All I Ever Wanted

“It’s the happiest place on earth! Be happy!”

“I am happy.”

“You just gave a death stare to that poor little kid! You’re not happy. Come on, I’ll buy you ice cream.”

I allow Luke to pull me over to the closest ice cream shop and he buys me chocolate ice cream. I’m not even gonna lie, this just kind of made my day. Is that sad?

“Are you better now?”

“Now I’m just hot.”

“Well, you’re in Disney in May. Yeah, it’s hot.”

“I know. Hey,” I start, going over to the little park map we’re standing near. “Let’s go on the teacups.”

“Alright…”

“Let me finish this first though.”

Sit down on the nearest bench and Luke sits beside me. Disney’s been fun so far. I share a room with 3 other girls who I know from my Spanish class. Their names are Krystal, Kayla and Jen. They’re nice enough to deal with Luke not leaving our room when they ask him to. I usually have to forcefully kick him out.

Luke is rooming with some guys named Ray and Tyler. They were nice enough to let him into their room. I was slightly concerned that he wouldn’t find a roommate, but he did, so all is well.

After I finish my ice cream and go over to the garbage can to throw out the cup, I feel my cell phone buzzing in my pocket. I know who it is before I even look at the screen.

“Hi, Alex.”

“Hey. So?”

Every morning since I’ve gotten here, Alex has been calling me asking how I’m feeling.

“I feel fine.”

“Any morning sickness?”

“It’s been a week and a half. Isn’t it a little early for that?”

“I don’t know… I’m just checking up on you. Are you having fun?”

“Yes. I bought you something.”

I look down at the plastic bag I’m holding. It holds his gift, which he won’t get until he picks me up from the airport tomorrow at 10:30. It kinda sucks that today is our last day here…

“What is it?”

“You’ll see tomorrow. But I have to go. Luke is going to throw a fit if I don’t go on the teacups with him.”

Alex laughs and that makes me feel kind of homesick.

“Alright. Tell Luke to calm himself. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Ok. I miss your face.”

“I miss yours more. Bye, Lex. Love you.”

I put my phone back in my pocket and walk back towards Luke. When I reach him, he grabs my hand claiming that we only have a few minutes to get to the teacups because if we don’t go now, all of the little kids will be done with their lunch and invade the ride. I don’t really know where he gets his ideas from, and I’m slightly second guessing his admission into NYU.

*

It’s currently 10:30 at night and Luke and I are standing in line to go on ‘Expedition Everest’. The park is closed to everyone but my school and three others.

“Hey, are you on line?”

I turn around and see a boy in my grade, but I don’t know his name. That’s pretty bad. And seriously, we are standing behind everyone else who is on line. Yeah, I’d say that we’re on line.

“Yes,” Luke says after I fail to answer right away.

“Oh, okay. I wasn’t sure.”

The guy smiles and it could be like, the best smile I’ve ever seen. His teeth are perfectly straight, totally white. And it’s just… perfect?

“What’s your name?” he asks me.

“Alexis.”

He holds out his hand for me and I shake it tentatively.

“I’m Ryder. I’ve never seen you around school."

“Yeah. I’ve never seen you either.”

“That’s weird."

“Oh, yeah that is kind of weird.”

Actually, it’s not very weird. There are over 300 kids in our grade, and of course I’m not going to know who some of them are.

“You’re Luke, right?” he asks, pointing at Luke. Luke just nods and mumbles something about ‘oh course you know me’.

“You used to be friends with Jimmy, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“That kid’s such a jerk. He went out with my sister and cheated on her.”

“Oh.”

Luke just stands there, being completely unsocial. He usually gets like this around the kids in our grade; he thinks they just automatically hate him.

“So um, have you guys been on this yet?”

“Yeah, a few times already.”

“I’ve been wanting to go on it, but my friends just keep going on the other rides. I had to leave them,” he says and then he laughs a bit. His blue eyes light up and he just looks really adorable.

As if he could read my mind, Alex calls. I pull out my phone, already knowing that it’s him; nobody else has called me this entire trip.

“Hey, Alex.”

“Hey. So what’s up? Where are you now?”

“I’m gonna go on ‘Everest’,” I tell him.

“Okay… well I hope you’re having a lot of fun. I’m just really bored right now.”

“I am having fun. I miss you a lot.”

I hear Ryder ask who I’m talking to and Luke respond ‘Her boyfriend’. Way to spread the details of my life, thanks Luke.

“Alright, well I’ll let you go. Have fun, I’ll see you when I pick you up tomorrow. Your flight lands at what, 10:15?”

“Yeah. I’ll see you then. Bye Alex.”

I press ‘end’ and put my phone into my pocket again just as the line moves forward.

“What flight are you guys on to go home tomorrow?” Ryder asks.

“I’m on Flight 3. What about you?” I tell him.

“Oh, really? So am I. We have to meet outside the rooms at like, 3:30 in the morning. That’s gonna suck so bad.”

“I know; I’m dreading it. I don’t plan on sleeping.”

“Me either.”

The line moves up again and now we’re at the front. I sit next to Luke and Ryder sits with some other kid in the car ahead of us. I stare at the back of Ryder’s head and wonder, how did I never see this kid before?

