Picky Eater

Ch 24: You seem nice.

Sometimes Ben looked around and wondered how he got there, like he just woke up in a strange place in a bed different from his. Meandering down the water tunnel of this aquarium, Ben watched a manta ray's belly slide by amongst all the other fish. Here, in this dim aquarium, a blue glow painted the crowd inside and Ben felt lost in it. A little tugboat in a wide ocean.

Ben's attention wandered as he did a little people watching. He picked out the couples: two well-dressed young people who were standing close enough to be together but with enough awkward space to tell Ben this might be a first date. He noticed two parents, two women taking maybe a million pictures of their son, who had the biggest eyes in the world. It was pure sweet amazement and Ben understood why they wanted to capture this moment forever.

Finally escaping the tunnel, Ben sort of walked with the crowd. A couple of other kids ran past an old man and woman, talking a mile a minute. The older couple had found a bench to sit down and rest. He caught them holding hands and Ben sighed, finally minding his own business.

"Were we playing hide and seek?"

Ben turned to see Nino with a smile as Evie ran right to his side. Evie grabbed his hand, pulling him along to the closest tank. Stumbling, Evie held all her tension in her shoulders and limbs too overwhelmed by everything to relax. No matter how many times Ben promised they had the whole day to hangout.

People passing them gave them second glances as Nino and Evie were the only people wearing sunglasses inside. Today, it was nonnegotiable that Evie chose an inside activity. Just spending a few days at their private beach and monitoring her time outside, Evie still had pink skin and a burnt nose. Evie was too stir crazy not to go out at all.

"I got tired of waiting," Ben admitted. Nino fell into step by his side and handed Ben a water bottle. "You're the only people who'd ever go to the gift shop first and you didn't even buy anything."

Nino shrugged. "Evie's never been. We took bets to guess what she'll wanna buy in the end. I'm thinking the penguins are gonna win her over."

Shaking his head, Ben was more interested in watching Evie than the fish. "What do you guys even do? I mean, she's never been to the beach, the aquarium, or the movies—" Ben added, remembering tonight's plans. "How do you guys not get bored?"

"The Ventura castle is isolated and anything we want, we can just get there," Nino explained. "It's safer."

"But you left."

"Well..." Nino took a breath and crossed his arms. "Dante is the head of the family. If something happens to him, it all goes to Bianca. I'm not his special little errand boy like Anthony and I'm not the baby, Matty, who's the favorite." He bumped Ben's shoulder. "So, me leaving isn't really a big deal."

"From what I'm hearing, you have severe middle child syndrome."

A snort flew out of Nino like he was gonna fall over. "I've never really thought about it like that. I'm just like..." he thought about it, looking at the fish swimming by. "I'm not as necessary to the family. They don't really need me—"

"That's not true."

The words jumped out of Ben in a panic. With every word Nino said, the more Ben panicked, the more he felt worried for Nino. He was beating himself up and Ben wanted to hold that man back, go easy on himself.

Ben said, "Bianca went out of her way to make sure you're the one who watched Evie. If she didn't need you, she wouldn't have come. If Anthony didn't need you, he wouldn't have stayed so long. He was only supposed to warn us and go. He stayed to babysit Nino. I think you need to wake up and stop sleeping on your family."