Page 99 of Gabriel's Salvation

“You know that our hands work when our feet are on the floor as well, right?” she teases.

“Yeah, of course,” I mumble as I reach my hand out to meet hers. Are we actually gonna do this? Be one of those cheesy couples that go for strolls holding hands?

My question is answered when she locks her fingers into mine and begins walking and swinging both of our arms together. Yep, I guess we are. It does feel kinda nice, though.

And that's how the rest of the day goes. We walk around the whole place hand in hand. We grab food and drinks together. She buys photos of us squealing on one of the rides. Then we laugh and joke about who looks more terrified and before I know it, the park is getting emptier and emptier. I look at my watch and realize the park is going to be closing soon. I'm not ready for today to end yet.

“I think we should get going,” I say, feeling a little sad.

“One last ride before we go,” Riley says as she drags me towards an unusually childish looking ride.

“This one, really?” I ask as I see what looks like giant tea cups moving at about 0.1 miles an hour.

“Yeah, it's a tradition,” she says with a cheesy grin.

“Fine.” I acquiesce.

We make our way over, and unsurprisingly, there's no line. The ride has about ten cups, but only two others are already taken. We find a cup on the opposite side to the other two sets of people and sit down. The ride begins spinning slowly. Why of all the rides does she want this snore fest? I see Riley tugging and turning on the wheel in front, with an accomplished grin on her face.

“You gotta spin it to go faster,” she laughs when she sees me eying her suspiciously. I do as she says, and the ride begins to spin a little faster but still at a snail's pace.

“Why this one? Of all the rides, why is this the one you needed to go on?” I ask as I continue spinning it.

“Dunno. Me and Harper have been coming since we were in preschool.

This was our favorite as kids and we just continued riding it for nostalgia sake as we got older, I guess,” she shrugs.

“Wanna know something funny?” she asks with a little scoff. “I had my very first kiss on this ride.” What the fuck? I feel the jealousy and frustration bubbling in my chest at the thought of Riley here with some other guy.

“Jason Phillips,” she sighs as she places her hand on her chest.

“Who the fuck is Jason Phillips?” I snap. Who the fuck is he? I know about Justin. And I assumed there had been other guys before, but did she love any of them?

“My first crush,” she replies with a faraway voice. So she did love him then!

“Who kissed who?” I snap, getting even more frustrated. She's mine. Where's this Jason guy now? Do they still talk?

“He kissed me. It was completely unforgettable,” Riley smirks.

Not wanting to hear another word, I carefully unbuckle the loose belt and slide along the seat, right up against Riley. My body is snug up beside hers, and I tilt myself to face her. I place my hand on the nape of her neck, bring her to me, and kiss her hard. As she begins kissing me back, I gently pull her hair, forcing her to tilt her head so I deepen our kiss. I move one of my arms down her body, trailing my fingers lightly on the bare skin of her arm, causing goosebumps until it lands on her upper thigh. I give her a light squeeze, and she moans into my mouth in response. I bet she can’t even remember that fucker’s name now! I cup her mound with my hand, applying extra pressure to the area where her clit is. She grinds down on my hand and just as I hear her breathing really start to speed up, I end the kiss and pull my hand away.

“Bet that was a better kiss than Jason mother fucking Phillips,” I say with a cheeky grin as I help her off the ride.

“Well, you can't get much worse than throwing up on the guy I guess,” she laughs.

“What the fuck? You threw up on him?”

“Yup, but in my defense, I was only four. And my parents had stupidly let me eat two corndogs and then go on a ride.” She says, holding her hands up in surrender.

“What the fuck? You were four? I need the whole story,” I laugh. I can't believe she made me jealous of some guy she kissed when she was four. She knew exactly what she was doing, too.

“Well…” she says as we make our way out of the park, “it was a real Romeo and Juliet type of love affair. He was an older guy, almost five. It was true love. He’d share his juice boxes with me in school and I'd save him my last cookie. One day we found out he was going to a new school. Our parents decided to bring us all here together for a day of fun. Anyway, my dad was taking me and Harper on the teacups and offered to take Jason on with us. Everything was going fine until I started to feel nauseous. I told the group I felt sick and Jason said when he feels sick his mom kisses him better. He leaned over to kiss me better, and just as he did, I threw up all over his clothes.

I burst out laughing. “Oh my god Riley, that's the funniest shit I've ever heard.”

“Don’t laugh, it was really fucking traumatizing,” she says, while laughing herself.

“Without a doubt, that's the best, bad first kiss story I've ever heard,” I say, wiping a tear from my eye.

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