Thanks for the feedback on the previous chapter and I hope that you all will like this too. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas on what Alex problem is?
---
Chapter 16 first real stop
Alex had been working at the boat like she had planned and during the time that she had been working she had gotten closer to Marissa.
And it had been nice and actually pretty fun; she had realized why she had been friends with the lanky girl in the first place before they had started to date. So maybe they would be better friends than they had been before and this trip was a great way to get a start of that.
////
It was time for them to make a first real stop; they had been docking in different harbors along the way or a day or two but in a day they would be stopping for a longer time, from what the blonde knew it would be about a week.
And Alex couldn't wait to get a chance to discover what Machu Picchu was about, it had been something that she always had wanted to see and now she had a chance. The truth was that she wanted to see this with Marissa.
"Alex!"
"Marissa!" Alex answered as cheerful as Marissa had said her name, almost mocking her.
"Don't do that." Marissa said with a laugh.
"Don't do that." Alex repeated and also started to laugh. "Okay, I'll stop. What did you want?"
"I was thinking that we could do something when we stop in Peru tomorrow."
"That sounds great I was going to ask you too." Alex said. "I was thinking for trying to get this Inca town, you know Machu Picchu."
"I would love to see that but it's really hard to get there." Marissa said with a little hesitation, sure she wanted to spend some time with Alex but doing that didn't sound that appealing. "So I don't think that we should be doing that."
"Okay we can decide on that later but what do you want to do then instead?"
"I don't know." Marissa said.
"Just think about what you want to do and tell me." Alex said and with that she left the girl alone.
////
Marissa was sitting alone in what was her room at the boat thinking about what Alex had told her. It was quite the hike to get to that Inca town and that wasn't something that Marissa wanted to do but then it was the idea of spending time with Alex.
She had to talk to someone that could give her, an answer to what she was going to do or at least have some one that she could complain to. The big question here was who she was going to call, Summer or Kaitlin? Both of them would tell her to go with Alex in the end but who would listen to her complain without telling her to stop bitching.
////
Jimmy had heard what Marissa and Alex had been talking about and he knew that this would be a great chance for them to really talk about what they were going to do.
Maybe there was something that he could do to help them along the way. All he wanted was for his baby girl that wasn't as little anymore would be happy and from what he knew from her and some other people she had been happy for awhile during the time that she had been with the blonde.
He knew that there was something that was weighing the older one of them down but he had no idea what it was and he had a feeling that Alex was going to feel better if she told someone what was going on.
////
"Alex?" Jimmy said as he knocked on the blondes' door.
"yeah." He could hear her say. "You can come on in."
"Thanks." Jimmy said as he walked inside the room, looking at the blonde girl. "So I was just wondering if you had something planned while we were here?"
"I was thinking about trying to get to Machu Picchu but I'm not sure if that is possible." Alex said.
"That sounds nice." Jimmy said. "I've noticed that there is something going on. So if you want to talk about it I'm here for you."
"Thanks and I'll remember that." Alex said. "And I don't think that I'm ready for that just yet."
////
"Okay." Marissa said as she saw the blonde sitting at a table waiting eating breakfast, which was strange. "And I didn't think that you did breakfast."
"Oh, I do breakfast now." Alex said with a smirk. "So what was it that you wanted?"
"I just thought that we should be some exploring together today and maybe some other day too." Marissa said.
"I can do that." Alex said. "So we are heading out later after you have eaten?"
"Yep." Marissa said with a smile." And I think that I want a shower first too."
////
The two girls walk together at the city where they had docked.
They had gotten to a market, and just walked around looking at the things that were there, this was a nice way to get to know the place that they were staying at and at the same time spending some time together.
"Did you see that?" Alex asked as they had passed by someone that was selling something and had tried to talk to them and of course sell them something.
"Yeah." Marissa said and laughed. "You do know that he was looking at you right?"
"No he wasn't looking at me." Alex said, and looked back at the man that they had passed. "He was looking at you."
"No." Marissa said, and looped their arms together.
"He so was." Alex teased.
The two of them continued this walk and every time they passed by someone that looked at them they couldn't help but to teas each other.
This was something that helped to get closer to what they had once shared.
