It was finally the end of school and the start of their mini vacation. For a group of high schoolers at least, it was a vacation. This little break meant a reprieve from the stress of college apps and just an overall itching desire to get out of school.

A short honk coming from Levi’s mom’s sedan breaks her focus. The honk is followed by her friends’ screams and frantic waving as if they were afraid Natalie would somehow miss the car. Natalie gestures for Jace to follow her. Natalie opens the door to see Kelly scooching down to the other end of the seats and throws her bag in the back, which Jace copies. When he closes the door, Levi takes off.

After a while, the thrill and excitement from being left alone from their parents dies down and everyone, except Levi, drifts in and out of sleep while Levi speeds down on empty roads and fast, upbeat songs play on the radio.

The mental exhaustion and waning energy causes Natalie’s eyes to droop and without realizing, she leans her head against Jace, who is hesitant to wrap his arm around her. He falls into a mental spiral questioning whether the sleeping, oblivious girl next to him would prefer that. In the end, his chrivalous, overly polite and nervous side wins out and he decides to keep his left arm trapped between Natalie and his torso despite the sensation of pins and needles. Though, he wasn’t hating their closeness together. In her sleep, she senses a comforting presence near her, causing her to lean more on Jace, practically snuggling his arm.

Whispers start, causing Natalie to groggily drift back to consciousness. 

“What’s wrong?” she asks them, her voice still rough with sleep and eyes closed. Her neck has a sort of throbbing pain from being turned at a weird angle, but she doesn’t want to lose the little remnants left of her sleep.

Min turns to the back seats and says, “we should stop soon for a bathroom break and for Levi to rest a little.”

“M’kay,” Natalie groans.

She finally opens her eyes only to be met with an embarrassing sight. During her nap, she ended up leaning on Jace’s shoulder and drooled on his arm.

Luckily, he is still sleeping, blissfully unaware. So Natalie hoped against hope that he didn’t realize that.

God, I’m so sorry, Jace. She mentally apologizes to him. Of course, she wouldn’t actually disclose that to Jace.

She reaches back in the trunk for her water bottle, prepared to lie about spilling water on him should he wake up and see the stains on his sleeve.

“So?” Min’s voice calls out again.

Natalie responds, “yeah, ok. Let’s stop at the next gas station or restaurant we see.”

Min nods, which prompts Levi to add in, “there’s a McDonald’s coming up soon.”

“K, I’ll wake Kelly and Jace in a couple minutes.”

~~~

Luckily, the drool stain had dried up as Levi pulled up to a McDonald’s.

Natalie decides to wake Kelly first, who is able to bounce back from her nap, refreshed and rejuvenated. Natalie was at times overwhelmed by her friend, who seemed to have never-ending balls of energy. But this was time, she was envious of her ability to rise from the dead like it was nothing.

Then she gently shakes Jace, who mumbles something back and bats her hand away. 

She snickered. This time Jace was at her mercy, vulnerable and exposing his adorable, grumpy side at being woken up,

While she hated to interrupt what looked like a nice, relaxing nap, she didn’t want Jace to miss the chance of using the bathroom. Feeling somewhat modified, she upgrades her gentle shaking to almost rough, even pinching his arm. His nice and solid arm that stretched the cloth covering it.

He would look great with tattoos.

She continues to admire him sleeping. From a different perspective, she would’ve seemed like a creep.

But the ever increasing need to pee outweighed her fawning over Jace. So she really shakes him awake. This gets him to stir a little and eventually he yawns awake and rubs his eyes.

“Are we here already?” he mumbles sluggishly.

His cute display of stretching reminds Natalie of a kitten. 

Natalie hums a quiet “no.” If he is anything like her when just waking up, he wouldn’t appreciate loud noises and the blaring sunlight that was waiting for them.

“Not yet, we’re making a pit stop at McDonalds,” she explains patiently, “they’re actually waiting for us.”

This prompts Jace to get out of the car.

“Ok, let’s go, then.”