🎱. . .CHAPTER 38 ! -----
( real life . . . )
❛ mikayla's not here ❜

ᵣₑₐₗ ₗᵢfₑ !

          Mikayla's heavily fighting the urge to roll her eyes as she's tucked underneath the blanket, hiding from the rays of sunshine peeking through her blinds. she's unfortunately being forced to listen to chris talk about visiting the river later with mason, outside of her room and she genuinely can't bare to listen to his voice anymore.

          she feels a pit in her stomach as she recalls the text messages chris had sent her yesterday night, especially after what they spoke about before it. miks feels incredibly stupid that she let chris ruin her day when it hasn't even started yet and of course, it's all because she likes a boy.

          thinking back to the beginning of their fake dating, she prefers how their relationship was before; without any feelings attached. she hates how only a few words on a screen could make her feel so idiotic but it does. the fact that his texts were out of nowhere confuses her, but she's just thinking about what to do next.

          as mikayla squeezes her eyes closed, trying to tune out chris' voice, she hears her door creak open and the brunette is genuinely hoping that it isn't chris because she can't face him right now.

          her grip on the fluffy blanket tightens, not giving anybody the opportunity to disturb her as she sits in a puddle of despair.

          "mikayla!" a familiar voice squeals, confirming that it's just lucille with her extremely positive morning voice. she tugs on the blanket, but mikayla's grip is so tight that she can't. "MIKAYLA!" lucille repeats, even louder.

          "mikayla isn't here," she sarcastically mumbles from underneath the comfort of her blanket. miks feels lucille's frustration through the atmosphere, sighing as she listens to her friend's feet shuffle across the floorboards. mikayla twitches at a few taps on her concealed forehead, slowly pulling the blanket off of herself.

          lucille's standing above mikayla, her lips pouted with a sympathetic expression forming in her face. "do you want me to kill chris?" lucille questions without a grin, showing that she's probably serious. after all, as soon as she received the text, she obviously showed her girlfriends what he said.

          miks let out a dry chuckle, leaning up from her bed and resting on the headboard. her lips are plump but slightly chapped, most likely because a few minutes after mikayla read what he said, she didn't feel like saying a single word. "maybe," she says through a small grin and the girls share a laugh.

          "we're gonna go to the lake later," lucille mutters to try and cheer up mikayla, walking backwards to exit her bedroom. "bring your bikini!" she excitedly cheers, pointing her finger in the air before disappearing through the doorway.

          miks feels slightly glad that there's still something they can all do as a friend group on this getaway, but she genuinely doesn't want to talk to chris.

         

          "Pancakes are ass," chris mumbles with his mouth full of the sweet breakfast treat at the dining table in the kitchen. he's sat in between nick and lucille, mikayla directly opposite him in between nathan and mason while maria and matt sit on the ends of the long table.

          mikayla aggressively chews on her pancakes drenched in syrup and powdered sugar, narrowing her eyes at chris in front of her. she's noticing how he's purposely avoiding eye contact with her, instead choosing to look at his phone and even the ceiling.

          "aww thanks so much chris," maria acknowledges chris' comment, a plastic grin on her fake. "i love how you talk about my cooking."

          matt picks up a blueberry with his fork, grinning at maria opposite him. "i like 'em," he mumbles while chewing, making maria warmly smile at him.

          they all listen to the nearby radio playing old music, trying to enjoy the breakfast even with the warm country heat filling the whole cabin. there seems to be a small amount of tension in the room, specifically between mikayla and chris for known reasons.

          "apparently there's a small carnival nearby," mason announces to the table, shifting all of their attention away from the food in front of them to their ginger friend. he places his fork down, the loud clinking sound breaking the silence that followed his statement. "like twenty minutes away...some shit like that. we could go after the lake?"

          mikayla cuts up her second pancake into triangles, occasionally looking up from her plate to glance at chris, but of course he's already looking at her. it's as if chris has this obsession with staring at mikayla whenever they're having some sort of disagreement. she huffs, dropping her head to focus on her breakfast instead.

