Losing Levi

"Wake up! It's Legoland day!" I hear Levi yell followed by a crushing weight on my body.

"Ok. I'm up" I couldn't sit up because he was still on top of me. I looked up and it was both of them, Levi and Jessie. Jessie was sitting on my back and Levi was lying across my legs.

"Now you two get up" They both get off me and stand up. They were both dressed and ready to go.

"I'll be ready in five minutes" What a lovely way to be woken up.

"Ok" Levi says. He sounded excited. They both start walking out.

"Don't forget swimsuits. I heard the water park is fun"

"We won't" Jessie says and closes my door.

I put on a white shirt with black stripes with a pair of black jean shorts. I brush my hair and teeth. I didn't see the point of putting makeup on if we were going to an amusement/water park. I grab what I need like my phone, keys, and sunglasses, and head downstairs. There are three backpacks packed on the counter. Clearly for the three of us. My mom was sitting in the living room.

"Hi mom" I say.

"Hi." She says back. I sat next to her.

"What's in the bags?" I ask.

"One for the three of you. It has breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, and a towel." She says.

"Thank you" I say.

"No problem" She says.

"What time do you want us home?" I ask. I'm hoping somewhat early. I would love to be able to see Casey today.

"We are having dinner at Collin's parents' house so be there by five. I'll text you the address" She says.

Well, that ruins those plans. At least I know homewrecker boyfriend's name now. A couple of minutes later Jessie, Levi, and Collin come down. Jessie was wearing a boxy yellow crop top with blue jean shorts and a belt. Who wears a belt to an amusement park? Levi was wearing a grey Lego shirt. On the top of the shirt, it said "Today I feel..." It had different Lego heads underneath with different faces on them. The different emotions were written under the heads in black. There was a head with sunglasses and it said awesome in red under it. Levi was surely feeling awesome today.

We say bye and then head out the door. I was driving, Jessie was in the passenger seat and Levi was in the back. In made himself really comfortable real quick. He put his feet up on the seats and used the door as a backrest. He brought a blanket and put it on himself. He definitely enjoyed his 18-hour drive down here.

"How long have you been driving for?" Jessie asks as I pull out of the driveway. She is probably nervous about being in the car with me.

"I got my license a month ago but before that, I had my permit and driver's ed and all that" I say.

"Have you ever driven to Orlando before?" She asks. She's for sure nervous about being in the car with me.

"Nope but I have driven to places that are an hour away" I say.

"Good enough. Better not kill us on this car ride" She turns around. "Levi sit up like a big boy" I look through the rearview mirror and he rolls his eyes at her.

"I won't kill you two" I say and laugh a bit.

"Do you have your license?" I ask.

"Not yet. My dad wanted to take me on my birthday but it was so close to the trip here that I said I don't want to" She says.

"That sucks. You should move here but not to my house. You can use your grandparent's address. Then get your permit here and then I'll teach you how to drive." I say.

"If I could, I would besides that's probably illegal" She says.

"Did you have a sweet sixteen?" I ask.

"Not really. On my actual birthday, I went out to dinner with my friends, my dad and Levi. Then everyone came back to my house." She says. It would be fun to throw her a sweet sixteen here but I don't know her that well.

"That's cute" I say.

"Did you have one?" She asks.

"Yeah. I had a big party. We rented out a room in a venue. All my friends, my family like the aunts, uncles, cousins, and Casey came" I say.

"That sounds fun" She says.

"It was" I say. It was silent except for the radio for a few minutes.

"Levi, what are you doing for your birthday?" I ask. I didn't get an answer. Jessie turns around.

"He is on his iPad and has headphones in" She reaches her arm back. I assume she touched his leg or something to get his attention.

"Yeah?" Levi says and I'm assuming takes his headphones off.

"What do you want to do for your birthday?" I ask.

"I don't know yet" He says.

"Let me know and then we can tell Dad" She says.

"Ok" Levi says. He tries to put his headphones back on but she keeps talking.

"What are you watching?"

"The Lego Movie" He says.

"Very appropriate" I say. He puts his headphones back on and Jessie and I go back into a conversation.

"So do you have any plans on telling your father?"

"Telling him what?" She asks.

"About you liking girls" I say. I don't actually know what her label is or if she even has one. She never told me. I love a good coming-out though. I don't love that people have to come out but those videos where the parents react well. They are just so cute.

