Chapter 34 - El Palmar

                                    

                                          
"Wake up," the low voice whispers.
I turn to my side and decide against opening my eyes so I just grunt.
"Kat," I feel a hand on my shoulder.
"What?" I mutter.
"Wake up," he orders again.
"It's four in the morning, James," I say as I reluctantly open up my eyes and look at the clock on my nightstand first.
I turn to face him and he's fully dressed. I sit up in bed and he sits down to get to my eye level.
"Surprise," he tries to cheer without making a sound.
I say nothing and just close my eyes again.
"We're going to Cali, come on,"
"The flight is at night, you idiot," I grunt.
"Yeah, so, I cancelled our flights. I thought we should drive there," he says.
"You what?" I almost yell, awakening myself.
"Everyone's up," he says before leaving my room and I notice his cousin isn't in her bed on the other side of the room.
I change before making my way outside the house in the darkness and saying goodbye to all the family I spent the past two days with. They were all super tired so I made a point of keeping it short and sweet.
James grabbed his coffee and we headed towards the road.
"I hate you," I grimace.
"Here I was thinking, 'I love this girl,'" the tone of that last part he spoke made me shift.
"I love you too," I whisper as I begin to fall asleep again.
I wake up a couple of hours later to find a sleepy James trying to keep his eyes open.
"You're going to kill us both," I say shifting in my seat.
"Yeah, well, you can't drive here anyway," he responds.
"I mean, I can if I wanted to," I say as I stretch.
We're still on the road but this time there are three times the amount of cars I remember seeing when we left.
"How long is the drive?" I ask.
"Five hours and fifteen," James answers. "Six hours max. Don't worry we're half way through. We have to hurry though, pico y placa."
I grab his coffee and pass him some more as I look at the clock. We left around 4:30 in the morning it's now almost eight.
I try to play 'I Spy' with James but he fails miserably as he has to keep his eyes on the road since the drivers here are maniacs. Motorcycles everywhere, their roars fill my ears.
"Where to when we arrive?" James inquires.
"Let me call my aunt."
My family wasn't really out in Cali, I mean they are but this weekend there's some sort of holiday so we all go up to one of our houses in this small village up in the mountains, El Palmar, there's supposed to be a gathering with the other four houses full of relatives and friends and the concert and parade that weekend; my surprise for James.
My aunt says she'll text me the address but it's tricky to get there, so I tell James that as long as he makes it to the center of the city, we can make our way there soon after.
Two hours later and we're on the road by the Intercontinental Hotel, making a left to go to that tiny village. I tell James where we're actually headed and he just agrees, says as long as there's a bed he's in.