It was our first time traveling together, there were 12 of us and we had been looking forward to this week for months. Weeks after getting out of school, one of my best friends, Sofía invited us on a trip to Cancún, we were all coming and staying in her apartment.

We separated in 2 groups to get to the airport, I went along with Andrea’s mom.  Andrea was one of my best friends, she was a very tall girl with incredible eyes, her deep blue eyes reminded me of  crystal water running down a waterfall. Her light brown hair hung sleek down her head always so perfectly arranged. I hung close to Balbina as Andrea’s mother checked in on us, we started discussing and planning all the outrageous and exciting things we will be doing once we arrived. Andrea’s mom, Cristy, would always volunteer to take our friends and do the extra work some of our mom’s were not willing to do.

After a long line of documentation and checking in, we advanced to security for a regular check.  A few minutes after walking to the boarding gate, we spotted Lore’s and Vanina’s moms with the other half of the group eating at a nearby restaurant. Excited we all began chatting, hugging and bonding. You could feel the vibes of emotion and happiness between our friends as we got ready to go on board. We quickly ate a small bowl of crispy french fries and small chicken nuggets before boarding and starting our soon to be incredible adventure.

I began collecting all of my belongings and made sure I had my passport, ticket and wallet, I tucked the securely into my bag and made sure it was close to me. As we began boarding, I came up and walked over to Balbina Herrera, one of my best friends. “Are you ready?” I asked intrigued.

“Of course, I’ve been waiting for weeks! It’s going to be the best trip ever!” with a smile across her face she exclaimed. Balbina had been excited for this trip since day one, she reminded us every day, she was a very enthusiastic and optimistic girl. Her light brown and greenish eyes gleamed with happiness, she was so into this trip, and every single part of it. After searching for our seats we had an extensive yet enjoyable flight to Cancun.
         

“Carla!, Carla! We’re here,” I overheard Balbinas’ excited voice over my deep sleep. She tugged my shoulder as I slowly began to wake up. “Come on, they’re waiting for us!” she reminded me. We quickly gathered all of our belongings and quickly left the airplane in a rush. We didn’t want to start off the vacation with the wrong foot, we made sure no one was apart from the group and we all boarded together. We got off the airplane, our eyes quickly searched the room as we looked for our friends, soon enough we both recognized a crowd of people waving at us, it was them. We rushed over to them pulling our suitcases behind. They were all ready, helping load all of the suitcases into the 2 huge vans that picked us up. The mom’s were going with the driver behind and all of my friends were going right behind them with the other chauffeur.

I hopped in front on the passenger seat next with Corde. A pale white girl with short brown curly hair, and  big gloomy aqua colored eyes.

“Ready?” The driver asked with reassurance.

“Ready,” we both quickly affirmed.

The driver speed off to the highway. We rolled the windows down, letting the sunkissed breeze enter our car and blasted the music on as loud as it would handle. I felt  the burning yet soft wind brush against my face. I could feel the bright sun burning before us, I knew this was going to be a great vacation, problem free and relaxing. I laid back in my seat, hearing my friend’s enthusiastic voices in the background, singing to the song playing,  our favorite song. As we got closer to our destination, I could smell the salty water jumping in the ocean, we all gaped in amazement seeing the turquoise color of the ocean, I couldn’t wait to go swimming.

We took a quick detour at a small convenience for a bathroom break. I got off and bought a small gum pack as I waited for Cordelia to come out of the bathroom.
“Where’s Eva?” I asked Balbina who was standing right beside me.

“She’s probably just waiting for us at the car with the rest of our friends she assured me.

Corde finally got out of the bathroom and we all hopped onto the car again, worry free.
As we came closer, we all started reading the condominium and hotels names to find ours. “It’s here!” Andrea yelled as she spotted the apartment tower. We entered the driveway and began unloading the heavy luggage filled with clothes we had all brought.

The elevator opened and I could see Sofia’s tanned and freckled face peek out. We all ran to her and hugged her. “I missed you so much” she whispered, barely able to pronounce by the crowd of girls hovering over her. We got our bags and took them upstairs to the 8th floor.

“Look Eva, what I brought you,” Sofía was barely able to mumble through the crowd that was hugging her. We all looked at each other. Where was Eva?

“Where is Eva anyways,” questioned Sofía intrigued.

“I haven’t seen her since the Airport” spoke Vanina with a worried expression.
Mortified we all began retracing and remembering what we had done.
“We couldn’t have left Eva in the airport or could we?” Lore spoke with the worried expression.

