Hey, guys! OMG I GOT 19 REVIEWS LAST CHAPTER! AND WE REACHED OVER 100 REVIEWS! GUYS YOU ARE SO AMAZING AND I'M SENDING A VIRTUAL HUG TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU BECAUSE I LOVE YOU! THANK YOU SO SO SO SO SOOOOOO MUCH! So, I'm sorry about how long this chapter is, I really am, but I couldn't split it up. It's a bit of a turning point, I guess you could say. So it's really important and I don't think any other chapters are gonna be this long, I promise. I'm not gonna do a disclaimer this chapter cuz I don't wanna annoy you guys with it when this chapter is so important. So, READ ON!
The Amusement Park
I yawn and take another sip of coffee as I drive to Ally's house. Usually, I don't wake up until noon at the earliest on Saturdays, but today I have a surprise for Ally, which required me to get up at seven. Finally, I come to a stop in front of her house. I finish my coffee and get out of the car.
Her front door opens before I can even ring the doorbell. But Ally's not the one who opened it. A man in a t-shirt and pajama pants opens the door, and I assume he's Ally's father.
"Hi," I say awkwardly. "Is Ally there?"
"Why? Who are you? Her boyfriend?" he asks.
"N-no, sir. I'm not her boyfriend, just a friend. I'm Austin Moon," I introduce myself, holding out my hand.
"Lester Dawson," he says, shaking it firmly.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Dawson," I say politely. "Oh, and as for why I wanted to know if she's here, I have a surprise for her." Mr. Dawson looks me up and down.
"I don't like you, Austin Moon," he says. "Leather jackets and wallet chains and messy blonde hair don't mean a good influence. I don't want you spending time with my daughter."
"All due respect, sir, but maybe you should get to know me instead of judging me by my fashion sense," I say. Mr. Dawson narrows his eyes.
"I don't need to know you to know what you want with Ally."
"I promise, it isn't-"
"Dad?" I hear from somewhere inside the house. "Who are you talking to?"
"Nobody, sweetheart," Mr. Dawson calls back. I hear footsteps and Ally comes down the stairs.
"Austin?" she says, rubbing her eyes. She probably just woke up-her hair is sticking up everywhere, she's wearing pajamas, and she's walking around in slippers. She walks over to stand next to her dad. "What are you doing here?"
"Well," I say, "I wanted to take you to a new amusement park that opened up last week, but I just heard you have plans, so I'll go," I say, not wanting to badmouth her dad in front of her dad.
"What? I don't have plans," she says, looking at her father with a confused expression. "Dad, can I go? Pretty please?" she asks, giving him the puppy eyes. He sighs.
"Fine. But no funny business," he says sternly. "Nothing dangerous."
"I promise I'll bring her home happy and in one piece, sir," I say.
"Well, I'm not exactly ready at the moment, but I'll get ready really quick and then meet you at your house so we can go, okay?" Ally says. I nod.
"Sounds like a plan." She runs back upstairs. "I should go," I tell her dad. "Nice meeting you, Mr. Dawson."
"I still don't like you, nor do I trust you. But apparently my daughter does. Give me a reason to change my mind," he says.
"I won't let you down, Mr. Dawson," I say. "I'll have you begging Ally to invite me over." He chuckles slightly at that.
"Sense of humor. Not bad. But you'll have to do better to get on my good side." I nod.
"Have a good day, Mr. Dawson," I say politely. He nods curtly and shuts the door, and I return to my car.
Really, I don't blame Mr. Dawson for not liking me. I mean, I did bully his daughter for three and a half years. But I don't think he knows that. Either way, I don't think I seem like the 'good boy' type, though I'm not actually a bad boy. At least Mr. Dawson wants Ally safe and cares about her. Unlike my parents. I'd give anything for that kind of overprotection. Though it may not be fun to go through, I'd at least know they care enough about me to be so protective. Because right now, my parents don't even care about me enough to call the cops when I went missing, just because it could've meant bad business.
When I get home, I make myself some chocolate chip pancakes and eat them while I wait for Ally. Just as I'm swallowing the last bite, I hear a faint knock at the door. I smile and shake my head, knowing she didn't ring the bell because she was afraid of waking everyone up. Too bad there's no one home. My parents are working and Rydel's at Rocky's cousin's soccer game. I answer the door.
"Hey, Als," I say. "You look nice." She's wearing a navy blue dress with brightly colored flowers on it. The dress is strapless and it flows to just above her knees. She's wearing navy blue high-top converse and she has a pink bow in her hair that matches the few pink flowers on her dress.
"Thanks," she says, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "So you ready to go?" I nod and we walk out to my car.
