Chapter 5: Number Exchange

Eventually, the park closed, and we all headed out to the parking lot. The aura of the golden hour of the day created a beautiful fitting end to the exciting events that transpired. Gia and Danny hugged each other bye. I waved goodbye to Rom with a smile, who gave an awkward slight wave back. I unlocked my car for my brother, and the tired kids left to go into the separate vehicles, leaving Sandy and I standing in the parking lot.

She still had the dazzling smile she had ever since we walked up the waterpark stairs for the second time me. Her skin was glowing in the end of day atmosphere with her loosely braided hair blowing in the cool afternoon air. We stood in silence for a minute. Both of us fidgeted nervously, not knowing where to take the conversation from here.

Neither of us really wanting to be the one to initiate the goodbye, I couldn’t even if I wanted to because I haven’t been in this situation enough to know. I would usually just leave because no one would notice or care if I was gone, and I wouldn’t mind that they wouldn’t care but today was different.

As much as I tried to fight it, I cared if she cared, but I don’t know how to convey that. “I’m so stupid…” I thought to myself as I turned to look back at the waterpark, fidgeting with my shirt. I tried my best to look cool and confident, but I know I failed miserably. Finally interrupting the silence, Sandy walked up close to me, drawing my attention back to her. She told me sweetly, “This was fun. We should do stuff like this again before college starts. Then it will be all work from there haha.”

“Yeah, we need to enjoy this last summer before we take the first step to becoming adults hahaha! But you’re right. Today was fun.”

Sandy held her head down suddenly, and she rummaged through bag she brought that held her and the two girls’ change of clothes and towels. I stood there, a little confused, and wondered what she was looking for. She suddenly brought out her cell phone.

She playfully tapped her phone on my forehead. Our eyes met, and she had a flush look on her face. “Put your number in.” She said, “We can figure out a time and place to do this again, and so when school starts, we will already have each other’s numbers to help with studies.”

“Ah sure. I guess that could be helpful for studies.” I responded to her warily. In the back of my mind, my inner demons were yelling at me to stop. Don’t get ahead of yourself or get creepy! This is just for studying, nothing more, nothing less.

If I end up getting to emotionally involved, I’ll end up just pushing her away like everyone else. I won’t let this get to that point, not this time. I won’t get caught up in that cursed cycle that seemed to follow me around like the plague whenever I became interested in someone. Besides, it’s just a number exchange, it’s not that big of a deal. I’m not the normal college kid with dozens of contacts, but this is the normal thing to do. Especially since our siblings are dating, it’d be nice to have a non-parental contact to talk to about whenever to pick the kids up.

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With all of that inner turmoil taking place within seconds in my mind, I think I did a good job of hiding it, and I calmly punched my number in. I gave her back her phone with a confident smile. “No problem.” I stated triumphantly.

She took her phone out of my hands and with a knowing smile told me, “Thanks! You know this is one of my first few contacts that isn’t family too, so you don’t need to feel embarrassed or behind the curve!”

“How did you—” I started to ask, but she ran to her driver’s side door before I could finish.

Then, almost like she forgot something, Sandy turned around with flushed cheeks and a beautiful, accomplished smile crawled upon her face. “Okay! I’ll see you later then!”

She then opened up her door and disappeared into the car. In a daze, I walked to my car. Before I started the car a Ping vibrated in my pocket. I looked back down at my phone to see a text pop up from her before she pulled out of the parking lot.

UNKNOWN: Hey! It’s Sandy! 😊 6:00PM

“Why did someone as beautiful and as outgoing as her have as little of contacts as a loner like me?” I pondered to myself with a slight smile from her text.

Nevertheless, even if she gave me her number so all of us could meet up again or to study, it still felt good to have her number. I put her number in my small contact list, now I finally have to scroll a little bit to cover all my contacts! I started the car thinking of what else she, I, and the kids could do before summer break is over, and I carried those thoughts through the drive back home.

I texted Sandy when I got home and let her know it was me, and we started a conversation about how the day went and future plans. Mom had dinner prepared for Danny and me when we got home, and it was my favorite meal, waffles.

Waffles for dinner with bacon just hits different. I don’t know why, it just does. Mom put my new prescription of anxiety pills on the table and said, “Sorry, you didn’t have your pills today. You guys still have fun though?”

Danny tiredly nodded his head at the question as he sat down at the table. “Looks like someone needs to go to bed early tonight.” My mom commented.

Danny was already starting to nod off in his seat at the table, but woke up with a shreek when mom put something on his neck. “You got sunburnt…” She said as she continued rubbing the gel on him, “Mark, I thought I told you to make sure he put sunblock on?”

“I did.” I explained in between bites of waffle, “If he waited a little bit before going into the water like I did, it wouldn’t have washed off, but he didn’t. You can blame his girlfriend for that.”

“Mommmm!! It’s cold!” Danny complained, but mom just ignored him.

“Speaking of your girlfriend, what was that incident about today?” I asked him.

“What incident?” Mom curiously asked.

I leaned back in the wooden dining room chair, and said, “Gia got really mad at her stepsister today for some reason. What’s even stranger was it was because—”

“It was nothing!” Danny interjected, “And I really can’t say Mark. Who knows?”

I frowned in frustration at the non-answer, but mom didn’t seem to care about it which was abnormal. She loved gossip, especially when it involved someone close to us. Mom instead nodded and went into the kitchen to wash the Aloe Vera gel off her hands and looked at me and asked, “And what about you?”

I felt a buzz from my phone, and I looked down to see a text message from Sandy pop up. I went to respond and thought to myself, “Huh, my head didn’t hurt at all today.”

I looked back up my mom’s prying eyes, “It was really good.”