Lucky

51

We slept through most of the night before I woke up to rustling in the bushes. "Colby....Colby." I said and shook him, trying to get him to wake up as I grabbed my phone so I could shine my flashlight around.

I heard the rustling again causing me to jump and shake Colby again. "Babe, I'm serious." I said as he groaned. "What's going on?" He mumbled the rustling happened again.

"There's something out here." I said and shined my flashlight behind me again. "What do you mean?" He asked as I saw a flash of golden eyes. "Shit!" I hissed and kept my eyes locked on the animals. "Okay, stay calm but there's some sort of animal staring me down right now." I said as he sat up.

"Holy shit...okay...uh...stay calm." He said as I nodded. "I'm calm. Just get everything packed up. Slowly." I said as kept eye contact with the animal.

I couldn't tell what it was from just the eyes but I would assume it was either a wolf, a coyote, or a mountain lion. I was hoping it was a coyote though, I could fight a coyote off if it came down to it.

Colby slowly folded the blankets up and grabbed all of our stuff as I kept my eyes on the animal. Luckily it didn't seem to be threatened, "Alright, we need to get in the car." I said and slowly started to stand up.

"Be careful, V." Colby said as I reached down to pick up my blanket. "Is the car unlocked?" I asked as the eyes moved closer. "Yeah." Colby said as I nodded. "On three..we run." I said as he sucked in a breath.

"Okay..one....two....three!" I said then ran to the car. Colby was close behind me as I flung the door open and threw myself into the passengers seat.

I looked over at Colby as we tried to catch our breath. He looked over at me and leaned his head against the headrest.

We stared at eachother for a second before we both burst into laughter. "Are you okay?" Colby asked between his laughs. "Yeah, are you?" I asked and wiped the tears of laughter from my eyes. "Yeah. What the fuck was that?" He asked as he turned the heat up.

"I don't know. I'm wide awake now though." I said and brushed my hand through my hair. "Did you want to just keep going on the trip?" Colby asked as I nodded. "We can, but aren't you tired?" I asked as he shrugged. "I'm awake now." He said then took my hand and started driving.

"We can stop at a hotel if we need to....by the way, Merry Christmas Eve." Colby said quietly as he pulled my hand into his lap. "Holy shit..it's Christmas Eve!" I said as I looked at the clock. It was 4am so technically it was the day before Christmas.

"Don't you want to spend Christmas with your parents?" I asked and picked at a loose string that was on my pants. "I'd love to, but they're going on a cruise. I'm happy to spend Christmas with you, though." He said quietly as I smiled. "I'm happy to spend it with you too." I said quietly as my heart swelled.

We drove for a couple hours before I started to get sleepy again. "Maybe we should stop at a hotel." I said with a yawn as I looked over at Colby, seeing how tired he looked. "That's a good idea." He said as I pulled out my phone, trying to find the closest hotel.

"There's a holiday inn at exit 15." I said with a yawn as he nodded. "Sounds good." He said as I closed my eyes and leaned my head back into the seat.

I didn't realize I fell asleep until Colby was waking me up by kissing my cheek. "Come on, baby. We're here." He said quietly as I groaned. "Bring the bed to me." I groaned as he laughed. "I could if I would." He said as I got out of the car.

I grabbed a blanket then pulled it over my shoulders as we walked into the hotel. Colby got us a room while I was sleeping in the car so all we had to do was go up to the room.