Chapter Text
"Oh my god we're going to die."
Luke scoffs. "We're not going to die," he reassures, taking his sunglasses off. He squints at the sun, trying to look past the hundreds of people, where the ship rests just by the shore, white and blue and big. And dangerous.
"That thing is huge," Reggie lets out in a sigh, his mouth slightly open. Alex grabs his chin and makes him close his mouth, hiding a smile.
"That thing is a death machine. Did you know that around a hundred ships sink every year?"
Julie frowns. "That's not a lot," she offers with a little smile. "I mean, I read somewhere that getting hit by a train is more likely than being in a sinking ship."
Alex shakes his head.
"This was a bad idea. We're going to die. This thing is going to sink. It's not safe. If my dad honestly thinks this was a good birthday present, he's really, really wrong because we're going to die, and he's going to feel guilty for the rest of his life because all of this is his fault."
Luke rests a hand on his shoulder.
"Dude, you have to calm down. We're here to have a good time, right? Just the six of us, two weeks at the sea, free food and the Caribbean. Honestly, I don't get how you aren't excited. I mean, look at Reggie. He's excited."
Reggie nods effusively, licking his ice cream. "I am."
"Even Carrie's excited!"
Carrie looks up from her phone, blinks and nods a little. "It could be fun."
"See?" Luke continues, shaking him a little. "If we die, I promise we'll haunt your dad, alright?"
That does sound appealing. "Okay."
Alex knows he should be thankful and excited and everything that his friends are, but there's this anxiety nagging at the back of his head, an insect-like buzzing that tells him that a lot of things could go wrong. And besides, yeah, his dad surprised him by telling him that he had booked a cruise for him and his friends for his twentieth birthday, but he knows why. He knows why his dad wants to be on good terms with him, Alex knows why his dad wants him to feel like he owes him a favor, and he's not going to let his guard down.
Moving on isn't that easy, even if his dad seems to believe it is.
But now he's there, in freaking Cartagena, Colombia, surrounded by suitcases and his friends, in the biggest line he's ever seen, waiting to get on a death trap with just so many life boats. He's seen Titanic a lot of times, okay? It's a good movie. And he knows how it ends.
Reggie pats his back. "You'll have fun. You'll see."
And yeah, it's been kind of fun so far. Reggie misplaced his bag in the airport and they had to look for it everywhere, and now they're kind of late and waiting at the end of the line, and honestly, Alex didn't know there were this many people in cruise ships. But they have ice cream and time and two weeks, and Alex does love the beach and the sea and his friends and it's the first time he's left the States, and the idea of visiting seven countries in the span of two weeks is exciting in a way he doesn't know how to describe, especially if he gets to spend it with Julie, Flynn, Carrie, Luke and Reggie. He's just slightly scared of dying.
Three hours later, they finally let them on the ship. They're sweating and tired and Alex feels like crying when the air conditioner hits him right in the face, because it's so damn hot, but still. The place doesn't look like he imagined, at all. The ceiling is high and the spaces are way more open than he'd thought they'd be. The floor and the walls are covered in a blueish, patterned rug, and there's so many people he can barely walk towards the elevators.
"We've got two rooms," he tells the guys, staring at the card they gave to him just before entering the ship. "They're on the sixth floor, and-"
"I know, Alex, just run!"
Luke grabs his hand and makes him run towards the stairs, picking his suitcase like a bag and sprinting as fast as he can. Reggie does the same and then he screams at Alex that the first one to arrive to the room gets to choose the beds and that's enough to make him run.
He can hear Julie chuckling behind them and yelling that they'll wait for the elevators. He sprints as fast as he can, trying not to hit anyone and trying to balance the recently-weighted 40 pounds of his suitcase.
Luke gets to their little cabin first, though, and he chooses the biggest bed. Reggie chooses the top bunk bed and Alex feels stupid because he just climbed six floors as fast as he could and for nothing.
"I hate you," he mutters when, after leaving his things in his bed, he knocks his head against the top bunk bed. Reggie chuckles a little.
"At least you're not Julie. Flynn and Carrie are dating and she has to share a room with them."
"Okay, fair enough."
The cabin's way smaller than he thought it'd be. The whole place feels like a labyrinth of similar doors and numbers and more of that blue rug. There's a little window, just between the beds, and the only thing Alex can see through it is the way the horizon mixes with the sea, two shades of light blue that look like a painting. It's nice.
"What the hell are you guys waiting for?" Luke grabs Alex with one hand and Reggie with the other, making them run towards the cabin door. Alex doesn't know how he has so much energy when he's ready to sleep until dinner. "I wanna be on the last floor when the ship sails!"
"It's actually called a lido deck-" Alex starts, but Luke yanks him by the hand and his words die in his mouth as he gasps a little.
"Who cares!"
