Luckily Colton's upset towards me was short lived. Schyler had found a cute little diner for us to eat at, similar to the one where we'd celebrated after the auditions. By then, he was already playfully poking fun at me again. Even Phillip got into all of our joking, much to everyone's excitement. He was looking a little better than he had that morning, which also relieved me of some anxiety.
A little later that night more idols started piling into the diner, and we decided it was time for us to leave. We payed and exited, deciding to head towards the beach.
“It's not far!” Maggie insisted, studying her phone. Schyler tried yet again to steal it from her grasp, as no one quite trusted her sense of direction.
“Mags just lemme peek?” she begged as Maggie blocked her attempted grab.
“I know where I'm going!” she replied stubbornly.
Colton was biting his lip to refrain from laughing, and Phil was peeking over her shoulder, squinting to make out the tiny screen. I rolled my eyes and pulled my phone from my pocket to look up my own directions. I hit the lock button and the screen lit up. I squinted at in in surprise.
FOUR NEW MSGS
No one texted me except Maggie, and she'd been with me the whole night. My dad couldn't text and no one I knew at home knew me well enough to even have my number. Unless... I nearly dropped my phone. Now wasn't the time to worry about that. I slid it back into my pocket, not bothering to open the messages.
“Well?” Colton was looking at me expectantly.
“What?”
“You were looking up directions, right?” Phil had slowed his pace to walk with us. Maggie was squealing and trying to wrestle her phone back from a giggling Sky, feet ahead of us.
“Uh... No.” I replied, shrugging.
“Can I?” Colton asked, holding his hand towards me, “I don't trust Sky leading either.” he laughed in explanation.
Well now I was trapped. “Uh... Yeah one-”
“Eh, nope.” Phillip was pointing ahead, towards a huge wooden sign with a bunch of arrows, “Beach is just up ahead.” I peered towards the sign, that was lit up with a couple of landscaping lights. At the very top it read BEACH with an arrow pointing straight ahead.
“TOLD YOU!” Maggie yelled back to us, grinning.
“Well... She did.” Colton laughed. I couldn't help but join in, but more in relief than anything. Phillip definitely had just cut me a major break, whether he knew it or not. I felt Colton's eyes on me, and turned to look at him.
“What?” I asked suspiciously.
“Nuthin'” he took his gaze off of me, and looked ahead. I glanced over at Phillip, who just shrugged.
“I'll race you guys to the water.” Colton suddenly suggested, eyes glistening mischievously.
I raised my eyebrows. Competition was my weak point. “You're on.”
Phillip just looked at us like we were crazy. “I'll walk, thanks.” I laughed.
Colton grinned at me, and stopped. I came to his side and stopped as well. I could see the glow of the beach just in the distance. The sun was beginning to set over the water, and the salty smell of ocean was filling the air. I could just see the edge of the sandy shore.
“Ready...” he was still looking at me, one side of his mouth slightly twitched into a smile, “If you think I'm gonna go easy on you, you're sadly mistaken.”
