The Tour

twenty one / did you want him to?

The rest of the week in Australia consisted of the Lancer and Sanders families sticking around the town and the beaches. I had to do a couple more interviews that Ripcurl deemed necessary after I won, and they weren't the worst things in the world but also were not entirely interesting. Eva and Tatiana had also been in town for the awards, so I spent one day off surfing with them. It was fun to be back in the water with my friends and future competitors, and it was interesting to see the new stuff that they had been working on. Tatiana's paddle game was definitely stronger than a few months ago, and it reminded me that I needed to lift to keep up on my own.

The other few days were spent mostly on the beach or among the small shops in the local town. Will wasn't able to do much in terms of athletic activity, so we ruled out many things that energetic athletes usually like to do on vacation. All in all, it went better than I think most of us thought that it would.

Will had also been avoiding any talk of Enzo, and was usually tagging along with the other boys and conveniently avoiding spending time with me alone. On the other hand, it was likely that I was just overthinking things because it wasn't like there were many times on family vacations for us to talk inconspicuously.

By the time that we got to the airport, I was just waiting for my eye to start twitching from how stressed out about it I had been. Honestly, I was also surprised that I was this nervous about everything. None of my previous relationships had ever gotten serious, and since nothing was serious with Enzo, I clearly shouldn't be as nervous as I was.

We walked through the airport in a large huddle, the parents leading the way and checking all of the maps and departure times. Will was pushing himself in his chair, and he had managed to work up to a level of endurance that allowed him to push himself almost all of the time. Evan walked beside him and they were talking about some guy from California that they had played against who was rumored to be the number one draft pick this year.

Noah was next to me and was amusing himself by pointing out every child who was carrying a piece of luggage that was much too large for them. I was pretty sure that he was destined to be a dad, and it was only a matter of time before he met the right girl and made it happen.

We arrived at the gate just as they started to call pre-boarding. Making our way through security took a little longer than expected because we still weren't quite adjusted to leaving time for Will's accommodations.

Right as we walked up to the seats at the gate, an attendant walked up to our group. "Hello sir, if you're here for flight 192 you're welcome to board now, we just opened the doors up to those who may need extra assistance." She smiled politely, looking down at him.
The smile that had previously been on Will's face vanished quickly. "I'm good," he said shortly, looking around at the other people seated in the chairs around us.

"Will," Rachel protested, "it is really just going to be easier for you-"

"I'm good, mom. I don't want to."

Evan shook his head at Will, probably realizing with me that it would cause more of a scene for him to get on later than now. Will still wasn't fully ready to admit to the fact that he was disabled, and I guess that he had the right to make this choice if it made him feel more normal.

By the time that we were about to enter the plane, I was pretty confident that he was re-thinking his decision. His wheelchair was wider than the aisle was, so he had no way of moving himself to a seat. This resulted in a five minute conversation between him, Noah, and Evan that was filled with frustrated whispers. Eventually, I walked onto the plane, and as far as I knew, he was somehow going to be carried by Evan to his seat.

We were the last group to board, and the plane was pretty full. I slipped into the first seat that I saw, which also happened to have an aisle seat open next to it. One middle aged woman sat by the window, but she already appeared to be asleep with a pair of headphones on. I looked up to see Evan walking down the aisle with Will's head peeking out over his shoulder.
Their laughter echoed through the whole plane and attracted plenty of stares. I also hear one little girl behind me ask "daddy, why didn't you care me onto the plane?" Pulling out my phone I quickly snapped a picture of their grins. Clearly I was wrong, they were having much more fun doing this than preboarding.

"Alright bud, here's your stop," Evan grunted when he reached my seat. Both Will and I looked at him in surprise.
"You're heavy and we all know my lifting game isn't that strong. Take your seat," he said as he turned around and I frantically tried to put the armrest up before Evan dropped him onto it.

Will repositioned himself on the seat once he had landed with a sigh. Evan gave us a salute and moved on back into the plane and was followed by Noah who gave us a grin.

"So, what's good?" Will said, pushing his hair back while the flight attendants began their rounds.

"Uh, well I guess that I won this award in Australia," I attempted to joke.

"Right," he chuckled. We sat in silence for a few minutes while we taxied down the runway before we finally got the clear for takeoff. The plane started to shudder as we made our way into the air, and I noticed Will grip the sides of the armrest tightly. "I always forget how much I hate flying."

I reached out and awkwardly rested my hand over his, trying to provide some small ounce of comfort. He didn't move, but continued to look straight ahead at the seat back in front of him as we continued to ascend.

Neither of us made any move to put our earbuds in or pull out our phones, but sat quietly for another ten minutes. Finally, he removed his hand from under mine and broke the silence. "So you and Enzo, huh?"

"Um, not really," I supplied, still looking through the seats at the movie that someone in front of me was watching.

"I saw him kiss you, you don't have to hide it," he looked over at me and I sat in silence. "I'm just trying to figure out what the deal is Riv, I'm not judging you."

He blew air out of his mouth as I looked down at my folded hands. "I don't like him like that," I answered after a few seconds. I just couldn't seem to figure out the right words for this.

"Did you want him to kiss you?" Will followed up.

"I didn't want him to, but it was kind of unexpected and I wasn't sure how to react, and then he was making comments about you..."

"That arrogant-"

"Stop Will, let's just forget about it. We were friends and it's not the end of the world," I tried to reason with him before he got more upset.

Will shook his head, "He still didn't have the right to do that and he shouldn't have treated you that way."

The frustration that Will felt was fair, but I was surprised that he hadn't even asked what Enzo had said about him. He either already knew, or just cared more about me than what Enzo was saying, which was nice I guess.

"Yeah. Thanks for not bringing it up to anyone else though."

"I figured you could tell everyone yourself if you guys were actually dating. And speaking of that, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but you could do better."

I smiled and looked back at him, "Thanks Will."

He nodded and shifted his gaze ahead again. "So, does you coming to Australia mean that you get to go home from the hospital now?" I questioned, moving to a safer subject.

His face lit up almost as brightly as when Evan gave him a piggy back ride. "Yeah, I got released the day after you left. I'm staying home from school for the rest of the semester because I still have to go to a ton of therapy, but I'm going to try to do some of my classes online I think. It's just too much to get from school to therapy and make that transition now, but it will be really good to be home."

"That's great. You really think you'll go back next semester?"

"If I can, yeah. I just need to get back to normal I think, and that will help. Besides, you're be leaving again to travel the world in a few months and then I'll be lonely again if I stay home."

"Well, we have a few more months then," I replied.

He hummed in response and I leaned over, gently resting my head on his shoulder. Will moved his head so that it was leaning against mine, and we rested quietly for the remainder of the flight.

I got to like chapter ten of this and wished that I wrote it in third person. Kinda unfortunate.