Happy Valentine's Day love bugs!

Kiss me, out of the bearded barley.

"I'm so excited!!!!" Aliza yells as she runs around the room. I'm leaning against the wall of our bedroom, waiting for her to finish packing. My suitcase is resting next to me, but somebody decided to leave it to the last minute.

She's throwing things in a suitcase, and I can't help but winch. I walk over to the bed and sit next to her suitcase. I take everything out and start folding. She doesn't even blink as I do it. She's somewhere in the living room, probably fetching a headband or some shoes.

I'm nearly finished when she rushes back, dumping the content of her arms into the suitcase. I sigh but repeat my previous actions. "There you go." She says as I finish and flips the top of the suitcase over.

She zips it shut and puts it next to mine. She dances over to me. "Thank you." She gives me a quick kiss. I grab her waist. "We can go, I'm ready." She says with a smile. I look between her and the bag skeptically. "That it?" I ask her.

"Yea, it's only three days." She says. "But it's so small." She nods. "Don't need much." She shrugs. "Well, okay, then let's go," I tell her, and we gather our things to take downstairs.

In a fleeting, weed-induced haze, we decided to book a cabin. All of us. It was a good idea at the time, but now I just think it's going to be one big shit show. How much can happen in three days?

Mitch is already waiting downstairs, with the bus we had to rent. Sarah is sitting inside along with Adam, Emi, and their two kids. Elijah rushes downstairs down the stairs, nearly bumping into us with his bag slung over his shoulder.

"Overslept." He greets us. "Got sleep in the corner of your eyes, mate." He rubs it with his fist. "Got it?" He looks at me. "Nope, still there," I tell him, laughing at his hair sticking in every direction. "Get it." He whines, and I reach up to wipe under his eyes. "Thanks, bro." He says, moving to the bus.

"Well, that was cute," Mitch says, now next to me. "Did it all the time when we were younger," I tell him and go to put our luggage in the back. We all settled in the van and were on our way to the last stop. Picking up Amy.

Mitch is driving, and Sarah is playing co-pilot. Adam and his family take up the next two rows. Elijah is in front of me and Aliza, who got the back. Amy's already waiting outside, so she just quickly hurls her suitcase into the back and gets in next to Elijah.

The first part of the drive is silent, with soft music playing in the background. I have no idea where we're going; it was all planned out by Aliza and Mitch. "They're in love," Aliza whispers into my ear. My arm is around her and resting on her waist. I look at Elijah and Amy, but they're on opposite ends of the van right now.

Amy is sleeping, and Elijah is playing with his camera. "Not them, them." She points past them all the way to the front, and I see what she means. Mitch and Sarah are softly talking to each other. She's leaning over the console as she tells him something.

He's focusing on the road, but every now and then, he looks at her with a look that can only be described as admiration. "You look at me like that," Aliza says. I think I know what Mitch meant now when he told me about the awestruck look I get around her.

I pull her closer till she's sitting on my thigh and leaning against my chest. I shift so my back is against the window, and my legs are straightened out. She puts her head on my shoulder and her hand on my heart. "Just like this."Aliza. Aliza. Aliza. My heart sings.

"Kiss me." She says softly. "Out of the bearded barley?" I ask, and she giggles. She pulls me closer by my shirt, and my lips meet hers in a spark. It feels like two teenagers making out in the back of the school bus, which I guess it kind of is.

We share soft, silent kisses; I pull on her bottom lip lazily when I pull back to mold my lips to hers again. The van jerks, and she nearly falls off of me onto the ground at our feet. I catch her just on time. I shoot up and lean over the seat in front of me. I look at Mitch in the mirror, and he's smirking.

"No fraternizing in the bus." He scolds. Everyone laughs at us, and I think the kids have just been caught. "Fucking dick," I mutter, leaning back into my seat.

Aliza is laughing next to me but hides her face in my shoulder the moment I'm in reach. We keep our hands to ourselves for the rest of the drive, and another hour later, we arrive at the cabin.

"So we all share." Aliza waves her hand between her where we stand outside the bus and me. "Adam and Emi get their own." Everyone seems pretty unbothered with the details as we start moving in different directions.

I take our bags up the stone steps and into the cabin she pointed to earlier. Aliza opens the door for me, and we enter the place together. It's a standard cabin, with a fireplace. It's clean and smells like pine.

It has exactly four bedrooms, and Aliza walks down the hallway to ours. I place the suitcases on the bed. We meet again in the kitchen, where everyone is unpacking the food we bought.

Aliza sits on one of the barstools; she grabs a magazine and starts leafing through it.

"Where you run off to?" Elijah asks, his mouth stuffed with a piece of bread. "Had to get the best room." Aliza jokes. "Unfair." He whines. "Perks of being smart." Aliza shrugs. He scoffs at her and takes another bite.

"Aliza?" Amy asks next to him. "Yes, Amy?" She looks up from her spot on the chair. "That ribbon around your finger, how long has it been there?" She asks, frowning. I look at the shiny yellow ribbon. I now have the honor of tying a new one around her finger every night before bed.

"Since he asked." She says simply, turning back to the glossy magazine. Four sets of eyes fly in our direction. She looks up again as Elijah chokes on a piece of bread. "Asked what exactly?" Mitch asks. "Everything." She smiles up at me like it's our little secret.

"So you're engaged?" Sarah asks, pointing between us. "If she wants to be," I answer her. "Sure," Aliza answers, not looking away from her reading material.

"You mean to tell me you're going to get married?" Elijah asks. "If we feel like it, then yea," Aliza says. "But you asked?" He turns to me. "Sure," I reply. He groans. "Can I get a straight answer?" He asks. "No." we both say at the same time, and the giggles wake the butterflies.

