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I decide not to respond to her since we’re one street away from our date destination. I’m surprised she hasn’t guessed it the entire drive. There isn’t much out here that could be worthy of bringing someone on a date.
As I turn the Jeep to the left, a giant sign comes into view and Blaire gasps beside me. “No way. Camden, are you taking me to the aquarium?” she asks with excitement in her voice.
Based off of her reaction, my mom’s suggestion to bring Blaire somewhere where we could walk around and talk was great. At first, I thought maybe the pier out by the beach and my mom suggested a museum, which I would fall asleep at, but the aquarium downtown has been a place I loved visiting since my first school field trip in fifth grade.
“Sure am,” I tell her. “It’s not stuffy like some fancy restaurant and who doesn’t love looking at all the funky sea creatures.” That part is my favorite because Tampa has one of the largest aquariums in the state.
As I pull into the parking garage, I can sense Blaire’s growing excitement. “You know I’ve never actually been to an aquarium. We didn’t have one close by in the town I grew up in, so there were never any school field trips. The administration tried fighting for funding to get the students to the Dallas aquarium, but that was way out of budget for our small school.”
“You’re from Texas? I could hear a bit of an accent but couldn’t pinpoint which state.” She doesn’t have a strong Southern accent, but it’s faintly there. Sometimes it comes out more when she rambles.
“Yeah, born and raised in a small town there,” she tells me as I take our parking ticket from the machine. The gate goes up, and I drive through to look for a spot.
Once I find a spot, we jump out of the car. Blaire has an easier time getting out than she did getting in. “What made you want to come to Braxton U?” I ask her as we round the back of my car. I resist the urge to grab her hand as we walk, knowing that would probably be too much for her too soon.
She bites her lip before answering. “Oh, you know, just wanted a change of scenery. There wasn’t much left for me in Texas and Florida seemed like a great place to start over.”
“You don’t miss your family or anything?”
She laughs. “No. My parents and I have been estranged for quite some time now. There was nothing left for me back there. Braxton has become my home these last few years.” Blaire says every word with such honesty even though I can’t imagine not seeing or talking to my mom or sister.
“I can understand estranged family relationships. Don’t get me wrong, I’m close as hell to my mom and Trazia, but my dad walked out on us when I was eight and my sister was only five, for some twenty-something-year-old assistant at his job. He tried coming back into our lives when I was fifteen and after the girlfriend had drained him of all his money. None of us were having any of it. My mom threatened to call the police on him.” I laugh at the memory of my mom looking at my father with such disgust as he was on his hands and knees, begging for another chance. “After that, she ended up telling me about his years of cheating and how she didn’t accept a cent from him in child support after he left.”
We round the corner of the last set of stairs in the parking garage and when I look at Blaire, there is such admiration in her eyes.
“Wow, your mom is such a strong woman. I can’t imagine being a single mom and raising two kids on my own.”
“Yeah, that’s why I worked so hard to get this scholarship to Braxton. Soccer got me into college, and even if I’m not able to make a career out of it like I want to, having my kinesiology degree opens enough doors for me to make some good money and take care of her.”
Ever since learning my mom has been doing everything on her own and not taking any money from my sorry excuse of a father, I went into overdrive and made sure I would get into college and get a good job to make something of myself so she can retire early, or at least cut back to one job. Now that it’s just her and Trazia at home and my scholarship allows me enough for living expenses, she doesn’t work three jobs like she used to and works one full-time and another every other weekend. To me, it is still too much, but she swears she likes the hard work.
As we approach the front of the building and the line to wait and buy our tickets, Blaire looks over at me. Her eyes are soft and her body leans into mine, close but not touching it. “I think you’re going to do amazing things with your life, Camden. I can tell by the way you talk about it you’re determined. Whether it’s soccer or something else, you’ll achieve it.”
Having Blaire say what she said means more to me than I think she will know. For years I have pushed myself at practices when my body screamed at me to stop and would end up going home to sit in an ice bath and study. My life revolved around soccer and having a good enough GPA to get into college, plus a little extracurricular activities on the side to relieve the stress.
Instead of responding to her, I reach down and give her hand a tight squeeze. As I pull it away, the teller at the counter calls us over to purchase the tickets.
Once inside the aquarium, Blaire’s eyes go wide, and her mouth hangs open as she takes everything in. “Wow, they just have fish swimming all around us like that. I feel like I’m in a submarine in the ocean or something.”
Watching her take in everything around us reminds me of my excitement the first time I came here. When you walk into the entryway of the aquarium, the wall on the left side is stretched to the second floor with glass and behind it are fish of every color and size. Blaire is right, it does make you feel like you are in a submarine. In front of us, there’s a set of wide stairs that leads you to the second floor, and that has an outdoor area with some land animals. To the left is where you start your walkthrough with a dark tunnel that brings you to the shark exhibit and other creatures that live in the deep parts of the ocean.
I grab Blaire’s hand and bring her that way. She makes ahuffsound but doesn’t break our connection. “Come on, there’s a lot to see, so let’s get started.
13
BLAIRE
This has got to be the best date in the history of dates. Although I really don’t have anything to compare it to, I can’t imagine anything being better.
Camden has blown away any expectations I had for today. I would have been happy to just spend time with him talking but can’t deny that this is pretty great. The aquarium is filled with many colorful sea creatures I never even knew existed. The shark exhibit housed over ten different types of sharks. Some of them I recognized, like the hammerhead, but others were gross-looking and a bit scary.
As we walked through the dark section, Camden’s hand never left mine. He told me about growing up in Tampa and how he got into soccer. Although he wanted to know about my life back in Texas, he caught on that it is something I did not want to talk about and instead changed the subject to my first two years at Braxton.
On the first floor and outside, we were able to see more types of fish than I have ever before, touched and got splashed on by stingrays, and were able to feed some dolphins and watch them perform tricks instructed by the handlers. One dolphin didn’t have a tail and the handler explained to us that they believe she may have been in a fight and some fishermen found her and the aquarium was able to rehabilitate her and even attach a prosthetic to assist her with swimming. Today she wasn’t wearing it but seemed to be getting by perfectly fine.
Now we are walking through the second floor in an area that reminds me of a swamp. The tanks start at the floor and end around our chest area and are filled with water and tree roots that large fish are swimming through. Some of the tanks have ducks sitting above the water or relaxing on rocks.
Camden’s hand has been clasped in mine as we stroll through the walkway between the many tanks. I’m less nervous around him. He has not tried anything besides holding my hand. Every few minutes, he will give it a squeeze and I think that is his way of reassuring me.
