EMOTIONS

Chapter 8 •• Florida

  When Mitch got out of the hospital a few days later, we hung out a lot at his house and just watched movies. Victoria and Austin did their own thing. I hadn't seen Bethany and Drew for a while but according to Beth, they had something building up there. How cute! Mitch and I didn't ever really talk about what happened at the party but I think that both of us know better now and I hope something like that never happens again because I don't know how either of would handle it. What we did talk about though was going to Florida for the rest of our summer vacation. We had about two weeks left before having to register and all that good stuff for school. I wasn't looking forward to going back to school and neither was Mitch but hey, who was looking forward to that? Nerds... that's who! It was okay though because I had Mitch right by my side and I have always had Bethy and Drew. 

  Well, if we were going to be going to Florida for at least two weeks, we'd better leave California soon! So, I looked up air fair and hotel prices but, before I got the chance to make any real plans, Mitch said he wanted to drive there. I thought to myself and we would lose way too much time doing that. If we fly there, it would only take about two hours and it will cost about the same price with gas and all that. So, I told him that and he agreed with me so I continued looking at prices. Before I went on to look at the hotels again, I chose our departure date and when we would come back. I wanted to get two way tickets so we wouldn't have to worry about buying another ticket for both of us. We went back to school on August 11th which was a Monday. The second Monday in August, actually. It's the 10th of July today. We have to be back for registration and all of that craziness so if we give ourselves at least a week before school starts up again, we should be good. We would be able to stay there for two full weeks as well. I think the best way to go is to leave tomorrow, I asked Mitch and he said that would work so I got two tickets leaving California to Florida on the 11th of July and coming back to California on the 26th of July which would leave us just enough time before school started again and we'd be up there for abut two weeks. A little bit longer, actually. Then, I looked at the hotel prices. I wanted to stay at a nice hotel with Mitch and I think we'd be able to afford it too because we didn't come from poor families. Neither of us did. We would fly into Orlando but where would we want to stay for two weeks in Florida? I asked Mitch and he said that he liked Jacksonville and Clearwater but that it was ultimately up to me. I liked Miami so I looked at the hotels there first. I looked at the Metropolitan Hotel and I really liked it. It was close to the beach as well. It would be about $300 to stay there. I asked Mitch and he said it sounded perfect. So, I made reservations for us there. Then, I told Mitch that I was going to go home and pack my stuff and stay the night at his place. We would be leaving at 8 in the morning California time which would be 11 in the morning Florida time so by the time we get there it would be about 4 in the afternoon.

  I went home and packed my stuff. More than enough stuff for two weeks although I was only bringing one pair of shoes and then sandals for the beach. I packed up all of my shorts and enough shirts to last me at least two months. I couldn't decide what to bring! I also brought three pairs of pants, just in case and all of my hair stuff... which was a lot of stuff. After I was all done packing, I made sure that the suitcase didn't weigh more that 50 pounds. It weighed about 35 pounds so I was good. In my carry on, I had the clothes I would wear on the plane, a book, my journal, some money and my phone charger along with a pair of headphones. Can't lie, I was pretty excited. I loved California but Florida has always been my dream place to live and I never really got to visit so I'm happy! I was done packing by now so I locked up and got into my car to drive back over to Mitch's house. On the way back over there, I remembered that when I was 12-13, I knew this guy who lived in Florida. His name was Vincent and he was 16 when we started talking. God knows how in the world we met in the first place but, we became close and ended up dating... yeah, I know that sounds ridiculous but, let me tell you, I was so in love with this boy and it was so real to me until he seemed to fake for me to believe one thing that came out of his mouth. I remember being obsessed with his voice and man, I just loved him so much. Mitch was 16 now and I would be turning 16 in like 6 months which would make Vincent 19 or 20. I still had his number and for some weird reason, I decided to call him up. I didn't think he would answer but surprisingly, he did. It was weird to hear his voice. He answered "Hello? Hello.. who is this?" I didn't know if I should answer or not so he kept saying hello until I finally decided to open my mouth and say hi.