“Yeah, okay. And thanks. I think.” Candi looked at the ground, refusing to meet his gaze.
Just then they reached the door to the inside of the ship. The interior looked dark compared to the outside where they were nearly blinded by the bright Miami sun reflecting off the side of the dazzlingly white ship.
Frank took charge. “Okay everyone, get your ticket and your IDs out. And let’s make a plan for meeting up later.”
Sarah looked down at her ticket, frowning. She looked over her mom’s shoulder to see her ticket.
“What the hell, Mom? You guys have an ocean view with balcony and you have us on the inside without windows? Are you friggin’ kidding me?”
Frank stood there with a fake smile frozen in place. He spoke carefully through gritted teeth. “Yes, that’s right. Kids below decks and parents above. Someday when you’re buying the tickets, you can spring for a balcony. Until then, deal with it. Okay, sweetie?”
Sarah huffed out a breath of air and stormed off, knocking a couple of guys out of her way, ignoring the catcalls that followed her.
***
If Sarah had turned back she would have seen Candi and Jonathan sharing a look. They had no idea what the big deal was. Who needs a window in a room you’re just going to sleep in anyway?
Frank continued as if the tantrum hadn’t just happened. “Let’s meet up after the muster drill for dinner. We’ll do the first seating at the Nautique Restaurant at six o’clock.”
Candace and Glen nodded at one another. “Sure, Frank, that sounds great. We’ll see you later, then.” Glen turned to Candi and Jonathan. “Kids, just get settled in and do the muster drill, then we’ll see you for dinner, okay?”
Candi and Jonathan agreed immediately. Candi knew they were both thinking the same thing – freedom! She was happy to be getting away from their parents. Not that she was planning to get into trouble, but it wasn’t often that she and Jonathan did things with other teenagers and no adults around outside of school activities.
“It’s party time, guys, let’s hit it.” Kevin clapped Jonathan on the back as he walked by. Jonathan stumbled forward, catching himself before he fell into his father.
They all entered the dimly lit interior, using the map given to them to find their rooms.
Candi noticed that Sarah and Kevin were traveling down the same hallway as she and Jonathan. Eventually, they stopped at the door directly next to her and Jonathan’s door.
“Oh, shit, they actually have us rooming together, Kevin,” said Sarah, looking down at her ticket.
“That’s lame,” he responded. Then he looked up at Jonathan and Candi. “You guys rooming together too?”
They looked at their tickets, comparing them. Jonathan responded, “Yep, looks like it.”
Kevin and his sister exchanged knowing looks. Sarah shrugged her shoulders. Kevin looked at Jonathan and said, “How ‘bout this Jon ... you change tickets with Sarah and come room with me. Then the girls can be roommates next door. That way, we don’t have to deal with hair stuff and makeup all over the bathroom, and we can take a dump with the door open.”
Jonathan just nodded his head, a stunned expression on his face. Candi was pretty certain he was trying to picture a situation where he’d want to go to the bathroom with the door open and another guy in the room.
Candi was grateful that her brother seemed temporarily speechless. “Yeah, that’s fine with me,” she agreed. This way, she could have some more quality time with Sarah. If they roomed together, maybe they could become friends and ...
“Well, it’s fine with me, but I’m going to be the first one in the shower every morning, and I call the table inside for my makeup area. You can put your stuff somewhere else,” said Sarah. She held her hand out to Jonathan.
He stood there looking at it, confused as to what she wanted.
“Hello, McFly, key please.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry!” He handed her the plastic card key and took the one she offered.
Candi looked at her brother. “See you later, Jon.”
“Yeah, okay. We’ll come and get you and go to the muster together. We’ll be in the same lifeboat area.”
Candi nodded her acquiescence. Now all she had to do was figure out what she and Sarah could possibly talk about that wouldn’t be humiliating, unlike her super crush on Sarah’s brother or her lack of proper cruise attire.
