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Bianca wanted to run after Milo and pummel him into the ground after he pulled that little stunt. However, she didn’t. If she did that, it would have told Cast that she was hiding something.
She thought back to when Milo mentioned that Cast needed to tell her something. “So?” She turned around. “Did you drain the spaghetti?”
“Yes.” Cast let out a sigh, but Bianca didn’t know what for. “Can you grab plates, please?”
Bianca nodded and went to the cabinet. It was awkward. Milo made it awkward. She grabbed two plates then went to a drawer and grabbed two forks. She took a moment to look at Cast from behind before going back to the sink. “Scusi.” She dished out spaghetti for the two of them and handed Cast his plate.
She took hers back to the stove. On it was a saucepan with a tomato sauce marinating. She put her pasta in the pan and stirred it up, then took it out again. Cast came up behind her and grabbed a spoon, dishing himself some sauce.
Everything was quiet and the tension was thick. Bianca thought she could break it. “Do you have plans for the winter?” She placed her plate on the island and got parmesan from the fridge.
“I don’t know. I think we’re going on vacation in Florida during winter break.” He answered.
“I have not been. You will tell me what is it like?” Bianca handed him the cheese and made her way to the dining room.
“Yeah, sure.” Bianca heard the fridge open and shut before Cast followed her. “What are you doing?”
Bianca sat in her usual seat and Cast sat beside her. “I will go to Nana’s house, usually, but I do not know if we will this year.” She took a breath, thinking about her dad, then took a bite of the pasta in front of her. “However, we go trick-or-treat with the group. Last year, we were the Hogwarts houses.”
“Were you a gryffindor?” He took a bite.
“You give me the colors. I do not know the names. I have not seen Hogwarts.”
Cast put his fork down and turned to her. “You’ve never seen Harry Potter?” Bianca shook her head. “You haven’t even read it?” Again, she said no. Cast sighed then continued eating. “Gryffindor is the red and gold one.”
Bianca laughed. “You are joking, sì? Milo is red, I was yellow, Don was green, and Rose was purple. Well, blue.”
“Right, that makes sense.” Cast nodded. “So you were a Hufflepuff.”
Bianca ate for a moment before turning back to him. “You will go with us this year?”
“Sure, if you want me to. I’ll see if my mom’ll let me. What are we going as?”
“You will choose.” She finished her plate and turned to him. “But we may say no if we have done it already.”
He quickly finished his food as well. “What have you done?”
“Ask Rose. I do not know all the names of the costumes. All I remember is Hogwarts and Wicked, but that was just me and Milo.”
“You and Milo were Glinda and Elphaba?” Cast laughed.
“Sì.” Bianca pulled out her wallet from her back pocket and got the picture of the two of them when they were kids. “He looked beautiful in the pink dress.”
The two of them laughed as she put the wallet away. Cast took his plate and Bianca and trashed them both up. The girl stood and walked to the family room. Hazel, Rose, Emmi, and Goldie were still sitting there. Hazel read a book while the three others all slept.
Bianca’s aunt looked up at her. “How are you?”
The sixteen year old looked behind her and saw that Cast was busy washing their dishes. The girl sat down and her aunt put away her book. “How did you and Shūshu start to date?”
Hazel raised her eyebrows and smiled. “Oh… Well, I kissed him and said he was handsome, then…things just sorta happened. You have been talking to this boy a lot. Are you planning on asking him out?”
Bianca furrowed her eyebrows. “Asking him out?”
“On a date.” Her aunt clarified.
“I want to. But I do not know how.” Bianca almost said more but stopped when she heard footsteps coming.
“Don’t know how to do what?” Cast appeared in the doorway.
“Nothing.” She stood up and faced him. “It is a girl thing. You will not understand.”
Cast nodded. “I was going to go make sure the ship is ready to go, you want to go with me?”
“I will later.”
The boy nodded again and waved to Hazel. With that he said a small goodbye and left.
Bianca looked back to her aunt who sighed. “Look, I don't know how you want to go about this, but lying and hiding your feelings from him isn't the way to go. Have you talked to him? Dropped hints or anything?”
“I call him cute and smart and I offer to help him. What I can do more?”
Hazel sighed again. “Well, number 1, BB: it's ‘what more can I do?’ And number 2: boys can be a little slow sometimes. You're just going to have to flat out tell him. I mean, I had to kiss Frank. Kiss him, before he finally got the hint.”
Bianca nodded. If she was being honest, she didn't think she had the strength to just full on tell Cast everything. But she nodded and walked to the door. “Grazie, Auntie.”
“Hey.” Bianca turned back to face her aunt. “Forgetting something?” The brunette pointed to the sleeping girl and dog next to her.
She chuckled. “Vero.”
She went back to the couch and slowly shook Rose to wake her up softly. When the other woke, Bianca woke Goldie as well. Rose picked Emmi up from her lap and gave her back to Hazel. The three girls exchanged thank you’s and made their way back to the ship.
