I was bent over my dresser drawer trying to decide between the red bikini and the turquoise tankini when my phone began to sing out for me. I stumbled over and picked it up.

“Hal-o?”

“Hey, Marie? It’s Sam.”

“Oh, hey girly! What’s up?” I asked.

“Nothing. I’m just bummed that you can’t spend Spring Break with us.”

“I know! I am too, but Kyle called…and, you know…”

“Yeah, I get it. It’s just that we haven’t spent much time together lately. How about a movie tonight?”

“I guess, yeah, I don’t have any plans. I’m just trying to finish up my packing. You want to see that comedy about the guy who’s girlfriend turns out to be a monkey?”

“Oh, sure! That sounds like my favorite kind of stupid movie.”

“Mine too. I’ll meet you there in a half hour.”

Forty five minutes later I was sitting in an empty movie theater eating popcorn next to Sam.

“So,” began Sam, with a mouthful of popcorn “how many days are you going to be away?”

“Nine. It’s going to be great to get away from everybody for a while. I mean, you know I love you. But my family’s been driving me crazy and Kate’s been a pain in the ass, and I’m just sick of everyone at school. Going up there will be separate and different and nice.”

“Lucky you. What’s Kate been doing to drive you crazy this time?”

“She’s just being Kate. Every time I mention Kyle she either goes on and on about how adorable he is, or hounds me, insisting that the reason for our friendship is that I MUST be madly in love with him. It’s just so typical.”

“Well…you do talk about him a lot. It’s not a completely insane assumption.”

When those words came out of Sam’s mouth, I was just about to drop some salty popcorn into my mouth, but then it fell right out of my hand.

“You can’t be serious!” I shrieked. Of course it was just then that the only other person attending the movie waltzed in, a short man with a bald spot and metallic shoes, he stopped and stared. Then Sam glared at him, and moved up to the back row.

“Oh, come on now, Marie! Everyone can see it! I mean, fine, maybe you’re not madly in love with him, or maybe you are and you just haven’t realized it yet, or you don’t want to admit it. But, whatever, all I’m saying is that there’s potential. You’ve got chemistry! It was obvious to me and I was only with you guys for two hours at the party.”

“Really? I mean, I never really thought of him like that. I mean, I know that he’s cute. But that’s different, you know? I still don’t think anything’s ever going to happen.”

“There’s a difference between not thinking anything will happen, and not wanting anything to happen.” Sam concluded, with a wink.

Just when I opened my mouth to fight back, the lights dimmed, and the movie began. And I had a lot to think about.

Friday morning I woke with a start, more excited than ever before. I just had one more exam and then it was off to a week- no, nine days! -of bliss. It was going to perfect. I sprang out of bed with the grace of a dancer which I had never possessed before, pulled my favorite sundress over my head, perfected my hair, threw on some lip gloss and I was out the door. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect start to my perfect last day before my perfect vacation. The key word here is perfect.

After that talk with Sam I had concluded something. Yes, yes, I did have a crush on Kyle. But it was a little one. It was a he’s-nice-and-cute-and-it-would-be-fun-to-date-him crush, but not a I-will-love-him-forever-and-die-if-he-doesn’t-love-me-back crush. And that was all.

My last exam, history, the one I was most dreading, went pretty well, all things considered. First of all, my teacher was insane and told us he liked to eat cats, and second of all, I could barely concentrate, so, under those circumstances, I did fantastic. By normal standards, it was a failure. But that didn’t matter now…I wouldn’t get the results until after Spring Break. Once I left the school’s doors it seemed like nothing could go wrong, I was free at last and ready to party.

It seemed I couldn’t arrive at Kyle’s place fast enough. I had taken a cab since my Mom wasn’t home yet, and the driver must’ve been a turtle in his other life. He inched down the road, taking his sweet old time, while blood and sweat and excitement ran through my body.

When the drive, named Tico, finally pulled into the Stark’s driveway, I threw a twenty in his face, grabbed my bags from the trunk, and bolted up the front steps. Kyle stood at the doorway with his big brown puppy dog eyes, military style crew cut, smile from ear to ear, and arms wide open.

“Come to Papa!” He called out to me, forcing a cheesy Italian accent. His sense of humor was probably the only one dorkier than mine. I responded by throwing my arms around his neck, and almost whacking him in the head with my overflowing duffel bag in the process.

We laughed, and he said, “Papa missed you!” and gave me a brief peck on the cheek. I couldn’t help but blush. He took my bags, threw them onto the couch, and showed me to the kitchen.

“Okay, Mar, this is going to be the best Spring Break ever. Uncle Rich still has his same house just off the beach, so that will be sweet. We can camp out on the beach if we want, and we can have a bonfire and roast marshmallows and glazed doughnuts. Do you remember roasting doughnuts? They’re the best ever. And, I think Rich has got some killer fireworks saved up, so that will be sweet, too. Oh! They’ve also got the drive in theatre there, so we will have to check that out…” His mouth was going a mile a minute, but I didn’t mind…he was so cute when he got excited!

Two hours later we were sitting on a train heading up to Maine, playing go fish, when my bag started screaming out the Mexican hat dance, and I knew Kate was calling. Kyle looked up at me and made his mean face, daring me to interrupt our intense game of go fish for the phone call. I decided to risk being mauled by him to see what Kate wanted.

“Hey. What’s up?” I asked Kate. As I began my conversation with Kate, Kyle was sitting across from me, cruelly impersonating me, turning his hand into a phone and pretending to curl his nonexistent hair with his finger. And, when Kate said, “Nothing I just wanted to remind you not to get knocked up while you go up there with that dude you’re so in love with.” I started laughing because Kyle had come over, and was practically sitting on lap, saying “Oh, dahling! Your hair is a TRAINNWRECKK!” and I cried out, “No! Kyle quit it!” between my giggling.

Kate could only respond with, “Ohh, I can see you two are already getting busy. I’ll let you go, then.” And then hung up. I frowned looked down at the phone and closed it. Kyle was still “adjusting” my hair, when really he was making it worse.

He stopped, scooched off my lap and into the seat next to me and asked me who had called.

“Oh, it was just Kate. She wanted to tell me not to let you impregnate me with your child.” I said, and Kyle looked puzzled. “She thinks that we’re dating,” I explained, shrugging my shoulders, “I know it’s kind of crazy, but whatever, that’s Kate..”

“Hold up,” Kyle said “why is us dating such a crazy idea?”

My mouth dropped. I tried to get some words out of my mouth, but they faded away before making it to my throat. I was motioning my hands as if I was actually saying something, but that wasn’t getting my message across. Why was it so crazy?

“Well, I guess it’s not.” Were the few words I managed to squeeze out of my parched throat.

The next thing I knew, we were leaning closer to each other, eyes closing, our lips just about touching—

“Attention passengers, this is our last stop in Maine, so anyone getting off here please do so now.” Those were the words that rang threw the soundsystem, and those were absolutely the last words I wanted to hear right then.