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4 years ago : July 25th 2016

"Come on guys! We need those bags in the car in 5 minutes!"

I take my bags and pile them into the boot of the adults car, the suitcase on bottom and smaller bags on top, leaving my backpack with essentials on my seat in the other car.

"Why do ya need so much stuff, i've only got this?" Ezra holds up his average sized backpack, which probably only contains 2 hoodies, a pair of swim shorts, some t-shirts and 1 pair of boxers for the entire 4 week trip.

Gross. I know.

I was only 7 when I was permanently scarred by finding out my brother goes commando wayyy too much; my poor eyes will never be the same again. It's like he thinks wearing underpants is too big of a commitment and I quote:

'What's the point in wearing them if they're gonna be off most of the time' - and yes, he actually said that.

"Because! I have at least an outfit for everyday! I might get sweaty or it could be cold and wet, so I need to be prepared for anything!"

This is a very true and a valid thing to think about - if there happens to be a disco party in -23*c weather with torrential rain and a tornado heading for us, i'm going to be ready for it.
And I'll be there looking like fire and being all warm and comfy whilst my topless brother and his naked balls are shivering from hypothermia.

"But you're packing like you're going head first into a tropical storm, and you like don't even wear those outfits!"

"That is so not true!"

"Allie, what's going to happen is you're gonna wear probably...like 3 of those tops and a couple of those bottoms on a loop for the entire holiday!"

Ok. so maybe i do over pack. But better safe than sorry!

I stomp off when I have no snarky reply to say back to his maybe slightly true comment.

But only slightly.

Teensy bit.

I place my final things in the car seat then hop in for the ride.

It's already the end of the first week of the summer holidays and we're about to set off to Somerset.

Our initial plans of going to Italy were cancelled when my brother accidentally dropped his passport down the toilet 2 weeks before we were due to leave.

The embassy people said that they couldn't get the passport ready in time for us to leave, so we were stuck in England.

It's not like I'm upset that we have to go to Somerset, it's just...i dunno i kinda love travelling on holiday - the long car drives, the busy airports, the way I can listen to music uninterrupted for 8 hours...it's just special.

Our original plan was to go to Italy for 3 weeks then go to our place in Somerset with the Hayes for 2, but now we've just extended our stay. The Hayes were fine with it because they weren't leaving the country this year anyway. And it's not like we haven't done holidays together before, so it was a pretty normal arrangement.

So here we are, about to spend 4 weeks in our beach house in Somerset with some of my favourite people.

Pure bliss.

---------------------------

"GIVE IT BACK ALLIE!!!"

Levi tugs hard on my hair, screaming as i snatch away his tube of sour cream and chive pringles.

I slip a stack of them in my pocket for later; knowing me, I'm going to be hungry, so I'm just strategically thinking ahead. Using one hand to shovel my face with a stack of about 50 crisps, I use the other to grab onto his face to prevent him from reaching it.

"ALLIE STOP EATING MY FOOOOOD!"

I spin my body around so he can't get the packet and down the rest of the crumbs into my mouth. I'm almost finished when he swipes it away whilst the remains of the crisps are still going into my mouth, so the crumbs tip all down my top and in my hair.

"LEVIIII! YOU GOT FOOD IN MY BRA!" he looks over to check, but i slap him in the face, "i didn't say you could look, you pervert!"

"Owwww!"

He clutches onto the side of his face, where a red imprint of my hand is. I shove him away and so he turns back into his seat. My brother just rolls his eyes in the front seat - something he luckily bagsied before me or Levi - he's refusing to get involved in our pointless feud.

"What is it not my fault - I just wanted to check?!" he says it so innocently like he's acting as if all he did was sit next to me.

"That was a naughty thing to do Yeebi." Liam speaks from in between us on his booster seat, "very rude!"

"Yeah Levi, very rude." I raise a challenging eyebrow and smirk, making him scowl in return.

He plugs in his earphones and ignores me for the next few hours, which works just fine with me.

--------------------------

"When are we there?"

"How many minutes left?"

"Are we there yet?"

"How many miles left?"

"Are we there yet?"

"When are we there?"

"How long left?"

"Are we there yet?"

This has been going on every 3 seconds for the last 2 hours. And it's driving me insane.

Liam - as cute as he is - is becoming a pain in my ass. He insists on knowing the exact amount of time and distance left it will take to get to our destination. His questions consist of the same context but just in a different order - 'when are we there', 'are we there yet', 'how long left'.

It's killing me slowly.

Very, very, very slowly.