          "just saying, i'm not swimming in that dirty ass lake," nick seethes, lifting his top lip into a sneer before taking a sip of his orange juice. miks agreeingly nods her head but a small part of her knows that she may get the urge to join them if it looks like fun.

          chris clears his throat, pushing his chair out from underneath the table. he wipes some maple syrup from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, sneaking one final glance at mikayla, "i'm gonna shower."

          nick rapidly shakes his head, also raising from his seating position. "no motherfucker, i'm showering first," he commands, earning a glare from chris and mason.

          see, there are multiple showers in the cabin, but on the first night they were all assigned to people. the one in the master bedroom is reserved for maria and matt because they're sharing, the one upstairs is for the rest of the girls and the one downstairs is for the boys, which is why there seems to be an argument brewing.

          "yeah fuck both of you," mason slowly stands up, his eyes flickering between the rest of the guys. he pulls his pants up, then cracking his knuckles as the other boys exchange puzzled looks. mason clears his throat, quickly making a run for the bathroom.

          he makes it inside, locking the door behind
him just as chris, nick and nathan realize that they may have to wait at least an hour for mason to be done. matt quietly chuckles to himself, laughing loudly on the inside because he's glad he isn't fighting to take a shower first.

          chris groans, slowly retreating to the beige couch to probably avoid mikayla. she looks at him, watching him smirk as he rapidly types on his phone, only making mikayla's mind ramble with different possibilities. she wonders if it's talia, or perhaps another girl but she doesn't care. at least that's what she keeps telling herself.

         
The walls by chase atlantic blare through the speaker mikayla luckily brought with her as she stands in front of her mirror, singing along to the lyrics. her long, highlighted hair is held in a baby pink claw clip, a few messy strands falling to her exposed collarbones to cover her face.

          she lets out a loud huff, staring at her reflection in the mirror while she stands in a matching white bikini set, gold hoops holding everything together. before the trip, she visited the mall with the rest of the girls, to try and find a couple of outfits they would be needed on top of her varied wardrobe. it was quite unnecessary, but who in their right mind would ever turn down a shopping trip.

          mikayla's a simple girl, only wearing mostly white and black with pink as her exception. she'll never go for bright colors, a trait she picked up from when she was young and her mom used to dress her in a very minimalistic style. of course, with her mom and dad rarely at home due to their work schedule and business trips, she learned to fend for herself. they don't even text their kids regularly, leaving it up to mikayla or nathan to text first.

          that's also the reason why nathan's overly protective over mikayla, which is why she doesn't blame him for how he acted towards her and chris initially. he's hostile towards the idea of them actually getting together and she's slowly learning to come to terms with it.

          so from now on, she's choosing to listen to nate, especially because he already warned her about chris and now look what's happening. but she'll never tell nate about what happened, probably because she doesn't want him to know that he was right.

          mikayla squints at the outfit she has on, adjusting the top. her gaze falls to the edge of the bed, visible because of the mirror and she stares at the vibrant shades of pink splayed out. she huffs at her indecisiveness, shifting her focus back to determine whether she likes the set she's wearing.

          "hmm..." mikayla hums, her eyes trailing the range of sandals with gold or silver accents, tapping her finger on her chin as she ponders on what will fit with what she's already wearing.

          just as mikayla settles on the perfect pair of shoes, she hears someone calling her name from downstairs, understanding that everyone else is ready to leave.

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ arianna speaks ¡
short chapter bc i've been working on the other matt and chris fics marinating in my drafts

also can i just say rq, if you don't want to read about people smoking bc it 'bothers' you.....stop reading this fic!!! in the introduction i already put in the disclaimers that this fic includes drug use.

thank you...also loyal readers who comment on the reg I FUCKING LOVE YOU GUYS