The Murphys on a family vacation.

Michael gazed out the ship's window. As it turned out, the sight of the ocean got pretty boring when you saw it every day. He crossed off another day square on the calendar. Today marked the end of the Murphy's third week on board the SS Awesome Excelsior, with another three weeks to go. Michael hadn't wanted to come in the first place. He had known that he would be bored, like he always was on these sorts of vacations. At least he had been able to get a lot of reading done. But now he had read every one of the books that he had brought with him, and they were only halfway through their vacation. The high school senior didn't know how he was going to survive. He lay back on his bed and let out a long groan.

"I hope that's not you I hear complaining, mister," his mother said as she walked into his part of the suite. "This was an expensive cruise. I don't want you acting like we're forcing you to go to boarding school just for asking you to come on a nice vacation and spend some time with your family for a change."

"No, Mom," Michael said, lying. "Of course not." He really did wish that he had been able to spend the summer with his friends back home, instead of getting trapped on this cruise ship for nearly the entire duration. He hadn't made any new friends yet, though that was probably as much his fault as anyone else's, if he was going to be honest with himself.

"That's what I wanted to hear," Mrs. Murphy said. "Your father and I are going to be going out to dinner alone to celebrate our anniversary. You and your sister will be on your own to figure out what you'll have to eat." Thankfully, everything on the Excelsior was all-expenses paid, meaning the kids could get something to eat wherever and whenever they wanted without having to worry about being dead broke.

Of course that didn't mean the kids would be together. It had been nearly a week and a half since Michael had spent the evening with his older sister Jean. Whenever their parents left them on their own for the night, as they so often did, Jean usually went to hang out with the friends she had made on board while Michael cooped himself up in the family's shared cabin suite alone. It usually ended up being an evening of reading, Netflix, and porn before passing out and sleeping until noon or later the next day.

Not long after Mrs. Murphy's announcement, Michael heard her and her husband go out the door, laughing to themselves about something that Michael couldn't make out. He sighed. Tonight was looking like it was going to shape up like every other night on this godforsaken cruise liner. Was he really going to let his summer slip away like this?

While Michael was stewing in his frustrations, there was a knock at the door. "Come in," he announced, leading Jean to poke her head in.

"Hey Mike," she said. "How're you holding up? Got any plans for the night?" At least Jean bothered to check up on him every once in a while before going out on her own. That at least was more courtesy than Michael's actual parents usually showed their only son.