Thrill Ride

by Rachel Hawthorne

  And I looked up constantly, not down. It was that afraid-of-heights thing that I had. The cast-iron steps were a latticework of holes. Looking down meant seeing how far up we’d gone. Better to look up and see how close we were to reaching the top.

  When we did reach the top, I couldn’t imagine what I was thinking. Heights weren’t my thing. Yet here I was, trying not to think about how I was going to get back down.

  A hollow sound echoed around us as we walked the perimeter of the room. An emptiness. That sadness again. A crack in one of the windows was probably responsible for the shrieking of the wind. In the center of the room was where the light had once burned.

  “It must have been so lonely living out here,” I said.

  “I think it would be cool to live away from everything,” Parker said.

  He was still holding my hand. I still didn’t object.

  “You wouldn’t like living alone,” I said. “At the park, you know everyone and everyone knows you. You’re Mr. Popularity. Popular people don’t do well on their own. They need others.”

  “Oh, so now you’re the psychology major? Explain to me someone who won’t go on a tall ride, but will walk up to the top of a lighthouse.”

  “It’s not the height so much as it is the plummeting drop.”

  “So if I could find a roller coaster without the drop, you’d ride it?”

  “Would it be a roller coaster without a drop?”

  “Good point. Did you hear the ghosts?”

  “It was the wind, coming in from the open door and through that cracked window there.”

  “Ah, come on, Megan, what’s the fun in having a logical explanation for everything?”

  “It’s my practical nature.”

  “That practical nature is going to get you in trouble some day.”

  “What?”

  He released my hand and walked to the lake side of the lighthouse. “Look how vast it is. Awesome.”

  I moved up beside him and couldn’t help thinking that this was an incredible kissing place. I could see a lighthouse keeper’s daughter sneaking up here with her boyfriend. I was glad that Parker and I had decided to be just friends, because this was the kind of place that made a girl think about passionate kisses. Especially when the sun started to go down.

  “It really is nice to get away from the crowds,” I said.

  “Yeah, that’s why Cole and I jumped on the chance to stay in the cabin, away from everything. The dorm is nice the first year or two because it gives you a chance to meet people, especially when you’ve never been away from home before. Eliminates that homesickness. But there are always people around. At the park all day. At the lake near the hotel. That’s one of the reasons that I really like taking the roller coaster cars out first thing in the morning. It’s like this. Quiet, peaceful. With the sun coming up.” He looked over at me. “Even if you’re not interested in riding, I wish you’d come to the park with me first thing in the morning sometime. It’s a totally different place.”

  When he was looking at me like that, with those green eyes focused on me, I had a difficult time thinking. “I’m not much of a morning person.”

  “Neither am I. But some things are worth getting up for.”

  “You promise not to make me ride Magnum Force?”

  “I wouldn’t ever make you do anything you didn’t want to do.”

  “You won’t nag about it?”

  “Nag is what my mom did before she and Dad got divorced. I simply ask.”

  “If you ask more than once, it’s a nag.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Okay. If that’s what it takes to make you come with me in the morning, then I promise not to ask you to ride the roller coaster.”

  “You are a nag, but I’ll go anyway.”

  “Great! You won’t regret it. I’ll come for you at six in the morning.” Before I could protest at the ungodly time he’d suggested, he grabbed my hand. “Let’s go swim.”

  Chapter 16

  I loved Parker’s enthusiasm as we walked back to the picnic site. He pointed out different birds and plants and strange cloud formations.

  “Tell me that you’re not this energetic in the mornings,” I said, as we walked along. Not holding hands.

  I really couldn’t figure out a pattern as to when he would hold my hand. When he thought about it or when he didn’t? Was it reflex or planned?

  Having never been just friends with a guy, I was walking an uncharted path. I mean, I knew what to expect in a boyfriend/girlfriend situation. But with Parker, I hardly ever knew what to expect.

  By the time we got back to the picnic area, everyone else was already in the water. I kicked off my sandals. I was wearing my bathing suit underneath my clothes so I took off my shorts and top. Parker was already in his swim trunks so he just tossed his shirt onto the blanket.

  He ran into the water, then dove in, and came up sputtering a short distance away. Which left only me on the shore.

  “Come on, Megan!” he called out. “There are no sharks.”

  “I’m not a total chicken,” I said, as I walked into the water.

  It was pretty chilly, and I thought about how nice it would be to lie in the sun afterward and warm up.

  “It’s easier if you just go under,” Jordan said. “You’ll get used to it faster.”

  Only I didn’t want to get used to it faster. I was perfectly fine taking my time.

  I was up to my knees in the water, had just stepped forward when pain sliced through my foot. I screeched, stepped back, lost my balance, my arms windmilling…

  I fell backward, went under…

  I felt strong hands grabbing hold of me, jerking me upward. I found my wet body against Parker’s, skin to skin, as he held me in his arms.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I felt something sting—”

  “Omigod, she’s bleeding,” Jordan cried.

  Parker carried me out of the water, set me on the blanket.

  “Were you a lifeguard in another life?” I asked jokingly.