“We did!” Shouted Ceci from across, “Look at all this missed calls from her, I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed,”.
We all checked our phones to find out we all had various missed calls from Eva. This had to be a joke, there was no way we had completely forgotten about her for so long.

Sofía quickly ran to the gate where the taxi was about to exit. She successfully reached the taxi in time and he pulled into a halt.

“We need to return back to the airport” Sofía quickly demanded to the driver.

“Hop on again,” The chauffeur responded. We quickly jumped into the van and before we knew it we were on our drive back to the airport. I began trying to reach Eva’s cellphone number so that we would be able to contact her. After a long dialing, she finally picked up.

I could hear her frightened voice trembling from the other end speaking. “Hello,” she was able to whisper.
“Eva, don’t worry we are on our way back to the airport,”

“Thanks Carla, I was really worried you didn’t pick up any of my phone calls, why didn’t you answer?”
“Gee, it must have been the loud music we were blasting that kept all of us from hearing our phones ring, but calm down, I can hear you sweating over the phone already,” I could hear her light smile in the other end.
“Anyways, what happened, where were you when we left?”

“I left quickly to the bathroom while the rest of you stayed picking up your bags at luggage claim. I thought I had enough time but I guess I took too long. I didn’t realize you guys would actually leave me behind.”
“No, it wasn’t like that, we just were in such a hurry we didn’t have time to check if we all were there I can’t believe it took us that long to realize that you were missing.”

“I know, it took you guys too long to realize, but its good to know you are coming back for me now.” With a much calmer voice she was able to speak.

“I know, we’re almost there, anyways, where are you?”
“I came and sat at the Starbucks near the exit, once you come in you’ll see me. I bought myself a drink, to keep me from boredom.”
“Okay, we’ll see you there then, it won’t take us longer than five minutes, be ready.”

Time passed and we were riding just like we we’re when we just arrived, except this time it was different, very different. There wasn’t the same feeling between us, we were not singing, feeling the breeze rush through us or relaxing. Everyone was recalling memories from the Airport and talking about the incident, some were mortified. They couldn’t believe that we had left Eva stranded for almost an hour now. We all imagined what we would have done if we were in that situation, how would we act different.

The entire car drive was filled with concerns, doubts and anxieties. How would we excuse ourselves for what happened. We couldn’t it was completely our fault, how could we not realize she was missing all along? All these questions started rushing to my head. Doubts began turning into concerns and these concerns began to worry me. What if someone found her and kidnapped her, what if a stranger begins questioning her, what will she do. Will she be fine?

As we reached the airport I began to calm down, my mind was able to think straight again, I became anxious to get out of the car see her and clear my head from worries. The car reached into a halt, I rapidly jumped off the car and as I ran inside to look for Eva I yelled at the driver to wait for me. My eyes made a quick skim throughout all of the people that were present in the room. There, in a far corner sitting on a table, quivering with dismay, I spotted her. Crumbled into a chair like a dog who feared his owners. I sprinted towards her and waved my hands as I ran across the room. I came to a halt and hugged her as tightly as I could.

“I’m so sorry Eva! I can’t believe this had to happen to you, I can’t believe how stupid we all were. I promise you, it will never happen again, I swear.”

“Don’t worry about it, I understand you guys were in such a hurry to arrive already, it’s fine really, It could have happened to me too.” She told me to calm myself down.

We hugged again, softer this time before we returned to the car. I helped her pull her luggage has she told me more about her experience in the incident.

We loaded her luggage into the car and she sat in front of the car next to me, after a while all of us couldn’t help but laugh about the incident. It was not even the first day and we had already encountered a problem. We all knew it would be a vacation filled with memories.

On our drive back to the condominium towers I had the same sensation from the first car ride. Delight, pleasure and glee. We played our songs again and rolled the windows down. This time everyone in the Car was singing along. I looked at Eva, she was filled with happiness, she laughed and sang all the way back. We kept discussing about the incident, but this time we were not scared anymore, we were laughing.

After quite a stunt, we all reflected how stupid we had all been. How had none of us been able to realize someone was missing during the entire car ride? To avoid future problems we decided from now on to always make a quick head count before leaving anywhere, to make sure we are all together and no one is apart from the group. We learned that even though Eva was understanding about the problem, some of us wouldn’t, something might have happened to her just because of a small mistake.