////
As they had gotten back to the boat, they had walked in different ways they had the same things running through their heads.
Alex was laying on her bed thinking, what did this really mean? Did this mean that there was something there that she hadn't wanted to acknowledge or was it just old feelings that had resurfaced now and would go away again or was this real.
Was this how she felt and what did Marissa think of this? Did the same things run through the other girls head? Alex just wished that she knew what was going on in that other head.
////
Marissa was sitting at the deck on the boat just looking out over the ocean, like she had done so many times before. But those times she had been on the on the beach looking out on the Pacific from Newport and this time she was looking out on the same ocean but she was on a ship with the person that was haunting her mind and had been doing that more or less for the last couple of years. That blonde hair, those blue eyes, it was almost too much for her, she though. Almost being the most important word in that, almost.
She had almost told Alex back then that she loved her, almost, she had be too afraid of what that would mean but now, now she had another chance.
"What should I do?" The lanky girl said to herself.
"You think you'll get an answer?" One of the men that worked on the ship asked.
"Not really." Marissa said.
"You know you should talk to your dad or that girl that is here too." He said.
"I don't think that is the best idea." Marissa sighed.
"Just tell her what you are thinking."
"What are you talking about?" The brunette asked, she didn't think it was that obvious that she had Alex on her mind and now this man said that she should tell her. That's a big no, no.
"What do you have to lose?"
"Everything." Marissa sighed. "You see she has been back in my life for like two months and now all of these things are just coming back just like that."
"Just like that?" the man asked. "I don't believe you, it's not just like that."
"What do you know?" Marissa said with anger in her voice.
"I know more than you think." He said. "You do what you feel is the right thing to do and when you are ready but don't ignore it."
Marissa couldn't believe what she was hearing and who was this man. He had just walked up to her and talked to her, and she had never seen him around. But he was nice.
////
"hey." Alex said as she answered her phone.
"You know." the other person said. "You don't have to tell me dad all of that those things."
"How would I get the money if I didn't tell him what he needed to know?" Alex asked.
"Okay." He said. "So what is this all about?"
"I needed the money and you owed me and it just so happened that you were the first one that I wanted to collect from." Alex said.
"But Alex I'm like your brother."
"Seth. You are not like my brother." Alex said. "Just think about what you said."
"Fine. I'm not your brother but I'm like your best friend." Seth said and Alex could almost hear him smirk through the phone.
"No you are not my best friend." Alex said.
"Yeah, yeah you say that." Seth said. "So what is this all about you and my dad talking like business?"
"That's for me to know and for you to find out about." Alex said. "So you have paid your debts to me and is there another reason for you to call me?"
"I was thinking that you maybe had a video or two and maybe some photos." Seth said.
"And what do you mean by that?"
"You know you and Marissa all alone on a big boat." Seth said. "And you don't have anything to do."
"I and Marissa are just friends and that is all that we are going to be." Alex said.
"My friend I think you try to deny to hard." Seth said. "Just send me a copy when you have one."
"Can I talk to your dad for a second?" the blonde asked, not feeling like talking to curly haired boy anymore when he as acting this way.
"Fine." Seth grunted as only he could. "Dad!" Alex could hear him yell.
"So I heard that you wanted to talk to me." Sandy said as he got the phone.
"Yeah. It'll just take a sec or so." Alex said.
"I have time just tell me what you wanted to talk about."
"I was just wondering how things were going." Alex said.
"It's no problem; I'm going to meet up with a potential buyer tomorrow." Sandy said. "And after that I'll know more and I'll try to get in touch with you then."
"Thanks, all you have done so far means a lot to me and I can say thank you enough." Alex said, feeling a bit more at ease but she was not feeling great, she had this nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong.
"What is this all about?" Sandy asked.
"I just have some hospital bills that I have to pay." Alex said. "And I don't feel like going in on that at the moment but you will find out sooner or later."
"You do know that you can trust me." Sandy said with as much understanding as he could.
"I know that but I'm not ready for everyone to find out just yet."
With that they ended their call and Alex felt like this might go the way that she had hoped and maybe this was the start of this new life that she wanted and she was not ready to live that life just yet but she was getting closer. She felt safe in this little lie that she had created, but it was no real lie, she had just not told the whole truth.