Two months passed by in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, it was time for our winter break vacation.

Since River and I were done with the list, we spent most of our time doing...other things.

School was going great. It was a little exhausting, but I pushed through it.

Nelson, Victor, Nadia, and Jess all started hanging out with River and me more. Daniel moved out of Victor and Nelson's house so we could go there more now, which is where we spent most of our hangouts. The six of us had gotten close over these past few weeks. We even did a six-person group costume for a Halloween party with each of us dressing up as a wizard of oz character. Nadia was Dorothy, Nelson was the tin man, River was the Lion, Victor was the wicked witch, Jess was the scarecrow, and I was Glinda, the good witch. Our costumes turned out fantastic.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this!" Nadia squealed as we waited in line to board our plane to Naples, Florida.

Nadia had been talking about this trip nonstop since she figured out what we did while drunk. I think she was happier than any of us. Most of us wanted to get out of the trip, but it would have been a massive waste of money, so we all went through with it.

When we got on the plane, I sat next to River near the back of the aircraft. Nelson and Victor sat behind us, while Nadia and Jess sat on the other side of the aisle.

I wasn't scared at all about the plane since I had done it before.

"Do you want to do one of those stupid crosswords?" River asked.

"Don't call them stupid!"

"Stupid."

"River," I said before getting out my crossword book. Over the past few weeks, we did crosswords after sex, so the book was almost full. I knew that it sounded lame, but it was actually really nice to be curled up with someone while working on a puzzle.

We proceeded to work on our crossword puzzles for the rest of the flight. We had to ask Nadia, Jess, Nelson, and Victor for a few answers, but other than that, we nailed it.

"This is so exciting!" Nadia exclaimed again as soon as we were off of the plane.

"Nadia, babe, calm down," Jess said.

"I can't stay calm! This trip is going to be awesome! I have so much stuff planned!"

"First, we need to focus on getting our rental car and driving to the house."

We had looked online and found a house that we could rent once we realized that we were actually going on this trip. From the pictures, the place looked amazing. It was mainly Nadia's dads who insisted on paying for it since they had a lot of money and were excited for Nadia, but we all chipped in a little.

After renting our tan minivan, we all climbed into the car.

"We look like dorks in this thing," River said as Victor started driving.

"Oh shush," I said before playfully slapping him.

It was a short ride to the house. We got there in under ten minutes. When we first saw the house, we realized that the pictures didn't do it justice. The place was stunning.

It had a stone path leading up to the yellow-ish colored house. The place was surrounded by trees, ensuring privacy. We all rushed in and saw the beach themed living room and kitchen.

"So, who gets the master bedroom with the balcony?" Nelson asked.

"I don't know. We never really decided that," Jess said.

"I say we have a competition for it," I said.

"What do you have in mind?" Jess asked.

"We do swimming relay races."

"In the house's pool?" River asked.

"Yeah," I said, looking out the window. The pool was pretty big and had enough room for swimming at least half a lap at a time.

"I'm in," Nadia and Jess said at the same time.

"We're in too," Nelson said, referring to him and Victor.

"Okay, let's get changed and then meet by the pool."

After all six of us changed and were ready by the pool, I started to explain the rules.

"So, we already know who the groups are. One person will swim to the end of the pool, turn around, and then hit their partner. Then, the partner will do the same. This will continue ten times until we have a winner. We don't have a referee, so no cheating."

I didn't think that any of us had the personalities to cheat, but I said it anyway.

We all lined up and got ready to go.

"Three, two, one," I said before starting to swim.

As soon as we started, I realized my mistake in choosing swimming relay races. I was terrible at swimming. I had only been swimming a handful of times. I did my best but ultimately fell behind Nelson and Nadia.

I perked up when I saw how good River was, though. He flew through the water like a fish. I had no idea how he was so good at swimming, but I didn't question it.

The rest of the relay race continued like that, with me falling behind and River quickly catching us back up and putting us in the lead.

To my surprise, we ended up winning.

"I can't believe we just won that," I said as River wrapped a towel around my shoulders.

"I can. Let's go put our stuff in our bedroom," River laughed, pulling me away from the others.

When we opened the door to the bedroom, I was mesmerized by the view. We had a balcony that I instantly walked out onto. I could see the sparkling blue ocean from the house as salty air filled my nostrils.

"River! Come out here!" I called as he followed my voice out onto the balcony.

"It's beautiful," River said before we both went back into our room.

"Do you want to see if the others want to go for a sunset walk?"

"Okay," He said. "But first, let's get unpacked."

After we were done unpacking, we gathered everyone and went out to our private beach for the first time.

The sand rushed between my toes with each step I took. The sky was orange and blue, looking like cotton candy as we walked along the shore.

Nadia and Jess were holding hands, and so were Victor and Nelson. I noticed that River and I weren't holding each other, even though I wanted to. I knew that that's not what friends with benefits did, which is still what River and I were calling ourselves.