We slept through most of the night before I woke up to rustling in the bushes. "Colby....Colby." I said and shook him, trying to get him to wake up as I grabbed my phone so I could shine my flashlight around.

I heard the rustling again causing me to jump and shake Colby again. "Babe, I'm serious." I said as he groaned. "What's going on?" He mumbled the rustling happened again.

"There's something out here." I said and shined my flashlight behind me again. "What do you mean?" He asked as I saw a flash of golden eyes. "Shit!" I hissed and kept my eyes locked on the animals. "Okay, stay calm but there's some sort of animal staring me down right now." I said as he sat up.

"Holy shit...okay...uh...stay calm." He said as I nodded. "I'm calm. Just get everything packed up. Slowly." I said as kept eye contact with the animal.

I couldn't tell what it was from just the eyes but I would assume it was either a wolf, a coyote, or a mountain lion. I was hoping it was a coyote though, I could fight a coyote off if it came down to it.

Colby slowly folded the blankets up and grabbed all of our stuff as I kept my eyes on the animal. Luckily it didn't seem to be threatened, "Alright, we need to get in the car." I said and slowly started to stand up.

"Be careful, V." Colby said as I reached down to pick up my blanket. "Is the car unlocked?" I asked as the eyes moved closer. "Yeah." Colby said as I nodded. "On three..we run." I said as he sucked in a breath.

"Okay..one....two....three!" I said then ran to the car. Colby was close behind me as I flung the door open and threw myself into the passengers seat.

I looked over at Colby as we tried to catch our breath. He looked over at me and leaned his head against the headrest.

We stared at eachother for a second before we both burst into laughter. "Are you okay?" Colby asked between his laughs. "Yeah, are you?" I asked and wiped the tears of laughter from my eyes. "Yeah. What the fuck was that?" He asked as he turned the heat up.

"I don't know. I'm wide awake now though." I said and brushed my hand through my hair. "Did you want to just keep going on the trip?" Colby asked as I nodded. "We can, but aren't you tired?" I asked as he shrugged. "I'm awake now." He said then took my hand and started driving.

"We can stop at a hotel if we need to....by the way, Merry Christmas Eve." Colby said quietly as he pulled my hand into his lap. "Holy shit..it's Christmas Eve!" I said as I looked at the clock. It was 4am so technically it was the day before Christmas.

"Don't you want to spend Christmas with your parents?" I asked and picked at a loose string that was on my pants. "I'd love to, but they're going on a cruise. I'm happy to spend Christmas with you, though." He said quietly as I smiled. "I'm happy to spend it with you too." I said quietly as my heart swelled.

We drove for a couple hours before I started to get sleepy again. "Maybe we should stop at a hotel." I said with a yawn as I looked over at Colby, seeing how tired he looked. "That's a good idea." He said as I pulled out my phone, trying to find the closest hotel.

"There's a holiday inn at exit 15." I said with a yawn as he nodded. "Sounds good." He said as I closed my eyes and leaned my head back into the seat.

I didn't realize I fell asleep until Colby was waking me up by kissing my cheek. "Come on, baby. We're here." He said quietly as I groaned. "Bring the bed to me." I groaned as he laughed. "I could if I would." He said as I got out of the car.

I grabbed a blanket then pulled it over my shoulders as we walked into the hotel. Colby got us a room while I was sleeping in the car so all we had to do was go up to the room.

When we got to the room I crawled into the bed as Colby closed the curtains since it was light out now. As soon as he crawled into bed I snuggled into him, falling asleep almost instantly.

We woke up a couple hours later to Colby's phone ringing. "Turn it off." I groaned as he reached over and answered the phone. "What Sam?" He groaned as I sat up and scrubbed my face with my hands.

"I don't know...we're like 4 hours away. Okay yeah...that's fine. We're leaving the hotel soon. Okay. Bye." He said as I stood up and stretched. "He wanted to know when we were getting in. The girls are super excited to meet you." Colby said said as bit my lip.