CHAPTER THREE
Making Waves
Sarah used the key card to open the door. She stood staring at the inside of the cabin. “Holy shit, this sucks. I can’t believe there’s no window in here.” She casually gestured towards Candi. “If I vomit on Sugar Lump here, it’s not going to be my fault.”
Kevin took a quick look inside their cabin while saying absently, “That’s Gumdrop, idiot, not Sugar Lump.”
“Whatever.” Sarah brushed off her brother’s correction and went into the room.
Candi followed, trying not to think about being vomited on by someone who wouldn’t care one bit about doing it. She could probably ask her brother for a seasickness remedy. If she knew him, he had one in his backpack somewhere.
Candi shut the door to the cabin, leaving the guys standing out in the hall. She looked around and realized there wasn’t much room to move around. Candi saw that there was a small table with a mirror in front of it off to the right, opposite the bathroom door, which she guessed was the makeup area that Sarah had claimed for herself. Candi didn’t much care since all she wore for makeup was some occasional eyeliner and mascara, if that. Lots of the time she went without any at all.
There was a knock at the door. Candi turned around to open it expecting Jonathan to be there, but it was a man in a white uniform with their bags. He left them on the bed and then continued on his rounds of bag delivery.
After he left, Candi watched Sarah open up one of her bags and start rummaging around, mumbling under her breath. “Where is that thing? I know I packed it ... A-ha! There you are!” She pulled out a small piece of material in a leopard print. She was humming as she reached to open another, smaller bag, pulling out a pair of very high heels from inside.
“What are you doing?” asked Candi. She looked at the material and shoes, thinking Sarah was putting on some kind of negligée and heels, which didn’t make sense since they were going to be leaving the room soon.
“I’m getting ready to muster.” And with that, she started pulling off her clothes.
Candi stood there speechless, not used to strangers just stripping down in front of her. Sarah was wearing a really sexy, lacy bra and matching g-string panties. Candi thought about the serviceable white cotton underwear and flesh-colored bra that had zero lace anywhere on it that she was wearing, feeling embarrassed that her things were so plain. She looked at the bathroom to gauge whether it was big enough for her to change in so maybe Sarah would never know.
She turned back to watch as Sarah took the leopard print thing, which turned out to be a very thin mini dress made out of something shiny, and slipped it on over her head. She kicked off her sandals and slipped her feet into the delicate, black, strappy heels, bending down to secure the tiny buckles that rested above her ankles.
Sarah stood up to see Candi standing there with her mouth hanging partially open, too stunned to say anything. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Sarah asked, waspishly.
“Uh, no. I’m just ... ”
“What?” Sarah demanded, bristling at the naked disapproval coming from her roommate.
“It’s just that ... I mean ... aren’t we going to the muster?”
“Yes, of course we are. I don’t see your point,” said Sarah, being deliberately obtuse.
“Well, I don’t know, I mean, maybe it would be easier in ... other shoes ... or something?”
“What? These things?” She lifted her foot up to the side, twisting her leg around a little bit, showing off her long, shapely, tan and very exposed leg. “I walk around in shoes like this all the time. They’re as com
fortable as those horrible shoes you’re wearing.”
Candi glanced down to look at her flip-flops. “I doubt that.”
“Yeah, well, whatever. This is what I’m wearing and nobody’s going to tell me I can’t.”
“I wasn’t trying to tell you that you can’t wear them, Sarah.” Candi felt bad that Sarah felt censured, even though she had just criticized her and her flip-flops.
“I wasn’t talking about you.” She fixed Candi with a stare that carried a lot of meaning.
Candi caught on right away. “You’re talking about your dad, aren’t you?”
“So what if I am?” Sarah answered nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders.
Candi was curious. “Why do you try so hard to make him mad?” It seemed counterintuitive to her. If you want to get along with your parents, you don’t work overtime to make them angry.