When the three of them got outside, five cows were roaming the grounds. Frank came up to them and handed Bianca a piece of paper. “It was in the fence.”
Sorry,
We needed to get your attention somehow.
If you need us, you know where we are.
-P
Bianca smiled to herself at the small apology.
The girl hugged her uncle and cousin before leaving with Don who was more than happy to talk about how he can throw an axe now, and how he got 3 bullseyes. The girls congratulated him on his newfound achievement.
Cast and Milo were on the deck of the ship waiting for the others. “Cast and me was thinking that we’s all could go and see the Golden Gate Bridge.”
“We have saw the bridge before.” Bianca got up on the boat. “It is not golden. It is not worth it.”
“I know we’s gone, but Don ain’t seen it. We goed with Tanner and Rose.”
Bianca didn’t want to see the bridge, but she shrugged. “If Don wants to, we may go.” She had a bad feeling about going.
Don must have seen it because he put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll come back. I’ll see the bridge some other time. Let’s just go home.”
The rest of them nodded and got the ship ready to go. Bianca waved down to her family as they lifted off the ground. She stayed up on the deck until the Zhangs’ house was out of view. Don had said he’d take first watch so he sat out there with her. He was telling her a story, something about his sister, maybe.
She wasn’t listening, too busy lost in thought about what Hazel said. You're just going to have to flat out tell him. The words rang in her head as she stared at the disappearing house. Once she couldn’t see it anymore she turned back to the rest of the ship.
“You can watch alone, Don?” She looked at the redhead.
He paused mid sentence and nodded. “Yeah, go ahead. You need to rest, I’m sure. You were up all night with Cast.” He wiggled his eyebrows slightly.
Bianca didn’t react how he wanted her to. She just shrugged, holding back the urge to roll her eyes. “He was helping me put the instrument together.”
The two exchanged goodbye’s and Bianca made her way down to her room. As she near it she heard a melodic sound coming from inside. The door was open and she peered in. Cast was playing her clarinet, and he actually made it sound good. She looked in on him for a while and when he didn't realize she was there, she finally spoke up.
“I never figured out how to get the clarinet to sound good. Everytime I play it, I sound like un'oca.”
Cast jumped and immediately turned around. He tried to hide the instrument behind his back, though he was quite unsuccessful. “Bianca! I-I can explain! I didn't-”
“No, no, no. It is okay.” She went over to her bed and took a seat facing him. “You can play something for me?” Bianca saw Cast’s hesitation. She remembered how he doesn’t like being the center of attention. She nodded to herself. “You can give me my guitar then?”
Cast nodded and handed her the guitar. She sat cross legged, placing the guitar up in her lap. She strummed then tuned then strummed again. Cast stood watching her. She played a little tune she knew when she was younger and lived in Italy.
Every now and again she would look up at Cast but her main focus was on the guitar, making sure she didn’t mess up. She hummed the vocal part of the song. She would have sang, but she had only heard the song so long ago and didn’t remember the words.
Cast had his eyes trained on her, watching her fingers, listening to her hums. He finally relaxed and sat down on the bed next to her. When she finished, she looked up at him waiting for a response. He didn’t have one.
She smiled at him, hoping to seem friendly. The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Bianca considered saying something to him, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to make things awkward in case the feeling wasn’t mutual.
Cast liked her. Bianca knew that. She just didn’t know to what extent. If he admired her as a mentor, loved her as a friend, or adored her as a lover. And she wasn’t ready to find out.
She heard footsteps coming and looked to the door. Don showed up. “There you are. Cast, you’re on watch.”
Cast nodded. “Thank you.”
Bianca took the clarinet from his hand as he stood and went up to the deck. She put the instrument back into the case. After doing so, she went back to her bed and picked up the guitar again. She played the same song again. Then again. Then once more before she finally stood and dropped the guitar back onto her bed.
The girl left her room and went across the hall. She knocked on Milo’s door before opening it slowly. He was playing his Nintendo on his bed. “What’s up, B?” He didn’t look up at her.
“Wish me luck.” She said.
“You’s in the wrong room. Don’s the lucky one.” He took a beat before looking up at her. “You finally gonna ask him out?”
“How do you know?”
“You played the same song four times. You only does that when you's perfecting the song or lost in thought.” Milo went back to his game. “Good luck. Tell me how it goes.”
Bianca nodded and turned towards the door. She took a breath before going up to the deck. She spotted Cast sitting by the far edge of the ship. He was watching the landscape below the ship fly by. She approached him slowly, making her footsteps louder than normal as to not startle him.
He turned when he heard her. “Bianca. My shift isn't over yet.” He looked down at his watch. “I still have a half hour left. Go back down.”
“No.” She responded plainly. “We need to talk.”
Bianca could see the anxiety in Cast’s eyes. “Was it something I did? Am I cut from the team? Do I-”
“No. Nothing like that.” She cut him off and took a breath, mentally preparing herself. “Cast…”