"So, it's kinda far away-about an hour drive. It opens at eight, and I wanted us to have as much time as possible, that's why I got to your house so early. Sorry for waking you and your dad up." She waves her hand as if to say 'Don't worry about it.'
"So any reason why you're suddenly taking me to an amusement park?" I shrug.
"Nope. I wanted to go and since you never go out, I assumed you hadn't been to many amusement parks, so I was like 'hey, I'll take Ally.'" She nods. Then, she winces and grabs her neck. "Hey," I say, quickly glancing over at her before looking back at the road, "are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she says. "I just slept on my neck weird and now it hurts. But I'm okay."
"Here," I say. I reach on hand over and massage her neck in the way Rydel taught me to do when she was having the same problem. Ally closes her eyes and sighs contentedly. "Better?" I ask. She nods.
"Much better. Thanks." I take my hand away and put it back on the steering wheel. "How'd you know that would work?"
"My sister did the same thing and Rocky had massaged her so she taught me how in case she needed it and Rocky wasn't there."
"Oh," Ally says, nodding. "Well, that is a lifesaver."
"Yeah. Good thing you're feeling better or it'd be really unfortunate to be on the rollercoasters with a hurt neck," I say.
"Wait, rollercoasters?" Ally asks, going pale.
"Yeah," I say, dragging out the word in a confused manner. "What else would we go on at an amusement park?"
"The spinning rides, the free fall rides, all the other rides except rollercoasters," Ally says.
"What do you have against rollercoasters?" I ask her.
"I'm deathly afraid of them. Like, passing out afraid of them."
"Well, today we're gonna change that. We'll start with all the rides you wanna go on, and then we'll just gradually get to the rollercoasters," I say.
"O-okay," Ally stutters weakly.
"Hey," I say, reaching my hand over and putting it on top of hers-which is gripping the armrest so tight her knuckles are white. "It's okay. My job is to get you over your fears. I promise you'll be safe with me. I won't let anything bad happen to you." I feel her grip on the armrest loosen slightly as she looks at me. I give her hand a squeeze.
We ride in silence the rest of the way to the amusement park, but I make sure I always have physical contact with Ally. Whether it's having my hand on top of hers, having our elbows touching on the armrests, or giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze, I'm always touching her. She seems like the kind of person who would be comforted by physical contact, and I want her as calm as possible. I hate seeing her so scared, but if I'm gonna help her get over her fear, she's gonna be scared at first.
When we get there, I give the worker our tickets and we go into the park. It's huge and all the rides are free to go on.
"Might I suggest the Tunnel of Love," the man says as we walk through the entrance. Ally and I ignore him and keep walking.
"I feel like we're gonna have to start getting used to comments like that," I say after a while. She nods.
"People just don't understand that not every guy and girl hanging out together is a couple."
"Tell me about it," I agree. "So, what do you wanna go on first?" I make a huge sweeping arm gesture around the park. Ally looks around for a while.
"I have no idea," she says quietly. "There's so much to do."
"Then why don't we start over there," I say, pointing to the ride closest to the entrance, "and work our way around all the easy rides, and then start working our way through the rollercoasters?"
"I like the first part of the plan," she says.
"Then let's start with focusing on that, okay? Don't even think about the second part yet." Ally nods. I smile and we walk to the first ride, which is the Tilt-a-Whirl. Luckily, the park isn't too busy-I don't really know why-so we get on quickly.
"I was watching this one while you were talking to the attendant," she says as we pull the lap bar over ourselves. "It's a pretty intense Tilt-a-Whirl." I grin.
"Good. This'll be fun." We hear the buzzer that signals that the ride is about to start.
At first, we spin slowly, going over the small hills without a problem. But soon, it starts speeding up, and Ally and I end up screaming our heads off and cracking up. Sure, Tilt-a-Whirls aren't scary, but this one was so fast you couldn't help but scream. I get hit in the face with Ally's long hair more than once, and the smell of strawberries seems to be permanently etched in my nose. All too soon, the ride stops. Ally laughs as she pats down her messy hair.
"I'd say that's a good way to start off the day, yeah?" she says. I smile, nodding in agreement. "Is my hair still okay?" she asks, turning around so I can see the pink bow.
"Yes, Ally, your hair is fine," I say, acting annoyed. She chuckles.
"Just checking. So, what's next?" she asks as we walk off the ride.
"The Magic Carpets," I say, pointing to another spinning ride. On this ride, you sit on benches that look like magic carpets, and they're all set in a circle. There are bigger hills than the Tilt-a-Whirl, and this one goes faster. Ally and I get on and pull down the lap bar. I make sure to let Ally get in first so I sit closest to the outside.
