Gate 24

Chapter Fourteen

Tuesday night was eventful.

The two of us ended up going a lot further than I thought. No, we didn’t have sex or anything, but we ended up in bed together, wearing nothing but our underwear and covered by only a duvet. The warm feeling of Lisa’s back against my chest has lingered on my chest since the event. We lay there, drifting in and out of a relaxing sleep; her hair would be around my fingers and her breath would be steady and even as I held her in my arms.

It’s now Thursday, my day off. The feeling of staying in bed until the afternoon is great; shame that my body clock decided that seven in the morning was a good time to wake up. Then again, if I want breakfast, I have to be there before ten – I either wake up at seven in the morning or three in the afternoon; there is no in between. Not that I mind too much. My stomach rumbles as I think of breakfast; my lips salivate and I decide to leave the bed.

The strange thing is this: I have a whole day to myself but I’m willing to work. I’m just tired; other than that, I’m willing to do work and help out around the hotel. In fact, I may just go down to the pool today and sun bathe. After all, I’m technically still on holiday. Pulling the covers off of me, I hop out of bed and decide that I’ll have a quick breakfast before I go down to the pool and relax for the day. It’ll help me keep on top of my tan too.

My mind wonders; I think about Taegan and how harsh he was towards me. Everything that happened back at the airport and the little building all happened about ten days ago or something; so much has changed since then. Part of me doesn’t want to go back to the UK because I’m having so much fun here. The agreement said that I had to return though; I don’t have very long left, when I think about it. It’s now the eleventh of August. It feels like I’ve been friends with everyone here for a lifetime.

Suddenly, someone knocks at the door; I pull a shirt over my head to look somewhat decent and head over to the door. As I open it, I see an unfamiliar face. His hair is ginger and it flicks around his head in a stylish way. His eyes are piercing blue; girls would be jealous of not only his eyes, but also his eyelashes. He is quite a bit shorter than me, but he isn’t Poppy’s level of short. No one here is Poppy’s level of short. “Hey, are you Ray?”

Nodding to him, I open the door slightly more so that he can see more of me, but I’m careful not to show him my pants. “Yeah, that’s me,” I reply, smiling at him. “And you are?” There are many staff members here and I feel like I’ve only met about a tenth of the actual staff here. That may be a slight exaggeration, but I haven’t met very many people here, that’s for sure. I certainly haven’t met this guy before.

“Call me Bryon,” he says, holding out his hand to shake mine. “I’m here because my family lost the tickets and couldn’t afford to bring me back to the UK with them. I’m planning on heading back over at the end of the month when you have to leave. Frankie came here to talk to me about it. Did you know that she’s also my cousin? Sorry, this is kinda heavy information to dump on you straight away.” Bryon blushes as I let go of his hand. Frankie never told me that she had a cousin. That girl really is full of surprises.

“Hey Bryon,” I say. This is where I never know what to say; he knows my name, he’s told me his life story and I feel wrong to ask how he is today. “Is this your day off? Is that why you’re here?” The question could be interpreted as rude, but Bryon just looks happy to have someone talking to him. He reminds me of the little geek at the back of the class. He’s not the one who answers all of the questions, but the one who makes origami and recites the periodic table under his breath. The cool nerd, I guess you could call him.

“Why yes, it is!” Bryon exclaims and looks at me with a happy face. “I think we’re the only two people with today off. I was going to see if you wanted to hang out or something?” Then, he looks past me and sees the trunks and towels in a pile. “Going to the beach? I’ll think I’ll pass – I hate the feeling of sand and I hate salty water! If you can’t open your eyes underwater without them stinging, I don’t want to be a part of it.” He chuckles and then faces me again.