  “Yeah, a couple of summers during high school,” he said distractedly, while examining my foot.

  “What do you think happened?” Ronda asked, kneeling beside Parker, looking at my foot.

  “Broken glass maybe,” he said. “I think it’s going to need stitches.”

  “Stitches?” I practically shrieked. “You’re kidding, right? I’ve never had stitches in my life.”

  I pulled my foot free of his hold, bent my knee, and tried to view the damage. But there was so much blood. “Oh,” was the best I could manage. It looked ghastly.

  Ross handed Parker a strip of shredded towel. Parker took my foot and began wrapping it.

  “We need to get you to the hospital.”

  “It’s just a little cut.”

  “You know you were swimming in a lake, not a pool. No chlorine to kill the germs. When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?”

  When I was about two?

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come on. Everybody, pack up,” he ordered. “We’re going.”

  “Don’t do that. It’s not an emergency. We can go later.”

  “Now isn’t the time to prove you’re not a chicken,” he said, and sounded seriously irritated.

  I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I just thought he was overreacting.

  “Fine,” I finally said. I wasn’t really ready to go, but he was bigger than I was.

  “See, I told you it wasn’t that bad,” I said, as we pulled away from the hospital emergency room.

  When we’d arrived at the dock, Parker had left the boat for the others to put away and he’d driven me to the hospital. Since Jordan had her car there, she and the gang had a way to get home, so I hadn’t been concerned about them.

  “I don’t call a huge bandage wrapped around your foot and a tetanus shot not bad,” Parker said.

  The tetanus shot was a precaution since I wasn’t sure exactly what I had step
ped on. Could have been an old rusty can or something. I couldn’t remember the last time that I’d had the shot before tonight and I didn’t want to call my mom and ask her. I didn’t want her worrying. And for some reason, as silly as it seemed, I was feeling guilty for being out having a great time. I didn’t want Nick to know that I was doing anything other than working.

  Silly, I know. I mean, I was certain that he was doing more than working. He was going to movies and having fun. I was sure of it.

  “You should call in sick tomorrow,” Parker added.

  “I’m not sick. I’m just limping a little.” The doctor had told me to stay off it for a day, but it was wrapped up pretty tight. I was sure it would be fine. “Besides, how can I call in sick if I’m planning to go with you in the morning?”

  He gave a quick glance my way, a smile tugging up the corner of his mouth. “You’re still gonna come with me tomorrow?”

  “Just to watch.”

  “Before the summer is over, I’ll have you screaming on a roller coaster.”

  “In your dreams.”

  It was strange. He got really quiet. It wasn’t so much that he wasn’t talking, but this heaviness settled in the car, like he wanted to say something, but didn’t dare, and I had this crazy idea that maybe he really was having dreams about me. But was too embarrassed to tell me.

  He pulled up in front of the dorm. “Wait there,” he ordered as he got out of the car.

  I rolled my eyes, but watched as he hurried around the front of the car and jerked open the car door. Then he reached inside, slid an arm beneath my knees—

  “Hey, what are you doing?” I asked, even though I knew what he was doing.

  “I’m going to carry you inside,” he said.

  My arms wound around his neck as he lifted me out of the car.

  “You’re overreacting again,” I said. “Put me down. I can walk.”

  Even though I didn’t really want to. Even though I sorta liked the fact that he was carrying me. It wasn’t really romantic. We weren’t kissing or hugging or gazing into each other’s eyes. It was just fun and silly and I realized that the pain medication the doctor had given me to help me sleep through the night must have kicked in, because I was feeling kinda giddy.

  Laughing, feeling special, and wondering about kissing Parker. Wondering if I could use the medication as an excuse to do what I’d thought about doing a dozen times throughout the afternoon.

  He walked through the doors and I protested feebly. “Put me down.”

  “When we get to your room.”

  “Oh, that’s it,” I said. “You just want to tell people you’ve been to my room.”

  He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, still walking to the elevator. I laughed.

  “Megan?” A voice called out questioningly—and tartly.

  I froze. Only one person I knew could sound both ways at the same time. It was a commanding voice, and I guess Parker reacted to it as well, because he spun around with me still in his arms, clinging to his neck.

  And standing there, hands on her hips, brow furrowed in disgust, was my older sister.

  Chapter 17

  “So how long have you been seeing this guy?”

  Sarah and I were at a Starbucks. I knew it was a big mistake to drink coffee after dark, but I needed something to chase away the lethargy brought on by the pain meds. They weren’t heavy duty or anything, just enough to make me not care too much that my sister had caught me in a guy’s arms.

  “We’re not seeing each other,” I answered.

  She was wearing her judgmental, I-know-what-I-saw expression. I’d never been crazy about it.

  “Sure looked like you were seeing each other to me,” she said, and I could hear the disapproval in her voice.

  “He was carrying me because he was worried about my foot.”

  “Geez, I guess all that giggling didn’t exactly scream ‘concern’!”

  “You’re not the boss of me.”

  How grown-up did that sound? Not very. But it was true.

  “Does Nick know about him?”

