Away for a while (Part 1)

(Maddie's P.O.V.)

Since it is summer, my mom reserved a house near the sea to stay in and take a break from everyday life. The house she reserved was big enough for 2 families, so she decided to invite Jane's family as well, and you can only imagine how excited we both were, when we heard, that we would be staying in a house together for almost a week.

I was packing my bags in my room a day before going to the house, so I didn't miss anything and didn't have to do anything late, but Chris had other thoughts about that. He was the one who always did everything at the last moment, whatever it may be.

I looked at the bags that I had packed, in the end I had at least 4 bags. It was a lot, since Chris probably would take only 1 full bag, but you never know what you'll need, so I overpacked a bit.

The next day, everything was going fast. Dad was running around the house trying to get everything he needed, Chris was sitting on the couch looking through his phone and mom and I were going through the stuff we packed and didn't pack.

After going like this for an hour or so, we finally started driving. The drive was about 3 hours long, but I enjoy long rides, especially with loud music on headphones. This time though, I wouldn't be able to do that, because Jane would drive with us, since her parents had some things to take care of and they would come a day later.

We were driving to Jane's house and in that 5 minute drive I listened to the loudest music to get myself in the fun mood. Always worked like a charm. My dad stopped the car at Jane's houses driveway and we saw her with bags and her parents too.

I was jumping in excitement in the backseat, it was finally time to go to the rented house near the sea.

Jane put her bags in the trunk and hugged her parents goodbye, then she opened my side of the door and I had to sit in the middle, since I was the shortest person here. It really wasn't fair to choose like this, but what can I do? Oh well, only 3 hours in the same position in the most uncomfortable seat in the car.

"Heyyyyy, Jane! Ready to have some amazing fun?" I asked excitedly as I moved to the middle seat. Jane smiled and chuckled at me.

"Hey, Mads! Yeah, I have been waiting for this day for weeks!" Jane answered just as excited as I was. My mom rented house weeks before we actually went there, and we knew everything from the start, so we have been excited to go for a while, sometimes it was the only thing we could talk about.

"Same here! I can't wait for the things we're gonna do and I really want to see the house. I don't think I've seen the pictures or I just forgot." I thought and laughed as I scratched my neck. Jane laughed at that too. "We all know you have the memory of a goldfish."

"Oh, come on, I remember stuff too!" I exclaimed, knowing she didn't mean it in a bad way. We always joke around on how my memory is bad, even though I can sometimes remember the stuff none of my friends can.

"Okay, okay, now, since its such a long drive, I made us a game." Jane said and pulled out 3 papers and 3 different colored markers. She handed me one and Chris one, they both haven't said a word to each other, but when Jane handed him his paper, he mumbled a thank you, which earned a smile from Jane.

"Ohh, a game!" I said. Jane looked at me and sighed. "Mads, you were the one who wanted me to make this game."

I looked up from the paper and at her and smiled cheekly at her. She just shook her head and explained the simple rules of the game.

"So, you see the things I have written down here, we all have the same things written down. We have to look for these things and if you see it mark it down and at the end of the trip, we'll see who has the most marked down, and that person wins." Jane stated and we all agreed to the rules, so as my dad was driving, we were looking through the windows to try and find the things that were written down on the paper.

For Jane and Chirs it was easy, because they both were sittng by windows, but I had either the hardest part or the easiest part, because I could see the same from both windows or I just couldn't see good enough.

After a while, we had stopped talking and were just continuing the game in silance, but I had my headphones on, so it wasn't a complete silance for me.

I looked at Jane's paper and she had a lot of things marked down, Chris on the other hand didn't have that much, but I had somewhere in the middle. So I came up with an idea. I smiled and tried to look out of Jane's window. She saw something and marked it down.

I quickly read what she had marked down and tried to find it outside. 2 swans. I looked around, but couldn't find them, so let's just pretend I did find them and I marked them down.

Jane was looking at me with an 'are you serious' look. "You didn't see them, did you?"

I looked at her surprised and tried to play it off with a laugh, I knew that she knew that I didn't see them. "What do you mean? I marked them down, so I saw them."

