And She Made the Shape of My Heart With Her Hands

“Okay, it has water and people chill in it,” Jared commented.

“Um… an ocean?” I guess dumbly.

Pat shook his head, letting me know that I was wrong. “It’s hot and has jets in it.”

“Oh! A hot tub,” I stated definitely, my hands on my hips.

The two boys shook their heads, smiling.

“Wait… Who has a hot tub?”

Jared and Pat laughed. “The hotel!” They both bellowed at me.

I let out a sheepish laugh. “Oh.”

***

“Hey everyone, it’s Pat again. We are in our hotel, at the hot tub. I’m here with Garrett and, oh. Garrett’s sister just walked in,” Pat turned the camera toward Garrett, who was blankly staring at it, and then me. I half smiled and vaguely waved.

Pat turned the camera back to Garrett as I sat at the edge of the tub in my new nifty bathing suit. I dipped my feet in, my arms in front of me and placed in my lap. “So Garrett, what are we doing?” Pat asked.

Garrett kept hostilely staring at the camera like it was going to attack him and then later feast on his flesh. Then he simply answered, “Spittin’.” He made a spitting noise.

“Spitting? Spitting what?” Pat asked my brother.

Trevor came into view as his voice bounced off the walls, “Spitting rocks.” I cringed a little at the thought.

Pat laughed a little then turned his and the camera’s view towards the door to the room we were in. Kennedy was struggling to get in. Trevor or someone else must have locked it right after I got in. Kennedy was getting annoyed and flustered as he tried numerous times to get in. We all laughed.

“And there’s Kenny. He’s trying to get in but we won’t let him, ‘cause we don’t like Kenny.” Pat waved towards Kennedy, whom was banging on the glass door. “Anyway, we’ll see you all later. Bye,” he shut the small silver camera off and set it somewhere safe.

Seeing Kennedy getting more and more frustrated, I smoothly got up and sauntered towards the door. I looked up at him and smiled, he had a face of relief when he saw me coming to save him from further embarrassment.

“Thank you,” he mouthed, barely any sound coming out.

I smiled reassuringly and fiddled with the door, making it look like I unlocked it. I gave him the thumbs up to open it.

Kennedy tried it again, the door still not budging. I, including the others behind me in the tub, laughed. I could practically see the steam coming from Kennedy’s ears. I smiled innocently and shrugged my shoulders as if saying, ‘oops.’ He rolled his eyes as I really unlocked it this time.

“’Bout time, Cara.”

“It’s a complicated door,” I cheekily defended myself, going back to my spot, dipping my feet in again.

Garrett kept making spitting noises, his hands on his hips as he stood in the very middle of the small heated pool.

“Garrett, you’re not really spitting are you?” I asked him, pleading silently that he would say no.

“Yeah.” Of course he was. Stupid Garret.

I sighed and shook my head. “I thought I raised you better than that, Garrett,” I muttered lightheartedly. Pat, Trevor, and Kennedy all let out a laugh.

Garrett snorted and turned around, facing me a little more now as he took a couple steps back. He nodded towards me in a gesturing manner. “Why aren’t you comin’ in?”

I shrugged. “Maybe because of the fact that this thing is probably filled with more of your saliva than chlorine.” I folded my arms around my stomach securely.

I heard Kennedy get up and shuffle somewhere behind me, walking somewhere. At least I thought he was until I saw Garrett nod his head yes once. Seconds later I was pushed into the hot tub, right into Pat who happened to be wading in the tub by me. He sort of caught me in a strange and confusing way. I looked up and half smiled bashfully and apologetically.

I turned around and glared at Kennedy. “Kennedy…” I didn’t remember his last name at all.

“Brock,” Garrett whispered from somewhere behind me.

“Kennedy Brock, what the hell!” He only laughed, of course.

I turned around and glared at my brother who was also smiling, trying not to laugh. His gazed trailed down.

“Oh, wait… Now I know why you wanted to stay out,” Garrett started, I was getting a little nervous, folding my left arm over my stomach. He smiled triumphantly, like he had just discovered a pile of ancient jewels or gold. I flinched a little. “You pierced your belly button, didn’t you, Cara?”

All the boys’ eyes flashed down to my pierced navel. My face scrunched up, embarrassed and frightened that Garrett was going to squeal on me. “Well…” I started, trying to get my story straight. “In April, I sort of…”

“Pierced your belly button?” Kennedy finished for me.

“No! I didn’t do it myself,” I defended.

Garrett rolled his eyes and then pleaded, “Please don’t tell me that Camille did it!” Even my brother knew how much of a ditz my best friend was.

“Heck no! Camille and a needle equals big trouble,” I replied. “I got it done by a professional, of course.”

“Of course. You got it done right after Mom said no,” Garrett stated.

I frowned and said, “Yeah, but you got to have your nose done! That wasn’t fair.”

He sighed. “Whatever. I won’t tell her. She’s got enough shit on her hands to be dealing with this,” he pointed to my belly button, which was holding a thin shiny silver bar with black jewels at each end.

I looked up at him and smiled, lunging at him, hugging his stupid wet self. He pushed me off almost immediately.

“Hell no, Cara,” he stated. I only smiled, finally getting away with something.

“Wait,” Pat interrupted. “Where was it earlier today when you were trying on clothes?”

I shrugged with one shoulder. “I took it off but put it back on almost immediately after we were done. It’s a pain in the ass to get back in sometimes and it can close easily.” He nodded his head.

***

Later on, when we were done in the hot tub, I got a shower and did my hair and whatnot. Now I was packing my stuff up, getting ready to transport the bags down to the storage trailer so we’d be ready to head to the next city soon.

I was taking down one of my last bags when I heard hushed voices in Jared and Trevor’s room. Actually, I could only hear Jared’s voice talking. It was quiet, but I could still clearly hear what he was saying.

“Dude, if you think you like her then just tell her or make a move. You don’t need to keep it to yourself,” he said. “And besides,” Jared pointed out, “even if Cara didn’t like you back, she’d still be cool with you and all. There wouldn’t be any hard feelings.”

I could hear movement as if someone were shrugging or something of the sort.

“Have you ever thought about the possibility that she might like you back?”

I heard an exasperated sigh and then bigger, louder movement, like… like… someone was coming!

I hurriedly sprinted down the maroon floor of the hotel, my black luggage bouncing annoyingly at my thigh. When I knew I was safe, I turned around the corner of the wall and looked down the hall, trying to see if that someone walked out of the room.

I only saw Jared walking down the hall.

I knew it wasn’t him, so the person must still be in the room. Should I knock on the door or what?

No. If someone likes me, they can make the first move. Yeah. I’ll just stick with that for now.