It felt like a hammer was banging on her head in the morning at the breakfast buffet. Lee didn’t look any better, he wasn’t hung over but he only slept for a few hours when Jan and Kyle knocked on the door to wake them up. He covered his whole face with his beanie and tilted his head back on the booth.
“Hey … wake up sleepy head … get some breakfast, we’ll be heading back soon,” Kyle tossed a napkin at Lee.
“I just want some sleep,” he grunted under his beanie.
“What were you guys doing last night?” Jan was curious.
Hazel turned to Lee and pulled off the beanie from his face, “Oh … you know, we emptied the mini bar and watched movies.”
“You choked me,” Lee heavily opened his eyes, “She jumped on my back and choked me … I almost died.”
Hazel laughed out loud and threw the beanie to his face, “I did not choke you, we were having pillow fights, that’s what you do … you jumped on your opponent’s back to take them down.”
He grabbed the back of her neck and shook her gently, “Don’t think you’ll get away from that … it’s payback time.”
She looked at him, “What do you mean?”
Lee took out his phone, “I stayed up and got some really good pictures of you sleeping with your mouth opened, and I am posting them on my Instagram.”
Jan laughed, “Let me see … hahaha … oh that’s a good one, you know she snores sometimes?”
“Oh yeah, she was snoring too, I have a 10 second video of that.”
They were all laughing. Hazel tried to snatch his phone from his hands but he kept dodging her. She kept going at him until he finally put his palm on her face to keep her from coming closer. Lee raised his hand up and played the video for everyone to see. There was even a video of them during the pillow fight screaming and laughing and stumbled down on the bed.
“You’re not posting my snoring video, give me that,” she laughed in embarrassment.
Lee hid the phone behind his back, “Oh yes I will … this is what happens when you cheat on truth or dare and then choke your friend on a pillow fight, I worked hard to get these images and I am going to use them.”
She tried to reach the phone on his back, their faces almost touched and there was a moment their eyes were fixed on each other when she realized she wasn’t going to get it.
“I’m keeping them, Hazel, I’ve emailed them to myself … so you can’t delete them,” he held his laugh and his dimples were deeply carved on his cheeks.
It made her smile. He made her smile. “Fine, but say something nice on the post … okay?”
“Of course, I don’t have anything bad to say about you, I’ll tag Harry on the post too.”
She slapped his shoulder, “You are not tagging anyone on that post.” They laughed.
The other table was quiet. Peyton was still not talking to Theo, not that he wanted to talk to her either. Mia was annoyed by the fact Max had Theo spent the night in their room without asking her. Max was feeling awkward after seeing his best friend locked lips with his sister, and Theo was just gazing in a daydream watching the other group having a laugh from across the room.
He looked away when Lee accidentally caught his gaze. He turned to his plate and pushed his food to the sides with his fork.
“Aren’t you going to eat that?” Max asked.
He let out a soft sigh, “I’m not hungry.”
“Really? You eat half a dozen egg whites every morning when you’re not hungry,” Max was checking on his best friend.
“Yeah … not today,” he put his fork down.
He looked at Peyton. His stunning blonde girlfriend, even with a long face she was still beautiful. He had hurt her feelings for offering his ticket to Hazel, but what else could he do? He had to make it up to Hazel somehow. Now he didn’t know how to turn things around with Peyton. A huge apology usually does the trick, but he wasn’t at fault, he didn’t lose the tickets.
His eyes went back to Hazel. It was more important for him to fix things up with Hazel than it was with Peyton, it was not a good feeling. He stood up. “I’m gonna take care of the bill, everyone’s packed up?”
Everyone on the table looked up at him and nodded.
“I’ll see you guys at the lobby,” he excused himself and walked out to the front desk.
He walked past Hazel’s table without glancing at her, he knew she too was sick of him. And the kiss. He pinched the bridge of his nose remembering the kiss, how could he be so stupid. He looked at the bills and saw the minibar consumption from Hazel’s room. At least she was having fun … with Lee. As if that trip couldn’t get any worse for him, he paid it, didn’t say a word about it and drove home to Chestnut by himself because Peyton asked to ride with Max instead.