"Gosh, I feel like this one's gonna be even worse," Ally says as the ride starts slowly. I nod.
"You're probably right, my friend. You're probably right." The ride speeds up and eventually it's going so fast Ally is pressed up against me from the force of the ride. She's really light, so she can be moved a lot easier. I'm pressed tightly against the side of the car, and it's starting to hurt a bit. We both scream and laugh like we did on the Tilt-a-Whirl, except more. Finally, the ride starts slowing down.
"Man, that one was really intense," Ally says, scooting away from me when she can. I grin.
"Yeah it was. I can't wait for the-wait, what's going on?" I ask. We had slowed to a stop, but then we started going backwards. We're speeding up and Ally is pressed against me again.
"Now we're going backwards!" she exclaims.
"Yeah, thanks, Sherlock!" I say, spitting her hair out of my mouth. Whenever we go over a hill, she literally floats above the bench and slams back down. I'm actually a bit worried she'll fly out of the ride, so I wrap an arm around her waist to keep her in the seat. Because my arm is now around her instead of between us, Ally gets pressed even farther into my side. Now, she's half on my lap, which means she's flying even farther up when we go over hills. I tighten my grip around her.
Finally, the ride slows to a stop for good. Ally scoots away from me again, blushing. I chuckle.
"Now what are you blushing about?" She shakes her head, not replying. "The way I was trying to make sure you didn't fly off the ride? You weigh, like, sixty pounds, and every time we went down a hill you'd fly up. The lap bar was loose and I didn't want you getting hurt."
"I weight more than sixty pounds," Ally says, rolling her eyes, "and I wouldn't have flown out."
"Just taking precautions, Als. Besides, wasn't all that slamming back down hurting your butt?" She gives me a look, and I shrug.
"I guess…" she says awkwardly.
"Then I believe the words you're looking for are 'Thank you, Austin, for protecting me. You're my knight in shining armor, and I was the damsel in distress,'" I say, mocking a girly voice. She rolls her eyes.
"Thank you for caring," she says. We get off the ride.
"So," I say as we walk, "is it your mission to go on every ride at this amusement park?"
"Not every ride…" she mumbles.
"Other than rollercoasters," I revise my question. She nods.
"Yeah. It'd be cool to say I went on every ride at an amusement park, and I know you're gonna end up getting me on the rollercoasters, so I'll be able to." I stop walking at the next ride.
"Then our next stop, Ally dear, is the Tunnel of Love." Ally stops next to me and looks up at the bright pink sign that says Tunnel of Love in red and white letters. There are hearts everywhere around the ride, and pretty much every couple in line is making out.
"You know, maybe we don't have to go on every ride," she says, starting to walk away. I grab her arm and pull her back.
"You said you wanted to, and I wanna go on every ride, too. It's only gonna be awkward if you make it awkward, Als." She sighs.
"Fine. But no commenting about you-know-what while we're in there."
"No promises," I say in a sing-song voice. She groans. "Hey, this is gonna be fun. We can make fun of all the cheesy love stuff inside and see if we can manage to annoy any other couples, considering most of them will just be making out. Have an open mind, okay? I've been on these kinds of rides before, and we don't even have to sit that close to each other. The cars are huge." Ally raises an eyebrow.
"You've been on other Tunnel of Love rides?"
"Yeah, with Kira," I say. "But, you know, she sat really close, 'cause, well-"
"She liked the make-out part of it?" Ally guesses. I nod and shudder at the memory.
"So… Much… Lip gloss…" Ally laughs as we move up in line. She looks at the couple in front of us in disgust. They've been making out since before we got in line.
"Do people ever take a breath?" she whispers. I shrug.
"I don't understand why they find that so fun. It bothers everyone else," I say.
"Unless everyone else is too busy locking lips to notice."
"But not everyone is too busy locking lips," I say, gesturing between the two of us. Finally, the couple in front of us breaks apart. Unfortunately, there's still a long line ahead of us. This ride is pretty popular for some reason.
"You know they only allow couples on this ride, right?" the guy asks, his greasy black hair falling in his face. He flips it to the side, and drops of sweat splash on Ally's face. She makes a gagging expression and wipes her face.
"What, do they make you prove you're a couple before you go on, or something?" I ask. He shrugs.
"That's what the rumors say."
"Well, then good thing we're a couple, right?" I say, putting an arm around Ally. Luckily, she knows to just go along with my act.
"Right," she says, laughing nervously. But I'm the only one who recognizes it as nervous laughter.
"If you're a couple, then why are you so disgusted with everyone else kissing?" the girl says snottily, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder.
"'Cause we're taking things slow," I say. "We actually respect ourselves and others enough to not make out in public 24/7." The girl rolls her blue eyes.
