Daisies

2.3

"You are but a phoenix among feathers."

• • •

"I've never been to New York." I stare out the window, taking in the city.

"You like it?" He looks over at me.

"Yeah it's just kind of....different than I thought it would be." At least in reference to what I see in movies and tv.

Finally not gaping out of the window anymore I text my mother back, telling her that Mya and I are at the movies so she'll stop texting me. Knowing her, she's still going to text me.

Jacob pulls into the aquarium garage after paying at the entrance. We get out into the weirdly warm garage and stand in the elevator, he presses up. A large group of people cram into the elevator right before the doors close and I secretly wish we didn't come during the weekend. I figured 3pm wouldn't be as crowded as earlier. If this is their slow rush, I feel bad for the people that work here. We step all step out.

"Welcome to the New York Aquarium, how can I help you today?" The worker at the desk asks, she looks way to young to be working here, I can't see her being older than 15. She smiles as if her life depends on it.

"We got the one day passes, I bought them online." I hold onto his arm like I'll get lost in the crowd if I don't. All the people around are not making me feel any better.

He shows the woman his phone and she scans it. Moving over to let us inside. He grabs a map on our way in, wrapping the arm that I was holding onto around me.

"Where do you want to go first?" He asks, I look up at him while thinking of all the places we could go.

We haven't been on a date like this in a long time. It's making me nervous, why does he still make me nervous? Why is every girl here so pretty? I look down at my fitted white knit sweater and black ripped jeans, feeling subconscious about my outfit choices. Mya told me it was cute but I should've known. I must've still been looking up at him while getting lost in my thoughts because he begins to look at me like I'm crazy.

"If it's that hard to decide we can just walk around. They don't close for another two hours anyways." He grabs my hand, interlocking our fingers.

"No uh lets go to the ocean wonders shark thing." I snap out of it.

When we finally reach that part of the park, there's not many people here. I'm glad this is where we decided to go. The blue light sets a calm mood as we look at the fish swim around.

"Have you ever been here before?" I ask.

"Yeah, I used to come here all the time with my mom when I was younger." He hands me the park map and I put it in my purse.

He's never really talked about his mom before. I've always had questions but I didn't want to bring it up. I figured he doesn't talk about it for a reason. Does this mean I can ask now since he brought it up?

"You never talk about your mom." I mention, hoping he will realize that I am asking without asking.

"She left us when I was 10," He shrugs, "Moved back to Madrid and I haven't spoken to her since." He looks up at the ceiling where the sea creatures swim around.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me."

"No, it's fine. Plus I know you want to know. Your mind races twice as much as a normal person." He smiles and pulls me closer to his side, putting his arm back around my shoulder. I laugh with him, he's right.

"Soooo, is your dad from Spain too?" I ask, this is something that I have been wondering for way too long.

"No, my dad was born in Italy. That's where my grandfather started his company. Then he moved the business to Spain after my grandmother passed when my dad was like 13. Then he met another woman and they had my uncle. My dad met my mom in college, then my grandfather passed. My dad decided to move the business to the US once he graduated, my mom came with him. Later on down the line my uncle came to the US to help run the business." This makes me think about how I never really asked what Mr. Ricci did. We continue walking through the exhibits leisurely, hand in hand.