Thirteen Summers

twenty-three

J O S I E

"It was really nice of Cameron to arrange this for us and pay for it." Ella, with a faraway look and a smile on her face. "Really good idea."

I looked at her, confused and still chewing.

We spent the best part of the day at LEGOLAND and had now settled down in one of their restaurants.

"Huh? This wasn't your idea?"

"No, Cameron set it all up. Very sweet of him." Ella nodded her head to herself.

That sentence didn't sound completely right together.

I looked at the shopping bag full of new sets of Lego and scrunched my nose.

She must have confused Cameron with Roman, she didn't know my brothers after all.

"Do you like them?" Ella casually asked.

"Yeah, they're alright." I pondered for a moment. "It's weird having siblings, I don't know what's normal and what's not."

"Yeah, I get it. I was the youngest of my siblings and then there's the age gap between us." She wasn't facing me, just straight ahead with that same faraway look.

"Do you like him? Cameron?" Ella asked suddenly, all her attention was placed on me completely.

That was an interesting question.

I didn't dislike Cameron.

I used to think I did but I don't, he could just be strict and kind of serious but overall, now that I really think about it, he wasn't that bad when he loosened up a little.

"Yeah."

"Really?." Ella asked, quietly. "You hesitated."

For some reason, I started to feel like I'd done something wrong.

Ella took a cautious look around the room before leaning in a bit closer and with a whisper, she said. "If you don't like him..if anything's wrong, you can tell me. Okay?"

I felt my eyes widen at this, a weird fear took over me.

Not exactly because of what she asked but more because of the way she said it in that dark tone but a slightly shaky voice, she had this crazed look in her eye.

"But everything's okay..." I told her, looking and feeling more focused than ever.

She stared at me intensely for a moment before her eyes flickered to something behind me and as if a light was switched back on, a smile took over her previously disturbed features and she sat back, nodding.

"Great." She responded, with a much lighter tone of voice. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

I just smiled, trying not to seem too awkward.

"I guess it's time for us to get going."

When we arrived back home, coincidentally Cameron was also around the front entrance as we entered.

"I trust Josie had a good time?" He asked Ella, directly after greeting the both of us.

"A great one, thank you." Ella answered, her hands rubbed my shoulders as she looked down at me with a smile.

"We'll be going out for dinner tonight, formal dress." Cameron informed us.

"How lovely." Ella nodded, her gaze went back to me again. "This one will probably need a nap before then."

I blushed in embarrassment at the way she said it, it made me sound as if I was a little kid.

It was true, though. I usually get tired and irritated when I have too much to do in one day, I'm sure my siblings got a whiff of that during our vacation.