*

“Ryder was nice, right?” I ask Luke when we’re on the bus to go back to the hotel.

“I guess so.”

“You hate everyone, don’t you?”

“No. I just keep my guard up. You on the other hand will obviously be friends with anyone. Do I have to remind you that you have a boyfriend?”

“No, you don’t have to remind me.”

He rolls his eyes and leans his head against the window. I see Ryder about 4 rows ahead of us. He’s talking animatedly to a boy with blonde hair who I think is named Joey. But I’m not sure.

*

“Did you know that Lindsay Lohan weighs 87 pounds?” Luke asks me, flipping through the pages of one of those stupid tabloids. We’re at the airport and I’m waiting on line to buy a water bottle. Luke’s flight boards in ten minutes and mine boards in twenty.

“No, I didn’t know that. Am I buying that for you or no?”

“Yes, please.”

He hands me the magazine and I pay for that and a water bottle. Then we go sit in between gates 10 and 12.

“I don’t want to go home,” Luke pouts and starts to pull out the magazine from the bag.

“Don’t read it yet. Save it for the plane.”

“Oh. Okay, sure.”

“You’ll be bored if you read it now.”

“You’re right, I know.”

So about a half hour later, I’m sitting in my seat next to Jenny Gioela and waiting for them to tell us we can move seats. I’m not planning on moving, but I know Jenny is, which is good because I really don’t like her at all.

“Hey,” I hear from behind me and when I look up I see Ryder. I swear, I think he’s stalking me. He found me this morning at 3:30, about an hour ago when we first got to the airport, and now, he’s sitting behind me.

“Oh, hey.”

“I’m gonna switch seats when Jenny moves.”

“Alright. Sounds good.”

No, it doesn’t sound good, because all I want to do is put my iPod on and go to sleep. He’s going to talk to me the entire flight, I just know it.

*

“So where are you going to school in the fall?” Ryder asks, and he offers me piece of gum.

“NYU. How about you?”

“Seriously?” he asks, gum halfway to his mouth. “So am I!”

“No way! That’s so weird. Luke is going there, too.”

“At least I’ll know someone now,” he says and shoves the gum into his mouth. “I was leaning towards Fordham but then I decided I liked NYU’s photography program better.”

“Oh. I really wanted to go to FIT, but I didn’t get in.”

“FIT? What’d you want to do there?”

“Room design and stuff. But now I’ll just do something else at NYU. I was thinking about photography, because I am pretty ok at it, but I don’t know yet.”

“When you go to register, let me know, cause then I’ll go that day too.”

“Well, I’ll probably go with my boyfriend, but we can totally meet up.”

“Yeah, sure. That’s cool. How long have you been with your boyfriend?”

“Almost 7 months.”

“Wow, that’s a long time.”

“Yeah, it is.”

*

“Hey babe,” Alex says when I greet at him at the luggage claim. He already has my bag in his hands.

“Hey. I missed you.”

I kiss him quickly and he takes my hand.

“We gotta move quick. Jack is outside with the car. I hope he didn’t have to move.”

“Okay, then let’s go. You sure you can carry that?”

“Do you doubt my strength? I can handle this.”

He lifts my bag and starts walking toward the exit. I turn around and see Ryder looking for his luggage. He’s standing with a woman who I’m assuming is his mom. He sees me and waves. I wave back and turn around, only to bump into Alex.

“Who was that?”

“This guy Ryder that I just met on the trip. I had never seen him before this weekend.”

“Oh… that’s cool.”

His voice holds a hint of jealousy. So I take his hand as an act of reassurance.

*

“Who wrote ‘The Tempest’?”

“Shakespeare.”

“But…. I thought he wrote ‘Othello’?”

“Yeah, he wrote ‘The Tempest’, too, Luke. He wrote a lot of things…”

“Fuck… I’m going to fail.”

“Probably.”

Luke throws his notebook my way, but it misses by a mile. He has bad aim, obviously.

“Alright, well help me study, then! I have to learn all of this for tomorrow.”

“So do I. And I also have to start History.”

“Why? You were runner up for Salutatorian. You obviously don’t need to study.”

“I was runner up because I study.”

I sit up on my bed and pull out my school calendar. I only have to wait another week to see if I’m pregnant. Alex says I should go to the doctor to find out because he doesn’t trust home pregnancy tests. He’d prefer a doctor tell me I’m not pregnant. So, he scheduled an appointment for the morning of my graduation. I have to be at school by 1 and the ceremony starts at 2. Our appointment is at 10. I better make it in time, or else I will seriously kill him.

“Where’s Alex today?”

“He had some family thing.”

“Oh. He didn’t ask you to go?”

“No. Why?”

“I don’t know. I just thought he would want you to meet his family and everything.”

“Oh. Whatever there’s plenty of chances for me to do that, I guess. Besides, he knows I have to study… So, I completely forgot to ask – what’d you give Max for his birthday?”

“Oh, yeah, I got him tickets to a Yankee game… I figured it’d be cool because the Yankees are one of the best teams. He’s really excited about it.”

“How did you manage to get those?”

“I know a guy. Don’t worry about it.”

He gives me a sly smile and I burst out laughing.

“You’re so cool, Luke.”

*