"Unless you're not actually a couple."
"Why do you even care?" Ally asks.
"Because why would anyone who's not a couple go on the Tunnel of Love?" the blonde replies.
"Exactly," I say, "why would we go on if we weren't a couple?" The guy shrugs.
"Just keep down your yapping, kay?" he says.
"Whatever," I reply. The couple goes back to making out and Ally and I give each other a look. I return my arm back to my side and Ally reaches up to whisper something in my ear.
"The one time we want people to think we're a couple…" I laugh at that.
"Just our luck, yeah?" She laughs and nods. We take another step up in line. "So," I say, trying to distract the both of us from the snogging couples all around us, "have you started the other songs for music?" She nods.
"I have all of them done, except the one I have to sing to you. For some reason, I'm drawing a blank."
"Yeah, I haven't done any of them. If you didn't already know, I kinda suck at writing songs." Ally chuckles.
"I know. But when we were writing 'You Can Come to Me,' you were coming up with good lyrics."
"Anyway, maybe we can hang out and help each other with the songs sometime soon. You could help me with writing my other three, and I'll help you write the one you have to sing to me." She nods.
"That's not a bad idea."
"But until then, I think you're just overthinking it. Write from your heart."
"That's what I'm trying to do," she says.
"You'll get it," I say. "You're the best songwriter ever." She smiles.
"Thanks." Finally, we get to the front of the line.
"There have been new rules set that say that couples must prove they're couples before going on any Tunnel of Love rides," the attendant says. "Are you guys a couple?" We nod.
"Duh. Why else would we be going on the Tunnel of Love?" I say.
"I'm still gonna need you guys to prove it. Kiss her," the attendant says.
"Fine," I say. I lean over and kiss Ally on the cheek like I did last night. The attendant rolls his eyes.
"On the lips, you idiot. I don't make the rules. Prove you're a couple, or don't go on the ride." It's on my bucket list to go on every ride at an amusement park, and today's a perfect opportunity to do so. "At least five seconds," he adds, flipping through some papers with rules listed on them. I turn to Ally and raise my eyebrows as if to ask for permission. She looks nervous, but she nods slowly, and I know she wants to go on every ride just as much as I do. I know you may be thinking that that's kind of a dumb reason to kiss-just so we can go on every ride-but we also waited for 45 minutes in the middle of a bunch of kissing couples. And neither of us wanted to go through that for nothing.
"Are ya gonna kiss or what? You're holding up the line!" the guy behind us says.
I give Ally one last chance to back out. I try to act cool about it, but I'm pretty nervous myself. I'm about to kiss my fairly new best friend, who just so happens to like me. What if this kiss makes her like me more? What if it makes everything awkward? Ally nods once again, looking up at me with cautious eyes.
I let my eyes flutter closed as I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her. I feel her arms go around my neck as she kisses me back. One. I tilt my head a bit more so our noses aren't bumping into each other so uncomfortably. Two. I feel her long eyelashes tickle my cheekbones as I pull her closer. Three. I inhale the strawberry scent that seems to follow her everywhere. Four. I feel my lips curving up into a smile as I kiss the short brunette. Five.
We jump apart, staring at each other with wide eyes. I regain my composure first and reposition myself next to Ally.
"See?" I say to the attendant. "Totally a couple." He narrows his eyes.
"Alright, fine. But if I find out you two were lying, I'll have security kick you outta here faster than you can say 'snogging.'"
"Good thing we're not lying, then," I reply. Then, I gently lead Ally to the ride. She gets in one side of the heart-shaped car, and I get in the other. We sit in awkward silence as the ride starts. Unfortunately, this is a twenty-minute ride. I don't know why it's so long and so popular, but I'm not happy about it. At all.
"You know," Ally finally says, "you could've told me about the part where we'd have to, I dunno, kiss to get on the ride!"
"Whoa, don't pin this on me! I had no idea! Those are new rules!" I say. "I gave you plenty of time to back out." She sighs.
"Whatever. Let's just forget about it."
"Forget about what?" I ask. She looks over at me with a smile.
"I dunno. I forgot."
As if I could forget about it. I don't know what happened exactly, but I do know that by the time the fifth second came around, I was wishing for five more. But as I look at her now, I don't get butterflies. My heart doesn't speed up. I don't like her.
But I do like kissing her.
And that could prove to be a problem.
"Oh my gosh, Als, look at this," I say, pointing to the scene we're going past on my side of the car. She scoots over next to me to get a better look. The scene is of Cupid shooting a couple with his arrows, and then hearts exploding all around them as they kiss.
