“Looks like fun!” she said, trying to sound enthusiastic. “Let’s do it!”
“Think you can handle it, bro?” AJ asked Kevin. Ciara thought momentarily that he was being kind of condescending, but just then AJ’s arm brushed hers and she forgot all about it. Had anyone ever had a heart attack over being touched by a boy before? If she didn’t go into coronary arrest over the skin-on-skin contact, she just might on the roller coaster. Either way, it was doubtful she’d make it out of the park alive.
But looking up into AJ’s smiling eyes made her feel like everything would be all right as long as he was next to her. She smiled and leaned even closer to him, breathing in his sexy, musky smell. No matter how scared she was of going on Scream!, she wouldn’t trade where she was standing at that moment for anywhere else in the world.
“Nervous?” Kevin asked Heidi behind them. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him struggling to get up the courage to touch her. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite as smooth as AJ and his hands stayed in the pockets of his jeans.
“Nah!” Heidi said, practically bouncing up and down with excitement. “I love roller coasters—the scarier, the better. Bring it on!”
“You sound just like Marlene,” AJ said. “It’s too bad she couldn’t make it today—she loves this place.”
Ciara fervently wished she felt the same way about roller coasters as Heidi, Marlene, and seemingly every person in the universe other than her. As they inched closer in line, she could feel her palms grow damp with sweat. To distract herself, she asked AJ about his marketing plan for the B-Dizzy Crew.
AJ’s eyes shone with excitement. “I know we have the right sound to make it big,” he said. “But I want to make sure we stand out visually, you know? So I talked to this friend of mine who’s going to CalArts next year to study graphic design and I’m having him make a logo for us. I want it to look kind of dizzy, like you get a little dizzy when you see it, you know?”
“That’s a great idea,” Ciara said. “It’s cool that you’re doing something other than that bang-bang, bling-bling gangsta stuff.”
“Yeah, well, we gotta have a little of that too, you know?” AJ laughed. “I mean, that’s what sells these days. But it’s hard when you’re a good middle-class kid from Santa Barbara. It’s not exactly Compton.”
“Maybe you should start a gang to boost your street cred,” Ciara joked.
“Yeah, right.” AJ snorted. “Me and DJ Kev-lar can shake down middle schoolers for milk money. Hard-core.”
Ciara was so busy giggling that she didn’t realize they had reached the front of the line. Suddenly, she found herself face-to-face with a row of seats with no floor or sides.
“Come on,” said AJ, nudging her toward the ride. Her heart sped up as she climbed in, her butt shifting uncomfortably on the blue molded plastic. It felt too big and slippery, as if she could fly right off and go careening four hundred feet from the top of the ride to her certain death on the mountain below.
“Arms in,” the operator grunted roughly as he snapped the safety bars down over her lap and shoulders, pinning her hips to the seat. She glanced at the track ahead, which ascended almost straight up before dropping off in a terrifying series of loops and corkscrews. Why had she agreed to do this? She had always hated rides that went upside down. In addition to scaring the crap out of her, they made her feel dizzy and nauseous for hours.
“This is going to be fun,” AJ said, reaching out and squeezing the top of her hand, which she realized had gone nearly white from gripping the safety bars so hard.
“I guess…,” she said shakily as the ride began rumbling beneath them. She wanted to yell for the operator to come back and let her off, but it was too late. They were slowly climbing the track, the park spreading out below them until the lines of people at each attraction were as tiny and colorful as sprinkles on top of an ice-cream cone. She wished the ride would just stay like that, chugging gradually upward. She liked being high in the air. She didn’t even mind going fast. It was the upside-down part she was dreading.
They hovered at the summit for a moment, and she took in the green of the treetops below them and AJ’s gorgeous almond-shaped eyes sparkling in the sunlight before the world dropped off beneath her and they went plummeting down the track, her breath and stomach still somewhere up at the top. She shut her eyes tight as wind rushed against her face, and then she felt her insides twist as they went shooting up into a loop. She heard herself whimpering.
