Chapter 20
Paris, here I come.
Surprisingly, Hero was already awake, sitting at the table with a box of Cheerios and a milk carton in front of him.
He heard my footsteps. “You’re up early.”
“So are you,” I remarked. I took a bowl and walked over to the table, sitting down next to Hero. We accidentally touched shoulders, and he scooted away from me.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“I’m not just going to pretend last Thursday didn’t happen,” he replied.
“We’re going to Paris,” I reminded him. “Try to cheer up, will you?”
“You’re being really insensitive, you know that?”
“I thought you wanted to forget about it,” I muttered. “I didn’t bring it up because I was thinking of your feelings.”
I grabbed the Cheerio box, pouring it a little more than half-way into the bowl, then poured some milk. Hero got to his feet and picked up his unfinished bowl of cereal.
“Put the milk back in the fridge once you’re done using it,” he said, walking upstairs with the bowl. “And just don’t talk to me today, please.”
Suddenly, my appetite was gone. He didn’t even want to be in the same room as me.
As I placed my spoon down, my phone chimed. It was a text notification from Ayden.
“Are you awake?” it read.
“Yeah,” I texted back.
He took a few minutes to text back. “Do you want my mom to drive you to school today?”
I stared at the text for a moment, pondering.
“Yes, please,” I sent.
Hero obviously didn’t want to be near me, so I didn’t want to be a bother by being in the same car as him. Maybe I should’ve apologized, but I learned that I only make things worse by trying to make things right.
I saw Hero once more that morning; I was going back to my room as he headed back downstairs to put the bowl in the sink. I glanced at him, but he didn’t even bother to look at me.
I heard a honk outside. I got my suitcase and rushed downstairs, heading out the door. As I swiftly approached the car, the trunk popped open.
“I’ll help you with that.” Ayden got out of the passenger seat and took the suitcase out of my hands.
I smiled. “Thank you.”
As Ayden placed my suitcase in the trunk, I sat in the backseat, and he joined me soon after.
As his mother drove off, I stared out the window, looking at the house.
Hero and Marina walked out of the house, about to leave as well.
Hero just stared for a few seconds before rolling his eyes, pulling his suitcase to Marina’s car.
“Is Hero still giving you a hard time?” Ayden asked, peering over to where I was looking.
“Yeah.” I sighed.
“He really sucks, doesn’t he?”
“It wasn’t his fault,” I blurted out.
“What?” he asked, caught off guard. “What do you mean?”
“It was my fault.”
“Me spending the night was your fault?” he asked, puzzled.
“No.” I paused. “Something else happened.”
“Oh?” He wanted to know more.
I fidgeted with my hands. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
He slowly nodded. “Alright. I’m here if you change your mind.”
* * *
Arriving at class, I noticed that the majority of students were already there. Nobody would want to miss a field trip to Paris. The only people who hadn’t arrived yet were Hero and Violet.
I wondered how Violet had been doing. I needed to talk to her.
Actually… I would only make things worse, wouldn’t I?
Maybe not interacting with her would be for the better.
I seemed to be a curse to those I get too close to.
Maybe it’s for the best if I don’t speak to Hero, either.
I wanted him to get better. I didn’t want him to be miserable because of me.
As soon as the rest of the students showed up, Miss Kennedy led us outside of the academy, to one of the school buses.
“Sit with y’alls partners,” she instructed, signaling for everyone to go inside the bus.
Ayden and I walked onto the school bus and spotted Hero already sitting in the window seat.
“You should sit next to him,” I said, subtly pushing Ayden.
“Peps, whatever happened between you two,” he said, looking at me, “couldn’t possibly make him hate you more than he does me.”
Ayden was right. At least, I hoped so.
I hesitantly walked over and sat down in the seat next to Hero. Ayden sat down next to me, in the aisle seat. I glanced over at Hero, who immediately jerked his head to look out of the window.
“Don’t let him get to you,” Ayden said, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb as he held my hand.
For half of the ride there, I tried. Ayden kept talking to me, distracting me from Hero. But eventually, Hero interjected.
“Will you both shut up for once?” he raised his voice, annoyed.
The rest of the ride was uncomfortable. I couldn’t take my mind off Hero, even with Ayden whispering comforting words in my ear.
I just stared at the seat in front of me, avoiding any eye contact.
I didn’t talk to Ayden, knowing it’d only stir up drama with Hero.
Neither Ayden nor I wanted that. Especially not today.
The day of the field trip.
