"Are you absolutely pumped to go and finally see your cousins!?" Jack says with excitement.
"Of course! I've been counting down the days up until this moment. I'm so ready for these next couple of weeks! Summer school ends on Friday, I'm passing with an A, I'm going to be hanging out with my cousins everyday for 2 weeks, we already have plans to go to Disneyland! The beach! Museums! All these things! It's gonna be amazing." I say to Jack as he's driving me to my grandma's.
"You better FaceTime me when you're with them, I'm gonna miss seeing you on the weekends and in between football practice."
"Babe I'm seeing you tomorrow, the day after that, and the following day after that."
"What makes you think you're gonna see me the next three days?" He asks.
"I'm gonna need you as my ride after school duh." I respond. He smiles but doesn't reply back to me. He continues to keep his eyes on the road.
"You wouldn't leave me stranded at school." I continue on. He slowly comes to a stop at the red light and turns to me.
"Try me." He says with a smirk.
"Remember the last time one of us said try me?" He says.
Oh gosh. I definitely remember. How could I forget? I can feel my cheeks immediately heat up. Hopefully they don't get red.
"Did you hear me, babe?" He continues on.
"Yeah, I heard you." I mumble. Yup, my cheeks are red. I check them with my camera. I hate it when this happens. You can tell right away that I'm either embarrassed or blushing. And right now, I'm a little bit of both.
"Awww babe. You're blushing." He teases me.
"Shut up and drive." I say.
"Speaking about it. Babe? When are we, you know? When can we do it?"
"I don't know babe. That's kind of a heavy topic to talk about." This topic is starting to get me nervous.
"So let's make it a light conversation then."
"What about it?"
"Well when can we?"
"I don't know." I try to shake off the idea. It's got me feeling pretty uneasy.
"How about on Thursday? Before I leave. I think it'd be a great going away present."
"I don't know, Jack." What I really meant is 'Please let it go.'
"Come on, don't be like that." He pulls in to my grandma's drive way. Finally. An excuse for me to leave.
"We're here babe, I have to go." I try to avoid the topic as quickly as possible. I lean in to kiss him quickly and then start heading out of the van. I close the car door behind me. I made it out of there pretty quickly. I try speed walking to the door as fast as I can. I am alarmed by a sudden car horn. I turn around and Jack is still waiting there. What now?
"Can you please just think about it?" He yells out, not in an argumentative-yell type of tone. Simply yelling because I'm about 20 feet away from him. I just nod uncertainly and watch him leave the driveway.
Alright it's time to knock. It's time to see these weirdos that I legally have to call cousins. Let's do this! I knock lightly and wait for an answer. The door knob is slowly rotating from one side to the other. The door finally open but I don't see anyone. Oh wait. I look down and see my 9 year old cousin Danny looking up at me. He's so small. He recently got this weird buzz cut, but it's not bad, actually. You can tell he's been growing it out. What a little cutie. As he's looking up at me, I can see the glare in his glasses.
"Amy!" He hugs my thighs, he's not very tall for 9 year old since I'm 15 and 5'2.
"Danny! I've missed you so much! How are you?" I say as I kneel down his height.
"I'm good. I've got a new iPad with a lot of cool games! You want to see it?"
"Of course!" I say with excitement. I really missed Danny, he's such a cutie.
"Wait before you run off, can you please call everybody else down here. I want to see them!"
"Okay!" He runs halfway up the states and yells out, "Guys. Amy is here!!!!" I can hear his voice echo throughout the whole house. What a fine pair of lungs that this kid has. I can hear the rumble that comes off the stairs as people start walking down. Here it goes. Here they come. The first one I see is my 11 year old cousin Nayzeth. She's gotten so tall. She's at my height. What the heck!?
"Naynay!" I say.
"Amy!!!" I respond back.
"Bring it in!!!" She says as she holds her arms out. I hug her, but while I'm hugging her I see my other cousin Patricia waiting to hug me after Nayzeth.
"Someone looks impatient." I say as I let go of Nayzeth.
"It's been a year since I've last seen you so of course I'm pretty impatient and anxious there." Patricia says. Here I go in to hug her. She's about an inch shorter than me, but she's 13 so I think she's hitting that growth spirt too. Here I see Omar coming down the stairs. Damn he's gotten tall. He's about 5'8 and he's the same age. I guess it is true that boys really do hit that growth spirt. He looks different, he's gotten slimmer and now he's got braces.
"Are you just going to stand there and stare at me?" He laughs.
"Sorry I was just just trying to figure out what made my cousin go from a boy one day and then comes back looking like a man the next day."
"Shut up and hug me man." He comes in and hugs me.
"Where's izzy?"
"He's upstairs losing brain cells while playing Call of Duty." Omar says.
"Izzy!!! Get your ass down here!" Omar calls. I can hear Izzy slowly come down the stairs.
"Speak of the devil, look who's here?" He says.
"Come here and greet me before you go back upstairs and drain your life while playing mindless video games."
"Hey I come here without insulting your annoying boyfriend, so you've gotta come here and not insult my video games." He jokes. He comes in and hugs me as well.
"Where's my aunt & my grandma?"
"They're out doing grocery shopping." Patty answers.
"That means the house is to ourselves!!!" Omar says while high-fiving Izzy.
"Amy, do you have any money on you?" Izzy asks.
"Yeah, I have like $20."
"Good because we're starving and were thinking about ordering some pizza."
"You come 2,000 miles all the way here to California just to ask for my money. Real classy, Izzy."
"Hand half of it up, we're all pitching in for it."
"Fine." I hand him the money.
"Okay guys, Dominos?" Izzy asks.
I have waited a little more than 365 days for this, let our night begin.
