“You guys are insane,” Deimos whined.

“Don’t worry about it, they never do car inspections, just act natural,” Raven sighed.

“Act natural?” Deimos hissed.

“That is a bold statement,” Mira pointed out. “Ninety percent of the time Deimos acting natural looks like he’s ready to get into a fight.”

“I’ll have to agree,” Kalmin muttered.

“Kalmin, you’re in charge now, you’re the nicest,” Raven butted in.

“Oh my god, we’re so fucked,” Kalmin whined into his hands.

Deimos sighed and rolled his eyes. Sophie’s minivan was in front of them, ready for inspection and interrogation into the country that bled red, white, and blue. The amount of security cameras around the border site was unsettling, and the stern faces of border security didn’t help either.

“Holy shit, there they go,” Mira commentated as Sophie drove up to the little station. Deimos slowly inched their truck to the stop line.

“If Sophie gets denied, I say we book it back,” Raven hissed.

Deimos and Kalmin watched Sophie hand their passports to security. What were minutes felt like centuries, everyone in the car absolutely silent. Kalmin glanced over at Deimos, fidgeting with their passports. Then, Sophie and the others’ passports were given back and her minivan drove away.

“Here we go guys,” Deimos said calmly. They drove up to the little station, rolled down the windows and killed the engine. It was eerily quiet.

“Hello, there,” the security officer said gruffly.

“Hi,” Deimos said curtly, trying to give him his best smile. (It probably didn’t work.) Kalmin passed him the passports and Deimos handed them to the officer.

“So what brings you to coming into America?” He asked calmly as he flipped through the little books.

“Road trip with friends,” Deimos said bluntly. He felt Kalmin close to him, and felt a hand slide to his arm. It was comforting.

“Where to?”

“Beach house two hours from here.”

“Just the four of you?”

“No, with the people before and after us.”

The man eyed him up and down. “Are you all students?”

“Yessir.”

He got to Deimos’ passport, bright red compared to Mira and the others’ black passports. “Deimos,” he said calmly. “Deimos, are you a foreign student?”

“Yessir.”

Kalmin’s grip on his arm tightened.

“Do you possess any firearms, drugs or alcohol in your truck?” He asked. The final answer.

“No,” he said bluntly.

The officer stared at him for a brief moment and then turned around to check them up on the computer. It felt like centuries passed until he came back and handed them their passports. “Have a nice day.”

Then Deimos cautiously pulled out and back onto the highway. When they were well far away, Raven was the first one to let out a loud sigh of relief.

“Holy FUCK,” she groaned. Mira sunk into her seat.

“We did it,” she whined.

Kalmin also sunk down into his seat and sighed.

Deimos felt a faint smile on his lips.

Raven slapped the seats and shouted. “Let’s get LIT!”

For once, Deimos agreed with her. He gunned it down the highway.

* * *

Mira stretched and flopped against Deimos. Almost automatically, he wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his nose into the crown of her head. She smelled like coconuts and sweat, but Deimos couldn’t blame her, the moment they stepped onto American soil (or concrete), it was blistering hot. The road trip gang stopped by the local Starbucks to grab their second helping of coffee and sweets today with Raven being the Guinea pig of their group. Even in the shade, it was stupidly hot, and it soiled Deimos’ mood because he just wanted to hug his girlfriend without getting sweat smeared everywhere. Kalmin sat in front of the couple, chatting with Aaron and Annie about the whereabouts to the beach house. Daniel was in charge now, and if he fucked up, they were doomed.

“It’s hot,” Kalmin sighed.

“I’m just going to walk straight into the lake when we get to Annie’s vacation home,” Aaron declared.

“Ditto,” Annie piped up.

“I just want to take a nap,” Mira groaned.

“Preferably with your boyfriend?” Aaron questioned. He shot Deimos a sly smile and he rolled his eyes. He liked Kalmin. Aaron on the other hand reminded Deimos a lot of Gabriel. He didn’t know if that was a positive or negative thing yet.

“Always with my boyfriend,” she said sarcastically, unhooking her arms from him and turning to look at him. She tried to tie up her hair to no avail.

“A nap wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Kalmin thought out loud.

“Join us,” Mira chanted softly. Deimos smirked. Mira really wasn’t subtle when she was flirting with someone.

“I don’t wanna be the third wheel,” Kalmin complained.

“We can ditch Deimos,” she suggested.

His eyebrow quirked. “Do you wanna fight?”

She smiled innocently up at him.

“So much fighting between the three of you,” Raven interjected. Gabriel and Sophie followed. Immediately, Mira snatched her iced tea and sipped hastily. Deimos took his second iced coffee and passed Kalmin his iced lemonade. Unlike his other mates, he was still pretty tired from last night and needed all the caffeine he could get.

Mira was so casual about being covered in love bites, but Deimos was the complete opposite. Every time he looked into the mirror he was reminded of Mira’s lips. God, Mira made him stupid. Stupidly infatuated. He just wanted a whole week away from the city and friends with just her. Selfish, yes. But Mira wanted it too. She was great, ridiculously great, at playing innocent when she was the slyest motherfucker around. Her hand wrapped around Deimos’ waist and fingers slipped under his shirt to slide across his bare skin. She wasn’t going to make him forget so easily of last night. She could bring him down to his knees and that fucked him up. This whole week was going to be hard not wanting to kiss the shit out of this stupid, sly little girl.

“Are we gonna hit the road?” Annie chimed in when she received her drink. “We’re almost there.”

“Might as well,” Daniel sighed. There was a chorus of groans and chair screeches as everyone got out of their seats and back into the direct blinding rays of sunshine. Mira laced her hands into Deimos’, swinging their arms playfully to the car a few meters away. She yawned and sipped lazily at her drink. For only a few seconds, it was just the two of them, and Deimos leaned close to kiss the top of her head.

“Someone’s tired,” he commented.

Mira chuckled. “I do wanna take a nap. Wanna join?”

“Sure, since someone kept me up last night,” Deimos said sarcastically. She snickered and hip bumped him. He found himself smiling again.