I'm A Mess || l.c

16- Chandeliers & Night City Views

As I sat on the sofa, glancing through the glossy pages of Vogue, I heard the sound of a car pull up onto the driveway. My heart felt as if it skipped a beat as I effortlessly closed the magazine and grabbed the handle of my suitcase. It was finally time to head out and I had never felt more ready for something in my entire life. Okay, except for maybe my finals at school, but that's irrelevant now.

I ran to open the door just as James was about to ring the doorbell.

"Hello, gorgeous. Shall we get going now?" he asked with a wink.

"Nah, let's stay back!" I remarked sarcastically as I walked out with my suitcase and loaded it into the trunk.

"Not so fast!" my mum exclaimed as she came out with the rest of the family behind her, folding her arms and shaking her head. "You don't even want to say bye to us?"

"Don't worry mum, I wasn't going to leave without saying bye to all of you," I assured her as I walked over and gave her and everyone else a hug. Dani, Kath, Lisa, and Amy weren't looking too happy, as expected, but I let it go. It wasn't my problem that they weren't accepting of any of this, and there was nothing I could do about it, except come back in a few days as safe and happy as I was now, and tell them "See? You guys were all worried about nothing!" 

Christina was also there to say goodbye, strangely with tears in her eyes.

"Be safe, honey," dad said with a smile. "And you, young man, treat my girl well and make sure she's safe!"

James laughed and promised him that he would. What did I ever do to deserve such a gentleman?

I waved my final goodbye to my sisters and parents and hopped into the car. As James backed out of the driveway, I plugged my phone into the aux cord and started the playlist that I had made specifically for this drive. Yes, I was so excited that I even made a playlist for this specific moment.

"I've never seen you look more excited for anything!" James yelled over the loud music. I turned the volume down slightly.

"James, you have no idea how excited I truly am. I've never been to Florida and getting to experience it for the first time with you is just ... I have no words."

"You're too cute."

I blushed and looked out of the window, wishing we were already there.

*

It was just after 9pm and we had finally made it to Florida; more specifically, our hotel room. The time from James picking me up to now had honestly been a blur. My hotel was practically something out of a movie. It had a beautiful, elegant lobby, coupled with a few magnificent chandeliers which I of course took photos of to upload onto Instagram later. Just then, I remembered that I was supposed to text Jayde when I got here, so I quickly formulated a message and hit send. Not even a minute after sending that text, my phone started blowing up with text message notifications.

J: OMGGG!

J: I'm so qlad you're actually here!

J: we're qoinq to have a qreat time tomorrow niqht! do you like it so far?

J: are you in your hotel now?

J: how's your hotel, qirl? xx

So much for wanting her to stop changing her 'g's to 'q's. I shook my head with a smile and started texting her back before she raided me with more questions. I then put my phone down and opened the beige, velvet curtains to reveal a breath-taking view of the city at night and the hotel's swimming pool at the bottom, which I was planning on checking out in the morning. It all felt so surreal to me, so effortlessly perfect.

"Amazing, isn't it? You hungry?" I had been admiring the view so intensely that I almost forgot that James was in the room as well.

"I'm kind of tired, so I might just sleep now. But you can order room service for yourself," I said as I stifled back a yawn.

"Okay then, grandma, goodnight" he laughed.

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes at him as I retrieved my pyjamas out of my suitcase. I checked my phone to see that the time was only 9:12pm. It was quite early but it was a long day and, after all, I wanted to be as well-rested as possible for tomorrow. We hadn't exactly planned out what we were going to be doing tomorrow so of course we would need to wake up early to do all of that. One thing was certain though. I was going to be meeting my friends tomorrow night at Jayde's mum's beach house. I never thought I would even be able to truthfully say that sentence in my mind. How had James managed to so smoothly change my parents' minds about everything? My oh my, he was certainly something else.

Before I knew it, I was already fast asleep, dreaming about all the adventures we were going to have here.

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A.N- Okay, okay, I promise the next chapter is better. Be prepared though, it's going to be an intense one!