Wanderlust ✓

8. Exploring

He gave me a smirk, "Oh, you shouldn't've  said that Paige." I sat there confused, narrowing my eyes at him, skeptical of what he was up to.

"Park-" I was interrupted by a certain flirtatious waitress that came strolling over, now with a pep in her step and swing in her hips.

"Here you are. Ready to order?" Emma asked, setting our straws down, leaning a little too much over the table.

"We are! We'll take a plate of lobster, crab, oysters... Oh! and why don't you throw in the fried calamari? That's it."

What the fuck was he doing? That's a lot of food, a lot of expensive food.

Our waitress scribbled down his requests before turning around to leave to which I called out to her, "Wait! Add on a grilled shrimp salad too!" She put her arm up in response as she headed into the kitchen yet again.

"What was that, Parker?" I scowled at him as he leaned back into his side of the booth, looking relaxed.

"What do you mean?" His lips curled up again.

"Um, you just ordered a huge amount of seafood which I saw the prices of. It's way too much!"

He shook his head in disagreement and a scowl graced his face. "I don't care. It's my step dad's money anyways which I can spend all I want." This seemed like a heavy topic for him and I didn't want to push it any further so I tried to lighten the conversation.

"What is calamari anyways?" I asked, playing with my straw.

"You'll find out soon."

•••

"This is... This is insane." I said with wide eyes, looking at the wide variety of seafood sitting in front of me. I've never been a fan of slimy fish or food that smells salty like the sea so this wasn't very pleasant.

I grimaced at Parker who was already squeezing a lemon onto the lobster, ready to dig in with a fork.

He looked up at me with a lobster tail partially in his mouth. "What? Come on, Paige, dig in!"

I looked at him hesitantly, back down to the food, then back up to his gorgeous eyes. I pulled the salad closer to me and unwrapped my napkin clad fork.

"I think I'm gonna stick with the salad. You know I could get salmonella from the raw fish and that would ruin my whole trip! Another thing is-" I got cut off by the annoying boy sitting across from me.

"Just try it! You're not going to get sick, I promise. Besides," he popped a oyster down his throat, "I'd be sick with you."

I groaned, knowing I wouldn't win with him until I ate something. The cooked lobster looked like my best option so I cut a very small inch piece off. Bringing it up to my nose to give it a smell before grimacing and gently putting it into my mouth.

It was a bit chewy but pretty bland which I was happy about. After swallowing it, I stuck out my tongue to show him that it was gone and gave a proud smile.

He clapped sarcastically at me. "That was only one bite but congrats."

I shrugged, laughing and dug into the food that I knew I would like.

"So, I still don't know much about you and we are sleeping in the same room tonight. I want to make sure I'm not sleeping next to a serial killer."

"I would like to call myself an assassin because it doesn't sound as brutal."

He chucked but stayed quiet, motioning for me to continue.

"Where do I start? Well... what do you want to know about me? I'm a plain Jane."

"Let's play 21 questions. That way you can learn about me too."

I inwardly groaned, thinking about the times Carly told me about of getting wasted and confessing too much during this game at parties.

"Alright fine but with rules! One, no inappropriate questions, strictly professional 'getting to know' you questions only. Two, no drinking allowed. I know we're under age but I have a feeling you can get alcohol pretty quickly. And three, if a question is too personal then you can pass. Deal?"

•••

I laughed at Parker, hitting his shoulder as we entered the hotel's elevator. Trying to catch my breath, I giggled out, "I can't believe you did that! I would never in a million years sneak into a water park and party after they closed for the day!"

He was in a laughing fit as well and clicked our floor number. "It was a blast! You really missed out but the cops came a few hours in and crashed it."

This whole conversation came from question number eighteen when I asked him 'what's the most illegal thing you've done?' and his answer included vandalism, trespassing, under age drinking and illegal substances. All in one night. 

We'd been asking each other questions for the past hour and I had gotten to know that family is a touchy subject for him so he kept it short with saying that he's an only child. He told me the simple facts like his favorite color is black, which I mentioned is actually a shade, his favorite movie is the Hangover and his birthday is in March, the 6th specifically. Now, we had been getting more into stories and he was telling me about his last summer's endeavors.

We finally reached our room for the week and I stumbled in, ready to get to bed soon.

"Wanna watch a movie? Then I'm off to bed, because today was a long day."

Parker agreed as I grabbed the remote and scrolled through Netflix movies, snuggling further into the comfy bed.

I can get used to this.