"That's horrifying," she says as we transfer into the next room. Now, it looks as though we're on water and 'Kiss the Girl' from The Little Mermaid is playing through the speakers. I realize they've recreated the boat scene from the movie. "Aw, I love this movie!" Ally says. "Maybe this ride isn't completely horrifying."
"Except when there's a camera taking pictures of couples kissing as they leave this scene," I say, pointing ahead of us. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" She nods.
As we leave the room, we both put on weird faces for the camera. We laugh after we see the flash.
In the next room, all we see are a bunch of pink, purple, red, and white hearts. Some of them have mirrors in them. I see couples in front of us cuddling and looking at themselves in the mirrors.
"Ugh, all this coupley stuff is getting on my nerves," I say. "This is the longest Tunnel of Love ride I've ever been on."
"Maybe that's not such a bad thing," Ally says. "I mean, on all the other ones you've been on, you were making out with Kira against your will. On the longest one though, it's just me you're with, yeah?"
"This is true," I say. "But still. I get enough coupley stuff listening to Rydel gush about Rocky. They'd probably love this ride." Ally nods.
"Yeah. Especially because…" she trails off, coughing awkwardly. But I know what she was gonna say. Cue the awkward silence.
"Hey," I say halfheartedly after a while, "there's our picture." I point to the screens mounted on the walls. Only one of them doesn't show a couple kissing. We laugh at how ridiculous we look.
As soon as we get through the picture room, we end up back outside and the ride ends. We get off quickly and walk away. I can tell we're both still trying and failing to forget what happened before the ride. I can't imagine what Ally must be going through right now. Especially since she had that dream that could've just been proven to be a reality. And as for me, well, I don't even know what's going on. As I said before, I know I don't have a crush on her, but I also know that I want to kiss her again. I don't understand why, but I do understand that forgetting isn't an option.
Ally is walking a bit of a distance away from me. I guess it's not that far, maybe three feet, but earlier our arms would touch when we walked. I look over and see she's biting her lip uncomfortably.
"Maybe forgetting isn't working as well as we hoped," I say. She turns to look at me.
"Yeah, well it's only been twenty minutes."
"But maybe we shouldn't forget," I say. "And instead just, I dunno, accept it. We kissed. The sky is blue. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. There's nothing we can do to undo it or change it, and we both know we can't forget it. So let's just make peace with it and stop being so awkward." She nods.
"Besides, it was only acting. It didn't mean anything."
"Right." Ally walks closer to me after that. "So, our next ride is the Ferris Wheel." Ally gulps and looks up at it. I see the color drain from her face. "Don't tell me you're afraid of heights."
"I won't, but that doesn't mean it's not true." I sigh.
"Well, we haveto go through with our 'every ride' pact. Especially after the Tunnel of Love. So be a big girl and c'mon," I say. I start walking towards the Ferris Wheel and Ally reluctantly follows. "Don't worry. You're safe with me, remember? I promised you right when we got here I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you. And I keep my promises." Ally nods and we get on the ride.
The car is kind of small, and Ally and I are a bit squished. I wrap an arm around her so I can make more room and so I can try to comfort her. I rub her shoulder gently as the ride starts moving. Ally is still really pale, and she's gripping the lap bar tightly.
"It's okay, Als," I say. "Close your eyes." She does as I say. The Ferris Wheel creaks as it stops to let on more passengers, and Ally yelps and buries her head in my shoulder.
Now that I think about it, by the way we act, I'm not all that surprised so many people assume we're a couple.
"You're fine, Ally. I promise everything will be okay. I won't let anything bad happen to you." I keep saying comforting things like that until we stop at the top. "Wow," I say breathlessly. The view is beautiful.
The city stretches out before me, colorful and bustling with life. I can see all the way down to the beach and the ocean. I even see the little cove I used to go to as a kid that hardly anyone knows about. You have to go through a little cave to get there, and it's quiet and peaceful. While I'm thinking about it, I make a mental note to take Ally there sometime.
"Ally, look at this," I say. "Open your eyes slowly, and don't freak out. We're pretty high up, but the view is amazing." Ally opens her eyes, but when she sees how high we are, she clutches me tighter and shuts her eyes again. "C'mon, Als. It's worth it. I'm right here." Ally sighs and opens her eyes again.
"Whoa," she says. "You were right. This is gorgeous." I nod. "I can't believe how far you can see from up here."
"Well, that's what being high up does," I say sarcastically. She laughs lightly.
"I guess I was so afraid of falling, I never opened my eyes to see how amazing the view is."
