AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A whole entire day off! My god, what will we do with this kind of freedom?”
“We’ve got to do something…” Theo bats her lashes at me. “Otherwise, we’re wasting it.”
“I know what we should do.” Reese strolls into the kitchen and takes an enormous bite out of one of Theo’s freshly baked blueberry muffins.
I snatch the other half of the muffin out of his hand and pop it in my mouth. “Who said you’re invited?”
Reese grins, chewing lustily. “Me, of course.”
Reese’s geniusplan is to spend the day at the Santa Monica Pier. Starved of decent food for the last three months, he demolishes two hot dogs, a burger, a frozen lemonade, and a funnel cake, and then regurgitates thirty-eight dollars of food into the nearest trash can after his third ride on the Pacific Plunge.
I expected Theo to be timid, but she surprises me by immediately getting in line for the tallest rollercoaster.
“Are you sure?” I say, gazing up at a structure that looks like it was designed by a drunk carny well before modern safety standards.
“I’m not worried.” Theo winks at me. “There are no sharks on rollercoasters.”
Even so, she looks a little nervous as we near the front of the line.
“Having second thoughts?”
“Not a chance!” She grips the railing in both hands. “I’m doing this.”
Nobody is pressuring Theo to take this ride, but it’s obvious she’s trying to prove something to herself. Her lips get pale and her knees get wobbly, but she climbs into the car anyway.
As our rickety ride climbs the first rise, Theo gives me a concerned look. “Areyouafraid?”
I wouldn’t say I’m scaredof rollercoasters, but they do make me nervous. It’s the complete lack of control—I don’t even like riding in other people’s cars, let alone a train of tin cans zooming around a wooden track.
Butafraid?
“Of course not.”
“I thought you promised not to lie…” Theo teases. “Your knuckles are white.”
I look at my hands gripped around the bar. “You could pry those off with a crowbar, easy.”
Theo laughs. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.”
She puts her arm around me right as our car tips over the edge and goes plunging down.
Someone’s screaming. I’m worried it’s me until I realize it’s Reese right behind us.
The car whips around hairpin turns, swoops and dives. Theo’s shrieking with pure, unadulterated glee. Her hair is a black whirlwind, her eyes sparkling bright.
As we flip through the last loop, there’s a moment where gravity swaps and we’re floating in space. Theo turns and time seems frozen, suspended, her hair a cloud around us, her lips parted, her hand clutched to my chest.
The urge to kiss her is overwhelming.
But Reese is five feet away, and in that fractional hesitation, the moment passes. The car loops around, and we coast out of the final bend.
Theo can’t stop laughing, giddy and weak-kneed from a ride that felt near suicidal.
“They have not tightened the bolts on that thing in at least twenty years,” I mutter, gratefully departing the janky little cart.
“That’s what keeps it spicy,” Reese says. “The fact that about once every four years, one of those things goes shooting off the rails.”
We head to the arcade next, where Theo proves surprisingly adept at Space Invaders, and Reese and I resume our ancient grudge match as Ryu and Ken. I redeem my manhood by winning Theo a stuffed panda in the shooting gallery.