The truth was I was really nervous to meet the girls, I didn't know what I was going to do if they didn't like me.

"Don't look so excited, V." Colby said with a laugh as he pulled his sweatshirt back on. "I'm scared shitless." I said and looked for my toothbrush. "Trust me, they're gonna love you. I know I do." He said and came behind me, wrapping his arms around me.

"I would hope so, since I'm moving across the country to be with you." I said and turned around in his arms. "I'm so glad you're doing this. I think it's gonna be a good thing for you." Hs said then leaned in to kiss me.

"Not until I brush my teeth." I said and put my hand on my lips, blocking them from his. "Whatever." He said then smacked my ass when I turned around to grab my toothbrush.

As soon as we were both ready we went back to the car. "I'm gonna drive." I said and reached for the keys. "Okay, did you brush your teeth?" He asked as I chuckled, "I did." I said as he grabbed my hips and pulled me into him. "Good." He said then pressed his lips to mine.

I smiled against his lips as he pressed me against the car, cupping my cheek with his hand. I pulled away after a minute and grinned at him. "We're never gonna make it to LA at this rate." I said as he opened the door for me. "Let's go then." He said as I got in.

We stopped for breakfast then continued our journey to LA.

"So Sam already set up your bedroom since he wanted you to be able to sleep tonight." Colby said as I took a bite of my hash brown. "That's so nice of him. He didn't have to do that, I could have just slept in your bed." I said with a grin as he chuckled. "You can still sleep in my bed." He said as I shook my head.

"Nope! Sam put my bed together, it would be rude to not use it." I said and tapped on the steering wheel to the beat of the song playing.

Colby and I actually had pretty similar music tastes so we didn't do a lot of fighting about that. We did however fight a lot about snacks.

"Are you fucking KIDDING me? You don't like pickles?!" I exclaimed as he fake gagged. "They're horrible. Like. Massively disgusting." He said as I shook my head, "You don't even like the spicy ones?!" I asked as he gagged again. "I ESPECIALLY hate the spicy ones." He said as I shook my head.

"Get out of my car. Holy shit." I said as he chuckled. "Come on...we can both agree that we put the milk in before the cereal though, right?" He asked as I gasped.

"You're a psychopath." I said as he laughed, "I'm just kidding about that one. Anyways I know where we are now so if you want to pull over I'll drive us the rest of the way." He said as I nodded and got off the next exit.

When I got out of the car I was immediately hit by a wave of heat. It made me a little sad if I'm being honest.

I knew I would have a hard time with this move but my heart was already breaking and we haven't even gotten there yet.

"Are you okay?" Colby asked as I nodded. "Just got a little sad...I'll be okay." I said as he pulled me in for a hug. "I know this is a big change, but I'm so proud of you." He said then kissed my head. "Thanks...let's just go." I said then got back in the car.

Colby turned the GPS off and started driving again. It felt weird being able to see palm trees instead of snowy mountains. I kept trying to remind myself that change was good and that this sadness would go away eventually.

I needed a fresh start.

We eventually pulled into the driveway of a giant house. There had to be at least 7 bedrooms in this house, that's how massive it was. "Holy shit...you live here??" I asked and looked up at the beautiful mansion in front of me.

"No, we live here." He said as I breathed a laugh. I got out of the car and looked around, taking in my surroundings. There were 6 cars in the driveway including mine. In the middle of the driveway was a giant fountain but it wasn't on so it looked bone dry.

There were palm trees in both the front and back yards giving off a tropical vibe.

"You like it?" Colby asked as he started pulling the boxes out of the car. "Yeah, it's beautiful...I just can't believe you live here." I said as he grinned. "Yeah, Sam and I bought it about a year ago." He said as my jaw dropped. "You BOUGHT it?" I asked as he shrugged, "yeah...anyways enough about the house itself. Are you ready to meet your new friends?" Colby asked as I nodded.

I couldn't help the pit of nerves that filled my stomach.

I really hoped they liked me.