by Kitty Parker
"Alright!" I said, settling back in my seat. When Harry Met Sally was one of my favorites.
"I love this movie," sighed Eden, smiling her I-just-love-mushy-romances-and-hope-that-one-will-happen-to-me-someday smile. It was a look that she sported every time we watched a romantic chick flick. She claimed that I made that face sometimes, as well. I honestly wouldn't be surprised.
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We were nearing Southampton when the last scene of the movie came on. I waited excitedly for my favorite line:
"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
"You see! That is just like you, Harry! You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you! And I hate you, Harry, I really hate you…I hate you…"
As Harry and Sally finally kissed passionately, Eden and I both squealed in delight, clutching at each other in our ecstasy. The random sophomore across the aisle from us looked at us like we were psychos. As if we cared. We'd seen that movie a thousand times, but we still always got that warm, fuzzy feeling inside at the end of it. This feeling naturally had to be let loose with a squeal.
The timing of the movie couldn't have been more perfect. The credits rolled onto the screen just as we got off the freeway at Southampton. We drove around through the streets a bit, eventually pulling to a stop in what looked like the main part of town.
"Alright, everyone," said Mr. Faulkner, standing up. "You're going to have the afternoon to yourselves to get some lunch and explore. It's about…" he consulted his watch "…noon, so be back here at four so we can get down to the docks and get on the boat before five."
With that, the door of the bus opened, and we disembarked. Standing on the sidewalk, Eden and I looked around for our friends. Jane was off to the side, flirting up a storm with Luke. Brigid was chatting happily with Bryn Calhoun, a ridiculously tall sophomore friend of hers. Matt and Company (with the exception of Luke, that is) were already heading off to explore.
"How about some quality Lotte-Eden time?" I suggested.
Eden beamed. "I love Lotte-Eden time!"
"Shall we?" I asked, offering my arm.
"Indeed we shall!" Eden replied, linking her arm with mine.
The two off us skipped off happily to explore.
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Eden and I had just popped out of a cute boutique on East Street when we ran into our second sleazeball of the day. He appeared to be in his twenties and had black hair that was stiff with gel, dark brown eyes, and skin so pale that one wondered if he lived under a rock. I don't believe in vampires, but if I had to peg someone as one, he would be it. I named him Sketchy McSketchball in my mind.
"Hey there," he said with a smirk. He was looking directly at me. "What's your name, sweetheart?"
"My name is fuck off, wanker," I replied, irritated.
Sketchy McSketchball gave me a once-over. What nerve.
"Cursing doesn't become such a…" he paused, licking his lips "delectable young woman such as yourself."
I shuddered at the way he was undressing me with his eyes. "Take a shower, creep," I said, grabbing Eden by the hand and shoving past him.
"Your loss," he shouted behind me as I hurried away.
"As if," I muttered.
"Ugh, what a creep," said Eden, wrinkling up her nose.
"Tell me about it," I replied. "That's the second one today."
"So what did you name this one?" asked Eden, trying to lighten the mood. "You said the other was 'The Sleazemeister.'"
I snorted. "Yeah, I named this one 'Sketchy McSketchball.'"
"How fitting."
We continued walking back toward where we had left the busses that morning. It was almost four, and we had to be getting back. If we weren't there, Mr. Faulkner would probably have a coronary.
As we neared the busses, we saw most of our friends waiting around. Bryce came over to greet us.
"Hey guys," he said jovially.
"Where the heck have you been?" I asked. "We didn't see you all day. We really could've used you, too."
Bryce raised one dark eyebrow in question. "How so?"
"We basically got accosted by two creeps," Eden explained.
"You should've been there to scare them off. What's the use of having a linebacker for a friend if he's never around when you need him?" I pretended to pout.
Bryce chuckled warmly. "Sorry I wasn't there to protect you from the evil men, Lotte."
"You should be." I grinned.
"What were you up to anyway?" Eden asked.
Bryce started to say something, but Elliot came up beside him and answered for him. "Oh, Bryce here was busy flirting with cute British girls down by the shops. It was quite a spectacle." He winked.
