“You bought me a plane ticket?”
She nodded. “It’s our friendaversay and my birthday, and yours in a few months. It seemed like a good combo present.”
He smiled. Nick held the paper out in front of him, rereading the travel schedule. “Seven years, and it all started because of a delayed flight,” he said.
Something in Olivia’s expression twitched, but disappeared quickly. “We can split lodging and gas. Knowing you, you’d want to pay for all of that. It’s going to be fun,” she said. “A good way to say goodbye to our last summer of freedom. Next year we’ll be full fledged adults.”
Nick hadn’t thought about it that way. In a year he’d have to decide what step to take next. And Olivia would probably head in another direction, going to a bigger a city, to better and brighter things. He’d have to decide if he wanted to keep their friendship or risk losing it. Maybe this trip would give him the chance. Maybe he’d finally find the courage to tell her everything instead of delaying it for another year.
22
June 3, 2011
Nick. Watch out!”
Olivia pushed him to one side, right as a volleyball flew past the spot where his head had been. The ball landed in the sand with a silent grace.
Nick moved out of the strange position he had contorted himself into. He turned to look back at where the intruder had come from. A girl ran in his direction, her white cover up seemed to flow with the wind.
She went over to pick up the ball, and returned to where he was.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said, holding the volleyball to her hip. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. The incident had been unexpected but he remained in one piece. Judging by the distance the ball had traveled, if Olivia hadn’t warned him, he’d probably have a giant bruise on his head, maybe even a concussion.
“I’m fine, “ he said sitting up. The towel underneath him wrinkled. “No harm done.”
Olivia sat up from the spot where she had been reading a book. She pulled off her sunglasses.
“You should be more careful next time,” she said to the girl.
The girl took notice of her for the first time. “I know. I’m sorry.” She paused and turned back to the group of friends she had left behind. “You and your boyfriend can join us if you want. We have room on our teams.”
Nick froze at the word. Boyfriend. It was the third time on the trip where people had assumed that he and Olivia came in a package deal. He’d corrected them every time, and got ready to do so again.
“We’re not going to be here for too much longer,” Olivia interrupted. “Thank you for the offer, though. You should get back to your game.”
The girl nodded. She gave Nick a strange sort of look, before waving them off, and returning to her game.
“You let her think I was your boyfriend,” he said.
“Yeah,” Olivia said, leaning back against her beach chair. She’d gotten two shades darker since the morning. “She said that so she could find out if you were single. It’s like when guys bring up boyfriends when trying to hit on a girl. Unless you liked her, we can join their volleyball game…”
Nick shook his head. “I just want to enjoy our trip, no dates involved.”
“So if you were alone, you would have accepted the invitation?” Olivia asked
He didn’t want to talk about a girl he probably would have asked out, had he been alone. “I wouldn’t have had the chance. If you weren’t here I would be in a hospital.”
That did the trick. She took off her sunglasses, and smiled. “True. I kind of saved your life, on my birthday of all days.”
The words triggered his memory. “The hotel. We have to check in,” he said. Olivia and him planned to hit beach bars for the rest of the night, but they had a rental car full of suitcases and beach gear that needed to be put away. She stood, wiping sand off her legs. Nick tried not to let his eyes linger on her for too long.
“You asked for two twin beds, right?” she asked.
He nodded. “Of course. I made the reservation a week ago.”
They had missed their check in time, and their reservation had been given to another group of traveling college students. The twin beds had now turned into one queen bed.
Nick stared at the key in his hand. He stood in the doorway of their hotel room, Olivia right behind him.
“Everything else is booked solid. And it’s still a cheap rate. I’ll sleep on the floor,” she said, pulling a suitcase in past him.
He stared at the bed one more time before following her lead. The door slammed shut.
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” he said. It’s my mistake. “I’m the one that forgot to check the time.”
She shrugged. “We can fight about who gets to sleep on the floor later. Let’s get changed. I don’t want to spend my first night as a twenty-one year old indoors. We have beach bars to hit.”
Nick set his duffel bag down next to her things, the palm tree keychain hung from the zipper of her suitcase. It was the first time he had seen it there.
He waited, as she got ready. The sound of the shower filled the room, and he sat back on the only armchair in the place. There was complimentary coffee next to the coffee maker, but no cups or sugar to be seen.
His birthday had come and gone the month before. His dad had taken him out to a few bars in Glensford, but the whole father and son bonding time thing wasn’t really for them. They ended up going to watch a movie with Mimi instead.
“I’m ready,” Olivia said. She stood in front of the bathroom door, her brown hair hung short, stopping just past her neck. She’d chosen to wear a mid thigh flowery dress. The marks from her tan were visible under the thin straps.
Nick stood up, taking her in. Her eyes were young, full of excitement and eagerness. There were no tears, but he could still sense it sometimes, the sadness.
He hadn’t before the night of the Simon incident. But now he could see it. Whenever they passed the theater at school, or a banner had Simon’s name listed as the director. There was a flinch, a moment when she left the mask to one side.
“Your turn. Go change,” she told him.
