Page 58 of Landon & Shay: Part One

My mind couldn’t even wrap my head around what it felt like. I was still eyeing the exit.

After a few different snakes, and me passing on holding them, Shay started clucking again. She even added in the chicken arm movements, flapping her arms.

“Fine,” I groaned. “Give me the snake.”

The last one we met was Greta, and she was a freaking giant monster of a ball python.

Oscar had me hold my hands out.

“Shaking won’t help the situation,” he warned.

“Listen, this is the best you’re going to get out of me, so just put the snake in my palms, okay?”

I snapped at the dude and I felt semi-bad about it, too. My nerves were getting the best of me. Sweat was dripping down my forehead, and my vision was blurring over. But still, I wasn’t going to punk out—not with Shay watching. That would’ve given her too much joy.

He lowered the snake into the palms of my hands, and within seconds, everything went black.

* * *

“Landon…hey,Landon. Wake up, get up,” a voice said as my head stirred. I opened my left eye to see Shay’s face hovering over mine. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought I killed you,” she exclaimed.

I pushed up on my hands to come to a sitting position. I rubbed my arm up and down. “What just happened?”

“Well, it didn’t just happen. You blacked out for five minutes,” she explained. “I was already planning out your funeral, but then, like the Satan you are, you rose from the ashes.”

I groaned and went to stand up. As I stood, I got extremely dizzy. I began stumbling, but Shay caught my arm, making me balance a bit more.

“Easy,” she said, her voice low and almost sounding like she cared. “You should probably get checked out. You fell face first.”

“I’m fine. Perhaps we should leave the reptiles alone, though.”

“Oh…” Shay nodded slowly and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, we’re not really allowed back in this place, seeing how, when you fell, you tossed Greta into another cage, and…yeah, we’re not welcome back.”

“Oh, man. That’s too bad. I was really hoping to come back and spend money on this crap.”

“It’s not your lucky day, I guess.”

I studied her lips as she spoke to me. The longer I stared, the more focus I was able to retrieve. My head was still foggy, but I knew a few more seconds of staring at Shay would clear it right up.

“We should probably get you home, so you can ice your forehead,” she commented. I ran my fingers across it, and there was a big knot. Great. I had Pinocchio’s nose growing out of my forehead.

I didn’t argue with the idea of going home. The sooner I was away from those animals, the better.

We drove in silence, and every now and then, Shay would find herself in a giggling fit.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, nothing…” More giggling. “It’s just…when you went down, you looked like a tree that was being cut down in the forest. Stiff and awkward, face down. It looked like something out of a movie.Timberrrrrr,” she called out.

“Well, I’m glad I could entertain you.”

“You really did.” She nodded. “Your butt in those jeans as you went falling forward…” She began giggling again. I wanted to call her out on talking about my butt, but her laughing was annoyingly adorable, and I didn’t want to interrupt that sound. I hadn’t known you could love a sound you hated.

“Thanks for an awful first date,” I told her as we parked in front of my house.

She smiled bright. “Anytime! Have a terrible night.”

“Yeah, yeah, you too.” I climbed out of her car and slammed the door shut. I began walking toward my front door but turned around when I heard Shay calling my name. “Yes?”

---