Imperfect Life: Arc 5

Chapter 9

Crys and Brandon were woken up in the morning by a knock on Crys' door.

"Crys." Brandon's mom said from the other side of the door. "It's time to get up. We need to get going soon."

Crys stirred, causing Brandon to wake up as well.

"Crys?" Brandon's mom asked after a few moments.

"I'm up." Crys hollered back, still half asleep.

"Okay, we'll meet you downstairs." Brandon's mom responded.

Crys sighed. She rolled over in bed, letting go of Brandon. In response, Brandon just scooted over and snuggled up to her again. Crys would've smiled if she was more awake. "Come on, we have to get up." She groaned.

"Mmnf." Brandon responded. He wasn't even trying to say anything in particular. He was too tired.

Crys shuffled around until Brandon let go, then got up. She took a deep breath, then she rustled Brandon's shoulder with her hand. "Wake up." She said.

Brandon stirred and slowly sat up as well with a deep breath. "What time is it?" He said, groggily.

Crys got off her bed and stretched before picking up her phone. "Almost seven." She said. "Ugh." Brandon said. "I hate having to wake up early. I thought this was a vacation."

"Vacation's over." Crys said in reply. "We've got to head back home."

Brandon groaned, then yawned, then fell back on the bed. "I want to go back to sleep." He complained.

Crys rolled her eyes. "I'm tired too." She said.

"And?" Brandon responded groggily.

Crys turned around and leaned over the bed. She grabbed one of the pillows and hit Brandon's gut with it.

Brandon recoiled and sat back up. "Okay, okay." He said, a bit angry.

"You can sleep in the car." Crys said flatly.

"Weren't you the one who didn't want to leave?"

"Yeah, but now we are. Might as well try to leave on time."

Brandon just took another deep breath. He didn't have a response. He was too tired to think of one.

Crys looked at Brandon for a second. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, then went back to getting the last of her luggage together.

Brandon shook his head in confusion then looked at Crys. "Why?" He asked.

"Because I couldn't last night." Crys said back, smiling to herself.

"Oh." Brandon replied.

Some silence set in for a couple of seconds.

"I'm gonna go get my stuff together and take a shower since I didn't get to last night." Brandon said as he finally got off the bed.

"I guess I'll meet you downstairs." Crys replied.

Brandon slowly nodded as his response, then went on with leaving the room to do what he said.

Several minutes later, everyone was downstairs and getting the car packed up. Once that was done, they hit the road. First stop was for some quick breakfast. Everyone got some fast food, that way they could keep driving and save some time.

After finishing eating breakfast, Brandon started to nod off. He couldn't help it. He was still pretty tired from waking up early. He tried his best to stay awake, but eventually he fell asleep. Crys happened to look up from the video game she was playing and noticed Brandon's head dangling to the side. He looked rather uncomfortable, so, much like she did on the way to the beach house, she unbuckled and scooted over to the middle seat, then rebuckled again. She carefully used a hand to guide Brandon's head to rest on her shoulder, then went back to playing her game.

Around two hours later, Brandon woke up, picking his head back up. He was a little startled to see Crys now sitting next to him, but quickly realized that she had been acting as his pillow. He gave her a little nod as thanks since he was still quite out of it. Crys smiled in response and just went back to playing her game. Brandon started playing his own game as well to help pass the time.

Barely anything happened the rest of the trip home. It was just a long, dull, car ride. Of course everyone stopped every once in a while for food or to stretch, but other than that it was simply a waiting game.

Everyone didn't get back home until a little after eight at night, if not a smidge later. Once they were in the driveway and parked, they got out of the car and grabbed their luggage to haul into the house. Brandon's parents went one way while Brandon and Crys made their way upstairs. Both Brandon and Crys went to their rooms to unpack.

When Crys was done unpacking, she went over to Brandon's room to say goodnight. She knocked on the open door.

"Hm?" Brandon looked up from his suitcase. He was still unpacking, though it looked like he was nearly done.

"Looks like we're back." Crys said, a tad awkwardly. "I've kinda missed my own room... well, my room here, that is." She smiled.

Brandon kept unpacking. He had just a few knick-knacks to find spots for. "Yeah..." He said. "Kinda sucks we don't have the beach just outside, though."

"Well, we do have the forest." Crys said in reply. "And we can go gallivanting all around the city, and you really can't beat the view from the top of the Techno Corp. tower."

"Okay, yeah, fair points. But still."

"I'll miss being on vacation." Crys said with a frown.

"Yeah, but, we do still have the rest of summer break." Brandon said as a reminder.

"That's true." Crys replied, picking up her tone.

"Ha!" Brandon exclaimed as he found the perfect spot for his last little knick-knack. "All done." He smiled proudly.

"So, what now?" Crys asked.

"Uh, I don't know." Brandon replied. "I think I'm just gonna go take a shower and go to bed. Maybe stay up for a little longer before sleeping? I dunno."

"Cool, well, I guess I'll head to bed then." Crys said. She walked over to Brandon and hugged him. "Goodnight." She said before letting go of Brandon and walking off.

"Night, Crys." Brandon called out as Crys left the room. He then went and put his now empty suitcase somewhere out of the way. After that, he went and took his shower then jotted down a few notes on his laptop before going to sleep.

Crys, meanwhile, went back to her room. She changed into her pajamas and laid down on top of her bed. She started to think about how she and Brandon were going to give Tomas and Emma their gifts. Maybe they'd just invite them over, or maybe go out to lunch and chat. There were plenty of possibilities, and after about ten or so minutes of mulling over the different ideas, Crys took her phone from the nightstand to mindlessly scroll through one of her social media accounts for some time. Once she started to grow drowsy, she put her phone back and curled up under the covers to get some sleep.

Both friends went to sleep happy. Neither of them had any complaints about their vacation and were glad to spend some close time together. Now it would just be a matter of what to do with the rest of their summer vacation.