The ride seemed to last for hours. Every time she thought it was close to being over, another loop loomed ahead and her stomach flopped like a dying fish, threatening to shoot its contents out her throat and all over AJ’s lap. By the time it was over, she barely had the energy to lift the safety bars off her lap and shoulders. Her arms and legs felt sticky and weak, and she could hardly look at AJ as he held out his hand to help her climb out of the seat.
“You all right?” he asked. “You look kind of green.”
Ciara did her best to put on a brave, cheerful face, but it must have come across as more of a grimace. She grasped AJ’s arm as they headed toward the blacktop beyond the ride’s exit gate, but it was more for support than out of lust. Hot as AJ was, the only thing she could keep her mind on was not puking all over his Pumas.
“Omigod, wasn’t that amazing!” Heidi gasped, bouncing up and down as they approached. “Those loops were killer. I thought I was going to slide between the bars and go flying through the air!”
Just the thought made Ciara’s knees tremble.
“Are you okay?” Kevin asked, seeing her face. “You look like maybe you didn’t have so much fun.”
“Oh no,” Ciara assured him, trying for a smile. “That was a good time.”
“Cool,” said Heidi, already leading the group toward another line that snaked through a maze of metal barriers. “Who’s up for Tatsu?”
“Me!” AJ said enthusiastically. “I hope it’s scarier than the last one.”
“It’s supposed to be the most terrifying ride in the history of roller coasters,” Kevin assured him. “It starts with, like, a two-hundred-foot drop or something, and your arms and feet aren’t strapped in, so you feel like you’re flying. And then you do the whole thing backwards!”
“Sweet!” Heidi yelped.
Ciara glanced up at Tatsu. The red-and-orange track twisted sadistically above them in a series of corkscrew turns that seemed to defy physics. As she stared up, the train went zooming by faster than a Porsche on the LA freeway, a mess of wiggling legs and arms and zombie movie screams.
“Oh no,” Ciara groaned softly before she could stop herself.
“What’s wrong?” AJ asked, his eyes wide with concern.
“Nothing,” Ciara said quickly. “I’m fine.”
“Are you scared or something?” Heidi asked. It was obvious from her tone that she was just trying to be nice, but Ciara took it as a challenge anyway.
“No!” she found herself saying. “It looks like a blast.” As she spoke, she wondered what she was getting herself into. Her entire body still felt wobbly from the last ride, and her stomach definitely was not in the best shape. Was she really going to force herself to do it again?
As they got closer to the front of the line, Ciara could feel her courage flagging. She just didn’t want to put herself through that again, no matter how hot AJ was. It was that simple. As the group in front of them climbed into the seats and kicked playfully at the empty air in front of them, Ciara’s heart began to race. She wiped her soaking palms on her jeans, realizing she was close to tears.
“You know what?” she said suddenly as the roller coaster began to rumble, bringing the car in front of them high above their heads. “I think I’m going to sit this one out.” She spat the words out as quickly as possible before she could change her mind.
“If you can’t handle the heat, better stay away from the fire,” AJ joked. Ciara felt a twinge of annoyance fight its way through her anxiety. Backing down was h
ard enough as it was—she didn’t need AJ cracking lame jokes at her expense.
“There’s only so much masochism a girl can take,” she shot back acidly.
“Yeah, sorry,” AJ said. “Listen, do you mind if I still go? We’ve been waiting on line for a while.”
“No, go for it,” Ciara assured him, her heart sinking. She’d secretly been hoping he would offer to keep her company on the ground. Sure, it was an unrealistic expectation, given how much AJ liked roller coasters—still, it seemed to her like they’d really been clicking.
“I’ll go on with you!” Heidi volunteered before the words were even out of Ciara’s mouth.
“Cool.” AJ grinned at Heidi—the grin Ciara had come to think of as “hers”—and she felt her spirit sink as low as the gum stuck to the walkway.
“See you when you hit the ground,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. She turned and ducked under the metal barrier, making her way toward a picnic table at the base of a nearby tree.
