Allure of the Seas Ch.01

"We have to make it to the bar before we leave!"

"Why?" I was closing the gap between us and caught up to him, latching myself onto his arm.

"Traditional pina coladas before we take off!"

"I don't even like pina coladas!" I yelled to him, but not even that would stop him from charging forward to the edge of the swarm.

We burst through the crowd and into an open area where we made a mad dash for the bar, where Julian and my Dad were already sitting. "We didn't think you were gonna make it."

"How did you two get out here so fast?"

"Dedication." Julian pulled two glasses from behind him, filled to the brim with an icy white slush.

"Cheer, boys." He and my Dad clinked glasses with us just as the horn went off, signifying our departure. The boat rocked at first, then became steady as it compensated for the abrupt start.

We took off out of the harbor and would continue to sail into the distance until the shoreline turned to nothing more than a blip on the horizon.

"I don't even like pina coladas." I repeated, hoping somebody would hear my pleas this time.

"Doesn't matter." Julian declared, taking a sip of his foamy drink. "They're the traditional first drink, and you can't make fun of 'em of I'll kick your ass." Tough guy defending a girly drink, now I've seen everything.

We finished our drinks while watching the land shrivel away. "It's gonna be a good week." My Dad slapped me on the back and they turned back to the bartender. "Reggie, I'm going to need a steady stream of drinks to be served to me all week. Can I count on you to provide them?"

"Without a doubt, sir." The man behind the bar had a South African accent, and was currently pouring scotch into two glasses for our Fathers.

"Let's go get some waffles, man." John encouraged me. The two of us took off for the Windjammer, a huge restaurant where the food was all-inclusive. Once we got there, it was impossible to resist the urge to pile anything I saw onto my plate.

I had waffles, Caesar salad, pasta with cream sauce, a milkshake, and a pulled pork sandwich. John's plate was just as overstuffed, and we silently accepted the shame of eating such a ridiculously large amount of food.

We joked and ate with our mouths open, not concerned over being polite when it was just us guys.

"You remember Jennifer right?" John took a big bite of a drumstick and chased it with a mouthful of creamed corn and bacon bits.

"Mosely, or Westwood?" I inquired.

"Mosely."

"Cheerleader, popular in high school, what about her?"

"Check it out; before we left, she sent me this." He whipped his phone from his pocket and scrolled across to a picture of a girl dressed in a sheer black bra and underwear.

"That's Jennifer?" Her face was out of the frame, so I didn't recognize the blonde bombshell.

"Hell yes it is."

"You gonna do anything about it?" I was acting casual about the fact that for some reason one of the hottest girls from our high school was sending pictures like that to my friend. Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad looking guy. But she could have her pick from any guy she wanted, it was weird that she reached out to somebody she hadn't seen in years.

"Probably not, too much hassle."

Just as I was nodding in response, I looked up and saw Kristin sitting with another girl from across the restaurant. "Van, over there, that's Kristin." I pointed quickly in their direction, not wanting to be seen paying too much attention to them. Once he had enough of a lead to follow my gaze, I dropped my eyes back down to my pasta.

He followed my pointing and his gaze landed on the two girls. "Holy fuckballs, which one is her?"

"The one on the left."

"Damn. Good luck, brother. Who's that with her?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"You're the one that talked to her, for fuck's sake. Didn't you learn anything about her?"

"Yeah, we like the same type of music." I hadn't even realized until now just how little she told me about herself.

"That's it?"

"I'll get more later." I reached over and tried to knock his sandwich from his hands but he pulled away.

"Well, I've seen all I need to. Her sister, or cousin or best friend or whatever, is stunning." John continued to fawn over the blonde companion to the brown haired girl of my attention. "I'll help you score with her."

"Just for the record though, I would be able to do it on my own." I clarified, picking up a bite of waffle, pork, and French fries.

"Right, totally, you just aren't gonna have to prove that."

"You're fixing for a smack, kid." I hissed at him, mid-bite.

Kristin glanced over and saw me looking in her direction. She waved at me and I waved back. John joined in the waving and didn't bother hiding his desperation to be introduced.

"Be patient, you'll meet her." I knew he was waving for too long on purpose, but Kristin seemed light-hearted enough to laugh at his awkwardness.

