I Never Told You

Stepping off the plane and into the airport, I looked around at my surroundings. I saw herds of people everywhere. Every spot I looked at, there was at least 6 or 7 people standing. Lost in my train of thought, it was no surprise that I had lost Bea, Cecelia and Tony. I walked in what I thought was the direction of the luggage carrier. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and took it off of “flight mode” so I could receive texts or phone calls. I found that I had 3 text messages, all from Bea, unread. I looked at them and saw that I was, if I was going in the right direction, on my way to where Bea and her parents were waiting for me.

It took me another 25 minutes, and 6 more text messages to finally find my host family. Bea huffed when I finally walked up to them.

“Well, it’s about damn time. Where the hell were you?” Bea asked in a hurry.

“I was a little bombarded with people. I took what I thought was only two seconds to look around. Next thing I knew, I was surrounded by people and had no idea what direction to go in. Thank god I turned on my phone.”

Cecelia smiled at me. “Well, let’s get going. You girls both look exhausted. Probably from being up so late packing last night, eh?”

I nodded with a small smirk. “Yeah, that’s my excuse.” I looked over at Bea who shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, I didn’t know what the weather was going to be like when we got here.”

Tony just laughed. “Yeah, like we never heard that excuse before.”

We grabbed our luggage and walked out of the airport. Apparently, Gabe had everything arranged. He had arranged the rental car for us, and apparently had another rental car waiting for Bea to use at the hotel that we were staying at. After putting our luggage into the trunk, we were off to the hotel. On the drive, I looked at the landmarks of Denver. Tony, who had obviously been here a few times to see Gabe, had given me a small history lesson of each landmark. I was trying my hardest to pay attention, but my exhaustion was getting the best of me. Bea obviously noticed, as she rolled her eyes and called out from beside me.

“Dad, are we almost there? I’m getting really tired, and,” she looked over at me.”I’m clearly not the only one.”

I reached over and lightly punched her in the shoulder as I heard Tony chuckle. “Yes, Beatrice. We are almost there are.”

Cecelia turned her head to look at me from the front passenger seat. “So, Katy, did you tell your mom about your updated holiday plans?” I slowly nodded. “And you’re sure she’s okay with it?” Again, I nodded. She seemed content with my nodding and turned back to look through the windshield. I looked out the window and began to think back to when I told my mom I was going to Denver for the holidays. She wasn’t exactly thrilled, not really knowing much about the city of Denver, but she was happy that I would be with the Landeskogs and not some random people that I didn’t know a whole lot. As happy as I was to have the chance to explore Denver for the first time, I was a little upset that I couldn’t see my family on Christmas. Yes, the Landeskogs have quickly become my new family, but I had it all planned out. Since I wasn’t going home for the holidays, my mom was going to ship my gifts to the Landeskogs’ house and I was going to ship my gifts for them home. Then on Christmas night, I was going to Skype my mom and we would open our gifts at the same time. Since I was going to Denver, I would have to wait until I got back to Sweden to open my gifts. Not that gifts make Christmas, but it put a smile on my mom’s face when I traditionally opened my Christmas pajamas. But this was getting me ready for the “real world” as my mom would say. The world where I would be out on my own, and not having time to be home other than holidays. The world where some of my childhood traditions would have to stop. This was the beginning of that.

Arriving at the hotel, Bea and I were sharing a room, I immediately took a nap once I found my bed.

“I hope you don’t plan on sleeping for too long.” I heard Bea say just as I crawled under the blankets.

“Why?” I groaned.

“We’re going out at 6 and it’s already 2:45.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, not really wanting to leave this bed. Especially after feeling how comfortable it was.

“Out. I’m not exactly sure. I didn’t make the plans.”

I rolled my eyes. That could lead to any number of things.

“Well, at least let me nap for about an hour, then I can get up and get ready. Okay?”

She nodded and walked into the bathroom that we would be occupying for the 5 days we were in Colorado.

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“Katy…Katy?! KATY!” I woke up with a startle to Bea screaming my name. I immediately sat up with wide eyes. Bea was smirking down at me.

“Jesus, Bea! You could’ve woke me up a little quieter, you know.” I huffed as I crawled out of bed.

“Oh please, you were sound asleep. I was lucky I woke you up with the scream. I thought I was going to have to bring out the big guns.” She smirked as she held up a bucket of water. “Now, hurry up and get ready. We’re leaving in 25 minutes.”

My eyes widened. “25 minutes?!” I looked at the clock on the bedside table. “I told you to let me sleep for only an hour.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I tried to get you up, but you wouldn’t budge, so I let you sleep a little longer. You could just say thank you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thank you, but now can you help me find something to wear?”

A smirk grew on her face. “I actually went through your bag and already picked something out. Go hop in the shower and I’ll lay it out for you.”

I smiled at her and nodded. “Okay.” I walked into the bathroom.

After my shower, I walked back into the main room of the hotel. Bea was looking through her make-up bag. When she looked up and saw me, she squealed.