“Wait up!” She turned to see Kevin vaulting over the barrier behind her.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Keeping you company,” he said, catching up with her.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said as they walked together to the picnic table. She didn’t realize until they sat down how good it was to get off her still-shaky legs.
“It’s fine,” Kevin assured her. “I think I’d rather sit down here and talk to you than be up there screaming my head off, anyway.”
“Thanks.” Ciara couldn’t believe how sweet Kevin was being—she knew that he’d rather be on the roller coaster with Heidi than talking to her. “If I’d gone on that ride, I totally would have puked on his lap, and then I would have really blown my chances.”
Kevin shrugged. “There are better ways to show a guy you care than vomiting on him,” he conceded. “It seemed like he was into you while we were all on line, though.”
“Really?” Ciara felt her mood brighten.
“Um, hello—he was standing so close to you, I’m surprised he didn’t step on your foot. And the way he was looking at you in that shirt was not exactly brotherly love.”
“Oh, stop,” she said playfully. But she could feel her cheeks getting hot.
“No, seriously,” Kevin assured her. “You look hot.”
“Well—thanks.” Ciara glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. She wanted to see if he was joking or not, but all she could see was her reflection in his mirrored sunglasses. His ugly mirrored sunglasses.
“You know,” she said, “I think you should lose those shades.”
“Yeah?” Kevin reached up to fiddle self-consciously with the frames but didn’t take them off.
Ciara nodded. The more she looked at Kevin’s face, the truer that seemed. The glasses were too circular for his square jaw, and the mirrors distorted her face when she tried to look in his eyes, making her focus on her own reflection instead of on him.
“I bet Heidi would be more into you if she could see your eyes,” Ciara said. “The mirrors make you seem kind of detached—plus you look like a cop.”
“Ew.” Kevin’s nose wrinkled in disgust.
“There’s a sunglasses stand right over there,” Ciara suggested, pointing. “Come with me.”
Although it was painted to look like an old-fashioned buggy, the racks on the Shade Shack gleamed with steel, plastic, and UV-resistant coatings.
“You want something that will flatter your face, not hide it,” Ciara said. She held up a pair of square black frames. “Try these.”
Kevin shrugged and swapped his CSI shades for the new ones. Ciara tried to stifle a giggle as he peered into one of the mirrors affixed to the side of the cart, but a snort leaked out around her hand.
“Unless Heidi’s an underground Elvis Costello fan, I don’t think she’s really going to go for these,” Kevin said. He tried on several more pairs that he and Ciara dubbed, respectively, Green Day Visits the Library, R. Kelly with a Hangover, and Grandma Gone Bad.
“How about these?” Kevin asked. Ciara looked up to see him sporting a simple pair of steel rims with a light gray tint. They made him look older and more sophisticated, but also hip: like the kind of guy who would take you to a Japanese-Brazilian fusion restaurant and then to an underground club where your favorite band was performing a secret show.
“Perfect,” she said.
“All right—we have a winner,” Kevin said, paying for the glasses.
“Don’t forget these,” the guy at the stand yelled after them, holding out the old, mirrored pair.
“Toss ’em,” Kevin called back. Ciara could tell the new shades had given his self-esteem a little boost—his chin seemed higher and his shoulders more square and alert. She allowed herself a small, triumphant smile.
“Do you think Heidi will notice?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t see how she couldn’t,” Ciara assured him. “But can I give you some advice? Next time you want to put your arm around her, do it! I could tell you wanted to when we were all waiting on line…so why didn’t you?”
“I dunno—I get shy around her,” Kevin said. “I mean, it’s not like that with other girls. With anyone else, I would have just gone for it, but not Heidi. She’s special.”
“Special how?”
“She’s just…so much sweeter and more innocent than other girls. I mean, I know she claims to be going through this wild-woman phase right now, but when you really know her, you can tell it’s all an act. She’s still got this vulnerability shining through that drives me nuts. Makes me want to protect her.”
“That’s so sweet,” Ciara said wistfully. She couldn’t imagine a boy ever saying something like that about her. She prided herself on being able to take care of herself, but the ability to make boys want to protect her sounded oddly appealing.
