet," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Nope. It's the adjoining door to the other room," Brennen responded. "Makes sense," I said, and stretched my arms over my head. "Guess I need to finish up." It didn't take me long to brush my teeth and fix my hair, but everyone was still finished before me. Anna was the only one still in the room, when I walked out of the bathroom. "Where'd everyone go?" I asked. "Out to the hallway. I stayed to let you know. Corey said to make sure and tell you that everyone was waiting on you to fix your perfect hair, but to hurry the fuck up, because he was hungry," she replied, with a smile. I grinned and instinctively fixed my already finished hair with my fingers. "You ready to go see what your surprise is?" I asked. "Definitely," she answered, standing up from the bed. I held my hand out to her. "Let's go." We met up with the others in the hallway, and then we all made our way back to the cars. "Okay, you guys just follow me," I said, before getting into the car. I set the gps and headed towards our destination. It was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel, so it wasn't long before the brightly colored sign caught my eye. "What...is that?" Corey asked, leaning forwards to stare out the front windshield. "That is our destination," I answered, turning into the parking lot of the retro café. It was set inside a shopping duplex and took up two stores. On one side was a restaurant, or café, and on the other side was an old school arcade, and memorabilia store. The pink and yellow ombre letters said "Back to the 80's Café and More" blazing above the windows.