I turned back to my friend and laid out plans for the night; we were going to finish our food and then make a beeline for the bar. It was just past noon, but we were determined to get day drunk on our first day at sea.

While discussing our plans, Kristin and her friend had gotten up and left. I cursed silently, not sure why I was upset at all that they had gone elsewhere. "So first," John polished off his plate by swallowing the last bite of pasta salad he had left. "We need to go get mojitos, and we need to get a good buzz going on before we explore this boat."

"Deal." I, too, put the finishing touches on cleaning my plate. We strolled from the Windjammer and made our way to the nearest alcohol dispensing unit.

Behind the bar was a man with a Hawaiian shirt on. "What can I get for you two gentlemen?" He was polishing the inside of a glass and bouncing to the beat of the exotic music that was booming over the speakers hanging off the ceiling of the bar.

"Two mojitos, please." John handed him his key card and it was billed to his room.

"Man, you don't have to pay for me."

"I'm sure you'll be paying for plenty of drinks this week, this is me paying you back in advance." We sat side by side on the orange barstools and waited for our drinks to be made. The nametag on our bartender read 'Charlie' and we introduced ourselves.

"Nice to meet you guys. What brings you on the boat? Booze, adventure, or babes?" He set our minty drinks down and continued to wipe down the bar and tidy up from our drink preparation.

"Are those our only options?" I asked as I sipped my drink, absolutely blown away with how flavourful it was. "Oh, Charlie, you wonderful man."

"You like, huh?" He nodded his head in a cocky way; he knew he made a good mojito.

"I came for a mixture of all three. My friend here," John poked me in the chest. "Must've come for the girls, because he's already found one he's got his sights set on."

"She cute?" Our bartender asked.

"Oh, she cute alright." John laughed and clinked glasses with me, laughing through my eye rolls.

We proceeded to spend the next hour getting acquainted with Charlie and his bar, learning his schedule so we could get drinks specifically from him whenever possible, on the promise that he make our drinks extra strong and we tip extra well.

Charlie explained that he had come from a small family, didn't ever see his Dad much when he was young due to a divorce, so he was basically raised alongside his sister, Annabelle, by their older sister. "I'm happy everything turned out okay, man." I raised my glass for him, my third glass, to be specific.

"Hell yeah, it did. Now I get to work on this boat year round. Know what beats living in the tropics all the time?"

"What's that?" John seemed curiously intrigued.

"Not a goddamn thing." Charlie slammed the bar counter and John recoiled in surprise. "It's the best, man!"

We cheered along with him and ordered a fourth mojito. "Charlie, my friend, I think this may be our last drink for a couple hours." John regretfully saluted him and he stood at attention as we bowed to him and took our drinks with us towards the upper level of the deck.

There were an outstretched army of white lounge chairs, most of them dotted with people trying to relax, tan, put sunscreen on their screaming kid. This is vacation, folks.

"Here's what I'm thinkin,"John afraid to finish his mojito too quickly without being able to refill it, and as such was being very careful with how often he took swigs from it. "First, we go to the Promenade and get some pizza, since it's free, then we go check out that adults club."

"I can dig it."

After some shaky navigation, we made it to the lower deck to the Promenade; a strip of stores and boutiques, with everything from a cupcake shop to a fine tailor, a dance club and a pizza place.

We were limited to one slice per pick up, and we grumbled as we took our wedge of dough and melted cheese. "Do you guys have salsa?" I asked skeptically.

"We only sell pizza." The employee behind the counter looked bored and annoyed at my question.

"I know, but could you just check?" I begged. With a sigh, he disappeared to the back while I waited patiently for him to emerge. When he finally did, there was a jar of salsa in his hands.

"I don't know why we have this back there, but is that what you want?" He handed me a small cup of the chunky, red mixture and I thanked him. Arranged neatly in our booth, Giovanni and I devoured our pizza.

Something magical was taking place at the cozy little pizza joint, named Sorrento's, and it was a magical something that I wanted to experience every day. If I wasn't a stickler for variety, I'd eat every meal here.