They take the elevator this time. The ship has fifteen freaking floors -fifteen- and he knows a bunch of them are shops. There's a theatre and three restaurants and room for three thousand people. The elevator doors open to some sort of living room, and on the other side there are these huge glass doors, and Alex can listen the upbeat music, can hear the excited conversations and he can see the pool, some people dancing and some other laying in pool chairs, rocked by the waves.
"This," Reggie tells them, stopping for a second. "Is so fucking cool."
Yeah. It is.
The smell of the sea is really strong, and that's the only thing he can focus on. There's a lot of noise but there's something about the ambiance. Alex feels like someone's about to yell 'cut!' and then he'll suddenly wake up from a crazy dream or something.
But it's real, because the ship suddenly starts moving, and Alex kind of feels like he's about to fall, but Reggie just laughs. There are more stairs and then they're on the bow of the ship, and the shore starts becoming smaller and smaller, and the way the sea pushes them it's almost hypnotizing.
"Wow," Luke mutters, his hands resting against the railing, the wind shaking his hair. "I love this. Dude, this is- wow."
"Hey!"
Julie, Carrie and Flynn walk up to them, smiling.
"Did you see that?" Luke asks, pointing at the shrinking shore behind them. Julie nods, grinning a little.
"I did. Now, please let's go have lunch, okay? Before it's too late."
Two hours later, they go back to the lido deck, sit around a table and Alex lets himself breathe. The shore's completely gone now, and there's only sea surrounding them, just water and a clear sky and Alex feels small and big at the same time.
Julie takes out a deck of cards and they play, letting the afternoon sun bathe their skin, listening to the music and the kids screaming and people talking in many languages.
At one point, the sun becomes too much and Alex feels like drinking something, so he walks to the little bar beside the pool. It's empty, thank god, and he leans against the counter, trying to figure out what to drink.
The bartender turns around with a smile, and Alex's heart stops for a second.
The guy's wearing a white shirt and his hair is tied into a bun. His skin is tan and his smile is big. And pretty.
"Hey," the guy says, waving his hand a little. "Can I offer you anything to drink?"
Alex clears his throat. He's somehow forgotten how to act like a fucking human being.
"Um, yeah. A lemonade, please."
The guy chuckles a little and raises an eyebrow at him.
"Is that all you want? A lemonade? You're on a cruise, dude, live a little."
Alex feels himself drawing a smile.
"Well, I don't know. What could I drink?"
The guy playfully looks him up and down, crossing his arms. There's a towel hanging from his shoulder that hides the place where Alex supposes his name is.
"You look like a fancy cocktail kind of guy. You gotta try mi piña coladas."
"But, um- those have alcohol in them," Alex says, because he's stupid and because that's the only thing that comes to his mind.
The guy laughs. "Um, yeah, they do. This is a bar. We usually serve alcoholic drinks."
"No, I know that. But, you know. I'm not twenty-one yet." Alex's voice is a little tense, because he's barely aware that absolutely no one says they're not legally allowed to drink when someone assumes they are. But whatever, his brain just- doesn't work sometimes.
The bartender points towards the little blue cruise bracelet Alex's wearing with his head. "You're older than eighteen," he says, wearing a confused smile.
"I- am."
"So you can drink alcohol. If you want to, I mean."
"Can I?"
The bartender winks at him. Alex's breath hitches a little.
"You're from the States, right?" Alex nods at the guy's question. "I figured. Buddy, this is Latin America. You can drink at eighteen."
"Oh."
And then there's someone else at Alex's side, and he says something in Spanish he doesn't get, but the bartender nods with a smile.
"So, do you want the piña colada?" It takes Alex a second to figure out the bartender's talking to him, and when he has to repeat the question to get his attention, Alex feels himself flushing and nodding. It's just that- the guy's really cute, and Alex has this problem where his brain stops functioning when he finds someone attractive.
The guy hands him the glass with a big smile, and then winks at him. Again.
"There you go. If you don't like it, just come back and I'll make you another drink."
Alex forces himself to smile. "Thanks."
He walks back to his table, thinking about the bartender's smile.
"Dude, that took you forever," Luke complains. Alex shrugs and sits beside him.
Luke grabs his drink and takes a sip, and Alex shoves him.
"That was mine," he whines, bringing the cold glass close to his chest.
"Dude, that has alcohol in it," Luke says, his eyes open wide.
"Um, yeah, this is Latin America, you can drink at eighteen," he repeats the bartender's words, because he wants to pretend he knew that all along.
Reggie stands up.
"We can?"
"Dude, that's so cool!" Flynn says, standing up too. "I've always wanted to try one of those fancy martinis with like, olives and tiny umbrellas."
His friends go to the bar, and Alex's left sitting on the table, looking at the sea surrounding him, the bartender's cute smile burning in his mind, a memory he just can't let go of. God, he's screwed.
By the time he feels brave enough to go ask for another drink or something so he can just see the guy one more time, there's someone else working behind the counter of the bar.