"That's not how you-" She didn't finish, she just sighed and faceplamed at me. Chris just laughed and tried to color my paper, so it looked like he tried to unmark my 2 swans.

"Hey!" I took my paper out of his way to hide it and the tried to mark my 2 swans again.

"Come one, Maddie, you didn't see them, so doesn't count." Chris tried to reason with me, but I just pouted and then smiled at them sheepishly. "Nope, I saw them."

They both sighed and just turned to look for more things.

After being on the road for 2 and a half hours, we finally stopped to get some food and to go to the bathroom, before continuing the rest of the 3 hour drive.

We stopped at a gas station and went inside to get some ice cream. I got some chocolate ice cream and Jane had a popsicle, whilst Chris had a vanilla ice cream. We three stood outside and I complained about how long I had to sit in the same position between them both. They just looked at me and then shared the same funny looks with each other, as they talked about me.

"Well suck to be you." Jane said in a nonchalant tone and continued on eating her ice cream with a smile.

It was finally time to get back on the road and not long after, we had reached our destination.

We took our multiple bags and went inside the house. The house looked stunning. It was modern and gray and black with a bit of white as the color scheme. When you go inside it was a big open space with a big kitchen and a huge dining table made for 8 peope, right next to it was a grey couch with a light grey cofee table. On the opposite side there were some chairs and a fireplace. It also had a sauna.

To go upstairs to the second floor, you had to go up some steep stairs that creeked on almost each step. The rooms were spacious, there were two of those, and my mom slept in one room and me and Jane in the other. In each had a two person bed and two pullout, one person chairs, though one was a bit bigger. I had the smallest pullout, but Jane got the bigger one.

The three of us got to the room and me and Jane started to make our beds, which was more entertaining than it should have been, because of the way they had made the pullout chairs.

We were laughing and talking as we made our beds and Chris was just making some comments and chuckling at us, while sitting on the edge of the bed, which was already made.

When we had finished making our beds, I started unpacking some things, while Jane sat at the edge of the now made pullout chair. But just as she sat down, the bed snapped in half and she fell on the floor.

I snapped my attention in Jane's direction as she was now sitting on the floor, shocked, that she may have just broken a bed, when she has just been here for less than 30 minutes.

I looked at her then at Chris, then at the bed, and I burst out laughing. I was laughing and I had to sit down, so I sat on my bed, and to my shock, the bed broke too.

Me and Jane looked at each other from across the room and both started doubling over in laughter. Chris just looked amused as he stood up and walked over to us, smiling and laughing a bit as he looked at the beds.

"What the heck are these?" He asked as he bent down to try and put Jane's bed in place. Jane had now stood up, smiling and still laughing at our situation. I got up from the floor and stumbled over to them, holding my stomch as I was still laughing.

"Who made these damn chairs? Are they like supposed to go like that?" I struggled to get the words out, since I was out of breath and still laughing my ass off. I couldn't help it, the situation just seems hilarious.

Chris agreed with me on that and took off the bed sheets and we all saw that, when you pull out the chair, you can pull it off complitely, but we didn't want that, so it stayed in place, but since it had nothing holding it in place, it just came out of its right place, when Jane sat at edge of the bed, putting all of her weight on it.

We understood how to fix the problem and fixed both of our bed, though since we forget all of this stuff, Jane 'broke' her bed more often than I did. Once Chris sat on Jane's bed and it didn't break coming out, but he broke in the bed and had made a really weird V letter, with Chris inside. Now that made my day and I started laughing all over again.

When it was later on in the evening, we decided to go and see how the sea looked. We put on our shoes and brought some jackets and started our walk to the sea, which was less than 5 minutes from the house.

We all got there and it looked amazing. The waves crshed in to the shore and made the most calming sound. You could hardly see the sun, since it was pretty cloudy, but some light poured out of the clouds, still making the sky look magical.

"Wow.." I whispered and started running to the sea. I stopped and leaned down to touch the water. The water washed through my fingers, cold to the touch. Even though it was already summer, the sea wasn't warm enough to swim in. Not for us at least, but my mom, sure, because she was one of those people, that could go for an evening swim on Christmas.

