Chapter 3
Daphne
Kristen held the tickets to her chest. "Are you ladies ready to find out where we're heading this weekend?"
"Yes," Alina, Layla, and I all agreed.
"Well, too bad. All I'm telling you right now is that we need to go to gate A."
"Isn't that for international flights?" I asked.
"Mhm," Kristen said and clapped her hands together.
"Kristen, I didn't bring my passport," Alina said. "Why didn't you just tell me what we were doing? This is a disaster."
"Actually, you do have your passport," I said and unzipped the front pouch of her suitcase. I grabbed the passport and sticky note that Bryce had left her and handed them to her.
Alina smiled as she read Bryce's note.
"You're marrying the most agreeable, sweetest guy on the planet," Kristen said. "He was totally down for helping trick you."
Alina looked up from the sticky note. She looked so happy and so in love.
And there was that feeling again. Just a hint of jealousy had somehow weaseled itself into my thoughts. I tried to shake the thought away. When had I become envious of my friends getting married? How could I even be jealous when I wasn't even dating anyone right now? I was so far away from marriage it wasn't even funny. Maybe that was the problem. But it shouldn't be a problem. I was only 23. It was fine that I hadn't found my soul mate yet. I still had time. I had at least ten more years of prime fertility. There was definitely plenty of time.
"Earth to Daphne," Kristen said and waved her hand in front of my face. "Don't you have a guess about where we're going?"
Apparently they had been trying to get my attention while I was figuring out how long I had until I ran out of eggs. "Um...the Bahamas?"
"Layla already guessed that."
"Right. The Dominican Republic?"
"Nope."
We made it to gate A. Kristen was eventually going to have to fork over our tickets in order for us to get through customs.
"Drum roll, please," said Kristen.
Alina slapped her hands against her thighs.
"Costa Rica!"
"Ah!" Alina threw her arms around Kristen. "You remembered!"
I laughed. In college, the three of us had wanted to go to Costa Rica for spring break. But all of our parents had told us we weren't allowed to leave the country. We had ended up at Ft. Lauderdale in Florida. It was like Kristen had planned the trip we had all wanted to take that year.
But there was an uneasiness in my stomach. I may have wanted to go to Costa Rica in college, but I didn't want to go now. I looked down at the bracelet on my wrist. All I wanted was to go back to my apartment and curl up on the couch with a good book. I took a deep breath. I just needed to focus on Alina's bachelorette party.
"I feel totally out of the loop right now," Layla said.
Alina released Kristen from her hug. "We wanted to go there for spring break in college, but our parents wouldn't let us."
"Well, they had a good reason. We all saw what happened when you left the country during the ITAs."
Alina's face got slightly red. "Can we please not talk about that? How many times do I have to say it was a mistake?"
"That was no mistake, honey," Layla said. "It was a fucking miracle."
Alina laughed. "Well no matter what it was, that's not going to be happening on this trip. I told Kristen I wanted a nice, calm, bachelorette week get together. I didn't even call it a party."
"Yeah, nice and calm," Kristen said. "Of course. What kind of maid of honor would I be if I didn't get you exactly what you asked for?"
"It's going to be fucking crazy," Kristen mouthed silently to me.
Oh God. I thought again about how there wasn't any information about the Blue Parrot Resort online. I wished Kristen was kidding, but it really didn't seem like she was. If she was taking us to one of those private island fuck pads where everyone cheated on each other, I'd be punching her in the boob next.
***
My heart starting racing as soon as the engines roared to life.
Alina squeezed my arm. "You do know that flying is safer than driving, right?"
"I know that statistically that's true. But it's a huge metal tube that just flies. It doesn't make any sense!"
"You're a high school teacher. How do you not understand physics?"
"Science was never my thing."
"The future of our children's education is doomed." She put her hand to her forehead.
"Oh, stop being dramatic. They'll be perfectly prepared in calculus after I'm done with them."
"Which is such a useful skill."
"It is useful! Math is so underrated. You use it every day."
"I don't."
"You have to measure stuff for baking. Like adding fractions and stuff. And doubling recipes and all that goodness."
"I have all my recipes memorized. And I've always been more of a handful and a pinch person than a cup and a teaspoon person. And Bryce handles all the financial stuff for me. I live a math free life and I love it."
I rolled my eyes. "Fine. But I use calculus every day."
"Only because you teach that useless skill to kids every day." Alina pointed out the window.
I turned. She had successfully distracted me during takeoff. "Thanks." I leaned back in my seat.
"Speaking of which," Alina said. "Did any sexy football players have crushes on you this year?"
I laughed. "I don't know why you always assume my students have crushes on me."
"Because you're hot," Kristen said. "And students always have crushes on their hot teachers. It's a fact."
"But I'm like five years older than my oldest student."
"Age doesn't matter. It's just about the hotness. And you being in charge and all that. It's sexy. And so off limits. All the guys probably drool over you."
"You're so ridiculous." I thought about the fact that Rick said his son had a crush on me. Was it normal for teachers to get birthday presents from students? And being Facebook friends wasn't weird, was it? Was I already crossing so many lines and didn't even know it? Fuck, do lots of my students have crushes on me?
Alina laughed. "Kristen would know. She's an expert on this subject."
"Why? Because she stalked Professor Hunter?" I asked.
"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I did not stalk Professor Hunter. Stalking is such a harsh word."
Layla laughed. "That's true. Stalking is creepy. And from everything I've heard about Kristen's behavior, she was just being a silly, flirtatious college student."
"See. And Layla's had to file restraining orders against stalkers. She knows her stuff. I was just totally in love with Professor Hunter for that one semester. And I wish I knew how that other student slept with him when I made it so obvious that I wanted him. Like...so obvious. I mean, I could have fulfilled all his needs. All of them. Especially the really kinky sexual ones. And I guess sometimes I still think about what he's doing at night. And obviously I'd still like to fulfill all his dirty, dirty needs."