How Drake ended up here, he wasn't sure.

'I think it would be a great idea for Drake to get out of the house with the rest of you, you should all have some family bonding time! Going to a new environment can work wonders'

As soon as Drake was back in California, he was going to make Dr Green pay for this one. He'd put up with her for a while now, but telling his mother they should all have a family vacation? There was a fucking line, and she crossed it.

Maybe he should sneak into her house, and teach her a lesson with his new power drill, the one his stepdad got him after Drake lied and said he was interested in woodwork. Or maybe he could kidnap her daughter on the way home from school, tie her by the railway line till a train comes and rips her in half.

These fantasies helped Drake survive the plane journey to Aspen. But he was going to have to get creative if he was going to make it through the weekend.

Caine and Diana pretty much broke the laws of physics as they teleported out of Drake's eye line. One second in danger of lifelong humiliation, one second carefully hidden by one of Caine's scarily tall uncles.

Was there a single Soren under six foot? Diana was just shy of 5 foot 5 inches, average, yet surrounded by people like this she felt like a dwarf.

"Of all the people" Caine gritted his teeth, risking small glances in Drake's direction. He hadn't noticed them yet. "What are we going to do? We can't tell him why you're really here"

Even though it would explain it, Diana had to agree. Not only would it be embarrassing for Caine, it would bring her down to. Diana Ladris, willing to pretend to be your girlfriend for free stuff? Everyone at Coates already thought she was a slut, she didn't need anything to bring her reputation down further.

"Well, unless you recently invented the invisibility cloak, I don't see how we are going to avoid him for the entire trip"

"As long as we stay away from the main resort points at the busiest times, we should be fine. And worst comes to worst, we could always shove him off a mountain. I don't think anyone would miss that sick son of a bi-"

"Caine!" Both of them couldn't help but cringe as Emmeline seemed to screech Caine's name, but thankfully Drake didn't look up. "Here is your room key, we are all on the same floor. Come back down here for lunch at one alright?"

"Of course, yeah" Any excuse for the pair to leave the lobby right now was welcome. They had an hour or so, in that time they could probably also think up an excuse to miss lunch.

No such luck. They had made their way down to lunch just to avoid having to make conversation, after a wonderfully awkward moment that occurred upon entering their room.

There was only one bed.

It was a decent size, in a hotel like this there was no chance of a single aspect of the stay being shabby or low quality. But it was still just one, big, double bed. No couch, only a single high backed armchair. No spare blankets.

"I could-"

"We don't-"

They both jumbled over their words. Caine was desperately trying to not make eye contact, lest he make the situation worse. For fuck sake, he was Caine Soren, Coates Academy's biggest threat. He shouldn't be this nervous when talking to someone he liked. However, growing up an only child and going to an all boys primary school didn't exactly equip him with the best tools for talking to girls.

Diana, however, could handle this.

"Look, we can just figure it out this evening. As long as you don't hog the covers, I won't need to kill you. Okay?" Diana gritted her teeth, setting her bags down near the drawers on the far side. If he dared take the left side, she was gonna have words.

"Sounds fair"

Fair and awful. Caine would be embarrassed to count how many times he had pictured sharing a bed with Diana Ladris, but none of his fantasies were under these ridiculous circumstances.

"So this is the famous girlfriend" Ethan crowed as he reached to shake Diana's hand. His girlfriend hung at his elbow, a weak smile on her face. "I have heard a lot about you."

"You have?" Diana smirked, raising an eyebrow at Caine. She let go of Ethan's hand as quickly as possible. His grip was tight, and he stood far too close.

"He's exaggerating," Caine replied, with a cool smile on his face. God, he forgot how much he hated this guy.

"Barely" Ethan pulled a chair out for the blonde as he sat down at the table himself. Lunch with the Soren's had been split into multiple small tables rather than one long conjoined one.