"Ya think?" I say, raising an eyebrow. But that comment made me kinda uncomfortable. I don't know why, but it reminds me of what Ratliff told me about keys and doors the other day. But Ally's just talking about her fear of heights. It has nothing to do with my nonexistent feelings for her. I'm being way too paranoid about this.
The ride starts moving again. Ally looks a little nervous, but she's a lot more relaxed than before. We're silent for the rest of the ride.
For the next three hours, we go on all the other easy rides. Ally is having the time of her life, and it's nice to be the one who's showing her how to have fun. I'm having a blast too, but I'm looking forward to getting to the rollercoasters.
"Okay," I say as we get off the bumper cars, "that was the last easy ride." Ally nods.
"I know."
"You know what comes next, right?" She nods again.
"Unfortunately."
"Don't worry, Als. It's gonna be fun. C'mon." I grab her hand and run to the smallest rollercoaster in the park. It really is small. It's so short, you go through it twice in one ride. "You ready?" I ask as we get on the rollercoaster.
"Nope," she says. "But yet here I am."
"You're gonna be fine." She takes a deep breath and nods uncertainly.
The ride starts. We climb the small hill slowly. Although it's small for a rollercoaster, it's still pretty high up. Ally looks over the side nervously.
"Hey," I say, gently grabbing her chin and turning her head towards me. "Just look at me. Concentrate on me, okay? You're fine. Just focus on me." She nods and I can see all her concentration go into staring me in the eyes as she tries to calm herself down. "See? Just focus on me and you'll be fine." I glance ahead of us and see we're almost over the hill. "Okay, we're about to go down." She starts turning her head, but I turn it towards me again, knowing she'll get scared. "Keep your eyes on me."
The rollercoaster goes over the hill. Ally screams as we go down, but since the seats are separated, I can't really do much. This rollercoaster is a bit boring in my opinion. But this is Ally's first, so she's terrified. She keeps her eyes locked on mine even though we're going up and down and twisting and turning at crazy speeds. Her knuckles are still white as she holds the lap bar.
"See? This isn't so bad!" I shout over the wind.
"I'm trying really hard not to freak out right now!" Ally shouts back.
"You're doing great!" I tell her encouragingly. Shortly, we end up back at the start.
"Thank goodness it's over," she says.
"Um, it's so short, it goes twice. We're halfway done." Her eyes widen.
"You're kidding right?"
"Hey, you got through it once, you'll get through it again. Remember, eyes on me. Or even close your eyes if that makes you feel better." We start climbing the hill again. I see her hands shaking as they grip the bar. "Try putting your arms up. It's more fun," I say, demonstrating the proper rollercoaster pose.
"Yeah, no thanks," Ally says.
"At least loosen your grip," I say.
"I'm fine the way I am," she says in the same tone, still staring me in the eyes. I sigh.
"Are you even enjoying yourself?"
"Not really. But I have to get over this fear. At least you're here helping me through, yeah?" I nod.
"You ready? We're about to go down again." She nods, still not breaking eye contact.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Just as she finishes saying that, we go down, and she erupts in more screams. I throw my arms up and laugh. Out of my peripheral vision, I see Ally turn her head forward and let go of the lap bar, letting her arms fly up. A laugh bubbles from her mouth.
"There ya go!" I shout.
"Whoo!" she exclaims, smiling. The color is returning to her face.
"Yeah!" I say, laughing. We continue screaming and laughing until the ride stops.
"That was actually pretty fun," Ally says as we get off. "Once I let go." I grin.
"See? I told ya. But now we're gonna keep going on bigger ones until we get to-" I turn Ally's body until she's facing the largest rollercoaster in the park, "the Corpse Coaster. Kind of a lame name if you ask me, but that thing looks awesome." The coaster is so tall, we have to tilt our heads all the way back to see it. "We're not going on it yet, though, so don't worry." Ally nods and I lead her to the next rollercoaster.
Two hours and seven rollercoasters later, Ally and I find ourselves in line for the Corpse Coaster. Ally's been having fun on all the rollercoasters after being terrified at first, so I'm not surprised when the color drains from her face again as we wait. But she's also visibly shaking, so I start talking to get her mind off of her fear.
"So I was thinking, since this is the last ride, after this we could hit up any rides you wanna go on again, or we could leave right away and go get dinner at that pizza place again." Ally nods.
"I'm craving some Hawaiian pizza." I smile.
"I dunno, pepperoni sounds pretty good to me." We move up in line and Ally swallows hard.
"Remember earlier when I said maybe we didn't have to go on every ride? I'm gonna say that again. Why don't we just go now? Yeah, let's go," Ally says, sort of talking to herself.
"C'mon, Als. You can do this. All that preparing. You're ready. You won't get hurt. How many times do I have to tell you I'll protect you, Als? You'll be okay. I promise." She sighs.