After a while, my dad got so fed up, he just gave him the spare sat nav so he could look where we are as often as he wanted.

Big fail.

Turns out that, unsurprisingly, a 7 year old doesn't understand geographical navigation on a high tech speaking machine.

"Liam, look-" i point to the number in the corner, "that's how many minutes are left and that-" i show him the number underneath it, "thats how many miles are left."

He smiles wide and hugs me really tight, "Thanks Allie!"

This earns a huge frown from Levi, seen as when he tried to be the hero and show off his incredible tech skills, he didn't even know how to turn it on.

Genius, isn't he.

It was hilarious watching his face, so incredibly concentrated as he tried to find the on switch, the way his eyebrows scrunched up in confusion and when he bit his lip with the tip of his tongue sticking out of the corner.

After around half an hour of searching, he concluded it was broken, so when I took it out of his hands and turned it on in less than 2 seconds, he was deeply irritated.

"It's not that difficult." He mutters.

Well that's a lie.

"But if it isn't difficult, why did it take you so long to not even work it out."

He mumbles the next bit in embarrassment, "I wasn't trying to turn it on, I was...making sure it wasn't dangerous."

"Then thank you for keeping us safe from this treacherous beast," my sarcasm makes him pout and turn away.

"It could've been hacked or something...?" he scowls at me from his seat while me and Liam chuckle at his stupidity. Rolling his eyes, he shrugs and strops against his window.

"Oh yes, because it's very likely that this sat nav is going to try and kill us."

"You never know...it could've gone full on psycho Chucky on us?"

I make a face.

"In fact, you should be thanking me." he states in a matter of fact tone.

"I already did." I pull out my stack of Levi's pringles, which I put in my pocket earlier, my smug smile radiating throughout the car as I take a slow, crunchy bite out of the crisp, maintaining intense eye contact with Levi.

"You're an evil human being, Allie Carter." he growls.

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"How long leftttt!"

Oh god, not this again.

Liam's tampering with the sat nav has resulted in it losing its battery incredibly fast, and now he doesn't know how long is left. For the past 3 hours - since my dad gave Liam the spare sat nav - he's been kept busy; Liam's been munching on dried mango and rice cakes or watching Harry Hotter on the ipad, so he hasn't really been irritated.

Until now.

He had the 'security' of knowing how long it is until we get there, but now it's out of charge, he's gone mental.

"It's been hours!" he moans at my dad.

This is very true. This trip isn't a walk in the park - its takes approximately 5 hours to get there and that's on a good day.

Today is not a good day.

We've been stuck in traffic for the past 4 hours, extending our drive from 5 hours to almost 9. In the past hour, we've moved a huge distance of...(drumroll please)...76 centimeters. The smell of car fumes seeps in from Ezra's open window and the sound of honking from about a billion cars is on a constant loop. I can literally hear kids screaming at their sleep deprived parents for miles around.

Everyone in the car is getting agitated, no cross that out, we ARE agitated.

Very.

Very.

Agitated.

"Why is this place so far away!? why couldn't we go somewhere closer!?" Levi groans for the hundredth time. Hes now pulling at his tight sealbelt, flustered and uncomfortable.

"Because it's Somerset! And it's not my fault Ezra flushed his passport down the toilet!"

"Yeah mate, how did you even do that? Cause, not gonna lie, bringing your passport into the toilet is kinda weird."

My brother rolls his eyes and turns around, "for the last time, i wanted to see if i'd changed since i took the photo and i needed a mirror!"

Is this boy dumb or something, "Ezra, that photo was taken when you were 9! Of course you've changed, you idiot?!"

Levi frowns, "but then how did it end up in the toilet...?"

Everybody in the car suddenly joins the conversation and looks at Ezra, waiting for an answer. We sit, staring at his red face as he sits with his mouth wide open, not exactly knowing how to reply - and to be honest I dunno if I wanna know the answer.

"...I might have also been taking a piss whilst looking..."

My brother everybody.

"You're disgusting." he just shrugs in reply.

"I know sis, it's not exactly news."

How so many girls have a crush on him is a complete mystery. I see him winking at a girl in the back seat of the car that's driving - well actually no one's driving anywhere in this traffic - along with us. She blushes and waves.

Ah.

That's how.

"Why are there so many people driving down south!?"

"It's the first week of the holidays so everyones going crazy," my dad replies to me.

It's never this busy when we usually go, it always only takes around 3 to 4 hours tops. Maybe there was like a car crash or something?