  Boy was that a low blow. It made me feel guilty when I had no reason to.

  “There’s nothing for him to know.” I dumped three packets of sugar into my coffee. So now I would have a sugar and caffeine high. I’d be climbing the walls before I was done here.

  Sarah laid her hand over mine before I ripped open another sugar packet. “Look, Megan, I know how it is to be away from home for the first time, with no parental control, no limits, complete freedom—”

  I snatched my hand out from beneath hers. “It’s not like that. Parker is my roommate’s brother. We were all at the lake together. Just a big group, having fun. His carrying me meant absolutely nothing. We are just friends.”

  She stared at me, blinked her eyes. “You really believe that,” she said, like she couldn’t believe I believed it.

  “Because it’s the truth,” I stated emphatically.

  She shook her head. “Maybe your truth, not his. He is definitely interested.”

  “He was interested, but he knows about my feelings for Nick. So we’ve agreed to be friends.”

  “Oh, God, Megan, tell me you aren’t that naive. Guys can’t be just friends with girls. It’s biologically impossible.”

  “I didn’t realize you’d suddenly become a biologist.” She opened her mouth and I raised my hand to stop further commentary. “Let’s agree to disagree on this situation. I’m more interested in what you’re doing here and why you didn’t tell me you were coming.”

  “I didn’t tell you because I wanted to surprise you—which I did with resounding success.”

  “Okay. One question answered, one to go,” I said, getting really irritated with her. “Why are you here? Don’t you have a wedding to plan or something equally important to do?”

  Sighing, she picked up a sugar packet and started flicking it like it was a miniature punching bag. “The planning is driving me crazy. I had to get away.”

  “I know Mom’s been difficult—”

  “Not Mom. Bobby.”

  “Bobby?” That wasn’t good. “You mean, like you had a fight?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “It’s like he doesn’t care.”

  “He loves you, Sarah,” I reassured her.

  “I know that. It’s not that he doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t care about the wedding. Every time I have to make a decision, I’ll ask him for advice and he’ll say, ‘Whatever makes you happy.’”

  She rolled her eyes, looking totally disgusted.

  “What’s wrong with that?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t help me make a decision. It just puts all of the burden on me. I don’t know how to make him tell me what he wants.”

  Her constant hammering at the sugar packet wore it down. It tore and started sprinkling sugar over the table. She didn’t seem to notice.

  “So you came here to get away?” I asked, still not getting it.

  “I came here to get advice.”

  “From me?”

  She nodded.

  “About handling Bobby?”

  She nodded again.

  I laughed. “Sarah, I’ve been dating for all of three months. I don’t know anything about guys.”

  “That was obvious after I saw you with that guy tonight—”

  “His name is Parker.”

  “—then you said you’re just friends—”

  My cell phone rang and I welcomed the distraction. I glanced at the display and thought about not answering….

  Decisions, decisions. Talk with Parker or talk with Sarah.

  No brainer.

  I flipped the phone open. “Hi.”

  “Hey, how’d it go with your sister?”

  “It’s still going.”

  “Good?”

  “No.”

  “Bad, huh?”

  “It’s been better.” I felt like we were talking in some sort of code, so Sarah wouldn’t figure out exactly who was on t
he other end of the phone.

  “Invite her to go with us in the morning,” he said.

  “She won’t be interested.”

  “Try her and see. She looked majorly stressed. I know a great stress reliever.”

  “Magnum Force?” I asked. The other alternative was one of his kisses, which almost literally melted bones.

  “You bet.”

  “Hold on.” I moved the phone away from my ear and looked at Sarah. “It’s Parker.”

  “I figured. Your short responses gave you away.”

  Ignoring her sarcasm, I said, “He wants to know if you want to ride one of the roller coasters with him in the morning before the park opens.”

  “You mean, like, by myself?”

  “And with him. He has to test Magnum Force every morning.”

  She got this look in her eye that I didn’t quite trust, but I knew her answer before she even spoke.

  “Sure, why not?”

  Because the ride is scary. But I held the words back.

  I told Parker the good news, and he did sound like it was good news. I hung up thinking he was really a nice guy. To want to do something for my sister while she was here.

  “I can probably get you a free pass for all the rides,” I told her.

  “We’ll see. I’m not really here to have fun.”

  “Are you saying that being with me is a downer?” I asked teasingly.

  “I’m saying that I’m beginning to think that I came here to run away from my problems, and that’s not really a grown-up thing to do.”

  A chill was in the air the next morning as Sarah and I stood outside the entrance to the park, waiting for Parker. The morning sunlight was glinting off the lake. It was totally peaceful.

  Even Sarah didn’t seem quite so uptight. She’d stayed in the park hotel and we’d had breakfast together. We’d talked about safe things: movies, music, TV shows, shoes. It had actually been fun.

  “So where is this guy?” she asked. “I don’t get up at the crack of dawn for just anyone, you know?”

  I smiled. “He’ll be here.”

  And just like that, I saw him walking up the path. I guess Sarah did, too, because she murmured, “He is a fine specimen.”