Hear Me Out

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

       Massey stuck her head into the suite. I looked up from the book I was currently reading. "How did you open the door?" I asked.

       "You left it unlock," she said. "Just kidding. Carter opened it for me."

       "Nice," I muttered, looking back at my book.

       "Katie wants to know if you want to go to the pool with us," Massey said.

       I looked at her again. "What, you don't want me to?"

       "No, not really," Massey said honestly.

       I rolled my eyes and started reading my book again. "Then I'll stay here. Thank you for the wonderful invitation."

       Massey left without a single word. When she did, Tyler, who was on his laptop, snorted. "Wow, Jeremy. Oblivious much?"

       "Me?" I asked. "How am I oblivious? I just said no to going to the pool with Massey and Katie."

       "Not that part," Tyler said.

       "Then what?" I asked.

       Tyler shook his head. "Nothing. But you should seriously go to the pool with Katie and Massey. You've been in here all day."

        "So have you," I pointed out. "And can you blame me for, I don't know, wanting to be around people?"

       "Just go, Jeremy," Tyler said. "Trust me."

       I didn't question my brother anymore. I kind of did want to go swimming and get out of the suite. Besides, I had already read this book three times, so it wouldn't hurt putting it down.

       I placed the book on the coffee table before digging through the drawers to get my swim trunks. I went to the washroom, got changed, grabbed my towel, and left. When I was outside of the suite, Mom and Dad walked out of theirs with Zoey.

      "Going swimming?" Mom asked.

      "Yeah," I said. "Katie wanted me to go with her and Massey, so I'm going there."

       "Can you take Zoey with you?" Mom asked. "You father and I want to go somewhere for dinner but Zoey really wants to go swimming."

       "Sure," I said. I noticed that Zoey was already in her swimsuit. Mom and Dad were probably going to take her for a quick swim before heading out to dinner.

       "Yay!" Zoey said as she wrapped her arms around me, which was quite a struggle for her because of her water wings. "Thank you, Jeremy!"

       "Yes, thank you," Dad said.

       "No problem," I said. I picked Zoey and put her on my shoulders since she loved when I did that. "Let's go, Zoey!"

       "Weee!" she exclaimed as I began walking to the Lido Deck. The pool was in the center of the deck and it wasn't that crowded, thankfully. I hated being in large crowds. Or small crowds. Or even crowds with three people that I didn't know.

       I spotted Katie and Massey immediately, mostly because Zoey pointed to them and yelled, "Massey!" Zoey tapped my head a few times. "Jeremy look! It's Massey!"

       "Of course it's Massey," I said. "She's on the cruise as well."

       "Can I say hi to her?" Zoey asked. "Please?"

       I walked over to Katie and Massey, who were sitting on lounge chairs. "You came," Katie said with a smile.

       "Tyler convinced me to," I said. "And Zoey wanted to come swimming so I offered to take her."