“Why does he work so hard to be such an asshole? I don’t know. Maybe because it’s fun.” She zipped her bags back up in sharp motions, then grabbed her makeup case from the bed. “Watch out. I need to freshen up my makeup and you’re standing in front of my mirror.”
Candi stepped to the side. She ran out of room in the tiny cabin to go any farther, so she climbed up on the bed. It was a very small double bed, which she was just realizing might be a problem when rooming with a bossy space hog.
Sarah sat in front of the mirror, putting on makeup that would have been more at home on someone going out to a nightclub, not a person on a cruise ship in the middle of the day.
Candi sighed, not looking forward to the altercation that was sure to erupt between Sarah and her father.
“I hear you sighing at me. You’d better watch out, or I’m going to put some of this on you, too. Then we’ll see what your precious daddy has to say about that.”
Candi didn’t like Sarah talking about her family like that. It gave her a little extra courage she normally didn’t have. “Listen, Sarah, I appreciate that you have some sort of thing going on with your dad or whatever, but that doesn’t make it okay for you to say crap about my dad or my brother, okay?” The adrenaline was pumping through her veins, making her feel shaky. Her fight or flight instinct was kicking in, and at this particular moment, she was choosing fight.
Sarah put her makeup brush down and a slow smile broke out across her face. “Easy now, killer, no harm meant. Relax.” She turned back towards the mirror, picking up an eyebrow brush. “My father’s an asshole, and yours apparently isn’t. Poor me, yay for you. That’s life. I’m over it.”
Candi stood up and squeezed past her, heading towards the door. “If you were so over it, you wouldn’t be wearing that outfit.” Candi opened the door, stepped out beyond it, and slammed it closed before Sarah could respond.
Apparently now she was in the flight mode of the fight or flight instinct. She leaned against the hallway wall and exhaled loudly. Confrontation with Sarah was nerve wracking and not fun.
***
The door next to hers opened and Kevin stepped out. He stopped short when he saw Candi standing there, just a couple of feet away. “Hey there, Gumdrop, what’re you doing out here?” He took a look at the high color and frustrated look on her face, guessing instantly what had probably happened. “Did you tangle with the tiger in there?”
Candi smiled back. “I think so, if by tiger you mean Sarah.”
“That’s the one. Don’t worry about her. She’s all snarl and no bite.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
Kevin took her gently by the upper arm, steering her down the hall away from the rooms. He continued, “Trust me – just don’t give in to her shit, she’ll back down. She’s really a nice girl at heart – but don’t ever tell her that I told you that because I’ll deny I said it.”
Candi said nothing in response. She was too busy alternatively staring at his hand on her arm and looking up shyly at him.
“Aren’t you wondering where I’m taking you?” he asked, finding it amusing that she didn’t have a quick comeback for him this time.
“Um, yeah, I guess.”
He stopped walking and looked down at her, with only a trace of his earlier humor on his face. “You shouldn’t be so trusting of guys, Candi. You can’t let some guy just grab you by the arm and drag you through the ship. You could get hurt that way.”
She looked confused. “Are you saying I shouldn’t trust you then?”
Now it was Kevin’s turn to be uncertain. He stopped for a second to think about what he had been trying to say, momentarily flustered. “No, you can trust me. I’m talking about other guys.”
She smiled, seemingly amused by the fact that he was a bit unsure of himself. “But you’re a guy who just grabbed me by the arm and is dragging me through the ship.” She was teasing him, flirting back.
He recovered quickly, now on the solid, familiar ground of flirting with a girl. He was an old pro at seduction, and this little bit of sweetness didn’t have a chance. “You’re right about that, but I’m not just any guy, now am I?” He leaned a little closer to her while keeping his eyes locked on hers.
Her breath started coming more rapidly. He could see a slight sheen of sweat breaking out on her upper lip. Her face began to glow a pretty pink.
“Please let my deodorant be working,” she whispered, before her eyes nearly bugged out of her head.
