The sunrise was beautiful but that was the last thing on Joey’s mind as the island of Puerto Rico came into view. Three days. Three full days without his phone or Internet. Oh, and a half. You can’t forget the day of the departure. Three and a half freaking days.
He stood on the main deck, staring at his phone screen. As they neared port he watched the signal bars appeared one at a time. Oh, thanks god for US Territories. Messages, emails, app notifications, his phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
Finally! Communication to the outside world! Or to the web world. Whatever, it was his world. He only had access to it for 10 hours.
First things first, he checked his texts. He scrolled through the list of new ones until he found the name he was looking for: Zola. 4 new messages.
July 6th 7:26pm: ‘Dude, you better be having fun.’
July 7th 3:52am: ‘You better be tanning, not hiding inside.’
July 7th 11:47pm: ‘Seriously, how are you surviving without your phone?’
July 8th 3:18pm: ‘You wouldn’t believe how boring it is without someone else who has been into Facebook’s database.’
He shook his head as he began his reply. ‘You expected me to be tanning at 4am?’
It was only shortly after six, Puerto Rican time. That made it 1am on the west coast. Maybe she’d still be awake.
It only took three minutes for him to find out she was. ‘I knew you weren’t seeing the messages. Just curious as to your attention to detail.’
He continued to text her on his way down to get some breakfast, checking his other messages, emails, and social networks in between.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Omelet. Bacon. Chocolate milk. Yum. Perfect breakfast. Especially after completely losing his dinner the previous night, yet again. It had gotten to the point where he just didn’t bother eating much for dinner, but that was until their was seafood on the menu. You could probably call seafood a vice for Roy.
The boat seemed to pick up speed every night, something Roy’s stomach couldn’t handle evidently. At least by every morning they had slowed down enough that he could fully enjoy his breakfast. This morning they were at a full stop by the time he got to the buffet.
About halfway through breakfast Roy received some company. Leah set her tray down on the table first before sitting down in the chair across from him. “Feel any better?” She asked. She had a piece of breakfast pizza on her plate and a glass of water.
Roy nodded. They ate in silence until Roy finished his food and looked at her. “Did you see Joey this morning? He was already out of the room when I woke up?”
“I saw him sitting somewhere on the other side of the boat, glued to his phone.”
“Oh, that’s right. We can use our phones here.” Roy didn’t really care either way. “He’s been going crazy without his.”
Leah rolled her eyes. “He’s such a nerd.”
“You say that about everyone.”
“You’re a nerd, too.” She ate her last bite of food.
Roy just nodded, it wasn’t like he didn’t expect that response.
“Are you going onto the island today? I heard that it’s a really hot one.”
Roy shrugged. “Probably for a little bit.”
“Cool, I’ll go with you.” She still wasn’t getting along with Tristan. Especially after Monday night when he got them kicked out of the teen club.
He hadn’t been wearing his glasses, surprise surprise, and he was hyper after having two desserts for dinner. He came bounding into the club (which was really just a room with some nice places to sit, a small dance floor, some tvs, and some video games) and knocked over a tray of drinks. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had stopped there, but no. He had to then trip and knock over another person, who received a minor injury. Proceeding that he also managed to break two chairs as well.
She’s avoided Twist since then. She tagged along with her other two brothers or her mom and spent a lot of time alone.
Usually spending that much time away from her twin would make her rather irritable. However, she was still annoyed enough with him that it seemed she was more snappy while in his presence.
Roy nodded. “Alright.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tristan woke up and glanced across the room. He looked at the clock and realized it read ten o’clock. One wonderful thing about vacation, all the sleep you wanted was yours. He yawned before sitting up.
*Bang*
“Ouch.” He still hadn’t gotten used to be so close to the ceiling.
He got down from the bed and looked around. Everyone was gone. He shrugged. He’d find someone eventually.
He headed out of the room to find some food. According to Tristan the deli had the best grilled cheese sandwiches. So far, he’d eaten one a day.
As he searched for a table he spotted someone to sit with. “Joey!” He bounded over towards him.
Joey didn’t even look up. His eyes were glued to his phone. A plate of cold and half eaten breakfast sat in front on him. At least he wore a smile though.
“What’s got you so happy? ” Tristan sat down beside him.
Nothing.
“Joey?”
Nothing.
“Dude!”
Nothing.
“Earth to Joey!”
Absolutely zilch.
“HEY!” He went to wave his hand in front of the phone and ended up hitting the device, accidentally sending it into the air.
The phone landed on the ground a few feet away… In pieces.
Both of their eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh, Joey! I’m sorry! I swear I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!” Tristan spat the words out as fast as he could. He knew how attached to his phone Joey was and he didn’t want to get in his bad side.
Leah wouldn’t hang out with him and Roy always was somewhere that didn’t allow noise. Joey was the only person he had been able to hang out with that week. Or at least the only person that didn’t mind him hanging around.
