Lifeboat Lighthouse

Chapter 11

Cruise Day 9 (Continued)

The ship was still buzzing with people but, as I made my way to our secluded spot on the top deck, the numbers began to dwindle. There was no reason for anyone to be up at this point of the ship at this time. Everything up here was closed, so there was nothing to see or do and barely any light.

I was pretty close before I was able to make out Freen's silhouette in the darkness. She was sitting on the ground at the railings with her legs dangling over the side and her hair blowing in the chilly sea breeze that often swept over the ship at night. I watched momentarily as she gazed out into the distance, clearly deep in thought. She looked mysterious even when she wasn't trying at all.

I began to sneak up behind her as quietly as possible, in an attempt to catch her by surprise. I was only a few feet away when I made a swift lunge towards her, wrapping my hands around to cover her eyes.

To my disappointment, she didn't react in the slightest.

"Hey, you," she chuckled.

"Why aren't you scared? I could have been anybody!" I sighed, annoyed that I failed to frighten the older girl at all.

"I know your smell. Plus, I heard you walking behind me, you would make a terrible ninja."

"Ugh, you're no fun." I said. Plonking myself down besides the tall girl, I swung my legs round and under the railings to dangle beside hers. "What you doing?" I asked.

"Just people watching." Freen replied wistfully.

I looked down, following her gaze. You could see people on the deck below from here, but none of them seemed to be looking up. It was probably too dark for them to even make us out anyway.

"I sometimes play a little game where I make up funny fake scenarios in my head about what people are talking about," Freen said, out of nowhere.

I let out a laugh; that sounded exactly like something I would do.

"It's kind of lame, I know," she added bashfully.

"Not really. I do this thing where I pick out people at random and decide what animal they look like." I admitted in an attempt to ease her embarrassment.

"That sounds hilarious." Freen chimed in amusement, before turning to scan the people below us again. "What animal is she?" she asked, motioning to a lady that was currently eyeing up a bench, clearly trying to decide if it was clean enough for her to sit on.

She had quite a long face, an outdated perm, and was wearing a very expensive looking long lilac coat.

"A poodle, definitely a poodle." I decided.

"Oh my god, you're so right!" Freen said through laughter.

We settled into silence again, continuing to watch the activity below us. I had been thinking about kissing Freen all day, but now that we were up here sitting in the exposed open air, it didn't seem like the smartest idea. I opted against it and decided instead to set my hand lightly on hers. It seemed to catch her by surprise, more so than my attempt to sneak up on her earlier. She looked down at our hands for a few seconds before turning her hand under mine to intertwine our fingers, letting her thumb lightly stroke the side of my hand. I tried not to make a big deal out of it, but internally I was ablaze with excitement. We'd been a lot more intimate than this so I'm not sure why such a small gesture felt so significant to me.

"So...what happened with your parents? How screwed are we on a scale of 1 to 10?" Freen finally said, reminding me of why I was here in the first place.

"Umm, maybe like a 6. Screwed, but not totally screwed. Basically, they found out I'd lied about being with Irin and Nam because I hadn't actually informed them I was using them as a cover. So, I had to tell them the truth."