The dough had the right amount of softness under the cheese, while keeping the bottom crusty and crunchy. No cheese in my life had ever matched the goopy, stringy delight that was spread handsomely across the slice. It was melted to perfection; just until there were tiny specks of charring appearing on the cheese, and curling the edges of the pepperoni. Speaking of pepperoni, if you haven't had Sorrento's pepperoni then you're missing out in the worst kind of way. It approached with blunt savory, saltyness, but would then leave you with traces of spice as you zoned in on your next bite.

Truly perfection, ladies and gentlemen.

"Nothing makes me crave pizza more than alcohol does, is that weird?" John tossed his crusts onto my plate, knowing I'd want to finish them rather than letting them go to waste.

"If it's weird, then I'm in the same weird boat as you." I finished off the remainder of the pizza and dusted off my hands.

"What're ya thinkin, man?" John leaned back in his chair and drummed on the tabletop.

"That adult club you mentioned, think you can find it?"

"No doubt, no doubt." He got up from his seat and we both engaged in a mission to find our destination. There were maps strewn across nearly every other wall, making it very difficult to get lost. Without much struggle, we found our way to the elevators and took one up to the appropriate floor.

The pod raised rapidly above the ground floor of the Promenade, backed by a glass wall so we could watch the ground shrink away from us with every level we soared past.

All that could be heard were screams and loud laughter from around the corner from where we deemed the entrance to the club to be. Rounding the corner proved that we were in the right spot, but it sure as hell wasn't a club for people our age.

"I don't think they let in people over 18." John peered in and had to pull his head back to narrowly avoid being clobbered by a plastic chair. "Yeah, there are a lot of children in there."

Behind us, there were a group of people that looked to be about our age. We approached them and asked if we were in the right spot, even though we were pretty confident we were.

"You must've read the description wrong online, like we did." A blonde haired guy announced, looking strangely look a stereotypical surfer. All he was missing were the puka shells. "It was an adult club last year, they renovated it and forgot to change the shit online."

"My name is Dora," The girl beside him reached out and shook our hands, then pointing to her surfer friend. "This is Craig, and that's Soupy." She directed our attention to a guy with wide-rimmed glasses and ruffled brown hair sitting by a sliding glass door leading outside.

"What's up?" He raised a hand in our direction.

"Nothing much, man. Why do they call you Soupy?" John asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

"My last name is Campbell." I guess he thought Soupy was less puzzling than that.

The five of us decided to take over a section of lounge chairs in the sun, getting drinks for anybody who wasn't already holding one. John and I made sure to bring our new friends to Charlie so he would make bigger tips. He aimed a silent nod at us as he assembled the various orders being flung at him, all the while having his tip jar stuffed higher and higher with bills.

There was a girl with black hair sitting at the bar, twirling her straw around in her frosty, red drink.

"Strawberry daiquiri?" I asked, pulling up beside her. I must've snapped her from a daydream, because she snapped her head up and took a moment to find the words to respond to me.

"Um. Yes, yes it is."

"Wanna know a secret?" I leaned in closer to her and whispered; "They're one of my favourite drinks."

A look of fake surprise crossed her face. "But sir, you aren't a lady. This is a lady's drink!" She was playfully taunting me, snickering as she took a pull on her straw and sampled the icy red mush.

"That's the beauty of the world we live in today, a man can drink anything he wants." She laughed and I introduced myself. "My name is Jasper, this is my friend Giovanni."

"Please, call me John." At the mention of his name, he immediately clued in to our conversation.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She apologized to me. "I've got a boyfriend, I'm not interested."

A look of disbelief must've crossed my face because she immediately backtracked. "I'm sorry, I thought you were hitting on me."

I calmed my facial expression and asked her if she wanted to join us for a drink, to which she happily accepted. I pointed to Craig, Dora, and Soupy, introducing them in order.

The six of us talked for a long time about everything ranging from horror stories about our school, to our current jobs, to our favourite movies and music. We only had three lounge chairs split between the lot of us, but we made it work.

I learned that Kelly and her boyfriend dated for three years before he asked her to marry him a few weeks ago. "I got scared and told him I needed time to myself, which any of you living with your boyfriend or girlfriend will understand."

