Hours & Days

Chapter 1

"ALL ABOARD!"  The cruise captain shouted.  

"Alright, don't forget your hat, Beth!" Grandpa reminded me, getting up off his suitcase.  I got my tote bag, grabbed the handle of my suitcase, and walked up the ramp to the ship.  

"Beth?" At first I thought it was Grandpa, but he was ahead of me.  I turned around to see who called me.  A spark of happiness burst in my chest when I saw who it was.

"Kevin!" I ran to hug my old friend.  We were best friends when we were little, but when his dad lost his job, they had to move to the other side of Tagend so he could get a new job.  I hadn't seen him since we were seven.

"Wow!" Kevin said smiling.  "How long has it been?  Like, ten years?" 

"Yeah!  Not since we were seven!" I said.  "What are you doing here?"

"Um, I'm here for the cruise." Kevin said.  Could he really have forgotten that he was in Deg, the city he left ten years ago?  

"No, I mean why are you in Deg?" I asked.  "You were gone forever, and now you're just randomly here?  What's going on?"

"My parents moved me back here a couple of days ago because of the war.  Xurin's making living in Orac really dangerous right now."  He explained.

"Oh." I said, nodding my head.  Wait a second.  "Wait a second.  A couple of days ago?  I've been here the whole time!  I haven't left the city in years!  Why didn't you come and find me?"  

"I heard about your parents.  I wanted to give you as much time as possible away from me so you could recover.  I thought that seeing me might bring up old memories."  As soon as he said this, it did bring up memories.  I felt tears prickling my eyes, nose, and throat, and fought to push them back.  

"So, you're coming on this cruise?" I asked, trying to get my mind off my parents.  That was the whole point of this cruise, right?  And I really had missed him when he left.  I wanted to spend catch-up time with him.  

"Yeah, that is what I said before, right?" He replied.  I immediately felt incredibly stupid.  Why was I feeling stupid?  I had never felt like self-conscious around him when we were little.  I decided to push that feeling back, and try to forget about it for now.

"Right, yeah you did say that." I said.  I felt myself blushing, and unfortunately, I've never had the ability to make myself stop blushing, so I just kinda have to go with it when it happens.  I tried to subtly rub my hands over my face, to cool myself down, but as soon as I did it, I knew it looked far from subtle. 

"Well, we'd better get on the ship, Kev." I said.  "Grandpa's gonna be wondering where I am."  I smiled at him and turned to walk up the ramp.  I wished I had put on my good makeup this morning instead of just pimple cream and chapstick.