"I know you won't let me get hurt, and you won't let anything bad happen to me, and all that stuff. But I'm still terrified. I don't think I can do this." I move up again in line, pulling her with me.
"You can, Als. You'll be great, okay? What do I have to do to get you less scared?" She shrugs.
"There's nothing to do. I'm scared. That's all there is to it." We move up again.
"You have to get over this fear, Ally. You've been doing really good so far. If you can get through this ride, I know you'll be completely over your fear of rollercoasters," I tell her. She nods.
Finally, it's our turn to get on the ride. I get on first and she slowly follows. On this ride, it's one big bench for some reason. I'm not sure if that's safe, but I'm actually kinda grateful for it. I put my arm around her and pull Ally close like I've done on so many other rides and pull the lap bar down. Ally's still shaking and pale, and I run my hand up and down her arm in an attempt to comfort her.
"You're gonna be fine, Als. You're doing great. Deep breaths. Close your eyes. I'll be right here the whole time." She leans on my shoulder and closes her eyes and takes a deep breath like I told her to. I kiss the top of her head and continue rubbing her arm. My other hand is on top of one of hers-she's gripping the lap bar tighter than ever before. I rub circles on her hand with my thumb.
I realize that not only do we act like a couple, but I act like more of a boyfriend to her than I ever did to Kira, or anyone for that matter. And I don't even have a crush on her.
The wooden coaster creaks as it starts moving. We begin the slow climb up the high hill. Ally continues taking deep breaths and she doesn't open her eyes. I grab the lap bar with the arm that's around her, so I'm sort of trapping her between my arm and my body. I don't want her moving a lot during the ride. Now that I'm thinking about it, this ride isn't really all that safe. I take my hand off of hers and grip the lap bar right next to where she's holding it. Ally scoots even closer to me, so I tighten my arm around her.
"We're about a quarter of the way up," I inform her. She nods.
After a little while, Ally says, "Austin?" in a weak voice.
"Yeah?" I ask.
"Remember how you heard about that dream I had where we kissed and stuff?"
"Mmhm," I say, not sure where she's going with this.
"And then I said it was, you know, the best feeling ever? But that it was only a dream that wouldn't come true?"
"Yeah," I say.
"Well, it came true." She opens her eyes and looks up at me. "Sorry, but I-uh-I thought you should know."
"You're talking like you think we're gonna die on this thing or something, Als," I say. She shrugs.
"It's called the Corpse Coaster. Can you blame me?" I chuckle.
"We're not gonna die. As for the kiss thing…" I trail off. "Don't stress about it, okay? I can tell you're worried now that you've told me, but I'm not weirded out or anything." She nods. "But I guess since you just confessed something, I should confess something, too." I take a deep breath. "My middle name's Monica." Ally blinks.
"That wasn't funny."
"No, I'm not kidding. I'll show you my birth certificate. My name is Austin Monica Moon," I say, wincing slightly. Ally's eyes widen, and then she snorts. She masks it with a cough.
"It's not funny," she says. "It's just a name. I'm not laughing."
"Go ahead, laugh." She's about to, but she makes the mistake of turning away from me to do so. Now, we're about halfway up the hill. When she sees how high we are, she yelps and buries her face back in my side.
"I don't think I'm gonna get through this," she says, her voice muffled by my shirt. I go back to rubbing her arm, making a mental note to go back to the lap bar when we get closer to the top.
"You will. I promise. You trust me don't you?"
"Yeah," she says. "I have no reason not to."
"Exactly. So you can trust me when I say you will get through this ride." She doesn't reply.
After a while, I return my hand to the lap bar. I kiss her head again, hoping it'll comfort her.
"Get ready," I say. "We're almost at the top." She nods nervously, keeping her eyes shut tight. "Here we go…" I say as we start going over the hill.
The descent is slow for about two seconds, but then the coaster is released and we race down, cutting off in a sharp turn at the bottom. Ally screams her head off and I can't say I'm doing much better. But I'm laughing as I scream. Ally is just screaming in fear.
"You're doing great, Als!" I shout as we go upside down. All we have is a lap bar; that is not safe. Before we go on the second loop I take my hand away from the lap bar and use it to hold Ally tighter. I feel her hovering above the seat whenever we go down a hill, and this ride is much worse than the Magic Carpets. Ally's using one hand to clutch the hand that's holding her for dear life, while the other still holds the lap bar.
"Is it almost over?" she screams, her eyes still closed. I spit some of her hair out of my mouth again.