"Amen." Soupy knocked his glass against hers and they silently bonded over the spark that their freedom on the massive boat had given them. We all

looked at him for an explanation. "My girlfriend and I have been living together for about two years, but she took a month to fly to India for a journalism project. It's the first time I've been alone for more than twenty four hours in over a year."

Now, the whole group was trying to force in their two cents about how Kelly should handle her relationship. For a bunch of single people, we all had surprisingly strong opinions on how couples should act.

"So, what are you gonna tell him when you get back?" Dora asked.

"I don't know yet, that's why I took this vacation. All year I've been badgered with clients trying to do anything they can to piss me off, and it just got under my skin." Kelly finished her drink and leaned back in the lounge chair.

"What do you do for a living that your clients are such shitty people?"

"I run my own cupcake shop. It's an amazing job, don't get me wrong, but some people are so demanding. Everybody wants their cupcakes a special way, but they suck at baking so they ask me. But I'll be damned if they don't still try and get involved anyway."

"With that type of chipper business, it's sad knowing there's such a seedy underbelly to it." I shook my head, pausing when I looked over and saw Kristin walking over with the same blonde haired girl from earlier. Their path led them Charlie at the bar, and I excused myself to freshen my drink.

Kristin had changed since I last saw her, now dressed in a purple bikini with a thin cotton shirt draped over her as well. The shirt was low hanging enough that it didn't do much to cover her miraculously compelling breasts. Two perfectly shaped, cream coloured melons, with little nubs poking from the center where her nipples had clearly been affected by the cold wind whipping by us. There was no way they were smaller than a C-cup, but that wasn't even her most jaw dropping feature.

When she leaned over the counter and called to Charlie, I couldn't tear myself away from the overwhelming attraction I felt for her ass. It was like it was sculpted by gods, her swimsuit perfectly caressing her carefully jiggling bottom. The green string from the bottom portion of her suit was riding up just enough that the edges of her incredible butt were peeking out, vying for my attention against her tanned legs.

Toned, slender, and beautiful. It was next to impossible to stop myself from drooling, but something about being known as "the guy who spaces out for minutes at a time" wasn't very enticing, so I got my head together.

"Banana smoothie, with rum please." Kristin's voice was like a peaceful melody as she hummed her order to the bartender. It even sounded sweet ordering her friend's drink; a whisky sour. Thanks to the encoding on our key cards, carrying ID around wasn't an issue. If you were 21, it said so on your card and they was enough to get you booze.

Charlie glanced in my direction and I lifted my card for him to see, tapping it and pointing to Kristin, then making a drinking motion like I was playing charades. When she handed Charlie her card, he was forced to return it to her. "Sorry, ma'am, but I think somebody just bought your drink for you."

"Somebody did, Charlie." I climbed onto the barstool beside Kristin and caught her attention. "Me." Maybe my smile was a little self-assured, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Mr. Callaghan, I didn't think I'd run in to you so soon." There was a thick layer of charm coating her words that told me she'd been drinking, tied with the faint smell of previously consumed banana smoothies. With rum, of course.

"It's amazing what can happen when you take chance into your own hands."

"I still have to pay for my own drink, then?" Her friend had one eyebrow raised with her head cocked.

"That depends on whether or not you let me introduce you to my friend over there. Speaking of friends," I glanced back at Kristin. "Who have you forgotten to introduce to me?"

I was given the rundown of the connection between Kristin and Erica, as I came to know her. They were cousins, both there with their families. Erica had come onboard with her parents, Mike and Sally, and her brother Chuck. Expecting the same details from Kristin, I was thrown off to learn that she had only come aboard with her Mother; Tabitha.

"My Dad left us when I was really little, and left us with a lot of debt. We wouldn't have survived at all, my Mom and me, if Erica's family hadn't taken us in." With just that one sentence it was easy to feel the strong connective glue that was binding these girls together. We stayed quiet for a moment, nobody sure of how to add on to that.

"Well, listen, I know it's only the first day out here, but I'd really like it if you came and had drinks with us. I know Van would be happy to get to know you." I left the decision up to Erica, knowing based on Kristin's body language that she was itching to join us.

"Which one is he? Van, you said?" She scanned the three males sitting by the lounge chairs.