I was woken up abruptly by Alura sitting on my stomach. I had once again spent the night in her room. I hadn't meant to. We were supposed to have stayed up all night to see the sun rise. The sun rise! I sat up and Alura slid off my stomach onto my lap hard.
"We missed the sun rise!"I said pissed that, that had happened. Alura giggled and put a hand over my mouth.
"Shhh, we need to be quiet otherwise we will wake up everyone else! We didn't miss the sunrise. You slept for about 30 minutes. I let you sleep because I need someone to drive back. I have a horrible habit of falling asleep at the wheel when I am too tired. I can make it there, but I'm not sure if I can make it back." She smiled and got off of my lap and picked up her beach bag. I was still wearing my clothing from the day before. I hadn't changed because I knew we were doing this. After we got back from the beach I had changed into another set of clothes for dinner, but after that I didn't bother. I slid my legs off the edge of the bed and put on my shoes. Alura had already gotten her shoes on and was standing at the door waiting for me. She twirled the rental car keys on her finger and caught them in her hand. She continued to do this as we walked down the hall way. The jingle of the keys being the only sound, besides the ding of the elevator.
"We have to drive to the other end of the island to see it, but it shouldn't take long. There won't be any traffic. It's too early. I have the GPS too." She dug in her beach bag while we rode the elevator down. "Aha!" She said as she pulled out the GPS and turned it on. As we walked through the lobby the GPS echoed through the halls. The desk clerk looked at us and waved sleepily. Alura waited for me to push through the doors before she walked through. She missed the other side and looked back at me from behind the glass. She had to go around in a circle once again to get through. I laughed with her as we walked to the car.
"You looked so sad." I said when she hopped in the driver's side. She looked to me.
"I was! I thought I would make that, but I didn't." She turned on the car and put the GPS on the dash. Backing out of the parking lot, we were on the road quickly. It was like the end of the world had come. No one was out. Not even the bars seemed to have anyone in them. It was quiet…so quiet that it seemed wrong to be driving and causing so much noise with the car.
"It's dead out here." I said looking around. It was…weird. Being from Cali I almost never see this side of life.
"It's early morning. Too early for people to be out and about but too late for people to be driving home from anything. I like this time of the day. It's peaceful. It's like I'm the only person in the world. I carry really late hours, just so I can stay up to see this side of the world." She looked over to me and I smiled at her. Her face was calm and relaxed.
"So which beach are we going to?" I asked
"Smanther's beach. It is mostly facing the south. But you can still see the sunrise over the water." She smiled and as we drove I could see the fatigue getting to her. Before I said anything she turned on the air conditioning to full blast in the van. I shivered and tried to ignore the cold. As cold as it was it seemed to do little. I looked over to her as her eyes drooped closed. They quickly opened and I saw her adjust her chair to the most upright position. It didn't take us long to get to the other side of Key West while taking the highways. When we got out of the car it was still dark.
"Are you alright? You were falling asleep in the car." I said putting an arm across her shoulders.
"Yea, Mind if we run there? It's a bit of a walk, plus it will wake me up." She smiled and I nodded. Instead of it being a tiring run. She tapped me on the shoulder.
"What?" I asked while she walked ahead of me.
"You're it Ashley." She darted off. I smiled and ran after her.
"Not for long Alura!" I yelled after her. It didn't take me long to catch up to her. She was weighed down with the beach blanket in her bag. I picked her up bridal style and ran with her in my arms along the beach. She squealed and struggled thinking I was going to throw her into the ice cold water again.
"Ashley Purdy you put me down right now! It was tag! Not tag and throw Alura into Cold Sea water!!!" I only put her down when we came to a part of the beach where it veered off. She grabbed my hand and tugged on it for me to follow. "You can see the water better from the very end of the beach." I ran with her the last bit of beach and finally when we reached it we were panting. She laid down the blanket and took out two bottles of water and some apples. I grabbed one and took a big bite out of it.
"My favorite. How did you know?" I asked before I took another bite.
"Everyone loves Honey Crisps. They are the best apple in the world I swear." She smiled and took a bite out of one herself. The sky was hazy with the light of pre dawn. While we finished our apples and our water was quickly swallowed, I pulled her to lean against me as the sun began to come up over the horizon. "This is nice Ashley, who knew you had a romantic, fun loving side." She said relaxing into my hold.
"Why, because I like to have fun and have sex with woman?" I asked looking down at her.
"Well, everyone says you are a player. I don't believe it. I just think you don't want to be committed yet." She said. "It's too much fun to not be tied down to any one in particular." She continued. She was right. I loved being free. No one to tie me down. No rules, just me, and as long as I kept myself protected I didn't see why I couldn't. I did test myself for STD's after every tour.
"Well Alura, you seem to know a lot about not wanting to be committed." I said and stopped remembering what she had said earlier.
