Beau’s sleeping face mere inches from my own wasn’t exactly my ideal wake up call, but it worked. I went from half conscious to panic level awareness in under .001 seconds. So his dumb ass was kicked out of bed real quick. A surprised shout followed the heavy bang of his body hitting the floor, dragging most of the covers with him.

“What the hell!?” A pair of eyes hotter than the flames of hell stabbed me from the edge of the mattress.

“I should be the one asking that! Why were you invading my side of the bed?”

Still half asleep, he ruffled his messy bedhead when hissing between clenched teeth, “What?”

“You. Invading. My side. Of the bed!” I reiterated, stabbing my finger against the mattress with every word. “Your face was this close—” I hovered my hand a mere inch from my face as an example. “I thought I had died and went to hell then kicked you away in a panic so it’s your own fault.”

He was so taken aback that his jaw dropped. With barely a second of contemplation, he accusingly pointed when arguing; “Dumb ass, look who was the one that was actually invading someone’s space!”

I cocked a brow, peering about the bed to realize that I had somehow ended up in the middle of the bed. The left side was empty, although that was where I had fallen asleep. Like hell I was going to back down though.

“I wasn’t in your space. I was in the middle, which was no one’s space.”

“You realize that makes no sense, right?”

Yeah, but I crossed my arms and pretended like I didn’t.

First official day of vacation and already, the first fight ensued. I was yanked off the bed by my ankle. The ground stunned me enough to shout. Beau was up and grumbling in search of clothes a second later. I barely composed myself by the time the bathroom door slammed shut behind him.

Good thing we didn’t make some form of bet on the truce because we would have lost already.

I rolled back onto the bed in search of my phone. It was a little past eight. While I was the type to sleep until noon when given the opportunity, that was not the case today. There was a beach to get to, and it seemed I was not the only one ready to go.

A knock at the door had me slipping out of bed. Mom called from the other side, grinning with breakfast in hand when the door opened. Aunt Zoey was with her. The two scurried in to sit two glasses of orange juice on the desk along with some bagels and muffins.

Vacation mode was already activated for the both of them. Mom had some type of bright shawl over her swimsuit. Her flip flops clicked with every step. Aunt Zoey wasn’t much different, wearing some mesh shirt with a giant straw hat and sunglasses. I was eager to join in on this laidback, beach mode. I doubted I’d be wearing a shirt for the next week and was suddenly grateful for my naturally tan complexion because, unlike a certain someone, I wouldn’t burn to a crisp as easily Although, knowing me, I’d use that as an excuse not to put on sunblock and come back home with third degree burns by the end of the trip.

“I didn’t think you guys would be up yet,” Aunt Zoey said just as Beau stepped out of the bathroom. He changed into swim trunks and another open sided tank. He acted like I had the damn plague, stepping around me to get to the food.

“We were so excited to be at the beach that we got up early for once,” I lied. He angrily chewed his breakfast. Wasn’t sure how one did that, but he was pulling it off.

“We already ate, but grabbed you both a few things from the office. They had a few breakfast snacks in there,” Aunt Zoey explained while rubbing Beau’s back. “Your dad’s are already finding us a spot on the beach so we’re going to head out.”

“Eat up and put on sunblock before you go,” Mom ordered, watching me in particular as if she somehow knew what I was thinking earlier. With half a bagel in my mouth, I only grunted in response.

“Oh, I brought stuff to make sand castles too!” Aunt Zoey gripped Beau’s arm to inform him that, regardless of what he wanted, they would be making sand castles at some point. “We’ll build some later. I want us to have the whole cliche family beach trip experience.”

Oddly enough, I had no disagreements. More oddly enough, neither did Beau, or at least he didn’t voice them.

“If you’re gonna go off by yourselves, please keep your phones nearby so we can get a hold of you,” Mom said when stepping out of the room.

Aunt Zoey followed. “We’re going to meet back up in the parking lot around noon, ok? We’ll all find some place to grab lunch. Seafood by the sea! It’ll be great!”

“I’m going to find the most expensive thing on the menu,” I teased.

“Then you’re paying for it yourself,” Mom shot back then they both were gone. Unlike a certain someone, they did not slam the door behind them. That was called being polite, which I would have voiced if we weren’t unbelievably tense already.

Beau switched the TV on while we ate. Neither of us said a word, him sitting at the desk chair and me on the edge of the bed. When I was grabbing clothes to change, he was gathering his camera. I raised a brow when he brought out a tripod.

“What’s that for?” I asked, which should have been phrased better since it was obvious what it was for. It was a freaking tripod.

“My camera.”

“Thanks, Sherlock, but you know what I mean.”

He didn’t answer, only slung his bag of camera supplies and a beach towel over his shoulder then walked out the door.

“Hey!” I called. He obviously didn’t respond. The door slammed shut.

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