To be Frantastic

Chapter 11: The colors of the sky, the caresses of the wind

And so came the day in which we were boarded on our flight to Hawaii. And by "we", I mean all of O2L minus Kian, who had gone there a couple of days ago with Andrea, with the addition of Troye, Tyler and Lia, who was invited by Jc. It's already starting to get suspicious, whatever's going on between those two. They're overly friendly to each other. Like the way you would often seem to behave when you liked someone. Ok, we all kind of suspect by now that Jc and Lia are a thing... they do need a ship name, though...

-"How about LiaC?"—said Rcky to me, Trevor, Sam, Troye and Tyler, as we waited to board the plane—"That sounds like it might be good."

-"Ricky, honey, that's totally uncreative."—Tyler responded—"It doesn't sound catchy at all! But I do agree we need to get them a ship name, it's obvious our little Jc has fallen for this girl."

-"I don't even think we should be discussing this, before they have officially announced their status..."—said Sam.

-"You're kidding? Have you seen them? It's so cute it fucking hurts."—said Trevor, and we all had to nod in agreement.

-"How about... Jia?"—said Troye.

That ship name was met with nods of approval by almost everyone. I liked it, too, but... well you know, I don't know if I've gotten myself in good terms with Jc just yet. I don't think it's my place to be discussing his relationship.

As if on cue, Jc and Lia walked over to us holding hands, not really noticing they were, and acting quite normal about it.

-"Hey everyone! We got the coffee for Tyler and Connor."—said Lia.

-"Oh, thanks girl! You didn't have to! How did you know I craved coffee?"—asked Tyler, as he received his cup.

-"Oh, just my girl instinct."—said Lia—"We got them for both of you because you were kind of grumpy, and you look awfully sleepy..."

It took me a couple of seconds to realize she was talking to me. I had been staring at her holding hands with Jc. And they noticed me staring. In less than a millisecond they both let go and got bright red with embarrassment. I felt kind of the same.

-"Oh, come one people!"—said Tyler—"You don't really think we mind you guys holding hands, right?"

Both Jc and Lia kind of smiled awkwardly, but brushed it off and just kept quiet. In fact, Lia excused herself and said she had to go to the bathroom. After she was gone, Jc gave me a death glare. I couldn't help it but being rubbed off the wrong way.

-"What...?"—I asked.

-"Nothing."—he said, turning his back on me and walking away—"It's just she is nervous now."

-"Wow, Jc..."—said Ricky—"Why should she be nervous? Nothing's going wrong... Connor hasn't said anything..."

-"I haven't blamed Connor."—Jc said.

-"Well, if you want to blame anyone blame me."—said Tyler—"It was my comment that made her leave."

-"It's not like that either, ok? It's just that... there's nothing serious between us."

Then we all shut up. I do see what the problem is. Maybe we don't see it that way, but Jc is different than the rest of us. To him, if he does not ask the girl properly, nothing is going on. I remember him telling me that before. They can be doing everything together, but there is something about the question and the answer, about the intention, of being on the same page with the other person. I think it's more of a concept he was raised on, his family having different cultural traditions and all. To them, family is always first. And a relationship is in a way just that, family. It must be treated with the seriousness of the case.