November 18 - December 2

Ohio with Doug, and back again.

All in all, what should have been a 14 hour train ride turned into 19 hours.

Now it’s time to quickly recap all that’s happened over break.

 

November 24 (?)

I saw Marina’s play rehearsal. Evan was there. He approached me. I blew him off nicely. Marina laughed.

 

Someday later

I went with Doug’s mom to Ohio to pick up Doug for his Thanksgiving break. He didn’t know I was coming. It was supposed to be a surprise, yet he wasn’t surprised. At least he was happy to see me. We fell asleep on each other for the car ride back.

 

November 27 on

I went to Ohio with Doug. We finally got to sleep overnight in the same bed together. It was nice, albeit cramped. It was an elevated twin-sized bed.

While I was there for the days that followed, there was a lot of downtime where he was in class or doing homework of talking to his friends and I was left to myself. I don’t mind being left to myself, but I wanted to be included. He wasn’t including me. And I was only in Ohio with him for so many days.

I went to two of his classes with him. The first was some kinda math class with magical chalkboards that lowered and raised with a push of a button. I was awed. I felt like I was in the beginning of a Marvel comic. To aid the sensation, the professor looked and sounded like the actor who played Doc Oc from Spiderman.

The second class I went to wasn’t as entertaining. I played checkers on my laptop while a guest lecturer spoke about feet. At the end of the presentation, everyone was given a paper quiz on it, including myself. I answered the questions for the fun of it.

All in all, my visit only started to get really good towards the end. On the last day I played a board game with Doug and all of his friends I met. It was fun. I didn’t want to go.

After I got comfortable in bed that night, I cried. I tried to be quiet about it �" I think I did a good job. I didn’t want to wake anybody up. Doug noticed. He asked me what was wrong. I shook my head. He knew why was crying. He held me.

 

Friday, December 2

We had to get up at 4 the next morning. The walk to the train station was freezing, no matter how bundled up I was. The second we got there, my train arrived and I had to go. We hugged. No tears. I left.

My nana and papa picked me up at Penn Station, New York. There wasn’t any trouble with the train this time, and that was a relief. I had a seat all to myself, and it was fantastic.

On the car ride back to my grandparents’ apartment, I was on the phone with my mom. She asked me about my trip, I told her how I had a seat to myself and all was good except for a little at the end where there were children crying. She told me about Marina’s play and how funny it was. Marina was in a long haired wig, and it looks really pretty on her.

When we got to the apartment, Nana made me linguini with store-bought clam sauce, and the thought of it now makes my mouth water and my stomach roar.

Now that it was December, it was Christmastime for me. The apartment was decorated in all silver and white. We watched It’s a Wonderful Life before going to sleep. My family stopped by to visit the next day before taking me home.