Bryce's dark cheeks turned a deep shade of red and he shoved Elliot. "Shut up!"
Laughing, Elliot elaborated. "He pulled that horrible beach ball pickup line. You know, the one where you go, 'Have you seen my beach ball? It's about this big.'" He tensed his arms in front of him, pretending to show off his muscles.
Eden and I burst into laughter.
"Are you serious?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. "You seriously said that, Bryce?"
"That's a new low," said Eden, shaking her head and laughing some more. "Bryce, we knew you were incapable of flirting, but that's just sad."
Bryce pouted indignantly. "Like you could do any better, Ms. I'm-Totally-Smitten-With-Matt-But-Won't-Do-A-Damn-Thing-About-It."
Eden turned pink. "Bryce!" she hissed, looking around wildly lest the object of her affections was eavesdropping.
"You know it's true, Eden," Elliot agreed.
"I'm just taking my time, ok?" she defended herself. "Sorry if that bothers you all or something."
"It's alright, Ede," I said, putting my arm around her shoulders. "You take all the time you need. Just don't blame us if you end up becoming an Episcopalian nun."
Eden scowled at me.
"They do exist, you know," I elaborated.
The scowl deepened.
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"This is mad cool!" squeaked Brigid excitedly as she saw our berth. "Dibs on this bed!" She hopped up onto the top bunk on the right side of the room.
I smiled at her eagerness. "I love you, freshman," I said affectionately.
"And I love you, senior," she answered.
I took a moment to survey the berth, room 212. There was a porthole in the middle of the back wall looking out toward the docks (we wouldn't be sailing for another ten minutes), a small bathroom off to the side with a toilet, sink, and shower, and four beds that folded out of the side walls: two on the top, two on the bottom. Shrugging, I swung my backpack onto the top bunk on the left side and stuck my luggage in the corner.
"Not too bad," said Jane, taking an approving look around.
"I'm just glad that we've got a window," I said. "You know I've got that thing about natural light."
Jane rolled her eyes. "You're so weird," she teased lovingly.
"And you love me even more because of it," I replied, smiling widely.
"You guys mind if I use the bathroom?" asked Eden, dumping her stuff onto the bunk below mine.
"Go for it," I said.
As the bathroom door closed behind Eden, there was a loud thunk from the room next to ours, accompanied by a muffled "oh shit." Concerned and ever curious, I decided to investigate. I popped out into the hallway, then knocked on the door of room 214. It opened, revealing a panting Matt, trying to catch his b
reath in the midst of his laughter.
"Hey Lotte," he managed to get out. "What's going on?"
Confused, I raised an eyebrow. "Um…I heard a noise…and…yeah."
Matt snorted and began to have another fit of uncontrollable laughter. He was joined by two other voices. Looking past him and into the room, I saw Adam sprawled over a bed, clutching his sides, and Elliot leaning against the wall for support as he shook with mirth. Kurt was sitting in the center of the floor and pouting like a toddler, his arms crossed over his chest. He was the only one not laughing.
"Okay…" I trailed off. "So, what exactly is so completely hilarious?"
Calming himself down, Adam sat up on the bed with a huge grin plastered on his face.
"You see that bed?" he asked, pointing toward the top bunk on the left wall, the only one that wasn't pulled out.
"Yeah?" I asked, wondering where he was going with this.
"Well, that's Kurt's bed." He chuckled a bit, then regained his composure. "He didn't know that it was kind of a Murphy-bed, and he started bouncing on it."
"Murphy-bed?" I asked, furrowing my brow.
"Yeah, you know, one of those beds that comes down from the wall and can spring back up?"
"Oh yeah, alright."
"So yeah, Kurt started bouncing on it…" he paused to laugh. "…and the whole thing just sprang back up into the wall! Kurt went flying!"
Hence the thump and "oh shit" that I heard.
Everyone in the room, with the exception of Kurt, roared with laughter again. I joined in, chuckling a bit.
"It's not funny," Kurt grumbled.
