I slapped his hand and knocked the remote out of it. “Javier!”
When I turned to face him, he was wearing the cheesiest grin I have ever seen. His hand slithered down my waist suggestively. “Oh, come on. Am I wrong?”
He was not wrong.
***
The next day we were up bright and early. Unlike the first day, this time our class was spending the entirety of the day at the theme park. It was no doubt going to be exhausting and the number of steps we would get in for the day would be large, but everyone was more than ready.
I was very excited because when I woke up, I finally woke uphappy. I still felt like everyone was constantly watching me, but that was because they were. The difference was that this time my mood was so positive that it did not bother me.
Ricky was still determined for us to try every snack they sold. Every time someone looked at one of us we were stuffing our faces with something sweet. By the time we made it to lunch we did not want real food. Everyone kept making jokes about it, but we didn’t care because we were eating all the sweets that we wanted.
I went on the majority of the rides like everyone else and only opted to sit out once. It was about halfway through the day and we had done so much walking that I couldn't bear the thought of standing in line for an hour and a half. My body was still weak, and I knew I needed to respect it.
Javier tried to stay with me, but I insisted that he get on the ride. I didn't need him to sit next to me on the bench and babysit. After a little resistance, he agreed to go get in line with the others.
Anita sat next to me on the bench and ate her ice cream. She grew nervous when she saw me choosing to sit out after how well I had been doing all day, but I assured her I was fine. Out of comfort, she slid her arm around me and pulled me close to her. I let my head rest on her shoulder as I watched the people walking before us rush to their next ride.
We sat in silence for a moment, the only sounds heard being the yelling children and theme park music. Then, Anita leaned into my ear. "I want to say that I am so glad my son brought you into our lives. You're a part of our family and don't you ever doubt that for a second. Okay?"
I wasn’t expecting those words. She always showed that she cared, but hearing it made feel a lot more real. I wanted to thank her, but a simple ‘thanks’ did not feel like enough gratitude. I settled on leaning closer to her, showing her my thanks with my affection.
We sat in comfortable silence, Anita reading her book and I staring off into space. I felt warm in her embrace, safe. So safe that I felt that my eyes grow heavy and they did eventually shut.
Sleeping in a noisy place around a bunch of strangers was not something I thought I would ever do. I had slept the night before—not through the whole night, but through the majority of it. All of the walking today hit me harder than it did the last time, hence why I opted to sit out for this ride.
I opened my eyes to the whole group standing before, their faces soft with awe. Anita's arm was still wrapped around me as I picked my head up and rubbed my eyes.
"Awww!" Bella cooed. "You're such a cute sleeper."
I took in my surroundings. The sun had gone down a little, but it was still out. The sky had an orange tint to it as it was becoming evening.
"Good nap?" Javi asked.
I sat up. "Yeah, surprisingly."
"I don’t know how you can sleep with all of the screaming kids," Ricky said with a laugh. "But this means that you're gonna come on the next ride?"
I scoffed. "Dude, I refuse to miss you crying like a baby on the inverted coaster."
“I am not going to cry,” he said with a roll of his eyes.
"Okay, let's not start the argument of which one of you is the bigger baby. Spoiler alert: you're both big babies." Kailey folded her arms across her chest. "Chop, chop, guys. We need to stay on track so that we're done with everything before the fireworks start."
This week was a special week for the amusement park. At midnight they would do a small fireworks show, they called it Starlight Spark. We were lucky to have come before the event was over, it was one of the things I was most looking forward to.
"Ah, yes! The fireworks!" Paxton exclaimed as he wiggled his brows at me. "The show is going to beveryspecial for you, Eli."
My head tilted to the side, not knowing exactly what he meant by that. Everyone shared unusual looks with each other and Ricky whispered something to Paxton with a light shove. Paxton didn't seem to understand why he had gotten hit, but then he uttered a dragged out ‘Ohhhh.’
Paxton gave me a lopsided grin. "Very special for all of us, too. Because...because fireworks are cool."
I watched Bella shake her head with disapproval as I raised a skeptical brow. "You're all acting weird."
"No, amor," Javier said sweetly. "I think you're a little disoriented from just waking up."
"But Paxton—"
