Chapter 4
Finally after two hours, Amanda was graced with a conscious Tommy and Angela, who had been sleeping since the second the plane took off, Angela was the first to wake.
“Ughhh are we still on the plane?” Angela rolled her head onto Amanda’s shoulder rubbing her forehead back and forth on Amanda’s shirt.
Amanda laid her head on Angela’s, slowing her tiny tantrum to a halt.
“Ang, can you please shut up?” Tommy curled himself closer into his seat, staring out the plane window.
“You know, I was so excited to sit by you guys so we could all talk about our fun vacation we are taking together, but you guys are the most whiny babies known to Earth.” Amanda reached inside her bag, untangling the headphones she was hoping to not use.
“Nooo Amanda don’t ignore meeeee.” Angela grabbed Amanda’s headphones, and without thinking threw them across the aisle, landing them on Courtney’s lap.
“Angela seriously, what the hell?” Amanda stood up to retrieve her headphones, but Courtney was already passing them over.
“Thank you Court, I’m so sorry for that.” Amanda’s words were hard, and it took everything out of her not to push Angela into the middle of the aisle to be stepped on.
“I’m sorry Amanda I literally did not mean to do that.” If Angela was a fan of affection, she guessed that this was probably the time to give her friend a hug for an apology. Instead she just did an affectionate “pat pat” on Amanda’s thigh.
“Thanks…Ang.”
Tommy rustled next to Amanda, before finally stating the obvious. “How the hell did the two biggest bitches get sat next to each other? I swear to God they did not think about the fifteen feet of legs between me and you.” He tries to stretch his legs out further, but no luck.
“Yeah this really does suck you guys,” Angela stretches her legs across Amanda and Tommy, pretending that her legs were too long for the seat.
“I did make it pretty clear that I was a fan of the aisle…” Tommy and Amanda shoot playful eye daggers at Angela who had the snarkiest Angela grin on her face ever.
During the rest of the ride Amanda scrolled through her photos, chatted with Tommy and Angela, listened to her true crime podcast before the plane ran into some slight turbulence. This wasn’t even close to the first time Amanda experienced a little turbulence so she wasn’t worried, Tommy shifted around but kept his face in his phone, but Angela paled next to her.
“It’s okay Angela, it’s just a little bit of turbulence.”
Angela stared straight ahead, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the arm rest next to her. Amanda moved Angela’s hand in hers, caressing Angela’s fingers to help calm her down. Angela turned towards Amanda, a silent agreement between the two women.
The pilot came overhead, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing some unexpected turbulence. Please remain seated with your seatbelts fastened, we should be through it very shortly.”
“Amanda, I really hate this.”
A few compartments overhead started to rattle and shake, and Angela took in a sharp deep breath. Amanda softened her eyes, and reassured Angela.
“This is totally normal Angela, I promise. Pilots go through this every single day, they are trained specifically for this. Planes are built to handle wayyy more than some shakes and bumps.”
“I am glad the plane is built for this, because I definitely am not.” Angela’s grip on Amanda’s hand tightened, but she doesn’t seem to notice.
“It’s okay, just keep squeezing my hand, it will be over soon.”
Angela’s breathing starts to slowly steady, grounding herself to Amanda’s comfort.
“Isn’t this better than assaulting the poor armrest?”
Softly, and shakily, Angela responds, “Yeah…”
Tommy leans over to fit himself between them, “You guys are making me sick.”
The turbulence began to slow, and the plane steadied out. Anglea quickly let go of Amanda’s hand, and Amanda feels cold in her absence.
—--------------------------
They finally descended to the airport around 3 pm, and Amanda could not wait to stretch her legs and get moving. Tommy was right, there was no way they put a six feet tall woman in the middle seat. But then, she also didn’t bother to ask to switch around.
Everyone bottlenecked into the aisle, fighting over themselves to grab their luggage from the overhead compartments. Angela already snaked her way through everyone, which is a perk of being tiny. Amanda on the other hand had to wait. By the time she got off her friends were all waiting for her in a little group, some already had their phones out to start their vlog.
Amanda wasn’t sure how much of this she wanted to vlog, she was more used to the cameras following her instead. She decided to hangout in the back of Courtney’s film, waving to the camera before joining Chanse and Shayne.
“So Shayne, you are more used to the vlogging scene, what are we even supposed to be vlogging?”
“Literally anything. If you are about to do something fun or silly, or even some causal moments like what you are eating for breakfast, or going down for a swim. When we used to do vlog squads we would just start filming and see where it took us.”
“That sounds like a lot of work,” Chanse groaned.
They all marched forward, riding the shuttle before being picked up in their respective vehicles that took them to the air bnb.
The air bnb sat high above the beach, giving them access to a trail that led to the shore. It was quite large, with glass windows that went all the way up to the ceiling. A large deck wrapped itself around the front, lounge chairs filled every corner of the space. A fire pit with a tent covered dining area caught Amanda’s eye, it would be perfect for late night dinners listening to the waves around them.
Amanda grabbed her stuff from the trunk of the Uber, and took the trip up the path with her friends to their house for the next couple of weeks. They entered the main living room, a large sectional sat in the middle, a white brick fireplace with a large tv took over the wall. Sliding glass doors led out to the deck, letting in a mass amount of open, natural light.
Upstairs was the primary suite, two guest suites, two additional spare bedrooms, and an attic room. Three bathrooms were split between the rooms, while the attic had a small half bath attached to it. Back downstairs was an additional bathroom, a game room with a pool table and air hockey, as well as the biggest kitchen Amanda has ever seen. It was colored in beachy blues, wood and coral hues. The garage held a small laundry room, and was stocked with all of the gear they would need for the perfect beach vacation.
The group made the trek up the hardwood stairs to the bedrooms. Courtney and Shayne took the primary suite, Arasha and Trevor, Tommy and Spencer took the two guest suites, Chanse took one of the spare rooms, and Damien took the attic room. Saying the “darkness” of the attic will help him thrive. Leaving Angela and Amanda to decide where they would be sleeping.
“There’s only one room left.”
“Yep.”
“Do you want to be roomies? If not, I guess you can shack up with Chanse.” Amanda gave Angela a playful shove.
“I guess we can be roommates.” Angela winked at Amanda before opening the door to their shared bedroom.
The bedroom was, of course, covered in beach accents. A queen-sized bed center in the middle of the room, covered in white sheets and a light blue comforter, sea shell shaped throw pillows decorated the blankets. The best part about this room was it was the only one that led out to the side deck, with two lounge chairs outside the glass door.
The two of them unpacked, laying out different outfits and putting their toiletries in the bathroom they shared with Chanse, Arasha and Trevor.
They still had hours of sunshine left, and a couple of more hours before they would decide to eat anything, so the perfect thing to do was head to the beach.
“Hey Ang, I’m going to change into my bathing suit, do you want me to go to the bathroom?”
“No it’s okay, I can turn away, I was going to change into mine away.”
“Sounds good.”
Amanda tried to be really cool about being butt ass naked in the room with someone she also wanted to see butt ass naked.
“Okay I’m done.”
“Me too.”
Amanda admired how the sun from the window shadowed Angela’s body, and she tried very hard to not look directly at Angela’s breasts.
“Ready to swim?” Amanda tried to say as cooly as possible.
“Yes! Race you down there!” Angela shoved past Amanda, ripping open the door and practically flying down the stairs.
Amanda smiled and chased after the lively woman.