Shatter (Seaside 3)

“Probably because we made absolute asses out of ourselves.” Angelica scoffed.

“Just you, Angelica. Just you,” Alec added.

I smirked and nodded my head in her direction. I was gifted with her middle finger and a smile.

“Who won?” This from Jaymeson, who was currently fighting a losing battle with his hot dog. Did they not have hot dogs in England?

“That’s not how you eat a hot dog.” I pointed to his fork and plate. “You don’t cut it with a knife, England. You put it in your mouth.”

“Hot dogs remind me of man bits. No way am I putting a man bit in my mouth and biting down for all the world to see.”

“That was a visual I could have done without,” Alec announced.

Ruben cleared his throat. “As I was saying, the polls are in and I’m happy to say that the winning team was…”

“Please say the bunnies.” I crossed my fingers. I needed to get away from the cameras and spend some time with Alyssa before I resorted to sneaking into her room again.

“The Fairies!”

“Yes!” Nat threw her fist into the air and jumped. “Winners!”

I glared. “Yes, rub it in. Pour some more salt, and rub some more. Love you too, Nat!”

Alec was silent. He cleared his throat a few times. “Um, I feel like we win all the time. I know you really wanted it, man.” He slapped my back. “If you want it, it’s yours.”

“Come again?” Nat and I said in unison.

Alec shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong. I would love to be alone with Nat.” He gave her a knowing wink. “But I know you’ve been having to share Alyssa with her family during filming.” He took a bite of his hot dog, the right way might I add, and chewed.

“Sounds fishy.” I tapped my chin.

Nat looked between me and Alec. I could tell she was kind of bummed. How could Alec not see that his own girlfriend was really looking forward to a two-day trip with him?

“We’ll go!” Angelica yelled.

“No, we won’t.” Jaymeson sputtered. “Not unless you want me to bury your body under a seedy hotel.”

“I may kill you first.”

“If there is a God you’ll succeed, so I don’t have to listen to you—”

“—Stop!” Ruben cursed. “You guys are worse than kids. No prize trading. The viewers voted Nat and Alec win. They go to the Spa. Everyone else stays here and goes to the beach.”

Jaymeson raised his hand.

“What?” Ruben ran his hand through is hair. “What, Jaymeson?”

“Can I just go to hell? Instead of the beach, I mean?”

“Pardon?”

“Hell. I would rather go to Hell than be in the hot sun with that one.” He pointed to Angelica. “I can only take so much. I’m on borrowed time.”

“Any other questions?” Ruben ignored Jaymeson and searched our faces. “Good.” He clapped his hands one last time. “I’ll text the details to your phone, Alec, you know to keep the others from knowing all the private information and raining on your parade.”

“I would freaking storm on their parade if it means I wouldn’t have to be stuck here one more second.” Jaymeson stuffed the rest of the hot dog in his mouth and sighed with his mouth open.

“Close your mouth.” Angelica pushed him. “Gross.”

“Only if you open yours, baby. Come on, you can take me.”

I groaned and shook my head at Alec. “Lucky bastard. I get stuck with them all weekend.”

“And me!” Alyssa smacked the back of my head. “I’m fun!”

“You’re fine. They…” I pointed at Angelica and Jaymeson. “… however, may get arrested and take us down with them.”

Alec pulled out his phone and clicked through the details. His face paled. “Um, I thought we were going to stay in the general area of the, um… coast?”

Ruben’s eyes narrowed. “Is there a problem?”

“No.” Alec swallowed and laughed dryly. “I just didn’t expect us to fly somewhere. I mean, it’s only two days.”

“Stop stressing.” Ruben shrugged. “Go enjoy yourselves.”

“Right.” Alec bit down on his lip and slipped his phone back into his pocket. “Fun.”

Chapter Nineteen

Alec

“Where are we going?” Nat was doing cute little circles around me at the airport.

All I told her was that the climate was the same as Portland so not to get her hopes up that we were going to Disneyland for the weekend.

“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise.” I kissed her forehead. “Besides, you love surprises.”

Nat chewed her lower lip. “This is true. But you do know I’m going to find out based on the ticket counter we go to?”

I smiled. “We’ll see about that.” I led her toward the first class lounge of Alaska Airlines and went to the counter with both our ID’s and ticket info. The great thing about being famous? You could pull strings, and damn if I wasn’t trying to just use this time to be with her and only focus on her. She deserved that much after all the shit going on in my head.

After I checked in our bags I jogged back to the seat where I left Nat, but she was missing.

“Nat?” I went around the corner, then went and knocked on the door to the restroom.