"Come on, Kurt, lighten up," I chastised. "Laugh at yourself a little."
He rolled his eyes, but grinned very slightly.
From somewhere above us came the sound of a loud horn. Everyone in the room looked up at the ceiling as though it had made the noise.
"Um…" Elliot began to question, raising an eyebrow.
"Casting off?" Adam guessed.
"Maybe," said Matt with a shrug.
None of the four boys moved. Lazy asses.
"Well, I'm going to go up on deck to see what's going on," I said, pulling the door open.
Only Adam waved vaguely. The other three were still too busy staring in wonder at the ceiling.
Rolling my eyes at the stupidity of the male gender, I started off down the hallway and toward the stairs. I could hear excited voices coming from the upper decks and I quickened my pace, not wanting to miss anything. I began to dash up the stairs.
Let's just say that, when I'm in a rush, I don't tend to pay attention to anything other than the fact that I'm in a rush. This complete lack of any sort of sense of my surroundings could be considered a viable excuse for the dick-move I pulled while rushing up toward the deck. I didn't notice the large, human-shaped object hurtling toward me in the opposite direction until I ran into said object in a head-on collision.
"Scheiße! (shit)" I shouted out the first word that came into my mind as I began to fall backward down the stairs.
A pair of arms shot out from the human-shaped object that I had plowed into, hastily grabbing me by the waist and saving me from probably cracking my head open. It was at this point that I realized the arms holding me belonged to a male: an incredibly tall, incredibly blonde, incredibly blue-eyed, incredibly gorgeous male.
He grinned widely. "Sie sprechen Deutsch? (You speak German?)" he asked, looking excited.
"Ja!(yes)." I was sufficiently flabbergasted. How the hell did he know that?
He smiled. "So dachte ich, als ich Sie verfluchen hörte. (I thought so when I heard you curse.)"
Oh. Well, that would explain how he knew. There goes my mind-reader theory…
"Kommen Sie aus Deutschland? (Are you from Germany?)" he asked.
I stared at him for a moment, my mouth slightly open. Here was this gorgeous guy, still holding me around the waist, talking to me in my native language, and I had become a puddle of goo. Lotte-flavored Bavarian goo.
The guy raised his eyebrow to remind me that he had asked me a question.
"Ja." I answered finally, snapping myself back into reality. I gave the stranger a smile.
He smiled back.
Realizing that he was still holding onto my waist, the guy cleared his throat awkwardly, moved me to a safer spot on the stairs, and removed his arms. It was a pity, really. I quite liked those arms of his.
"Woher? (Where from?)" he asked, trying to get back to the earlier conversation.
"Aschaffenburg," I answered.
"Ach ja, in Bayern, oder? (Yeah, in Bavaria, right?)"
"Ja, aber nicht so weit von Frankfurt. (Yeah, but not that far from Frankfurt.)"
"Toll (cool)," he said, nodding his head in approval. "Ich komme aus Köln. (I'm from Cologne.)"
"Sehr toll (very cool)," I replied, my smile broadening. Cologne (or Köln, as I called it) was an awesome city. Besides, I couldn't help but be happy about meeting another German in such a random place. Whoever would have thought that I'd literally run into a (really hot) German guy in a stairwell on a cruise ship in Southampton?
Remembering my manners (and also hoping to find out who this German stud was), I decided to introduce myself. "Ich heiße Lotte. (My name's Lotte.)"
He smiled and stuck out a hand. "Niels."
The hand was large, warm, and every so slightly calloused as I shook it.
My lovely moment of romantic mush was ruined by Kurt running up the stairs and stopping two steps below me. Stupid prick.
"Lotte, are you going up to the deck or what?" He glared at Niels.
"Yeah, yeah," I sighed irritably. "I'll be up in a minute."
Snorting indignantly, Kurt hurried up the rest of the stairs and out of sight.
"Wer war das? (Who was that?)" asked Niels, jerking his head in the direction where Kurt had disappeared.
"Schulkamerade. (Schoolmate.)"
