Summer Traveler

Chapter 4: Keep Your Eyes Open

Just past the circumstance

The first light, a second chance

No child could ever dance the way you do, oh

Tear down the prison walls

Don’t start the curtain call

Your chains will never fall until you do

Cause if you never leave home, never let go

You’ll never make it to the great unknown till you

Keep your eyes open, my love

So show me your fire, show me your heart

You know I’ll never let you fall apart if you

Keep your eyes open, my love

I arrived at the airport and hugged Drew, Liam, and Ryan.

“We’re actually doing this, guys. How long have we been waiting for this to happen?” I asked them.

“Since we were 13!” Ryan yelled enthusiastically.

We laughed at his childish enthusiasm, and I couldn’t help but pinch his cheeks and crinkle my nose at him.

“Still as adorable as ever, I see.” I told him. He smiled at my compliment and nodded eagerly. I turned to Liam and Drew and looked back and forth between the 3 of my friends.

“I’ve missed all of you so much. I’m so sorry I shut down and didn’t talk to you hardly any after my grandfather’s death. I just didn’t know what to do with myself. We were just so close, you know? I can’t help but think that if I had just stayed home that summer that I could’ve done something.” My voice cracked and I bowed my head.

“Hey,” Drew whispered gripping my wrists and ducking her face so she could see me. “You couldn’t have done anything about that. He was old.” Her words were comforting. I smiled and nodded.

“Besides,” Liam said. “He wouldn’t have wanted you to live a sheltered life in that rut of a town. All of us know that. He would want you to see the world and have adventures. ‘Adventure, adrenaline, and art’ remember? It’s time to revive the Siblinghood. Now, let’s make sure we have everything. Stencil?”

“Check,” Ryan said.

“Plane tickets?” Liam continued.

We all held up our plane tickets and yelled “CHECK!”

“Passion and wanderlust?”

“CHECK!” we yelled in unison again. By now, the entire airport was staring at us, but this was us reuniting. We boarded the plane and looked at each other grinning from ear to ear. I was in the seat next to Liam on the plane.

I turned to him and whispered so we were the only ones that could hear “Are you scared?”

He turned in his seat so we were facing each other and poked my cheek “Of course. But isn’t that the fun part?”

I nodded before remembering something my grandfather told me before I left for Florida. He was always the only one who knew where I went. I told him everything and brought him souvenirs. He had called and asked me to come over so I did. When I got there he took something out of his memory box. A Polaroid camera and a photo album. He put them in each of my hands and whispered “You have to promise me to find each of these places and take a picture with The Siblinghood there one day.” I couldn’t say no.

I brought the photo album and Polaroid camera but I haven’t looked in the photo album yet. I reached into the carryon bag and pulled it out and set it on my lap.

“What’s that babes?” Ryan asked.

I told him about the camera and the photo album and he said “Well let’s see where we’re going.”

I opened the album and the first section was titled ‘Spain’. Good, I wouldn’t have to switch flights last minute. The album was made up of postcards from places I had never heard of and stories on each of them. My grandfather had been to all these places and had all these adventures and he chose to give this album to me, of all people. He trusted me enough to get the job done. I turned to Liam and Drew and told them about it. They looked at each other and smiled.

“We have 3 months until school starts back and we all go our separate ways. I think we can do this in 3 months. If you want to, of course.” I said. They all nodded and the photo album was passed around our group. The flight attendant, a very attractive man about my age with flippy ginger hair and freckles named Carson, saw us looking at it when he passed and stopped staring at a photo.

“That place is about 20 minutes from our landing strip in Barcelona. It’s beautiful.” He said pointing at the place that was labeled ‘Aquarium Barcelona’. I looked at him and asked if he knew any of the other places. He flipped through the book and told us where every destination but 2 were. My jaw dropped and he shrugged. “I travel a lot and can get off basically whenever to see the country.”

I looked at the group and we all nodded. “Carson, would you be interested in accompanying us on this adventure? We haven’t ever been across seas before and we need someone who has. You seem very sweet and you’re adorable,” he flushed at my compliment and I continued. “We would all love it if you would accompany us.” I said.

He smiled and put his finger and thumb on his chin staring into space for a moment as if working out all the possibilities in his head. I laughed and he smirked “How do I know you guys aren’t a group of serial killers, beautiful?”

It was my turn to blush. I smiled “Do I look like I’m capable of that?” I replied.

“Good point. Okay I’ll come!” he replied after a second.

“Yay!! So we’ll see you after we land!” I replied. He nodded and smiled.

“I can’t wait. See you then, beautiful.” He said over his shoulder as he walked away. He flashed me a smile and winked in my direction. He had a thick Irish accent when he talked, but it was beautiful and extremely sexy.

“See you then, Beautiful!” Ryan mocked.

“I can’t wait!” Liam mocked

“Shut up you two!” I laughed. My face was still red hot and my cheeks were flushed.

“Looks like somebody may fall in love on this little adventure!” Drew said poking my side.

“I’m not here to fall in love. I’m here to have adventures.” I replied assuredly. I said it more to convince myself, because at this rate, love was the exact direction I was headed in.

And let's be honest, I can't afford to fall that hard for a flirtship...