A stream of people came barreling through Tatsu’s exit, and Ciara watched as a roly-poly boy with carrot-colored hair and a face like strained beets staggered into the bushes and upchucked what looked like a few pounds of cotton candy. “I am never going on that ride again,” he said miserably as he rejoined his family, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
Ciara and Kevin turned to each other and laughed. “I’m not sorry we missed it,” Ciara admitted.
Heidi came bounding out of the exit, AJ close at her heels.
“Omigod, that was so fun!” Heidi cried, dashing up to them and jumping up and down. “Wasn’t that awesome, AJ?”
“It was pretty sweet,” AJ agreed, loping up behind her. He draped his arm casually over Heidi’s shoulders, and Ciara felt a bubble of jealousy rise in her throat.
“Hey, cute glasses,” Heidi said, peering up at Kevin and grinning. “You get those while we were on the ride?”
“Yeah,” Kevin said through a pleased smile. “Ciara talked me into it. She said the old ones made me look like a cop.”
“Good going, Ciara.” AJ laughed, removing his arm from around Heidi’s shoulders to give Ciara a high five. Her heart soared as his hand met hers in midair, and she savored the sting of his flesh on her palm.
“Totally,” Heidi agreed. “You look way cute in those.” She giggled, and Kevin turned about thirty different shades of red. Fortunately, Heidi didn’t notice. She had already returned her attention to AJ.
“Want to do some more coasters?” she asked, taking his hand and swinging it back and forth like a child pestering her parents for ice cream. “Can we? Please?”
AJ smiled down at her. “I’m game,” he said. The shiver Ciara felt when he slapped her hand froze inside her. Was he really going to ditch her again?
“What’s your favorite?” Heidi asked.
“I love the Psychlone,” Ciara volunteered. Mostly because it never went upside down once, but there was no need to spill that little detail.
Heidi wrinkled her nose. “Too tame,” she said dismissively. “I want something that will give me whiplash. How about the Viper?”
“I
think that’s still my favorite.” AJ grinned. “I’m down if you are.”
“Let’s do it!” Heidi said.
“What about you guys?” AJ asked, turning to Kevin and Ciara. “Viper?”
“I don’t think so,” Ciara said, trying not to sound too defeated.
Kevin shook his head as well. “I think there’s a bluegrass group playing on one of the stages,” he said. “Maybe we’ll go check that out instead.”
“Bluegrass?” Ciara asked incredulously.
Kevin grinned sheepishly. “Music is music,” he said. “I’m equal opportunity as long as it’s good.”
“You’re crazy,” AJ said affectionately. “Just don’t go mixing any of that into my beats.”
The four of them headed toward the Viper, Heidi skipping along happily as Ciara concentrated on not dragging her feet on the ground in frustration. She and Kevin exchanged defeated looks as they dropped AJ and Heidi in line for the Viper. Neither of them needed to spell out the obvious—that Heidi was clearly all about AJ.
Kevin led the way to a small wooden stage, on which several bearded men in flannel shirts picked at acoustic guitars and banjos. A small crowd of mostly older music fans (probably the parents and grandparents of kids who were off on the rides) nodded to the music, sedate smiles on their faces.
“I’m surprised you’re into this kind of stuff,” Ciara said, mostly to distract them from their disappointment.
Kevin tapped his foot along to the beat. “Bluegrass has a bad rep,” he said. “You think of it as backwoods country-bumpkin music, but it actually takes a lot of skill and precision to play. Listen to how they all work together.”
As Ciara watched, the fiddle player launched into a complicated solo. Behind him, the rest of the group kept up a thumping beat. “I guess you do have to be pretty talented,” she admitted.
“It bothers me that people can be so closed-minded about music,” Kevin said. “Like AJ will only listen to hip-hop. But to really understand hip-hop, you have to know about jazz and funk and soul and R and B. Even bluegrass. You close yourself off to a lot of amazing sounds if you only listen to one genre.”
The Perfect Boy Page 5