Diana had been briefly educated on Caine's extended family. His father, Harrison Soren, was the youngest son in the first marriage of Christopher Soren, an extremely wealthy american oil tycoon. Christopher's three marriages had resulted in a total of eleven children; five with the first wife, three with the second, two with the third, with the final child being the product of an affair with his secretary. The family was spread out across America, with most members following the same path of attending ivy leagues and taking a wishy washy job at Soren Industries that ensured them a fat paycheck. Ten out of the eleven children and their families were going to be present; the oldest child of the second marriage was currently out on a non-negotiable business trip to Saudi Arabia. Christopher Soren's children adopted his habit of serial marriage and extensive breeding, this resulted in Caine having 34 cousins total. 19 were present at this family affair, with each of the 19 bringing significant others and some even offspring of their own. There were three small children running around leaving sticky fingerprints in their wake. Diana had made a mental note to avoid them at all costs, she hated little children. They were currently sat two tables away, unsupervised, staining the expensive tablecloths and precariously stacking the expensive china.

The conversation at lunch was dry, but at least the food was good. Ethan spoke for seven whole minutes about fishing. Diana learned that the girlfriend was called Addison, she was the daughter of a real estate mogul and was studying art. None of her interests aligned with Diana's. Fun.

The main complication of lunch was the hand holding. Ethan never let go of Addison's hand, leading to pressure for Caine and Diana to do the same. She had allowed hand holding in her rules, but practically glueing their hands together seemed a bit excessive. They fumbled for a second, awkwardly making eye contact, before Caine took her hand in his. It only lasted for a few minutes, before Diana needed a drink of water.

She could still feel the cool pressure of his hand against hers as they left lunch.

It was the moment Caine had been dreading.

Sharing the bed with Diana.

They had worked through the awkward taking turns in the bathroom to get changed and get ready for bed. Caine was just glad he had gone shopping only a few weeks prior and bought some decent pajamas, he doubted Diana would've been impressed with his usual attire.

It wasn't as if she was wearing anything particularly stunning or provocative. She was wearing a black tank top and black pajamas shorts. Perfectly normal and decent bedtime clothes. She didn't seem particularly phased walking around wearing it either, Diana didn't seem to care. She hadn't realised that Caine was fighting all his natural instincts to keep looking down. His eyes were glazed over, fixed on his phone screen. He had been reading and rereading the same sentence over and over, trying to get his brain to work, trying to stay comfortable. Was it the bed, or maybe the duvet? Was it hot? It feels weirdly hot, he was feeling sweaty and flushed-

"Caine!" Diana was staring at him, hands on hips, confused and clearly pissed off.

"What?"

"Are you going to move the fuck over or what?" He had ended up lying in pretty much the centre of the bed as he tried to ignore Diana.

"Yeah, right" Caine quickly moved over, making sure to avoid any eye contact.

Diana wasn't stupid. She knew he liked her. Caine was blushing for fucks sake, and he hadn't looked at her properly in minutes. He had made multiple weak attempts to flirt with her when they first met, with Diana putting him down unceremoniously every time.

It wasn't as if she disliked him. He was attractive, and smart. It wasn't the idea of Caine being her boyfriend that was so off putting, it was the idea of having a boyfriend. She wasn't in a position to open her heart for any guy, it wasn't worth it. In the future, when relationships could be strong and mean something? Maybe. But she was still a teenager. Diana didn't want to risk having her heart broken when she was still building herself.

And if she wasn't going to have a relationship with him, she certainly wasn't going to sleep with him. Diana wasn't going to ruin the one maybe friendship she had by having sex. So she was just going to have to sleep in the same bed as Caine, and ignore him the entire time.

"If you plan on staying up, you better turn the brightness down on your phone, I'm not being blinded everytime i roll over" Diana grumbled as she turned off the bedroom light.

"I was just setting an alarm so you don't sleep in" Caine turned his phone off with a click.

It was dark. And quiet. She could hear him breathing. She was just about to close her eyes when they snapped back open.

"Hold on, when I sleep in?"

"Yeah, you're always late" Caine's voice was muffled as he turned away from her.

"I am not!" Diana was indignant. She wasn't an early bird, but she was never that late.

"You are always last for breakfast and class, what do you call that if that's not you being late?"

"That is me being late so I can look as good as I do everyday. And if you want me to look hot so you can show me off to your misogynistic cousin and his drab girlfriend, you can deal with me being slightly late"

There was a pause.

"Alright" Caine replied, his tone amused. "If you can want, I can set the alarm even earlier, so you can look even hotter for me to show you off"

She hit him with a pillow.