And I take back what I said about enjoying long car drives, they're only enjoyable if you don't have other whining boys next to you who constantly want to annoy me with every spare breath they have. And I have 3 of them here.

The definition of torture.

"This place is so far awayyy" Levi drags out the last word.

"But it'll be great once we FINALLY get there!"

I've always enjoyed our trips to the beach house - I mean yeah, it's in England, so it's not exactly a tropical paradise, but it does get to around 35 degrees most days.

"Why do you like this place so much? Like I've been, and it's really great..."

"Hmm i dunno...i guess sometimes I miss this place" i ponder his question. It's been years since I actually lived there, so I've got used to the more city lifestyle, but Somerset will always have a place in my heart.

"What do you miss about it?" Levi actually seems genuinely interested in what I'm talking about.

"Somerset is just...I dunno, generally nicer than Hertfordshire - I mean yeah we live in the really posh part - but like it's just so crowded and busy whereas Somerset. I guess it's just so freeing. I used to love going to the farmers fields and playing in the huge patches of long grass, brings back lots of memories, you know."

"What are you, a farm animal?"

Not exactly the reaction I thought I was going to get.

He starts to mimic me, "'I like open spaces where I can graze on grass and dance in fields of wheat with a straw hat and cowboy boots.'"

And nice Levi is gone.

I roll my eyes, "it's refreshing there."

"Ugh who needs open spaces when you live a 30 minute car drive away from London."

Using my index finger I point to my chest, "Me."

We stare at each other, waiting for the other to back down. My eyes start to water from the lack of blinking and I can see his are getting glassier by the second.

"I will win this..." I whisper.

"No you won't..."

"Uhhh, yeah I will!"

"No. You. Won't."

I clap my hands in front of his face, making him blink like crazy, "AHA I KNEW I'D WIN!"

He grabs onto my ponytail and yanks it. I scream and punch his arm, to try and get him off me. Our seatbelts unplug so we can properly jump across the car and fight.

"LET GOOOO!"

"YOU LET GO!"

"NO YOU!"

"YOU!"

I let go of him for a second, then go wild. My hands flap around like crazy in his face, so he copies. The sound of slapping and claps fill the car. Poor Liam in between us is just staring wide eyed at our petty fight.

"STOP HITTING ME!"

"NOOO-"

"OK GUYS! Enough with the arguing! you're driving me insane!" my Dad yells. I jut my bottom lip out awkwardly as he continues to berate us. Liam is wiggling up in his seat, whining about how long this is taking. Levi and Ezra are ducking their heads in a failed attempt not to laugh.

And then it all gets worse.

The boys burst out laughing, causing my dad to yell at them. Liam's starts to shriek and jump around because no one is answering him, so then my Dad has to lean over to get him back in the seat. I continue to shout at Levi, so he argues back. The radio accidentally gets turned on at full blast, so now the entire car is shaking from the vibrations.

"SHUT UP YOU ASSHOLE!"

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT"

"ARE WE THERE YET?!"

"STOP PULLING MY PONYTAIL, IT HURTSSSS!"

"MY MILKSHAKE BRINGS ALL THE BOY TO THE YARD
AND THEY'RE LIKE, IT'S BETTER THAN YOURS
DAMN RIGHT IT'S BETTER THAN YOURS
I CAN TEACH YOU BUT I'LL HAVE TO CHARGE"

"If everybody could just calm down for a second, let's take a breather."

"I HATE YOU"

"LOVE YOU TOOOO"

"MY MILKSHAKE BRINGS ALL THE BOY TO THE YARD
AND THEY'RE LIKE, IT'S BETTER THAN YOURS
DAMN RIGHT IT'S BETTER THAN YOURS
I CAN TEACH YOU BUT I'LL HAVE TO CHARGE"

"GUYS YOU ALL NEED TO SHUT UP, I DON'T WANT TO CRASH THE CAR"

"LEAVE ME ALONE OR I'LL PUNCH YOU IN YOUR NAKED BALLS EZRA!"

"TRY ME BITCH!"

"WHO TURNED ON THE LIGHT, THE POLICE MIGHT CHASE AFTER US!"

Suddenly we hear a 'honk-honk' from a car across the road.

Jennifer drives past, with Ed and my Mum in the car on the road next to us. They're happily singing along to 'Sweet Caroline' and smiling smugly at my distraught dad. They wave patronisingly and drive off at full speed, whilst we're in 2 hour traffic.

Assholes.

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please remember to VOTE, FOLLOW, COMMENT, TAG and SHARE so i can get more publicity