"Shh I haven't told anyone yet except you" She says. She seriously hasn't told at least one friend from back home? I would have assumed her friends knew.

"Now I feel special. You should tell some friends though. Holding secrets isn't good for you. " I say.

"I just don't want to tell anyone" She says.

"Do you like anyone?" I ask.

"No" She says.

"Oh I am so finding you someone this summer." There is a party coming up soon at my friend, Alyssa's house. Casey was supposed to be my plus one, I'm gonna bring Jessie instead.

"You really do not have to" She says.

"So you do like someone"

"I just don't want to date, especially someone in Florida of all places"

"Fine." This isn't the end of this. She is coming to that party.

We arrive at Legoland about half an hour later. We headed straight for a rollercoaster. It was called the Coastersaurus. The ride takes you around life-size Lego dinosaurs. Levi loved it. He sat in the cart with Jessie while I sat behind them with a stranger. We rode that twice. The second time I sat with Jessie. Levi said he wanted to be brave and go by himself.

After we kept teasing him saying we were going to take him to the Lego Duplo attractions. He kept telling us that it was for babies. Honestly, it looked pretty fun. Who doesn't want to play with huge Lego bricks?

We went to a "driving school" where kids can learn how to drive life-sized Lego cars. It was basically go karts but at the end, they would give you a custom Lego license. Levi goes right in and sits in a red car.

"Jessie your turn" I say and give her a little push in.

"Absolutely not. I don't even think I'll fit in those miniature cars" She walks back out of the track.

"You need some form of identification" I say.

"Why don't you go" She asks.

"I already have a license" I say and hold up my keys.

"Besides it'll make your brother happy" She walks right into the track and sits in the blue car next to Levi's. She'll do anything for her brother, good to know. I watch them on the cars. Levi was definitely tormenting Jessie like any good little brother would. He kept pretending he was going to crash into her. She was not that good of a driver. He was better than her honestly. At the end they both get their picture taken for their new Legoland-issued licenses. The cards get printed and put into plastic sleeves attached to lanyards. Levi proudly puts his around his neck while Jessie holds onto hers. He ran right up to me and showed me.

"Look! I can drive just like you!" He exclaims.

"Good job buddy!" I say and try to match his energy.

We head over to a Lego-themed playground. It was called Benny's Play Ship. It was shaped like a rocket ship. We went down the slide following Levi twice before he made a friend and then he wanted nothing to do with us.

"I would not like to be one of those teenagers playing on playgrounds. With him it is fine but by ourselves is kind of weird"

"Let's go sit over here" Jessie says motioning to a bench nearby.

"So let me see your ID" She hands it over to me. "Aw you look so cute in your photo" She had this really cheesy grin on.

"Thanks" "You're driving us home right?" I ask.

"Yeah as long as it is a Lego clown car" She says and I laugh.

It went quiet for a couple of moments. I pick up my phone for the first time since we have been here. I am normally checking for texts from Casey every 30 seconds so this was pretty abnormal of me. I did have a text from him.

Casey 💌

I see you are at LegoLand no invite?

He has my location. I sent it to him for emergency purposes only. I knew he checked it in non-emergency situations.

i'm with jessie and levi my mom was actually desperate for me to hangout with them if i could bring you i totally would have

Casey 💌

She let you go with no adult supervision and while babysitting?? Don't loose the kid lol

I don't know why but him telling me not to loose the kid gave me the ick. We have literally talked about having kids in the future yet he doesn't trust me with a nine year old that could fully take care of himself. I didn't answer him. Jessie was next to me also looking at her phone, probably because I was on mine. She looks up once I put mine down.

"Where's Levi?"

"What?" I say and look towards the spaceship. He was no where to be seen.

She starts walking towards it and I follow. She looks in all the tubes and places where he could be hidden. I continue to follow behind her.

She goes up to a mother. "Have you see a boy with curly hair, about this tall" She holds her hand up to about where his height would be. "He was wearing a grey shirt with blue cargo shorts"

The mother shakes her head no and shrugs her shoulders. Fucking bitch.

Jessie turns back towards me. "My dad's gonna kill me"

"Your dad's gonna kill me. I'm sure he's been waiting for that one" I say.

"This isn't a time to joke" She says.

"Sorry" I say.

She looks around for a couple seconds, probably hoping he would come out the slide. Then it was like a light bulb went off in her head.

"My dad has a tracker on him."

"What is he a dog?" That is actually creepy as fuck.