“Oh! Here you go.” She gave me a neatly folded pile of clothes. I raised an eyebrow at her. I didn’t recognize these clothes at all. Nevertheless, I knew I didn’t have enough time to argue with her about it. After changing in the clothes that Bea gave me, I knew that she had something up her sleeve for me tonight. I was wearing what she would call her “hooty booty” clothes. They definitely “accent” my “assests.” I walked out of the bathroom, and raised an eyebrow at Bea.

“Whatever you’re planning, it better not get me in too much trouble.”

She pulled off her best “innocent” face. “My, whatever do you mean?”

I rolled my eyes and picked up my purse, along with the key card and my cell phone, and we were out the door.

“Are we meeting your parents in the lobby?” I asked, not seeing Cecelia or Tony anywhere.

“Uhh..no. They’re not coming out with us.”

I raised an eyebrow, getting a little more curious as to what she was up to. We left the hotel and got into the rental car that Gabe had arranged for Bea to have while we were in Colorado. She pulled out her phone. I pulled down the visor and looked at my reflection on the backside of it. I sighed as I saw that my eyeliner had already begun to wear off. I dug through my purse to try and find my eyeliner to touch it up. I heard Bea on the phone while I looked. I finally found it and applied another thin layer. It wasn’t too much, but as long as I had some amount of make-up on, I wouldn’t have to have Bea do it and could possibly look like a hooker. Not to say that Bea looked like one, but she went a little overboard on make-up sometimes.

“Okay, I’m on……Westie Street. Where do I go from here?” I heard Bea say. Obviously she had no idea where we were going, but she was determined to get there. I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, so I turn left, and it the third building on the left?” I couldn’t help but chuckle at Bea. She finally hung up the phone and turned to me. “So much for cranking the tunes. We’re almost there.”

I smirked. “It’s alright. Where are we going anyways?”

Bea pointed to a building as we pulled up. “Right here.”

I looked around, still so confused. Not wanting to argue, I followed Bea after we parked the car. We walked into the building and made our way to the elevator.

“You’re awfully quiet. I figured you’d be asking me a whole bunch of questions to the point where I’d want to claw your eyes out.”

I rolled my eyes with a smirk. “Well, after the summer and the first semester of school, I’ve grown accustomed to just letting your plans play out. If I see them getting too out of control, then I step in.”

She nodded. “Good plans.”

We stepped out of the elevator and Bea knocked on a door. We didn’t wait long until it swung open. A guy with short brown hair and light brown eyes stood in the doorway. He smiled at both Bea and myself before turning his head to yell inside the apartment.

“Hey, were we expecting two hot chicks?!” He turned back to us and smirked. I looked over at Bea and noticed she had begun to blush. I had rolled my eyes and heard footsteps coming up behind the guy who answered the door. When the footsteps stopped, I looked behind Matt’s shoulder and my eyes widened.

“Well, I’m in no position to call my twin sister hot, but yes, we were expecting them.” Gabe smiled at us.

“What about Katy?” Bea asked. I lightly smacked her arm. She looked over at me and smirked. Gabe didn’t have time to answer as we were both pulled into the apartment.

“Look who’s here to tell us stories about Landy?” Matt said to the two other guys that were sitting in the living room. Gabe walked up behind me, stopping to stand between Bea and myself, and placed his hand on the small of my back.

“Guys, this is my sister, Bea and our friend Katy. She’s living with my family while she goes to school in Sweden.” Gabe looked between Bea and I. “Girls, these are some of my teammates. The one that answered the door was Matt, and this is Ryan and Erik.” I waved at Gabe’s teammates. Gabe offered us a drink as we sat down. Ryan and Matt were quick to ask if there were any habits or weird things we could tell them that they could hold against Gabe. I had nothing to say, seeing as I didn’t spend too much time with him, but Bea was quick to tell some stories. I listened in, laughing along with the boys. I was learning just as much about Gabe as his teammates were.

“Okay, okay. I think that’s enough of going down memory lane for one night.” Gabe said after sitting through three long stories about his childhood. He waited until Bea had finished telling a story about Gabe potty-training. “How about we watch a movie? Or play cards?” Gabe looked around at the five of us. We all agreed to play cards.

“Okay, I’ll go find the number to order pizza. Matt, you and Erik set up the table for cards.” His two teammates nodded and stood up from the couch. I also stood up. Gabe looked at me.

“I, uh, I need to use the restroom.”

Gabe nodded. “Down the hall, second door on your right.”

I followed his directions and made my way to the washroom. I stood in there and looked in the mirror, finally figuring out what Bea was trying to do. I ran my hand through my hair and opened the door to exit the bathroom. Looking up, I saw the blue eyes I had missed for so long.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” I replied, not knowing what to say.

“So, uh, how have you been?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m okay I guess. You?”

He smiled. “I can’t complain.”

I nodded. “Well, I’m gonna head back and see how the card table’s coming along.”

Gabe grabbed my arm and I turned my head back to face him.

“I miss you, you know.”

I smiled. “I miss you too. It’s not the same being dragged around by Bea and not having anyone to complain to.”

I saw his face fall a bit, but didn’t comment on it. He let go of my arm and walked into the washroom. When I heard the door click closed, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. I had another opportunity to tell Gabe how I felt, and I blew it.

Fuck…..