"Yeah! I shout. "One more hill and then it's over!" She nods as we go up the last hill. Unfortunately, this one goes down as far as the other one, but it goes underground for most of it. I tighten my grip on her even more as we plunge into the darkness. Ally screams even more and now uses both hands to clutch the arm I'm using to hold her in the car.
Suddenly, we come to a stop. Ally stops screaming and breathes heavily. My arm is still around her waist, and she's still clutching my arm for dear life. With my other hand, I fix my crazy hair as I talk to her, smiling.
"It's over, Ally. You did it. You made it through, just like I promised. Everything's fine, see? And now, we can both officially say we've ridden every ride at an amusement park."
"Austin," Ally says when she's calm enough to speak, "I could've easily fallen out of this thing!" We begin the long climb back above ground.
"But you didn't," I say. "I made sure it didn't happen. Do you know how much trouble I'd be in if I let you fall out of a rollercoaster?" She gives me a look. "I'm kidding! Ally, I'd never let you get hurt, okay? Even though we've only been friends for, like, a week, you mean more to me than I ever would've imagined you would." She sighs.
"Thanks for not letting me fall out," she says, and I know she's half kidding. I chuckle and return my arm to my side. "So your middle name really is Monica?"
"Why would I joke about that?" I ask. Ally starts cracking up. "It's not funny," I complain. She keeps laughing. "I could easily bring up your little confession and start laughing about it," I say. Ally shuts up immediately.
We sit in comfortable silence until we get off the ride. After that terrifying experience, Ally doesn't really wanna go on any more rides, and I don't blame her. I mean, I'd kinda like to go on the Tunnel of Love again to see if whatever happened when I kissed her happens again, but I don't say that out loud. She'd probably think I was making fun of her, anyways. But again, I don't like her. I just…really like kissing her. And no, I'm not saying it too much, I just don't want you assuming anything else.
We leave the park and have an uneventful dinner of the amazing pizza we had the other night, like I promised. After that, I take Ally home.
"Goodnight, Ally," I say when we arrive at her house.
"Night, Austin," she says. "Thanks for today. Despite my constant screaming and fear and stuff, I had a really good time." I smile.
"So did I. We should go again sometime."
"Except maybe skip a few rides." I nod.
"But I can only think of two I'll allow us to skip." She nods in agreement.
"Yeah, the rest were fun. Just-ah-the two terrifying ones we should skip." I chuckle.
"C'mon, Tunnel of Love wasn't terrifying." She shrugs.
"Maybe not for you…"
"C'mon, hearts and couples and Cupids are terrifying to you?" I ask.
"No, that part wasn't terrifying. You know what I'm talking about," she replies.
"I still don't think kissing qualifies as terrifying. It was five seconds, Als."
"It felt like an eternity."
"An amazing eternity?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows and smiling. She rolls her eyes.
"An amazingly terrifying eternity," she says. "How's that?" I shrug.
"Still wasn't terrifying."
"Well you weren't the one feeling your best dream and worst nightmare become a reality, now were ya, Blondie?" she says, getting out of my car.
"Can't say that I was, Shortie." She shuts the door and shoots me a glare through the rolled-down window.
"Thanks again," she says.
"No problem," I reply. She waves goodbye and walks up the sidewalk to her house, opening the front door and letting herself in. I sigh and roll up the window and drive home.
I get ready for bed quickly, and as I do, I think about all of today's events. Well, actually, one in particular. The one that I know I'll never be able to stop thinking about. The one that didn't give me butterflies, didn't make me feel sparks, and didn't make my heart speed up, but the one that made me wonder why I wanted more.
The kiss. The event that could be the door Ratliff's metaphorical key could unlock.
So, yeah. I know I mentioned it 3 times in the chapter but I'm going to again. AUSTIN DOES NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON ALLY! HE JUST REALLY REALLY REALLY ENJOYS KISSING HER! Don't ask about that logic, okay? Just...wait. But remember that information because it'll come into play later in the story. So, was it too fluffy? I know it was really long and stuff and I'm really really sorry for that. But now do you see why I couldn't split it up? I tried to make it as short as possible, but I needed to put in the first few rides at the beginning-especially Tunnel of Love-and obviously her first rollercoaster and then the big one and so I really tried my best and I hope you guys don't hate me for making it too long. I just wanna please you guys, okay? I hope that was enough Auslly to hold you over for a while. But again, remember HE DOESN'T LIKE HER YET! If I get a review saying how they're so happy Austin finally likes Ally... *shakes head* OKAY, so if you liked the chapter, put TUNNEL OF LOVE in a review! If you thought it was okay, put MAGIC CARPETS in a review! If you hated it, put CORPSE COASTER in a review! Thanks for reading and please review! Love you more than Austin loves kissing Ally!
~Maddie :)