"Well, at least you didn't have to ask her parents," Elijah says, making Aliza giggle. There are some shocking reactions, but I think everyone has seen the humor in his statement. My soft laughter turns rowdier, and soon everyone is joined in.

"This was a very confusing conversation," Mitch announces. "Dude, try to live with them; they have this weird brain thing going on where they just always understand each other," Elijah complains. I let out a laugh cause it's true most of the time.

"Come one, it can't be that bad," Amy says, turning from the fridge. "No, it is; it's freaky even." He presses on. "You should see them play thirty seconds; it's impossible to win."

"That's enough, go pester someone else." I click my tongue at him. He scowls at me but takes his and Amy's bags.

***

After lunch, everyone goes their own way. Aliza is with the girls doing God knows what. Mitch went to help Adam put up a camping cot or something, which leaves Elijah and me. "Wanna go for a walk?" He asks me, entering the kitchen just as I put the last plate away.

"In the woods?" I ask nervously. "No, we can go to the beachside." I sigh in relief. "Cool, yeah, I'm in," I say, wiping my hands on the dishtowel and hanging it on the wall.

We make our way outside and down the steps, following the signs that lead us to the beach. "Holy fucking shit," Elijah utters next to me, and I see it a second later. The girls are sitting on the beach. "Just look at her, man." He says, but I don't. I look at him. "Dumb thing to say when you're girl is clad in swimwear," I tell him, patting his back.

I walk to the opposite side of where they are and fall onto the sand, my elbows resting on my knees. He sits next to me. I stare at the ocean, the waves crashing on the shore. It's dusk, and there are some stars in the sky.

"You don't see them this bright in the city," Elijah says. "No, you barely see them at all." I agree. "Amy." He tells her name, and I turn to him. "She scares me, man." He gives a breathy laugh. We're the same, him and I. It's hard to open up. "She's the moon, and I'm the ocean." He doesn't have to elaborate; I understand it completely.

"You love her?" I ask, and he nods. "I'm afraid, I'm afraid that I'm making her love me, and then I have to go." His voice breaks a little. "I have the exact same fear, just the other way around." He looks at me in surprise. "I still have that same fear from when I was a kid, that I'm not going to be here long."

He's had it since I can remember. He uses to cry because he thought he'd die in his sleep. I don't know why but I do know it's a big thing for him. "You can't let it stop you, Eli. Life is happening right now." I advise him.

"I told her everything." I smile at him. "That's good; she's still here." I praise. She's a keeper if she can keep up with a misfit. He has a soft smile too. I look into the distance, to the girls, and my eyes land on Aliza. My sunshine. She's wearing a bright yellow bikini. "We got lucky," I tell him, moving my eyes back to the ocean in front of me.

"We did. Amy, she... er...." He struggles to find the right words. "She wants to wait, to have sex." I don't turn to him, fear of embarrassing him. "Is it something you're willing to do?"

"Yes, no question about it; she's so self-conscious about her looks." My eyebrows pull together. "Why?" She's never seemed that way. "She's afraid that I won't like what I see." I look at him. "Just do whatever you can to make her feel comfortable; the rest will come. She has absolutely no reason to feel that way."

"Aliza and I, we haven't slept together yet," I tell him, in the hopes of making him see that it's not as important. His neck swings to me. His facial features are awestruck. "You're so close; I would never have guessed." He says, "Our emotions are close; they're intertwined." I tell him.

"That's kinda neat." He murmurs. "My point is, the time has no meaning when you found the one."

That's what's wrong with this world; if you don't fit into a small size, you're marked as fat. Amy is far from it; she's just a little curvy. Peer pressure causes us to fall into bed when we're not emotionally ready for it. I've done it myself. "Thanks, really needed to share with someone." He says. "Yea, anytime."

We sit in silence and stare at the water until it turns black, and we get up to go back to the cabin. All of us make dinner together and drink wine in the late hours of the night. This may have been exactly what we needed. We're in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by people who matter, just soaking it all up.

***

I wake up in cold sweat, my hand pats next to me, and find Aliza's arm. It's normal for me to get a nightmare when I'm in a new place. It wasn't as bad as the others, but I'm gasping from the strain my body went through while I was asleep.

Aliza is sitting up next to me now and rubbing my back. "Inhaler." I manage to say between short burning pants. She's off the bed and by my suitcase in seconds. My lungs try to expand, but it's no use.

She rushes over to my side of the bed. "Can I?" She asks calmly, and I nod. She brings the inhaler to my mouth. She counts down to three, and I inhale as hard as I can when the gas pushes into my mouth. She repeats herself two more times, and I can breathe again.

I fall back onto the bed, and she crawls over me to her side. "Are you going to be okay now?" She asks me. I nod, physically yes. "Nightmare." I rasp. "New place," I add. She turns the AC up on the remote, and the wind blows onto my wet hair, giving a form of relief. It cools my body down that it still feels like it's on fire.

She sniffs beside me quietly, and I pull her closer, draping her over my body. "I'm okay, sunshine," I assure her. "Just scared me; I haven't seen it since we were kids." She tells me. "It's been a long time since I had one like this. Usually after a nightmare or panic attack." I whisper. I turn to her, cradling her in my arms. "It's okay now," I say into her hair.

"Id give you a black tulip if I could." Power, Strength, Supreme elegance. "I would give you the world if I could," I reply because she's making my heart do crazy things again. I couch once, and she winches next to me.

"It's okay, love." She kisses my bare chest. "We'll be alright." She says. She's trying to convince herself. There's no her and I anymore. Whatever I feel she does too, and that's the best thought to fall asleep to.

Mkay Bye!