Alex picked me up from the apartment soon after Brittney explained her plan to me. I felt confident that I could win over Alex with this trip, it made me wonder what Brittney would say when she realized I used her plan to win over my math teacher.
"Hey beautiful." Alex said as he got out of the car to put my suitcase in the trunk. My eyes were drawn all over his by the casual clothes he was in. Normally I saw him in business casual, but I did enjoy seeing him in jeans and Vans.
"Hey yourself." I said awkwardly, confused by his sudden ease with me on campus.
"Get in the car. I will put this away and join you."
"I can do that." I said as I got into the car and shut the door behind me. Alex got in shortly after and started the car. He placed a kiss on my cheek before we took off leaving me smiling and blushing as we left.
I felt the smile leave my lips as my phone rang. I glanced at the caller identification and it said 'do not answer'. That meant it was Caleb or one of his close friends that I didn't want calling me anymore. I only kept the numbers so that I wouldn't mistakenly answer them.
By changing my number multiple times, I was able to get rid of most of Caleb's friends, but I couldn't get rid of Caleb. He always found a way to get my number again, and I knew at least once was from Matt, but the others I couldn't guess. I groaned and rejected the call without another word.
"What's up?" Alex asked, taking my hand in his as he continued to drive. His driving wasn't even affected by the lack of contact with the steering wheel. He had just as much control with one hand as he did with two.
"Nothing. I'm really excited that we are going on this trip with you."
"I am too. It will be good for us to get off campus and away from people we may know and run into."
"Oh that's why you acted like that this morning, because no one is on campus now."
"How did I act differently?" Alex asked curiously as we pulled into the airport's version of a highway system.
"You're kidding me right?"
"We already covered this in class on the first day." Alex said giving me a quick glance and a smirk to remind me of the first time we almost kissed. Of course he didn't kiss me and he moved away before the other teacher walked in. I was still partially mad at him for that.
"You acted differently because your greeting was hello beautiful."
"Was it? I didn't realize." Alex said smoothly as he pulled around the parking lot for the third time.
"Really Alex?"
"Really. I had no idea."
"There's a space there." I said, letting the subject pass. He would never admit that he said that; he's too stubborn. So I decided that I would let it pass until he said something similar to it again.
"Who's ready for a four hour flight?" Alex asked excitedly.
"It's better than a fourteen hour drive."
"It would be even longer because we are going to Stock Island in the Florida Keys." Alex stated matter-of-factly as he pulled the suitcases from the car.
"Which means what exactly?"
"You've never been to the Florida Keys have you?" Alex asked, prompting me to shake my head no as a response. "There is a seven mile bridge that connects all the islands together. Luckily for us the Key West International airport is about twenty minute away from where we are staying."
"That's a nice change of pace, normally I'm stuck in a car for a few hours before we get to where we are staying." I said jokingly as we walked into the airport.
Airports were always interesting to me, the people were all coming from or going to different places and I was curious on what they were thinking. Were the nervous or excited? Were they waiting for someone or going on their fantasy trip? What were they thinking as they stepped through these doors and was closer to their destination. I know I'm excited because I get to have Alex all to myself for a week.
Since we were here so early, the lines were minimal, but there was a constant stream of people coming and going. Alex walked up to the front desk and handed them our tickets. The woman working gave him a once over and smiled to herself; she thought she could actually flirt with him. I stepped in next to him and placed a kiss on his cheek before I pressed my body against his.
I could see the glare the woman was giving me, but I didn't care. Alex pretended he didn't notice as he finished the exchange. He quickly took back our bags and tickets and pushed us on our way.
"Why did you do that?" He asked once we were in the main part of the airport.
"Because I could?" I suggested.
"You could have just relaxed, if you're jealous you can just tell me."
"Hold up, that was for fun. Sorry Alex, I don't get jealous like you." I lied as we continued walking toward the security checkpoint.
We waited in, probably the longest line we would all day, but it was moving quickly. This is why you had to allot at least an extra hour in the airport before your flight. That way you can make it through security and still make it to the flight on time.
"So I don't know much about you Alex; that's a problem."
"You know enough about me." He said with a shrug as the line moved a few more inches.
"I know you have family that you haven't seen in a long time, your parents died, that you don't like kids and you skateboard." I said as I kicked his shoes and reminded him of the decks he had in his apartment.
"I gave up skateboarding a while ago. My best friend Drew Neil still does, but I'm waiting for when he breaks something and his wife makes him stop." Alex said with a smile as he pictured that.
"That's mean!"
"He has to give it up eventually!"
"But you don't have to wish him physical pain."
"You're right. I'm sorry, kind of."
"So tell me more about yourself." I prompted, to which Alex sighed and then smirked at me for a few seconds.
"I'm from Kalamazoo, Michigan. I hate the happy birthday song, I hate clapping, I hate trees, hate babies, and don't like animals." Alex said with a smirk as my mouth dropped open.
"You're joking." I stated as we got to the front of the security check.
"I'm not." Alex said as we started to take off our shoes and place our bags in the scanner.
"Why do you hate trees? We need them to survive." I asked as I held my hands up for the body scanner.
"I really just hate raking the leaves up in the fall."
"Then why do you hate animals?"
"I hate cleaning up after them."
"I'm getting the sense that you're lazy." I said as I started to collect my things again.
Alex was pulled out of the scanner and frisked because of something they had seen on the scan. The security guard wasn't pleased with having to frisk a man, but it's what kept lawsuits to a minimum. Alex flashed me a warning look that told me to never bring this moment up again. Too bad for him I wasn't scared of him, the worse he would do is probably tickle me.
"What about the happy birthday song and clapping?" I asked once the security guard released him.
"Both are just really annoying and obnoxious. That's why when I taught in high school for a year I trained all of my students to clap as one." Alex said proudly as we walked by multiple gates to find our own.
"How did you do that?" I asked curiously.
"I counted to three and then they could clap, but it was only one clap."
"So it was just one loud clap from twenty kids?" I asked as the announcer came over the intercom to tell us that our flight was about to depart and that boarding was almost over. I guess we hadn't allotted enough time for security checks than I thought we had.
We ran toward our gate and passed the tickets to the stewardess as fast as we could. She smiled lightly and joked that we would have been stuck here for a while if that announcement hadn't been made. We quickly walked down the tunnel toward the plane as the door was shut behind us.
We got to our seats in the very back of the plane and put our luggage in the overhead carrier before sitting down.
"So one single loud clap?" I asked bringing us back to our conversation before we had to run.
"Exactly! It was perfect and I never had to hear the annoying clapping. Of course some would work it in there, but they liked the one clap thing. They thought it was funny I think."
"I think they thought you were weird."
"Probably. That would explain when I gave them group writing activities it ended up with cats, trees, clapping and happy birthday songs." Alex said with a grimace that made me busy out laughing as the seatbelt light flashed on.