Age Is But a Number

“Watch out! Watch - oh, phew, I thought you were going to drop my makeup bag,” Caitlyn says, wiping the invisible sweat off her forehead.

“Oh, what a tragedy that would be,” Charlotte huffs, holding onto four other bags that were Caitlyn’s. “It’s not like you don’t have another bag that is in your second bag of clothes.”

“Hey some of those are your clothes, don’t be complaining,” Caitlyn laughed, patting Charlotte’s head.

Charlotte walked oh so slowly to the car, two bags on her shoulders, two rolling suitcases in each hand, and a small bag - the makeup bag - slipping from underneath her arm. Why was she holding all of Caitlyn’s bags?

“Well Nicholas,” Charlotte begins to explain, “I lost a bet.”

Joe laughed as he threw Charlotte’s bags in the trunk of the other car, Kevin’s jeep to be exact. “What bet?” he asked.

Charlotte mumbled something about losing, it was stupid, and she didn‘t want to talk about it, so Caitlyn gladly explained: “I bet that I could stand on my head the longest after spinning around in a circle until I got dizzy.”

“You did not spin enough times,” Charlotte explained, inching forward, closer to the trunk of Nick’s colossal truck so she could get the bags in more easily.

“You don‘t know how many times I need to spin to get dizzy,” Caitlyn argued.

“Ha!” Charlotte scoffed. “I‘ve watched you spin for a minute and a half before you got so dizzy you just fell over. You spun for not even fifteen seconds.”

Joe gasped. “I wanna try that!” He began to spin but Kevin stopped him.

“Don‘t even, Danger,” Kevin ordered. “We want you to at least enjoy this vacation without having you cracking your head open on the black top.”

“Kill joy,” Joe muttered, pouting.

“Whoever lost had to carry the winner‘s luggage to the car,” Caitlyn said, then waved over to Charlotte, who smiled weakly, trying to figure out how she was going to toss the bags into the car.

“Yeah, she made the girl with the heart problems carry her ten ton bags to the -”

“Oh don‘t go playing that card! You‘re fine!”

Charlotte giggled and asked Kevin to grab Caitlyn’s makeup bag and toss it in the trunk. She sighed, then got the two shoulder bags off and tossed those in. Kevin got the rolling suitcases for her. She smiled at him and he winked, causing Charlotte’s heart to beat irregularly - but not like the normal irregular heart beat she sometimes get. This was something different, and she didn’t yet did like it.

Darn it Kevin if you do that again I will punch you, she threatened, but in her mind, not out loud.

“Who‘s riding with whom?” asks Charlotte.

“Dunno,” Joe answers. “I‘m driving Nick‘s car.”

“Unfortunately,” Nick mutters. “Darn Rock, Paper, Scissors.”

“Great idea Nick!” Caitlyn shouts, startling Nick. “Since we don‘t know what cars we go into, we play Rock, Paper, Scissors to figure it out.”

“That‘s usually how we end arguments anyway,” Kevin says. “But I‘m not playing; I‘m driving my jeep.”

“So, it‘s just you, Nick, and me,” Charlotte says. She puts her hand behind her back, and Nick and Caitlyn copy. “Ready?”

“Whoever wins first goes with whoever they want,” Caitlyn explains. “Out of the last two, loser goes with . . . Kevin.”

“That‘s not an insult,” Kevin chuckles sarcastically.

“Hey, Joe gets two extra people with him that he gets to annoy. Whoever goes with you is the lucky one.” Joe just pouted more.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” Nick shouts and holds his hand out in the shape of paper. Caitlyn’s hand is in the shape of scissors, and Charlotte’s is paper.

“Just for you, I‘m going to be extra annoying,” Joe says to her as she goes to stand by the car’s open door. She sticks her tongue out at him.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” Nick repeats and holds his hand out in the shape of a rock. Charlotte’s is scissors.

“Oh thank you Lord,” Nick says, looking relieved. “I can stay with my car and make sure it‘s safe.”

“You‘re the one who said we should play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who drives!” Joe shouted.

“Just get in the car, Joseph.” Nick turns back to Charlotte. “See you at Target.”

Charlotte grins and gets into the passenger seat of Kevin’s jeep. She doesn’t know whether she should be excited about being in the car with Kevin or if she should be annoyed. The annoyed is out, she thinks. She does not dislike him anymore. But excited? What kind of excited should she be? Driving seven and a half hours with the guy who’s her friend or driving seven and a half hours with the guy that likes her. . . . The second is frustrating for her.

“What did Joe mean by ‘see you at Target’?” Charlotte asked Kevin as he strapped himself in.

“Shouldn‘t you know?” Charlotte raised her eyebrow. “Mrs. Matters went with our mom to Target with Frankie to get beach stuff, like a volleyball and beach towels, all that good stuff. We‘re meeting them there then heading out on the road.”

“Oh, duh! Sorry, Joe moment.”

As Kevin backed out of the driveway of Caitlyn’s home, he let out a gut-busting laugh, making Charlotte laugh. She liked his laugh.

--

After the Target stop and a quick stretch, the group hit the road and made their way to Padre Island National Seashore for four days, until Sunday. It takes seven and a half hours to get there, which is why they left around six in the morning to get their a little after noon, so they have time to settle in their rooms and explore the beach.

The two spent an hour of listening to music, silence between them, and finally Charlotte decided to show Kevin a game to rid the silence and slight boredom. “It‘s called Sweet and Sour,” Charlotte explained. “You wave and smile at the other drivers and if they smile or wave back, they‘re sweet. But if they give you a weird look, like so:”

Kevin laughed when she made a disgusted and confused face.

