Adrenaline

05 | in a land down under pt. i

Once we touch down in Melbourne, we hit the ground running to our hotel. By the time we arrive, it's ten o'clock at night and the entire group is ready to crash. The guys share a room while I separate with Lauren. Jenny and Seira take the room across from ours.

        I face plant onto the bed closest to the window, thankful I had the foresight to forgo any makeup.

        Lauren smacks the bottom of my feet. "Girl, plug in your phone for tomorrow."

        I mumble my reply into the sheets. When she scolds me for not being able to understand, I roll onto my back, exhaling an exhausted sigh.

        "Fine," I grunt and pull myself up. It takes every ounce of strength to not immediately drop back onto the bed, but I manage to drag myself over to where I left my suitcase.

        When I rejoin her, she's texting someone. My first guess is that she's talking to Jun, but a frown forms on her face.

        "Maver?" I ask, to which she nods.

        It's no secret they have ups and downs, which is annoying but more so considering they've only ever labeled themselves as friends-with-benefits at best. If it were me, I wouldn't even bother. The long-distance nature of their relationship sucks without acknowledging it's barely a relationship in the first place.

        "He's a social climber. Dump his ass."

        Lauren sends me a sour look.

        "The least you could do is listen," she complains.

        "I'm not trying to be a bitch, but I'm going to jump to my own conclusions and say that he's annoyed you came here without inviting him since he's stuck in LA for the next two weeks."

        Her silence is a tell-all. It's not that I enjoy being right. Clearly, their disagreements rub her the wrong way and I don't enjoy seeing her upset. But it's always the same story, the same double standards. After a while, it becomes difficult to know what I'm supposed to say.

        "It's ridiculous for him to be mad at you, and you don't deserve to let this ruin your weekend. There are a bunch of hot F1 guys waiting for us at the paddock and we deserve to have fun with them. Okay?"

        "What the hell is a paddock?"

        I roll my eyes. "That wasn't the point of my pep talk."

        "Is that what you call a pep talk?"

        Lauren stares down at her phone for a few seconds as a slew of incoming texts light up the screen. Eventually, she puts the device on do not disturb and plugs it into the charger before sliding into her sheets.

        "Fine," she finally replies. "I'll wait until we get back to—"

        "Dump him."

        "—talk to him. I'm tired of all of this back-and-forth. I think it's time we figure out what's going on with us before we keep giving each other mixed signals."

        I want to grab her by the ears and scream that she's not the problem here, he is. But it's too late and we're both too tired.

        "Don't forget to set your alarm," she warns before turning off the light. "They're going to kill us if we oversleep."

        "Goodnight."

...

When we're the last ones to arrive in the lobby after waking up late, everyone glares at us.