* * *
As the school bus came to a stop at the passenger terminal, everyone stood up and cheered. Well, everyone except Hero. He was in a bad mood. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen him in a good mood in a long time.
In the passenger terminal, we all had to wait for around an hour before boarding the cruise ship. As Miss Kennedy checked everyone in, we all spread out. I hung out with Ayden.
Once it was our group’s turn to board the ship, our luggage was handed to the staff members as we walked on board. Everyone was given a keycard to gain access to their rooms. Ayden and I headed straight to our room to check it out together, while Hero went off somewhere in the opposite direction.
Arriving in front of our room, I pulled out my keycard and scanned it.
Opening the door, I took in my surroundings.
On the left, there was a bathroom perfect for one person.
Walking further into the room, three separate twin-sized beds were visible; two of them were on the right wall, facing the third one which was placed horizontally along the left wall.
A pretty vanity mirror sat in the middle of the two beds.
A glass door that led to a balcony sat on the opposite wall of where we came in.
I turned around for one second to look back at the door and, in that timeframe, Ayden had managed to plop himself onto one of the beds next to the vanity mirror.
“I call dibs on this one,” he mumbled into the pillow.
I walked past the vanity mirror and plopped myself onto the bed closest to the balcony. It was extremely comfortable. The firmness of the mattress was just right—not too hard, not too soft.
I rested my head on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, daydreaming about Paris. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t actually dreaming. I was really going to Paris.
I peered over at Ayden. He had fallen asleep. A smile gently appeared on my face. He looked cute when he sleeps.
But even though I was looking at Ayden, I couldn’t stop myself from wishing I was looking at Hero instead.
* * *
I don’t know how much time had passed. Hero had opened the door, startling Ayden awake. He shot right up. Hero had a look of disappointment on his face, not hiding the fact that he was hoping we wouldn’t be in the room. He went straight to the bathroom and locked the door.
Ayden slid off the bed, clearing his throat. “Let’s get out of here.” He swiftly walked out of the room, expecting me to follow.
“Are you okay?” I asked, having a hard time catching up to him.
“He interrupted my nap,” he replied. He stopped walking, turning to face me. “Were you watching me sleep?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “Is that…alright with you?”
He shifted uncomfortably for a moment, fidgeting with his rings, before nodding. “I liked it.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied firmly. “Let’s explore the rest of the ship.” He grabbed ahold of my hand and walked to the elevators.
In the elevator, Ayden tried to kiss me.
And I dodged.
“Not here,” I muttered.
“There’s nobody else in the elevator.”
“I know that,” I scowled. “I’m just…not ready. We’re young.”
It was a stupid excuse. Plenty of fifteen-year-olds have already had their first kiss. I just didn’t want my first kiss to be him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, backing up. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you.”
The elevator dinged and slowly opened. We walked out of it, acting like nothing happened, and explored that floor.
After exploring that floor, we got on the elevator again and repeated the steps many times.
My legs were getting exhausted from all the walking and both of us were starting to get hungry, so we went to the buffet.
After getting our food—coleslaw and pasta for me, fried chicken and carrot cake for him—we found a table and sat down.
Ayden looked at the coleslaw on my plate. “You got that?”
“What? It’s good!” I chuckled. “You should try it.”
“No way,” he said, laughing.
While we were eating, Ayden noticed me eyeing the cake on his plate. “You want some?”
I nodded. Ayden grabbed a fork and cut a bite-size out. “Here, open wide.”
I opened my mouth and he fed me the cake. “Mmm, that’s delicious.”
Suddenly, there was a commotion nearby. Some of our classmates were talking loudly. I turned my head to see Hero with Reese, Colin, and Kayden.
“Look who it is,” Reese teased. “It’s Hero.”
“Not much of a hero, are you?” Kayden laughed.
“Nobody would ever like you,” Colin spat.
“Does it look like I care if anyone likes me?” Hero had a wide smile on his face. Even though he was smiling, I could see it was just an act. There was pain in those eyes. He did care.
Reese held Hero up by the shirt and they all started spitting on him. “You’re just going to let us do this to you, huh, freak?”
“I said I don’t care, didn’t I?”
Reese dropped Hero. “Ugh, whatever. Let’s just go, guys.”
Nobody noticed or cared. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing about what I had just witnessed.
“We should confront those bullies,” I told Ayden.
“What? You can’t be serious.”
“We’re not our middle-grade selves anymore,” I said. “We’re not helpless.”