24 Hours

Hours 15 - 16

9:00 p.m.

We walk into the aquarium and get into a short debate about who's going to pay. If you can't guess who won, here's a hint: not me. We get our tickets and go inside the first exhibit.

We look at the different tanks of colorful fish swimming around. "They're so pretty," I say. "Not as much as you, but there okay," he replies. I shake my head, but he simply smiles. "I'm not gonna stop," he says. "I know," I say.

We decide to go to the next room and go through the tunnel to get there. I like the way the water in the tank that surrounds us casts a blue glow on floor. I look at all of the sting rays and sharks while we walk through it and smile.

"There's that beautiful smile. Where's it been," Jason asks and I laugh. "I don't know," I say," But it's back for now." "Yay," he cheers. My smile grows a little and he squeezes my hand lightly.

We continue walking through the aquarium, looking at the fish, sharks, rays, and other creatures. We see in octopus in one tank and Jason notices that there's a little dome so you can get a better look. He starts to crawl under the tank to sit under the dome. It's a wonder to me how he can be nineteen and still act like he's five. It's really cute though.

I start coughing while he's trying to get down there and I use a tissue from my purse to cover my mouth. Like I expected, more blood. I'm running out of time. I quickly throw away the tissue and use some hand sanitizer.

I look at Jason and see that he got successfully got under the tank. He smiles at me from the dome and I wave to him. The octopus inside the tank soon glides over the dome and Jason crawls out from under it. He looks a little shaken up, so I hug him.

"Are you okay," I ask. "Yeah, but that thing has so many arms," he says. "You were fine looking at it before," I say. "Looking from a distance is cool, but up close it's kinda freaky. Especially with all those little suction cup things on it's tentacles," he tells me. "If you say so," I reply," Let's go to the tide pool. I don't think there are any freaky octopuses there."

He laughs and nods. We walk to the next room where the tide pool is and I still have an arm around him from our hug, so he puts his arm over my shoulders. We stand next to the pool and I see baby sharks and rays swimming around.

"You can touch them, you know."

Jason and I look up and see the worker that's taking care of the pool. "They don't bite or sting," I ask. I don't really remember since I surprisingly haven't been here in years. "Not if you touch them the right way," he says," For the rays, touch the top of their fin gently and for the sharks just touch along their back, near the fin."

He demonstrates it for us while telling us what to do. I look at Jason. "Wanna try it," I ask. "Yeah," he says. A baby shark swims near us, so I put my hand in the water and run a finger down it's back carefully. It's smooth and kind of soft. Jason does the same when it goes by him and smiles. "Cool," he murmurs. "Mhm," I hum in agreement.

We touch a ray and another shark too before pulling our hands from the water. "Are there any more exhibits," I ask Jason. "I don't think so," he says. "Okay, do you want to go then," I ask. "Sure," he says.

We turn to the worker. "Thanks for showing us how to pet them," I say. "No problem. Don't forget to use the hand sanitizer near the exit before leaving and have a good night," he says. "You too," I say and we leave after getting hand sanitizer.