"Aus Aschaffenburg? (From Aschaffenburg?)" he asked, confused. "Warum hast du auf English mit ihm gesprochen? (Why were you speaking with him in English?)" I noticed that he had stopped using the formal "Sie" when addressing me, reverting instead to the more familiar "du." I took that as a good thing.
I decided to clarify my situation. "Nein, nein, er ist ein Schulkamerade, aber aus die USA. (No, no, he's a schoolmate, but from the USA.) Ich komme aus Aschaffenburg, aber ich wohne jetzt in Massachusetts. Ich bin ausgewandert. (I'm from Aschaffenburg, but now I live in Massachusetts. I emigrated.)"
"Ah, Ich verstehe. (Ah, I understand.)" Niels smiled.
Another loud horn blast came from overhead, reminding me of the reason why I'd gone up the stairs in the first place.
"Kommst du droben? (Are you coming up?)" I asked.
Niels seemed disappointed. "Ich kann nicht (I can't)," he said regretfully. "Ich muss etwas tun. (I have to do something.)"
"Oh…" I said, trying desperately not to be awkward and failing miserably.
"…Vielleicht werde ich dich später sehen? (Maybe I'll see you later?)" It was more of a hopeful question than a statement, as though he was asking for my permission or something. "Im welchen Zimmer bist du? (What room are you in?)"
I smiled. "212."
"Toll. (Cool.) Bis später. (See you later.)"
Giving me a grin and a small wink (not the sleazy kind, though), he turned around and continued down the stairs, leaving me standing there and blushing at how adorable he was.
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"Who was that?" Kurt asked as I emerged onto the upper deck. I didn't even bother asking why he had been waiting for me at the top of the stairs.
"Who?" I asked.
"That blonde dude in the stairwell."
"You mean Niels?"
"No, I mean one of the other fifty blonde dudes you were hanging around in the stairwell with."
I looked at him for a moment, confused, before the sarcasm struck me. I rolled my eyes.
"I ran into him, he caught me, we talked, end of story." I didn'
t feel the need to explain myself to anyone, least of all Kurt.
"You actually ran into him?" Kurt jeered. "How klutzy can you possibly get, Lotte?"
I gave him a look and made my way to the deck rail, where a large crowd of people wanting to wave goodbye to their friends, family, and random bystanders that they didn't even know was gathered. I had no one to wave to, but I figured it would be nice to watch us pull out just the same, to you know, wave goodbye to England or something.
I felt someone come up next to me. I looked over and found Adam also staring out at the docks and wharves of Southampton.
"Hey Adam," I greeted good-naturedly. "I thought you were too busy staring at the ceiling to come up here."
He looked at me, amused. "Well, as interesting as the ceiling is, Lotte, I thought that Southampton might be a bit better."
I chuckled. "A bit more aesthetically pleasing?" I suggested. Yeah, for an immigrant, I have a big vocabulary. So sue me.
"Sure," he answered goodnaturedly.
I took a look behind me to see if Kurt was still there. Leaning against the wall by the doorway, he gave me a small, mocking wave and sarcastic grin. I glared and turned back to Adam.
"Why do you hang out with Kurt, anyway?" I asked.
"Wow, that came out of nowhere," Adam replied, mildly surprised. "What do you mean?"
"What can you possibly see in him?" I elaborated.
Adam shrugged. "He's a really great guy."
I planted my hands on my hips. "No he's not."
"He really is, though."
"Well, I don't think so."
"Lotte Leisch, you are the most stubborn girl in the world."
I pouted. "I resent that."
"Well, it's true." The side of Adam's mouth lifted in an amused half-grin. "You're just so stuck on hating Kurt that you won't give him a chance to show you that he's a decent guy."
"Now that's not true," I defended myself. It wasn't true, either. "I might be stubborn, but I do give people the benefit of the doubt. I've seen Kurt act decently before, and I definitely notice that he's being a good guy. I'm not blind. It's just that he always turns right around after doing something nice for someone else and acts like a jerk to me. It's like he singles me out."
