Chapter 2

Lily wakes me up in the morning at 5 am. We are dressed and loading into the car while it's still dark outside. It's a 6-hour drive and Lily wants to get there before noon. Her parents went up last night to make sure everything is ready for when we arrive. Lily drives for the first 2 hours, then we stop to get food and a bathroom break. I offer to drive for a bit and Lily hands me the keys.

About 3 hours later, Lily is about ready to pee her pants.

"Okay, you need to find a rest stop. I'm literally going to explode!" Lily whines.

"Chill, GPS says there's one right up here. Hold it for 2 more minutes." I laugh.

"I don't know if I can do that. Pretty sure if I try to walk at this point, my blatter will just give out."

"So dramatic," I chuckle at her. I see the sign for the rest stop and veer off the highway. I find a parking spot and Lily all but runs inside. I get out behind her and walk in.

As Lily is using the bathroom, I browse the store for snacks and drinks for the last hour of the ride. I notice a gift card for a restaurant Lily's parents like and realize I didn't get them anything in my last minute decision to come with Lily. Just as I'm picking up one marked $100 Lily comes up behind me.

"Oh, good idea. For my parents right? I didn't get them anything yet. Grab two, I'll pay for one." she says.

"You haven't gotten your own parents a gift yet?" I laugh at her. She shrugs and moves to the cashier. Lily instantly starts flirting with him. That's one thing Lily shares with her brother. They're both serial flirters. But while Lily is more bubbly and does it innocently, Kaleb could make any women fall in love with him with just a few words and a flash of his perfect smile. It's ungodly how women fall at his feet like that. I mean, I see the appeal, he's undeniably hot, but I know his mind games. They stopped working on me a long time ago. Although, I haven't seen him since before my junior year of high school, just over 3 years ago. He had moved away from home and told his parents he needed to get away.

Lily and I pay for our stuff and Lily winks at the poor guy behind the cash, making him turn 5 shades of red. We walk out and Lily has a big smile on her face. Lily is very pretty, she can get away with things like that. She has long blonde hair like her mom, with bright green eyes that you could stare at all day. She's so bubbly and friendly, she can make you feel at ease with just her smile. She can make even an introvert like me comfortable in any situation. That's why we became best friends. Her parents used to call us day and night. She's all bright and sunny as the day and I'm dark and mysterious like the night, they would say. It fit how we look as well. Where Lily has light hair, my hair is a deep brown that hangs just past my shoulders. Lily loves bright colors and fun patterns, while I stick to darker solid colored clothes. Lily loves to express herself with bright makeup, and I rarely ever wear any makeup.

I turn to Lily. "You made that guy fall in love with you with just a few words." I laugh

"Oh please," she rolls her eyes, "it was just a few compliments." She laughs and holds out her hand. "I'll drive the rest of the way. GPS doesn't always show the right turns closer to the cabin." I hand over the keys and we load into the car.

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About an hour later, we're pulling into the gravel driveway of the cabin. I see Lily's dad's truck parked off to the side. Lily parks the car beside the truck and we get out. I open the trunk and we take our bags out. It's pretty cold here, the cabin is built right on the side of a mountain. The view is breathtaking from the porch at the back of the house. It looks over the valley below. There's nothing around for miles. Lily and I drove through the closest town not long after leaving the rest stop. It's about 45 minutes back the way we came. If we need anything over the next 2 weeks, that's where we'll need to go.

"Girls! You made it!" Lily's mom, Diane, came to the front door to greet us. She has always been like a second mom to me. She leads us inside to the warmth. She wraps us in a hug before smiling with a warm smile. The cabin has lots of memories here. While I have never spent a Christmas here with Lily and her family, I have come up almost every summer since I was about 10. It's a lot different in the winter, but just as beautiful and surprisingly, much warmer, due to the raging fire in the large fireplace. I look around the living room of the cabin and spot Lily's dad, Mark, sitting on the couch with a book in his hand.

"Hey dad!" Lily says happily, walking over to him. He looks up from his book.

"Hello ladies. You two made good time. Drive went well, I assume?" Mark stands to wrap his daughter in a tight hug, before coming to me to do the same.

"Yep, almost no traffic and we only had to make two stops. We also switched out diving because sleepy head still needed some extra z's in the car." Lily nods her head to me.

"Hey, you fell asleep when I was driving, so don't even try to blame me!" I laugh.

"Only because you insist on listening to that boring podcast," Lily groans.

"True crime isn't boring. It's calming and educational," I retort.

"Calming?!" You're literally psycho." Lily looks at me with wide eyes before we both burst out in laughter. Mark and Diane just shake their heads and chuckle at us.

"Riley dear, you can take Kaleb's room. He unfortunately won't be joining us this Christmas." Diane says to me.

"Thanks," I say. Lily and I grab our bags and head upstairs. The cabin has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. A small bathroom with just toilet and sink on the main floor, and a bigger bathroom with a shower on the second floor. The master bedroom is for Lily's parents, the other two bedrooms are for Lily and Kaleb. I've never actually been inside Kalebs room. He always kept it locked growing up. He didn't want Lily and I sneaking in and messing things up. Lily goes into her room and I go for Kaleb's. I open the door and the smell hits me at once. Holy shit. I forgot Kaleb's cologne smelled so good. I look around the room and it look's very much like what Kaleb does. He has dark gray walls, plush black sheets on the queen size bed that pushed to the corner, a black shag carpet next to the bed. There is a desk in the corner by the door I just walked in. I look to my right and I see a door. I assume that is the closet and go to it. I open the door and am greeted by Kaleb's clothes. Not a lot, just some swimming stuff and a few extra shirts and pants, just in case. I place my suitcase down on the ground and open it up. I take out my toiletry bag and bring it to the desk by the door. I then turn back and look around the room again. That bed looks so comfortable, I could fall asleep right now. I walk over to it and flop down on my stomach. Shit, it's softer than it looks. These sheets are like clouds.

One of the pillows that were leaning against the wall fall off the bed and I look up to where it can from to see my refection staring back at me. I move the rest of the pillows to reveal a mirror the length of the head of the bed attached to the wall. It's level to the bed and I'm left wondering why Kaleb would have a mirror instead of a headborad. I shake my head and roll over. I look up to see another mirror in the ceiling. What the fuck? Is Kaleb so obsessed with himself that he needs to see himself at all times? Weirdo.