Michelle's POV:
"Are you sure you have everything?" Gil raised his soft blond eyebrow. I smiled, zipping up my read duffle bag. I swung it on my shoulder, it didn't seem heavy enough for two weeks, even though I knew I'd be 'borrowing' all the cute clothes from my friends and family. "Because if you forget anything, I can't just drive down the street and give it to you." I looked up at the young man, about a foot taller than me, at his worried blue eyes. It wasn't too far, just a thirty minute car ride….and about five hours on a plane.
"I have everything." I said, snapping my guitar case shut, and turning off my lamp,
"Michelle, are you sure? You are a very forgetful person. Do you have enough shirts?"
"Yes."
"Shorts?"
"Yes." I walked out of my bedroom.
"Underwear?" His voice lowered.
"Guillermo!" I laughed, closing the door behind me. "That's just awkward. Go warm up the car; I need to check my grades. I don't get out of 9th grade to go on a trip." He took my guitar and duffle, and went out the door. I sat on the familiar couch and got my lap top out of my backpack. I giggled at my screen of the best band in the world, One Direction. I checked my grades and slipped it back in my bag when the honking of the car got more frequent.
"What took you so long?" Drooling over that screen of yours again." Gil laughed. I stuck my tongue out at him.
"You don't understand the dedication." I playfully punched him, on the shoulder of his orange and black varsity jacket. His large fingers ran into my thick brown hair, and let his hand spazz. "Just drive would you?" I fixed my hair in the rear-view mirror as he backed out of the driveway. "Do you know how to get to the airport?"
"From my house yes." Gil said, "That's why were leaving so early."
"I wish we were at your house." I said putting my feet on the dash board.
"Me too." His voice was mumbled from his hand over his mouth, scratching his stubble. "We would be if we were siblings." I turned up the radio to drown out the silence, and looked out the window at the March snow. After a few minutes of Lady GaGa, I finally spoke.
"There won't be any snow there." I smiled looking at him.
"Well, duh, it's like seventy degrees there…..or I guessing setenta?" He asking knowing almost no Spanish, which was weird from him coming from a completely Latino background.
"Si." I laughed. "I'm hungry. Can we go to McDonalds? Please?" He shook his head. I tilted my chin slightly down, moved the hair out of my face, stuck my bottom lip out, and forced my eyes to water, looking up at him.
"Don't give me that face. Oh, those beautiful eyes." Gil said, his head moving back from me to the road. Finally after a minute of me keeping up my face, he pulled off the high way, and went to the drive though. He ordered me a happy meal, my usual. I ate, giggling every once and away, while going down the road. Finally we made it to the air ports parking lot. "I cannot believe you made us stop for a burger. But, you're going to be away for awhile, I want you to have a photo of me. Give me your passport." I reached down into my back pocket.
"I think we may need to go home. I forgot my passport. Sorry."
"You really need to think more often sometimes." Gil said, he didn't talk at all on the way back home, and on the way back. We were speeding, with no noise at all, I knew he was mad. He took my bags into the air port, and went through security. "Where's B5?"
"I don't know. After B4?" I smiled, couldn't helping but making a smart-Alec joke. "Oh, there it is, they're loading onto the plane now." I said and looked over at him, he nodded, letting my hand go. Right before going on, I turned around to see him trying to blend into the crowd of people, but standing a head taller than everyone and that bright blond head, he was hard to miss. He smiled at me, his hands in his pockets and left.
Gil's POV:
She's too young. Fourteen is too young. Is all that would process in my mind, driving down the highway. I couldn't help but realize the faint scent of vanilla she had left behind. The converse dirt marks, still shaded the dashboard. And her McDonald Superman action figure stood next to the wheel. "Guillermo, why'd you let her go?" I asked myself. My fingers drummed nervously on the wheel. "Calm down boy. Ugh, I'm talking to myself again." The phone rang. My stepsister, I answered. "Hello?"
"Hey, Gilly." She said cheerfully. "Is she gone?" I didn't answer. "Oh, wonderful. Did you tell her, that you love her?"
"I don't love her in that way." I grumbled. "She's my sister. Not biologically, not a step-sister like you. But, she's still my sister. You don't understand."
"Understand what?"
"What it was like! Before you came along. Before Greg came along! Before Raul went to live with dad. Everything stops when she smiles, because for so long she didn't smile." I yelled into the phone before, letting it drop into the cup holder.
Everything in me, was telling me to turn around. To catch a last minute plane. Everything was telling me that something was going to happen to her. She grew up to fast. The little girl I gave piggy backs to is now on a plane alone. To a little Island called Puerto Rico.