thanks everyone *hug*
Chapter 6
The next morning when Sydney awoke, her ears were met by the sounds of soft snoring on either side of her. Apparently, Jas snored in her sleep, as did Michael, though Jas’s was much worse than his. When Sydney attempted to roll over, she found that she could not due to the fact that during the night Michael had swung one of his legs over her legs so that she was completely pinned beneath them.
Grumbling slightly, Sydney turned her head to find that Michael was practically taking up the entire mattress space. Annoyed by this, she jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, causing him to wake with a start. He grumbled and mumbled sleepily for a moment before opening his eyes and realizing the source of his forceful removal from slumber. “Wha’d you do?” he asked her, yawning.
“You were crushing me! Get your legs off me!” Sydney growled.
Once Michael was conscious enough to realize what was going on, he moved his legs and the rest of his body towards the other side of the bed and apologized quickly. This sudden talking roused Jas from her sleep, and she immediately started laughing. “She probably thought you were going to have sex with her and was scared her virginity was compromised,” Jas snickered.
“Yeah I’m sure that’s exactly what she thought,” Michael said with obvious sarcasm while rolling his eyes. Then he quickly got up from bed and shuffled his way to the bathroom while Sydney took her time sitting up and Jas rolled over and went back to sleep.
Forty minutes later, Michael and Sydney were on their way down to breakfast to begin their day of quality time together. Not surprisingly, their roommates were still asleep, having had a rather late night the previous evening. Sydney was not sure exactly what time she fell asleep since it happened while she was reading her book, but it was definitely after eleven, which really felt like two am east coast time, and at that point she was still alone in the rooms.
“What time did you get in last night?” Sydney asked as she and Michael stepped out of the elevator.
“Um about twelve-thirty I suppose. You were already asleep clutching your book and looking adorable,” he teased her with a grin. She punched his arm playfully while giving him an annoyed look. Michael laughed softly, “Hey it really was cute…anyway, I was the first one back and I don’t know what time the rest of the crew arrived; I fell asleep right away.”
“Oh ok,” she smiled at him. “I was just curious anyway.”
The two headed down to the buffet breakfast being served in the hotel where Michael picked waffles with lots of syrup and Sydney chose a daintier serving of scrambled eggs plus a few pieces of toast. As they ate, they discussed what they were going to do that day. They decided that they would go for a walk down the strip, looking in some of the more infamous casinos to see how they differed from the one they were familiar with. Then, if time and their wallets allowed, they would go to a show. Otherwise, simply return to the hotel and go back out to the pool.
Walking down the strip and seeing the unique and unusual sights there, Sydney and Michael realized that they were truly no longer in Virginia. Never before had Sydney seen people selling maps and overpriced t-shits and people she could only guess were hookers at such an early hour of the day (well, actually she had never seen hookers anywhere before). Needless to say their walk down the street was at a very brisk pace since Sydney was practically dragging Michael along with her.
After visiting the casinos at the MGM Grand and the Monte Carlo hotels, Sydney and Michael realized that all the casinos were basically the same. Sure, they had minor differences, but they were all very decadent with many people and even more slot machines. After this realization, Sydney and Michael turned around and headed back to their hotel.
Back at the room, they found everyone was gone, which was perfectly alright with them anyway; they were spending the day just to themselves. “So how about we play a little poker. After all, we are in Vegas,” Michael smiled, holding up a deck of cards.
“Ohhh,” Sydney groaned. “Michael I’m so bad at poker!”
“C’mon just a few hands,” he encouraged, still smiling. Sighing heavily, she agreed and sat down on the bed warning him that she sucked royally so he was going to win all the hands. “Good to know,” Michael laughed before dealing out the cards.
A few hands later, Sydney was surprised at how well she was actually playing. Of course, she was far from winning everything and was certainly not ready to go and play for real money, but she was holding her own. Michael even suggested that she take a chance and play downstairs, even for just a little money, but Sydney refused stating that her gambling days were over before they even started.