"He almost lost the kid when he was a baby. You don't think he is overprotective with him?" She pulls up the find my feature on her phone and scrolls for his tracker. She looks up and over to the ice cream stand that was practically right next to the spaceship.

"Here's right over here." She practically runs over to it. Once she sees him she wraps him in a hug. "Please don't wander off again"

"Stop Jessie. You're gonna make me drop my ice cream" He holds the cone over her head so she wouldn't hit it. Him and his new little friend both had cones. Their parents must have bought it for the two of them.

"Please just don't tell dad we lost you" She says.

"Well if you weren't too busy on your phone" He says to me. "And you weren't too busy reading her texts" He says to Jessie. "you wouldn't have lost me." I side eye Jessie.

"Just please promise" she says.

"I never got lost"

"Thank you" She says.

"How about we go to the waterpark? The lazy river is the perfect thing to follow this" I say. It was also starting to get hot and humid.

"Let me finish my ice cream first" We sit at one of the tables for a few minutes. Once Levi was done he says bye to his new friend and we go to the changing rooms/bathrooms outside of the waterpark area.

Jessie and I went into the women's room while Levi went to the men's. She didn't want him to go alone but he insisted. She gave him her phone so she could text it from mine. She also told him to wait right outside the bathroom when he was done. The line was long in our room. There must have been at least 15 mothers all with at least one child each on line. There were only four stalls.

"Can I text him to tell him we're gonna be a while?"

"Yeah" I say and hand her my phone. Once she was done she hands my phone back to me. I wouldn't be surprised if she went through my texts with Casey.

Once we are at the front of the line she turns to me, "Want to just go into the same stall?" She asks.

"Sure" I say. The furthest stall opens up and we walk inside. Since this is a family place all the stalls were pretty big. We both easily fit.

"Do you wanna go first?" She asks.

"Sure" I was about to take my shirt off.

"Turn around" I say and she does as told.

I change and then tell her when she can turn back around. I do the same while she changed and then we left. Levi was standing right outside where Jessie told him to. We went to rent a locker and then we were off.

We went to the lazy river first. I absolutely loved sitting in the tube with my legs up just staring at the sky. It would have been so relaxing if Levi wasn't complaining about it being boring the entire time. I went around a second time while Jessie took him on a water slide.

Once I was done I go over to where they were. I wait for them at the bottom. They come flying down in a double tube. Levi was loving it while Jessie looked horrified.

I go on the next few rides with them and then we go to the splash pad. After the splash pad we decided we were done and go back to the changing rooms.

We went to a lego building class. It was designed for kids so we made a lego car. The instructor was easy to follow. Levi was building a red car like the one he drove today. I made a pink, purple and blue car. Jessie made a orange one. We go onto a few more ride and then start making our way towards the exit.

It is already 3:30 and my mom wants us home by five o'clock for dinner at Collin's parents house. Old people eat so early. I could have stayed at least another two hours. The hour car ride home was pretty quiet. Levi fell asleep the second we got into the car. Jessie wasn't saying anything. I'm assuming she was tired too. I turned the radio on to give us some noise.

Once we get to their house we wake Levi up. We go up to the door and Levi just walks in. I took that as my invitation. My mom and Collin were already here. I got introduced to their grandparents. They were nice. They were probably faking it, there is no way they haven't heard all the shit i've said to their son.

The four of them go into the kitchen while Levi, Jessie and I stayed in the living room. The grandparents had pictures hung up absolutely everywhere. They must have a big family. I walk over to the wall to take a look at some of them. Their were pictures of her dad as a kid and obviously baby pictures of Jessie and Levi. There were other people too but I don't know them.

"You were cute as a baby" I say and point to a picture of Jessie at the beach with a bucket on her head.

"Thanks" She says.

"Where do your cousins live?" I ask.

"All over. I have some in California, Texas, Oregon, South Carolina, Ohio, and Montana. Then two here of course" She says.

"You guys are pretty spread out" I say.

"Yeah. I come from a kinda big family. My dad has six siblings. They are going to all be here with their kids in August for Levi's birthday." She says.

"Does his family double as a family reunion?" I ask.

"Basically" She says.

"How do you keep in touch with all of them. There must be at least 12 of you?" I ask.

"Calling and texting rarely. Then there is always social media" Jessie says.

"It is pretty easy to stay in touch with people nowadays" I say.

"Yep it's why I won't be sad when I have to leave here" She says.

"You'll still be sad to leave me" I say.