Captivation

9: Andrew

Andrew (male): The name Andrew is an English baby name. In English the meaning of the name Andrew is: Manly; brave.

I have a bad feeling about Henry’s declaration of our friendship after our few short words last night. I lay my forehead down on the side of the ship and let my arms hang over. So far I’ve been able to avoid seeing Henry today, although it hasn’t been easy, now I’m stuck on the ship, and we’re off to somewhere new.

“Regret.” Jamison says, standing next to me, resting his elbows on the side. “Know the feeling.”

I peek up at him, he’s looking out at the waves. “Over what?” I argue.

“Rejecting Henry?” He asks me, looking over.

I laugh softly, “No, not over that in the slightest.”

“Women usually flock to Henry, so we all figured…” Jamison says, letting his sentence go unfinished.

“Well you’re all wrong.”  I tell him.

“We usually are when it comes to you.” Jamison says smiling.

“That’s what people have been saying.” I mutter. And they have, all except Jane, she seemed perfectly sure of herself.

Jamison looks back at the sea, which has been rough today.

“I just couldn’t be with him. I could never see myself with someone who care so little for everyone else.” I tell him.

“He cares about a lot of people,” Jamison looks like he’s going to say more but we both stop talking when new footsteps are heard on the stairs to the upper deck.

“Oh.” I hear Henry, and I make a face of wrath at the sea, cursing it for my problems. “There you are, there you both are.” He is silent for a minute. I turn around before Jamison and walk past Henry without saying anything.

“You okay?” Bradley asks as I walk onto the upper deck on the left side of the ship.

“Maybe I’m a little bit over my head.” I tell him. “Maybe I should have stayed with Genevieve and Jane and Mary…”

“That’s stupid,” Bradley says, “You might be in over your head here, with all that Henry will put you through, but at least you’re not there, with all those prep school girls, feeling entirely out of place.

“Like a raven in a flock of doves.” I sigh.

“Exactly,” Bradley says, and then with a rueful smile, “Here, we’re all ravens.”

“Sometimes I wonder if I was just normal if things would work out better.” I look over at Bradley.

“Yeah, probably, but what’s the fun in normal if it’s just like everyone else?” He raises his eyebrows, leaving me with an unanswered question as he walks down to the main deck.

Footsteps appear at the stairs after several minutes and I turn to see Henry when I was hoping for Jamison or Bradley.

“First,” Henry sits down on the railing. Part of me thinks that pushing him off would solve all of my problems and another tells me that I can’t. “We need to talk about this. Because a ship where all don’t get along will not work. It’s not good form.”

“Since when do you care about ‘good form’?” I ask.

“Since we’re going to be on this ship for a week until we reach Highfield and if we all don’t get along, then someone is bound to be tossed off of the ship.”