Just an hour after Sydney and Michael began playing, Steve, Tammy, Jas, and Andrew poured through the doors of their hotel room laughing loudly. They were all going to change into their bathing suits and head down to the pool and they invited Sydney and Michael along with them. Michael hesitated to agree to this, knowing that Sydney wanted a day away from them, but she agreed to go anyway. After all, it was a rather large pool area and, if necessary, she could just sit far away from them and read all by herself; she didn’t mind.
~*~
“Man, you know I gotta say for being such a prude Sandra Dee does have a nice body,” Andrew said as he peered over his sunglasses towards Sydney, who was sitting at the edge of the pool, her legs dangling into the water. Everyone else in their group of six was sitting in a row of lounge chairs a few feet away from her.
“Yeah, she does. I thought she woulda come down here in a black one-piece that went all the way from her neck to her knees,” Jas laughed.
“She’s not a nun,” Michael pointed out, slightly annoyed that even when Sydney did something seemingly normal she was still ridiculed for it.
“You know, now that we can see what a beautiful package was underneath those ugly clothes I’m thinking this weekend could get interesting,” Andrew said with a rather evil smile.
“What do you mean?” Steve asked.
“Well I’m thinking it might be our responsibility to devirginize Sandra Dee.”
“NO!” Michael shouted, sitting upright in his lounge chair. “No you leave her alone Andrew – no slipping her alcohol, no ‘hey baby this’ll be good’, nothing. Get it?”
“Jeez chill man!” Andrew retorted, mocking offense. “I was just kidding.”
“No you weren’t!”
“Yeah that’s true,” Andrew laughed softly, settling back into his lounge chair. “I definitely wouldn’t say no if she was interested.”
“Lucky she’s not,” Michael commented.
“Gee, Mike, it sounds to me like you’ve got a little crush on Sandra Dee yourself,” Jas laughed.
“I do not have a crush on Sydney and stop calling her Sandra Dee! I just feel like its my responsibility to keep you vultures away from her since I was the one who invited her here in the first place,” Michael rationalized.
“Whatever,” Jas sighed as Sydney returned to her lounge chair beside Michael. She sat down and picked up her book, completely oblivious to the conversation that had been going on moments earlier. She was just glad they weren’t mocking her for some reason at that very moment.
After just fifteen minutes of relaxing silence, Andrew sat up in his lounge chair, groaning. “God this vacation is boring…we need to do something to make it more interesting.”
“And what would that be?” Tammy asked with a sigh.
“Perhaps with a bet,” Andrew said. Immediately everyone else groaned loudly. “No seriously hear me out. We’re charging all the alcohol to the room, right? So that’s going to be a pretty hefty tab by the end of the week.”
“And your point is?” Steve asked in a dull tone.
“Well, I think we need to make a bet with Michael and if he loses he has to pay the whole tab,” Andrew laughed.
“What?! Why me!?” Michael squeaked.
“’cause you bailed on us to go hang out with Sandra Dee all day long…so what do you say? Are you in?” Andrew asked.
“Are you insane?” Michael retorted. “You haven’t told me what I have to do in order to win and something tells me I’m not gonna like it. Are strippers involved?”
“Not unless you want them to be,” Andrew laughed. Michael gave him an annoyed look. “No, I’m serious; I’ve got a good one with no strippers involved. It’s an easy win, Mike – I’m being far too generous.”
“Well what is it already?!” Jas asked impatiently.
An extraordinarily proud smile crossed Andrew’s face as he announced, “To win the bet, Michael and Sydney have to get married here in Vegas – tonight.”
At this point, Sydney, who had only been half listening to their conversation, threw her book up in the air and screeched, “WHAT?!”
Michael ignored her for the moment, though; he was weighing his options. “Yeah, ok, we’ll do it; it’s a bet,” Michael said finally, extending his hand to shake Andrews.
“Michael!” Sydney screeched. Then, furious, she grabbed her book, towel, and shorts and stomped out of the pool area.