Love In Destin ✔

37 - sunkissing

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━~

𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒂

~━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

THE WIND MAKES the strands of my hair float to the tippy-top ceiling of Lana's vehicle. With my arms resting on the window sill and my head nestled between them, I enjoy this new scenery of Destin. We're getting closer to her neighbhorhood where there are less trees on the sidewalk compared to my neighbhoorhood which is full with short and tall trees. I notice a gym which reminds me I've been at the gym in forever.

While Aunt Abby and I stay near central Destin, where most of the tourist attractions are located, Lana lives around the local part of Destin. No wonder there's a whole lot of supermarkets, a small library, a fire station and a bank. Lana explains to me that even though she grew up in California, Destin is just as much her home because her mom grew up here. She narrates a story about how her parents fell in love here before eloping to Cali to get married.

Their story sort of reminds me of The Notebook. Her mom was well off, and her dad grew up in a low-status family. Her mom's parents didn't approve of their relationship until she and her twin sister were born. Speaking of her identical twin, Lara, she tells me she's going to a boarding school in Paris.

When we make our arrival to her huge house, which is protected by large gates, it has a security system where the driver speaks into an intercom with two massive barking bulldogs. "Come on," she says, unbuckling her seatbelt, and I'm wary when I notice the dogs outside. "Don't worry, Shawn will take them away,"

I breathe a sigh of relief, grab my stuff, and follow her around the car toward the entrance. The colossal door is opened before she even touches the handle, and behind it peeps the brown eyes of a lady. "Hi Marie," beams Lana, striding in.

"Hi Lana," she smiles, and I greet her before running after Lana, our footsteps loud against the toffee brown wooden floor. The house is welcoming from the wide hallway with multiple photos of a couple with two identical-looking girls in different settings. We reach the doorway of a small room where I wait by the door as Lana tiptoes to an old lady in a wheelchair. She's staring at a slightly opened window, the rays of sunlight snaking their way into the room.

She wraps her in a hug, whispering words that bring a smile to her face. Finally, she plants a kiss on the crown of her head, and we leave. "That was my nana. She's been diagnosed with leukemia. It's the whole reason why my family moved back here in the first place,"

"Oh, I'm sorry,"

"No worries," she grabs my wrist and pulls me after her as we race through the maze of hallways in this large house. When we reach her room of calm pastels and soulful browns, she grabs a change of clothes and dashes to the bathroom. A ginger cat rests in the cocoon of her bed, and I crawl towards it, resting my head next to it and caressing its soft fur as it purrs. The action reminds me of Grumpy, making me wish he could return.

Lana walks out of her bathroom in blue denim jeans, a white cropped tank top and a white and yellow striped overshirt. Around her belly button area is a black strap with a small machine that wraps around her belly. She fumbles with it as it makes a beeping sound and after she's done, buttons up her overshirt. She notices me staring while she's rolling up her sleeves, and I instinctively look away, too shy to ask questions. "It's okay, you can look,"

I slowly turn my head back to her, "I have type 1 diabetes," she shrugs and lifts up her shirt, pointing at the machine thingy. "And that is a glucose monitor and insulin pump which helps me regulate my insulin levels,"