Nick picked out jeans and a dress shirt from his things. He changed as quickly as he could, realizing the hotel barely had any hot water.
They walked out to the center of Jacksonville Beach. The city was the first stop on their trip.
“Let’s stop at this one first,” Olivia said. They were walking down a small row of shops. She pointed to a bar, already rummaging through her purse for her ID. The guy in the front scanned Nick, as if he might be lying about his age, but after a bit of coaxing from Olivia, he let them in. They went inside, and ordered two strange lemon cocktail mixtures.
“I’d thought it be different somehow,” Olivia said over the background music. Some people were dancing together despite the fact there was no real dance floor. The two of them had chosen the two seats at the end of the bar.
“Are you not having fun?” Nick asked.
He hadn’t taken a sip of his drink in a while, remembering they’d walked, he wished they had driven. Then he would have had an excuse not to finish it.
She shook her head. “I’m having fun. Maybe. I just thought twenty-one would feel different.”
“Different how?” he asked, cupping his ears to listen better.
Olivia took another sip. Her glass stood empty, so she reached for his. “I thought it would make me feel like a real adult. Like I’d have answers to things I didn’t have answers to before. It’s nothing like that. I’m the same person I was when we met. It’s weird.”
“You cut your hair,” he offered. “That’s different.”
She laughed through sips, “Not what I meant.”
Nick shrugged. “I know what you mean. I’ve just never thought about age that way. Time doesn’t change who we are, experiences do. We stop making the same bad choices because we learned from our old ones, and we make good ones when we see which paths lead us to whe
re we want to be. It’s not automatic. You have to learn, not just live.”
She bowed her head toward him, laughing again. The cocktails were taking their intended effect. “Wise words teacher,” she said. Then she turned to the bartender. “Bring me another one of these but with strawberries inside of lemons.”
It was then Nick noticed that her glass was empty, the one that had been his to begin with.
“Olivia, maybe you should slow down. We have all night. You don’t have to get drunk.”
The bartender brought a full glass. He tried to take it, but she slapped his hand away.
“I have to get drunk. It’s the proper way to celebrate a twenty first birthday.” She took a few sips of her new drink. Then she stood. “We should dance. I have too much energy.”
She got up. Nick didn’t follow her, so she turned and tried to pull his arm. “Come on.”
He shook his head. “Let’s just sit here and talk. I don’t like dancing.”
“You’re such an old man,” she said. Then she released his arm. “I’ll have to find someone else.”
He wanted to follow her as she ran out to the crowd of dancing bodies, but he didn’t. He didn’t have a right to. So he watched instead, as she asked a guy across the bar to dance. The night grew longer, and Olivia seemed to forget about him. She moved on to another dance partner. Then another.
Nick sat by, making idle chatter with the bartender, and trying not to let the jealousy spew out. He’d never felt that way when she was with Simon, it had been closer to disappointment. But this was different. The trip was meant to be for the two of them to enjoy, together, not with strangers.
“Want to dance?” someone asked him. He looked up to see a stranger intruding on his personal space. The girl tilted her head at him. “I’ve seen you staring at me all night. You should have asked me to dance by now.”
He squinted his eyes, trying to make out her features in the dimly lit room. She was pretty, light blond curls rested on her shoulders.
“I think you misunderstood,” Nick said. “I wasn’t trying to hit on you.”
She pouted her lip. “I know you weren’t. You’ve been staring at that girl over there. I was trying to find a reason to talk to you.”
He stared over the girl’s shoulder. Olivia was still dancing, not even looking his way.
“I’m not much of a dancer,” he said.
The girl took the empty seat next to him. She leaned her shoulder over the counter. “Well then we can talk. What’s your name?”
“Nick.”
The girl stretched out her hand. “Joy. And I mean that’s my name, not it’s a joy to meet you.”
“I got that,” he said, suddenly, grinning.
“Are you a local?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’m from Massachusetts.”
“I’m from Shepton,” she said.
Nick squinted his eyes; her name and face seemed familiar. “Did your parents own the Cornerstone Bakery?”
Her eyes widened. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
“We were neighbors, or my grandparents were. They rent the place out now. Your family moved away a long time ago.”
“Nick… Nick Rivero?” she asked. “I remember you now. I mean we only met like twice, but I babysat your little sister once, like ten years ago. You’ve grown up.”
If he was twenty-one that meant she was almost twenty-four. He remembered her now, vaguely; the neighbors’ beautiful daughter, Joy, and his summer crush when he had been eleven.
“Small world,” he said.
Joy placed a hand to her forehead. “I’m embarrassed now.”
“Why?”
“For doing such an awful job of trying to hit on you.”
That made him smile. Joy turned her gaze to the dance floor. “Did you and your girlfriend get in a fight?”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he corrected. The words came out harsher than he had intended. “We’re friends. It’s her birthday today.”
“Oh,” Joy said. She stood, pulling out her phone. “Well I’ll leave you to wait her for then. But in case you’re ever back in Jacksonville,” she gave him the phone. “Give me your number and maybe we can chat again.”
