The Vacation

Chapter Fourteen

Marco gobbled down his "cheese toastie" in two bites and then chugged his root beer without taking a breath. He set down his can with a slight clang on the counter top. Then he pointed to me and said, "Nice hue, Jess."

Immediately my face turned red. I spun around and looked him in the eyes. "Excuse me?" How dare he say I had a "nice huge ass"! He literally just met me two seconds ago.

"I said 'nice hue, Jess'. As in that color looks good on you. What did you think I said?" He said and raised an eyebrow, like he knew exactly what I thought he said. And his face said that he didn't disagree. Ugh!

This boy was probably too flirtatious and mischievous for his own good. Not completely a bad thing, though. It's been too long since I met my match in mind games.

***

We had just finished cleaning up our dishes when we hear the doorbell and then the door opening and closing. Next, footsteps. And then a girl walks into the kitchen. The girl looks vaguely familiar to me but I can't place her. Next thing I know is she gives Alessio a hug, and then Marco. Just when I thought I finally found someone interesting in this damned place, I had to find out he had a girlfriend!

"Lindsey, meet Jess. Jess, Lindsey." I hear, and then see a hand waving in my face. "Earth to Jess. Hello?" I snap out of it with a shake of the head. So I shake her proffered hand, of course. I do have some manners after all.

As I pull my hand away, the girl speaks. "Hey, I know you from somewhere right? You look really familiar. Do you go to CUL? City University of London? Maybe that's where I've seen you before..." She trails off as if thinking.

She has an American accent though. The only other person I have met with an American accent like me, although hers has a bit more southern twang, was the waitress at a steakhouse. Her name was...oh, hell. What was her name? Lauren...Linda...LINDSEY! Was this the same girl? Now that I think about it, yeah. They have the same chestnut hair and brown eyes and kind face. And what are the odds I would meet two people named Lindsey from the Southern US in a matter of days? Yep, gotta be the same girl.

"Are you a waitress?" I said, voicing my opinion. "

She gasped. "Oh! Yes! I do remember you now! Your dad left me a $50 tip and I actually can afford to eat this week because of that! I really appreciated that!"

***

Once we figured that out, we decided that we should play a game. Alessio pulled out a bunch of board games, but Marco and Lindsey shot them all down immediately.

Marco jumped up, winked towards me, and ran screaming down the hallway. "I know what game! This is gonna be so fun!" He kept screaming, but I couldn't understand what he was saying because his voice was muffled by a closed door. He ran back out waving a box over his head and yelling, "We're playing this! No objections!" And then he laughed kind of manically.

Alessio joined in the laughter and was nodding his head. "Only if I get to video tape, ha-ha!"

Lindsey and I made dubious eye contact. The two of them laughing like that? Didn't sound good. We tried to get a look at the box, but Marco was waving it around and we couldn't read the big red letters.

"What game?" Lindsey said, also giggling because Ali and Marco looked so crazy.

Marco stopped laughing suddenly, looked her dead in the eye, and said, "Twister, silly." Inwardly, I groaned. Twister? I haven't played that since I was like ten.

Lindsey's eyes lit up though. "Oh my gosh,  Marco! Yes! Just the fun, highly embarrassing thing I need to get my mind off of finals!"

So Twister it is, then. Joy.

Alessio took out the mat and shook it, laying it flat. "I'll be the spinner, because I'm also recording. And I can't record this if I'm playing. So here we go! Guys, start on the edge with all four colors. Then I'll spin for the first move. Okay...and...left hand, red."

Lucky me! I stood right in front of the red column, so I wouldn't even have to stretch!

...nope, spoke too soon. Lindsey, who was on the other end, screamed in joy and put her hand on the dot closest to me. Marco, who was in the middle of the two of us girls, already had his hand on the second dot. So of course I had to reach around both of them and put my left hand on the third dot.

"Right foot, red," Alessio said, "Sorry guys. I spun red again. You'll have to put your foot on the same square as your hand or scrabble for the fourth dot."

But before he even finished speaking, Marco stuck his foot on the last dot, leaving me and Lindsey to use the dot with our hands on it. Well, this was awkward. Marco was straddling me, with his left arm wrapped around my legs, his right leg touching my arm, and his face inches from mine. "Hey, Blondie." Then, seeing my blush, he smirked and looked away like nothing happened.

"Right hand. Green this time. Not much better than red, I suppose. Since green's all the way across the mat."

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Kisses,
Hannah