We Got Older But We're Still Young

This place was familiar… but I couldn’t put my finger on where I was. This room… the lack of light just revealing the hunting trophies mounted on the walls, the stench of stale cigarettes and liquor erupted an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Yet I still couldn’t recall where I was.
There was a noise from somewhere in the house and I knew that voice, I needed to help that voice. I followed the voice through the familiar house until I reached the sliding glass door the backyard. Through the glass I could see a tool shed beside the fence. On the other side of the fence was a house, my house… I KNOW WHERE I AM! Phil’s house… The voice still called for me urgently. But who was calling me and where were they? The calling got louder and sounded more helpless as I stepped into the backyard… the tool shed? Maybe, but I had to get there quick because the voice was now sobbing.

“Fred”

I opened my eyes to a dimly lit Jaime beside me. It took a minute for me to recall where I was. The magic show… of course. Jaime had organised for all of us to go, knowing that Delilah would absolutely love it and from what I could see from here, her eyes were as wide eyed and amazed as I had ever seen them.
“Must have been boring you considering you’ve pretty much slept through it.” Jaime said jokingly nudging me with his arm. “Or maybe lack of attention runs in the family.” His voice continued as his eyes glanced at something past me. I followed his gaze to the seat on the other side of me to see a sleeping Leda. I chuckled before returning my attention to Jaime.

“I’m sensing some jealousy of our ease in sleeping?” I teased causing Jaime to pout.

“I don’t know how anyone sleeps on shitty hotel beds. It should be illegal.” He mumbled
My laugh was drowned out by the sounds of applause. I really did sleep through the whole thing. Delilah stood on her chair while she applauded and Jaime watched with anxious eyes ready to catch her if she became unbalanced. The man behind us whistled causing Leda to jump awake with a panicked look on her face before changing her expression to annoyance at the oblivious man.

---

“Okay let me get this straight, you’re saying you’d rather have invisibility over flight?!” Leda announced loudly from the back seat. Jaime nodded not taking his eyes off of the road.
“That’s stupid! Flying would be way cooler” Delilah exclaimed as Leda lifted her hand up to her to give her a high five.
These were my favourite parts of our trip so far. Just the harmless bickering over pointless shit and no one brought that out better than Leda. She picked fights like she was born for it.

“No way. Sure flying would be cool but you can imitate that feeling with things like hang-gliding or skydiving you know? But being invisible could have so many benefits that you couldn’t imitate.” Jaime reasoned to which he received two high pitched arguments from the back seat.

“What is so great about being invisible anyway?” Leda asked like it was the most ridiculous idea she had ever heard.

Jaime’s eyes met mine in a plea for some back up.

“Sorry bud. You dug this hole.” I answered “Plus, it’s not very often anyone sees Jaime Preciado at a loss of words. Shouldn’t you have some witty comeback?” I provoked.

Jaime looked at me with a half smirk that played on his lips and we both knew it meant more.

“Okay!” He said finally. “Haven’t you ever wanted to hear what someone really thinks about you? If you were invisible you could just, I don’t know, stand around and hear all the things they wouldn’t say while you were there.” He said slightly unsure of his own answer.

“You don’t need to be invisible for that. Just close your eyes and people think you’re asleep.” Delilah stated.

“I bet you do that all the time Ly-Ly, you sneaky little thing.” Jaime smiled.

“Yeah, like when we were on the Ferris wheel , in the car and in the Hotel I heard you guys talking to each other about weird stuff.” She stated nonchalantly as a little girl could.
I almost choked on my water as Jaime accidently hit the brakes a little too hard even though there was a slight smile on his face. I didn’t even need to turn around to see the deathly smirk on Leda’s face.

Her phone beeping broke the silence that was suffocating me. If it wasn’t for the weird texts and phone calls she’d been getting all day I would have been glad for the distraction but I couldnt' get rid of my weird feeling that something was up.
“Who’s texting you?” I asked as casually as I could but the only response I got was a quick ‘no one.’
Maybe I wasn’t the queen of subtle but I was getting more curious by the text.

---

I leaned against the cool brick wall as Jaime mimicked my stance. Leda and Delilah had practically jumped out of the car when they saw ice cream. I swear Leda was secretly a 7 year old.

“So what’s going on with Leda and her mystery text buddy.” Jaime asked spiking up the front of his hair with his fingers.

“I haven’t the slightest idea, but I don’t like it.” I admitted to which Jaime agreed with a ‘mmm’
There was a few seconds of silence but it felt slightly comfortable. We both stared across the road at two teenage girls walking together laughing.
We must have been thinking the same thing because Jaime linked his fingers into mine before opening his mouth to speak.

“Do you miss her?”
I sighed heavily knowing he was speaking about Sara, whom hasn't tried to contact me since her text. But in all honesty, I did miss Sara. The Sara whose house I would stay at when things got intense with Leda. The Sara who didn't need to ask why I was at her door step at 2 in the morning because she totally understood it.

“I miss the Sara who cared about other things besides herself and boys.” I admitted carefully.

“Well, I’m sure she’d freak out knowing that once Freddi Saunders kissed the boy she hated more than anything.” He teased leaving a smile on my face. That was true. I can just imagine the 'I told you so's' that I'd be getting.

“Once?” I replied.

Jaime smirked before moving closer to me so that his lips were only inches from mine. He left and innocent kiss on my lips before whispering in my ear.

“Twice. Three times if you play your cards right.”