Nick didn’t hesitate. He pressed in his number and handed it back to her. Joy gave him a smile and disappeared onto the dance floor. When he turned back to his seat, Olivia was making her way over to him. She took the seat Joy had left.
“Did you get a date?” she asked, teasingly. He wondered if she’d had more to drink, her balance barely kept her on the seat.
He stood and tried to help her up. “We should go. You’ve had too much to drink.”
“What about your date?” Olivia asked. “It’s rude to keep her waiting.” Her words were slurred and slowed.
She tried to get up but ended up falling against him, using his body as a support. He’d never seen her like this, so unlike herself. He wrapped an arm around her waist and propped her up. It was too long of a walk back to the hotel so he called a cab. Olivia kept asking about Joy on the drive back. The front desk clerk gave them a suspicious look as they made it into the elevator.
Nick managed to open the door and pull her in with him. He would sleep on the floor tonight. He brought Olivia over to the bed, pulling back the covers. She’d have to sleep in the dress; he didn’t have the audacity to change her.
“Time to rest,” he told her as if he were speaking to a child. It seemed like she was about to listen, but just as she sat on the bed, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and playfully brought him down onto the mattress.
Nick ended up right on top of her. He could feel her arms around the nape of his neck. His heart beat in his chest, wildly, never ceasing.
“Are you going to tuck me in?” she asked, with a half laugh.
He gulped down a breath. Her gray eyes were unwavering. “Olivia let me get up,” he said. The command was weak.
She shook her head. “Why? Do I make you nervous?” Then she pulled him in closer. There was barely an inch between them.
“Olivia…” he managed.
She brought her head up from the pillow and met his lips. They were warm and tasted like strawberries. The two of them remained that way, locked together in a kiss for a few seconds. He pulled back.
Olivia smiled, a lazy smile. Her eyes were barely open. “Don’t flirt with other girls,” she said. “You’re my friend. I don’t like to share.”
She sat up even more and kissed him again. The warmth traveled through every part of him. The room disappeared behind them, as did all sound or reason. Nick fell deeper into the embrace, leaning down toward her, pressing his torso against the fabric of her dress. He wanted to go further. He knew he could, stay here and kiss her until the sun rose. Still, somehow, he pulled back.
“Not like this,” he whispered. He didn’t want to kiss her when she was drunk and might not even remember anything the next morning. They meant too much to him, her kiss, her touch.
He hoisted himself up, and Olivia released him. She laid her head against the pillow again.
“Maybe tomorrow then,” she said, still smiling. Her eyes closed and soon she fell asleep, giving into the slumber.
Nick left the hotel room. He stood in the hall, a finger pressed to his lips, his heart a mess of unmatched beating. He had no choice. He’d have to tell her, even if she didn’t remember tonight. There was no turning back.
23
June 5, 2011
He kept asking if she remembered anything from that night, and while most of her twenty first birthday had passed into the back of her mind, there was one thing Olivia could recall quite vividly. She didn’t let Nick know that, though.
“I can’t ride another roller coaster,” he said. It was Monday and they had moved their Florida road trip to Orlando. They’d been in Universal for the better part of Sunday, and now they had to decide where they wanted to spend their day.
Olivia sat back in the rental. Their suitcases where pa
cked in the back, ready for when they drove out to Miami at the end of the day.
“Let’s go somewhere else then,” she suggested. They’d only gotten the one day passes, mostly because it had been all they could afford.
Nick drove onto the highway. “Where should we go?” He tried adding lightness to his tone, but she could feel it there, the question he wanted to ask, but didn’t.
“The next sign we see on the road, that’s where we’ll go,” she said.
He shrugged and sped up, merging into the onslaught of morning traffic. “Okay. Don’t take it back later.”
Olivia nodded and so they waited, passing by ten signs for rest stops and fast food places. Finally a lone, blue billboard made its way into their field of vision.
“The Turner Aquarium,” she yelled out, pointing to it as if where a game. “Let’s go there for the day.”
Nick bent his head down, trying to squint at the directions as he drove. “I’ve never even heard of that place. We can go though, since it was your idea. Don’t blame me if it’s closed.”
She shook her head. “It won’t be closed.”
They followed the exit on route to their new location. It took them all of an hour and three loops around the same neighborhood to find the place. The aquarium wasn’t tiny, in fact it looked like it could very well take up an entire football stadium, but there was something about it that was completely inconspicuous. The paint on the outside had faded from a dark blue into a strange hue that almost resembled white. The building was surrounded by acres of untouched forestlands.
Olivia bought the tickets, since Nick had been paying for gas, it was the least she could do. He hesitated but let her; especially, after the lecture she had given him on her right to assert her equality.
“You don’t always have to pay for things. Girls have their own money too,” she had said to him. As far as their friendship went, that was considered a lecture, maybe even a hint of an argument.
They headed into the center of the Turner Aquarium, making their way past the electric eel hall and the jellyfish garden. Which wasn’t really a garden, but a tank filled with coral and beautifully colored decorations, that housed four jellyfish.
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