"It's hard to keep a boyfriend when you have a sex addiction." She said and sighed. "My boyfriends had to be creative and different…otherwise I got bored with them, ended up cheating on them." She laughed, "Although, my parents always say it's not cheating unless you are married. So I could have dated three or four guys at once and as long as I could handle them all, it wasn't a big deal." I looked down at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Sounds like cool parents." I said.
"Yea don't they? Well, in this day and age, people don't see it that way. You just barely look in someone else's direction and you are cheating." She shook her head and pulled out another water bottle and took a sip. The Sun was turning the sky a beautiful shade of purple. The bottom of the horizon was red, orange, and yellow. The world around us was lighting up. I could hear the very distant sound of the road. Above us an airplane was coming in for a landing on the Key West airstrip. My attention turned back to the horizon. The water rippled with marine life. Off the coast dolphins jumped out of the water swimming along the coast line, just out of reach. It was beautiful, peaceful and relaxing. I ran my hand up and down Alura's arm trailing my fingers along her perfect and untouched skin.
It wasn't long before early beach goers were finding their way onto our secluded haven. Children running along the beach trying to find the perfect spot. With a sigh I looked down to Alura who was already asleep against me. I nudged her softly for her to stand and as she did, folded up the blanket and put everything back into her beach bag. Throwing the bag onto my shoulder I swept her feet out from under her and started the long trek back to the car. I saw many people looking at me. Luckily it was still too early for teens to be out here. I didn't need to sign anything while I walked with her in my arms.
Sitting her on the hood of the car I fished around in her bag for the keys. Once I found them in the jumbled mess that I had made trying to get off the beach so she could go to sleep, I unlocked the doors and slid her inside. I buckled her in and laid her seat back before I shut the door and ran to my side. I quickly started the car, looked behind me for any cars and backed out of the parking spot. I was tired. She was asleep, and I had to drive a while to get back to the hotel. It wasn't like before when there was no one on the road. Everything was beginning to liven up. With that traffic. Each time I stopped at a red light I felt my eye lids getting heavier. Now I'm sure with the way I'm telling this you all thought we got into a crash. No, we didn't, but there were a lot of angry people when I sat with my head on the steering wheel half asleep at long lights.
Finally we got back to the hotel. I pulled the car into the parking spot and sat back closing my eyes. I'm sure I would have fallen asleep in that car if one of the employees hadn't seen us. They tapped on the window. I lifted my head from the head rest and unbuckled Alura. With a flick of my wrist the door was open and I was stepping out onto the concrete of the parking lot.
"I didn't actually think I was going to get to meet any of you since I have the morning shift!" She squealed happily. She was like a hula doll on a dash board hopping up and down in delight. Leaning on the car I smiled at the girl who had woke me up and signed her picture that she had in her pocket of the band.
"I can let the rest of the guys know if you want the rest of our autographs. If you work tomorrow we will probably be coming in from partying about this time. What's your name?" I asked. I didn't really wonder why she had it with her, if I worked at a hotel that I knew a celebrity I liked was going to visit I would carry around a picture too.
"My name is Angela. I get into work around 5:30." I nodded in response and once I took a picture with her I ran around to the other side of the car, picked Alura up, and carried her like a child with her head on my shoulder into the hotel with the bag slung over my shoulder.
When I reached our floor I didn't have the patients or the energy to sift through her bag and find her key card so instead I pulled mine from my back pocket using the little strength I had left and opened the door. I dropped the bag on the floor next to the door before I gently laid her on the bed and took her shoes off. I would have to tell the maid to make sure to change the sheets later. Right now I would just have to sleep in sandy sheets, which won't be too different from sleeping on the beach I guess. I took off my shoes, socks, shirt, and pants and slipped into bed next to Alura. She hadn't moved since I laid her there. I didn't know whether or not to pull her close or to just stare at her while she slept. Since staring at her seemed creepy I chose to pulling her closer to me and sleeping that way.
I pulled her over to the middle of the bed and met her half way. Her head rested right under my chin. It didn't take me long to close my eyes and fall asleep with her breathing softly beside me. She was warm and content to relax against me. Before I fell asleep I couldn't help but wonder where this relationship with her and I was going.
I would call it casual. Not even friends with benefits yet. Friends? When did we become that? I'm sure that once this vacation was over I won't stop talking to Alura. So, I guess we are friends. Friends come and go. There are things that she has told me that I'm sure she hasn't told many people. I wonder if she thought I was a friend. No doubt I will get into her pants before the end of this week, but I'm not focused on it. In fact I don't completely mind if I don't get in her pants until after the vacation." I quickly stopped those thoughts before they went anywhere else. I didn't need to be thinking about the future. Living for today is too much fun.

Notes

A/N: Oh no Ashley is trying to put words to what they are. Here we go guys!!! Hold onto your butts!!! Tell me what you thought of this chapter in the comment section BELOW!
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