Jane came up to me and just enjoyed the view. I continued touching the water as it calmed me down and made feel safe. Jane saw what I was doing.

"Well, how is it?" she asked and pointed her gaze down at me.

I looked up at her and smiled. "Normal, a bit cool, but nice." Jane nodded, but rolled her eyes.

"Mhm, yeah, if for you its cool and normal, then for me it could mean the Antarctica." Jane stated and bent down to touch the water herself, to make sure of the temperature. We had completely different feeling on how hot or cold the water is, because I can withstand much colder water than her, but since I liked the cold more, she could withstand heat better than me.

"And I was right, its the Antarctica for me." Jane said as she shivered slightly and took her hand out of the water and shook it to dry it. I chuckled at that and stood up with her. My mom was taking pictures, so we posed like the models we were.

After some time it was time to go back. I didn't want to, but I knew we were coming back later, so I said bye to the sea and went back. I liked to think, that the sea could feel and see what was going on, and it could get angry and happy the same way we all can. I rarely go to the sea, and its one of my favorite places to be at, so I made sure to let the sea know that, even if it sounds crazy and bizarre.

It was getting late, so my parents made some dinner and we ate. After that we decided to just start getting ready for bed and maybe just talk a bit in our room with Chris.

"I can't wait to go back there tomorrow. The sea looked amazing and I just want to be there every second." I said as I carefully plopped down on my pulled out chair. I was already in my pajamas, so was Jane, but Chris was still in his black sweatpants and orange hoodie my mom got him for Christmas.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see what we're gonna do. I heard your parents talking about a ship graveyard and towers, maybe we might go there." Jane said as she got comfortable in her bed.

"Maybe we'll go there. Aw, now I wanna see that ship graveyard!" I excalimed and started imagining how it would look like and how big it is.

"I just hope its not far, I can't stand walking for long." Chris grumbled at the thought of walking long miles. Yes, he was athletic and does sports, but, God, is he lazy sometimes. He can do boxing training for 2 hours and 40 push ups in one go, but can't stand the thought of walking for mere 3 kilometers.

"Yes, we all know that, especially me." I said and then we talked some more about school and summer, then it was finally time to go to sleep. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell into a deep slumber, not caring if I fell asleep first.

(Jane's P.O.V.)

Not long after Maddie fell asleep, Chris went downstairs to sleep on the couch with Maddie's dad, because of some unknown reason. I tried to fall asleep, but minutes later I just needed to go to the bathroom, and as luck would have it, this house had 2 bathrooms, both downstairs.

I groaned, but got up and quietly went to the bathroom, to not wake Maddie up. I saw her moving a bit, but she kept on sleeping soundly.

I made my way downstairs, which was not quietly now, because of the creaking steps of the stairs. I saw Chris on his phone under a blanket, wearing only a white T-shirt, his hair now a bit of a mess. He looked at me for a second before turning his gaze back to his phone.

I looked away too, ignoring the weird flips around my stomach it made in just seconds. I wanted to scold myself for feeling this way, but I just went to the bathroom.

As I washed my hands, I looked in the mirror to see my reflection. I tried not to panic as I saw red cheeks on my reflection. What if he saw, that I blushed, no no no. It was dark enough to not see my red face, right? Yeah must be, there was only one tiny lamp turned on, so it was fine, I hoped. I composed myself quickly enough and went out to get back to my room.

I went out and with quick steps made my way to the stairs. Chris was now on his back on the couch, his phone somewhere else, probably charging. I looked away from him and started going up the steep, creaking stairs. And just my luck as it creaked loudly as ever, because Chris looked my way. I tried avoiding his gaze, but then he said something in a quiet tone.

"Goodnight, Jane." Chris said, and I looked back at him, stopping for a moment and fighting the urge to smile and blush.

"Goodnight, Chris." I said and went to my room the rest of the way, feeling more flips and nice swarm of butterflies in my stomach.

I laid down in my bed and on my back. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but I just couldn't sleep, because of the moment me and Chris might have shared together, but even if there was no moment, I still smiled.