He smiled, bemused. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing!” she squeaked.
They heard a door slam down the hall and the sound of approaching footsteps. “Hey, guys! What’s up? Where’re you going? Mind if I go with you? I was thinking about going to ... ”
Jonathan stopped short when he reached Candi and Kevin.
“Hey, Candi, are you okay?”
The trance broke. Kevin watched as Candi stepped back and quickly pulled herself together.
“Yeah, I’m great. We’re just getting some air. Where are you going?”
“You’re getting some air? Here in the hallway?” Jonathan looked around at the enclosed space, trying to figure out what she was talking about. Kevin could practically see his mind working, wondering if there an air vent hidden somewhere he wasn’t seeing.
“Hey, buddy, whaddya say we go up to the bar and get us a beer?” Kevin put his hand on one of Jonathan’s shoulders to steer him down the hallway away from his sister. They both started walking down the hall together, leaving her behind.
“Oh, I’m not drinking age yet.”
“Don’t worry about that. We’re in international waters now, and I have a fake ID. I’ll get us both a beer.”
“Actually, the fact that it’s international waters is irrelevant. Each cruise line has its own drinking age, and usually it’s twenty-one. I’m not twenty-one yet.”
Kevin stopped walking for a second, forcing Jonathan to also stop since Kevin’s hand was still firmly on his shoulder. “You know, Jon, there is such a thing as too much information. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“Oh, yeah, Candi says that to me aaaaalll the time. T-M-I Jonathan, T-M-I!”
Kevin glanced back at Candi and winked at her, causing her to blush all over again. “Your sister is a sharp one. I think we need to be careful of her, I’m pretty sure she’s not exactly what she seems.”
Jonathan was completely oblivious to the undercurrent of flirtation present in that statement. “Oh, I agree, totally. Wait ‘til you really get to know her. She acts totally different at home than she does at school.”
Candi’s feet immediately went into motion, closing the distance between them and her, her expression telling Kevin she meant to try and stop her brother’s motor-mouth.
“Oh, I’m looking forward to it – getting to know more about her, maybe over that beer I mentioned. Are you up for it, Mister I’m Not Twenty One Yet?”
Jonathan hesitated only for a second. “Yeah, okay, that sounds good. My dad said we should relax and live a little on the cruise; I guess having a beer qualifies.”
Kevin release
d his shoulder and clapped him on the back a couple of times. “Yes, Jon, my man, it sure does.” He glanced back over his shoulder at Candi, who was now standing right behind them. “You comin’, Gumdrop?”
“No thanks, I’m going back to wait for Sarah.” She stared at her brother hard before turning and walking back toward the cabin, while the boys continued to the stairs at the end of the corridor.
Kevin shouted, “Suit yourself!” already forgetting about their exchange.
***
Candi stood in front of her cabin door. She knocked, then used her key to go in.
Sarah was still sitting at the makeup table. “Back so soon?” she asked sweetly, as if nothing had happened.
“Yeah,” Candi responded quietly. She stood there for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of dealing with Sarah head-on, deciding eventually that it would be better to fix it and move on than to let it fester. “Listen, Sarah, I’m sorry I said that stuff about your dad or whatever. I don’t want to fight with you; I just want to hang out and have a good time. I’d prefer to do that with you, but if you don’t want to hang out with me, that’s fine too. I’ll understand.”
Sarah stopped with her makeup application and turned to look at Candi, sitting on the edge of the bed. “What is it exactly that you would understand?”
Candi started playing with her cuticles nervously. “Well, that hanging out with me might not be what you would want to do, I guess.”
Sarah continued to push her, “And why wouldn’t it be what I want to do?”
“I don’t know – maybe I’m not like your other friends at school and so maybe since I’m not like them, the things I do might not be your idea of fun or whatever.” She was frustrated trying to explain this concept that was floating around in her head, which was essentially: I’m not cool enough for you.