“Then they‘re sour?” he asked, and Charlotte smiled. “All right, let‘s try it.”

They began to pass a guy whose shoulders were hunched over the wheel, his expression bored as he watched the road in front of him. Charlotte stared him down, a big smile on her face, hand up ready to wave. The guy looked over and raised an eyebrow at the strange smiling, waving girl. His nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Ha, sour!” Charlotte announced.

“Sweet,” Kevin replied, waving at a teenage girl who he could tell was screaming her head off in her car.

Charlotte glowered. “No fair, you‘re Mr. Rich and Famous. You‘re going to get sweet every time.”

As Charlotte complained, Kevin was waving and smiling at another car. It was a car full of teenage guys, and when the saw Kevin, they flipped him off. “Not every time,” he replied. “I just got sour, and flipped off.”

Charlotte laughed and apologized for laughing.

After a few other people passed by and made sour and sweet faces, Kevin became curious. “Charlie, you‘re so shy and quiet, but there you are waving and smiling at people you don‘t know.”

Charlotte shrugged. “I‘m very comfortable around you and this game is just too fun for my shyness to take control.”

Kevin nodded, understood, and waved at another person. A little girl. She waved. "Sweet," he announced.

"Of course!" Charlotte shouted.

Kevin looked over at her and stared until she looked. He smiled and waved, but Charlotte scowled at him. "Sour!" he announced and began laughing, trying to watch the road at the same time.

"Just watch the road before we crash, egg head," Charlotte muttered, folding her arms across her chest. Kevin still found her adorable when she got angry.

.:-:.

After a half hour stop for a bathroom break, snack break, and a stretch, it was back on the road. There was no traffic so the group was a little ahead schedule. They were almost to their destination, so the make the wait seem shorter, Nick, Joe and Caitlyn decided to play a game.

"Sweet," Nick announced.

"Sweet," Caitlyn said happily, smiling at Nick.

"Sour," Joe laughed. "How come you guys always get sweet?"

"We don't make weird faces at the people," Nick explained. "That's why."

Joe shrugged and curled his upper lip at someone and stuck his tongue out when the person looked, widening his eyes. The person looked horrified and grimaced at him, and he announced that he had another sour. "It's more fun when you make weird faces at them anyway. I got one sweet from it, so ha."

"What made you decide to play this game?" Nick asked Caitlyn, who was sitting in the passenger seat in front of him. He leaned closer to hear her when she talked as an excuse to get closer to her.

"Charlotte text me saying her and Kevin were playing and said we should too," Caitlyn answered. "That was hours ago, though. My phone's on silent so I didn't get it in time." She was trying not to turn around. She knew he was close, and if she turned around she would just get even closer. She is a shy person when it comes to her feelings.

"Oh, Charlotte and Kevin," Nick sighed, smiling. "When do you think those two will end up together?"

"I'm betting by the end of the vacation," Caitlyn answered.

"Or they could just be really close friends," Joe added seriously, keeping an eye on the car in front of him. "We shouldn't assume that Charlotte likes Kevin back. She doesn't like it."

"She doesn't like him?" Nick asked.

"That's what I'm, well, assuming." He was thinking about Charlotte, how she crossed her arms and asked him why they assumed she liked him, how she did not like it.

"Ah don't listen to her," Caitlyn says, waving her hand and dismissing it. "She's very good at hiding how she really feels. It's like her survival skill because if she showed how scared she was around her dad, he would use that against her. He would use almost all of her emotions against her. It took me a while to figure that out."

"Oh," Joe said. "So, she does like Kevin."

"Yes."

"But she doesn't want us to know so she hides it."

"Correct. And she is a bit cautious around guys which is . . . understandable. But for some reason she is so dang open with you guys - it took her a year to tell me why I could never come to her house!"

"And she told us all that after a month," Nick says. Caitlyn nodded. "And she didn't even like us, and I don't think she likes our music, which is why she didn't like us."

"Wrong, I caught her humming one of your songs."

"What song?" Joe asked curiously.

Caitlyn smirks. "Just Friends," she answers. "Ironic, huh?"

The boys nodded in agreement, smiling.

"Even though she likes him," Caitlyn continued, "she still is going on about the age difference."

"What age difference?" Nick asked curiously, wondering why Charlotte would think a two year difference would be a problem.

"There's the exit!" Joe shouted happily.

"I tell her that he doesn't seem to care that she's - oh, phone's ringing. Hold on a sec." She pulled out her phone and began talking with her mother. Mrs. Matters was telling her the room arrangements.

By the time she was done talking, they had arrived at the hotel that was close to the beach. When they stepped out the car Caitlyn breathed in the wonderful aroma of the salty sea air. She loved the smell, the cool breeze. Nick came out and went over to her, curiosity taking the best of him. He wanted to know how old Charlotte really was.

"Caitlyn, how old is Charlotte? When is her birthday?" Nick asked. Mrs. Jonas called Joe over and by the looks of it he was going to get scolded for something.

"Her sweet sixteen is January," Caitlyn answered.

Nick didn't expect sixteen. "It was or it is going to be?"

"Is going to be. Why, you wanna plan something?"

"Oh, that's why she's worried about age difference," Nick says. "She's not even a legal adult yet."

"Dude, I thought you knew how old she is. Wouldn't that have come up?"

"No," Nick answered. "Kevin assumed she was over eighteen so we did the same."

"Ha! Gee, I wonder how old you guys thought I was if you thought Charlotte was about three years older than she really is," Caitlyn laughed.

"Don't worry, you're beautiful, so it doesn't matter too much," Nick complimented, winking at her when she smiled.

"Oh, thank you," she replied. "I wonder how Kevin is going to react to that: the girl he likes is way too young for him."