We arrive at the villa that sits right on the beach, so the view is amazing and the villa is even bigger than it looked online. We immediately tour the villa, all excited, oohing and aahing over the big rooms and fantastic view. 

“How did you manage to get this place so cheap?”, Camilla wonders distractedly as she checks each room, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was kind of expensive, but you’d think it would have cost even more!”. 

“Mhmm, yeah, you’d think.”, I feel a bit guilty for having lied, I avoid her eyes and try to change the topic, “Did you see the fire pit outside? Perfect place to hang out later at night, right?”. 

“Yes! Great idea, I can’t wait!”, Camilla beams at me. I hear a car pull up in the driveway. It must be Eve and Irene. 

“I think I heard Eve and Irene pull up!”, I say over my shoulder as I go to greet them. I spot Eve stepping out of the car and I run over to hug her. 

“Hiya, darling.”, Eve says as she squeezes me tight. 

“I missed you”, I say as we haven’t met in awhile. Living in different cities sucks. “And I can’t wait for you to meet Wyatt”, I whisper in her ear with a grin. They haven’t met in person yet, although I've introduced them to each other over video call before. 

“Wyatt, come here!”, I motion for Wyatt to come over as he’s at the door of the villa, he followed behind me when I ran out to meet Eve. Wyatt jogs over with a shy smile. 

“And so you officially meet in real life!”, I beam at my two favorite people, “This is Eve, my best friend, and this is Wyatt, my boyfriend.” I motion between them, introducing them like they don’t know who the other is already. Also calling him my boyfriend feels nice, almost makes me blush.

“Hi, nice to meet you, in real life.”, Eve smiles warmly at Wyatt, giving him a hug as a greeting. 

“Hi, likewise. Haha.”, Wyatt chuckles, as he bends down a bit to hug her back. I’m smiling widely as I look at them. Suddenly, I hear someone clear their throat. I look over and see Irene, arms crossed and rolling her eyes at me as I realize I completely forgot about everyone else as I was so excited to introduce Eve and Wyatt to each other. 

“Aaand this is the lovely and wonderful Irene! Eve’s stunning girlfriend.”, I dramatically introduce her to Wyatt with a laugh. As they exchange greetings, I motion for Camilla and Noah to also come meet them as I see they’ve also made it to the door at this point. Everyone introduces themselves and Wyatt takes my hand as we head back inside. With his other hand he’s pulling Eve’s suitcase. Ever the gentleman, helping with the luggage. I can’t stop smiling, all my favorite people are gathered and we have a wonderful time ahead of us at this beautiful villa. 

Eve and Irene stopped by a grocery store on the way here, so some people start making dinner for us after we’ve decided on which rooms everyone will be staying in. It wasn’t too hard to figure out as us couples, me and Wyatt and Eve and Irene, took the double beds and Camilla and Noah got their own rooms with single beds. Eve brought wine as well, so we start drinking as we cook. I’m not cooking, but Irene is an amazing cook so she’s in charge and since Wyatt insisted on helping her, he’s the assistant. There is a grill outside so Noah also helps by getting the grill started and Camilla is setting the table outside. Eve and I decided it would be too chaotic if we joined, too many cooks in the kitchen and all that, so we sip on our wine as we chat. 

Everyone is in high spirits, happy and well on our way to becoming tipsy, as we chat, laugh and eat together outside. The drinking continues after dinner and we all decide to take a stroll on the beach, to check it out, dipping our toes in the water, which is still a bit too cold for me. There’s a lot of squealing at the cold water and a lot of laughter as we try to splash it on each other. When we get back to the villa, there’s more drinking and games, at this point I’m already drunk and so are most of the others. We’re a bit rowdy and loud, but it all feels great to me as I laugh so hard my eyes water at Camilla’s jokes and almost fall over giggling as Wyatt does a silly dance as part of a punishment for a game. I fail to keep a straight face as he comes back to sit beside me after the dance, all embarrassed and red in the face, but clearly still having a good time, I jokingly pretend to comfort him by pulling him into a hug and patting his head. 

“There, there.”, I giggle, “Don’t worry, you looked so cool to me!”, I say with a laugh as I give him a kiss. I’m so happy in this moment. 

“I’m so glad we got this place for so cheap, it’s worth every penny!”, Camilla says, seemingly so drunk she’s just saying whatever comes to mind as she blabbers on, “I mean, to be completely honest…”, she seems to lose focus halfway through her sentence as she takes a shot, “to be honest, completely, like honestly, I come from money, but like my family is going through… something, like, so its so nice…”, she’s trying to make a coherent sentence, but it’s hard for both us and her to follow along as we have been drinking heavily. “It’s nice that I could come here! Cheers to coming! Wait- I mean cheers to friends! And beaches!”, Camilla shouts as she urges us to lift our drinks for a toast. 

“Cheers to bitches and cumming!”, Eve slurs, spilling half her drink in the process, she’s as usual the most drunk out of everyone. At a party she’s always the most fucked up person by the end of it. She’s never partied without going overboard. 

“Eve!”, Irene slaps Eve’s arm disapprovingly, jokingly saying “stop it”. Camilla doesn’t seem to mind as she’s in no shape to listen closely. Instead she keeps making toasts. 

“And cheers to cheap villas!”, Camilla insists as we all take a shot for each thing we toast to. 

“I mean it wasn’t that cheap”, Eve slurs out, as her eyes close she mumbles, “Audrey and I paid, like, double what you guys paid sssso…”, she passes out drunk, leaning on Irene’s shoulder. I’m trying to comprehend what she just said. Damn, did she just let the cat out of the bag. And leave me to catch the cat and try to put it back alone? I wish I had passed out as well, as I look at Wyatt’s stunned face.