Joey was silent for more than a few moments.
Joey didn’t explode instantly like Leah would have. He was more like a pressure cooker. He boiled and let everything build up before all was lost.
It was a full minute before Joey spoke, he didn’t yell. The angrier he got the quieter his voice went. “Tristan. I haven’t had my phone for three days. Three whole days. Go get me yours, now, before I throw you overboard.”
Tristan nodded and stood as fast as he could. “Okay. Okay.” He ran off, getting yelled at for running but he ignored it.
A few minutes later he came back with his own cell phone. Joey had picked up the pieces of his own phone and was trying to put it back together, but the screen was completely dead. When he heard Tristan, which was long before he actually arrived, he looked up at him. He had calmed down, but only slightly. At least he could force himself to sound normal now.
“Thank God James bought you a new cell phone.” He took the smart phone from Tristan as soon as he was in arm’s reach. Up until a month ago Tristan and Roy had both had plain slider phones. Roy still refused to get something fancy but when James offered a new phone, Tristan went along with it.
“I’m still really sorry, Joey.” Tristan said. He really was too. Tristan might’ve been constantly destructive, but he was also constantly genuinely sorry.
Joey waved him off. “You owe me a new phone though.” When you lived with Tristan you got used to this kind of insanity.
Tristan nodded. “Alright.” He slipped back into the seat across from Joey and started on his sandwich.
Joey returned to the conversation he had been having. He typed in her number before sending a message.
‘Hey, sorry. My brother destroyed my phone.’
‘Ouch. How are you going to survive?’
‘I’m not completely dependent on my phone you know.’
‘Oh whatever.’ She had almost fallen asleep waiting for him to answer. It was almost six am on the west coast and she had yet to sleep. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t already pulled several all nighters in a row. She had been working on writing a new program. To put it lightly, she really got lost in her work.
‘You sure you don’t want to sleep?’
‘I’m fine. What time do you guys leave the US’s mini me? ‘ It had been a few days since she spoke to him, which felt odd to her. She didn’t realize how much she talked to him until she didn’t for a few days.
‘4pm.’
‘You should go explore.’ That meant 11am her time. That meant she needed another energy drink and a really good movie. Maybe a few. She got up and got a Monster from her fridge and put The Amazing Spider-Man into her DVD player.
‘Explore? It’s hot as Tartarus here.’
‘Tartarus? Curse Apollo. I thought you were going to go work on your tan?’
‘Ha. Ha. So funny. The sun here would probably turn me into a lobster.’
‘Yum.’ She went to the DVD features menu and selected subtitles before hitting play.
‘No. Seafood is for people too sissy for real meat.’
She glanced down from her movie to see the text. ‘That’s a strong opinion. Didn’t you say one of your brothers are a bunch of seafood yesterday?’ She had to turn her attention back to the tv rather quickly, the energy drink had yet to kick in and she didn’t want to let her brain fall idle. Con #1 to being deaf: Having the volume on the tv, no matter how loud, does not keep you awake.
‘Yeah. The youngest. If you knew him you’d just further agree with my opinion.’ All of a sudden there was laughing in his ear.
He jumped up out of his chair. “What the- Tristan?! Were you reading over my shoulder?!”
He laughed in response.
“I’d throw this phone at you if I wasn’t relying on it for entertainment.” Joey snapped as he started walking away.
“Hey! Wait! I wasn’t laughing at you! I was laughing at Roy! Who are you talking to anyways.” Tristan hurried after him.
“You don’t know her.”
“Ooohhhh. Herrrrr? Joey’s talking to a girl? What’s her name?”
“Shut up, Tristan.” He rolled his eyes, he shouldn’t have said anything.
“C’mon. Just tell me her name.”
Joey knew he’d never shut up if he didn’t just tell him. “I call her Zola.”
“Zola? That’s a weird name.” Tristan never meant anything as an insult, he just didn’t really have a filter.
“It’s her screen name. Not her actual name.” Really it was only part of her screen name, but regardless, it’s what everyone online called her.
“Do you know her real name?”
“Of course I do.” He rolled his eyes. He wasn’t lying. Her name was Lucy, it just felt weird to call her that after calling her Zola online for such a long time.
“But you continue to call her by her screen name? You are such a geek.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Are we going on land today?” He asked, anything to get the topic changed.
“You’ll go on land with me?!” Tristan jumped up and down in excitement.
Joey was heading back towards the room. “Yeah, if you promise to not break anything else of mine.”
“Okay!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The horn blew loud and Joey sighed heavily.
‘We’re taking off. Talk to you in a few days.’
‘You make it sound like your in a plane.’
‘Disembarking, whatever.’
‘Talk to you later.’ She responded to him.
The bars on his phone disappeared too quickly to respond.
Without the constant buzzing of her phone Lucy fell asleep in a few minutes.
echoinkk 