Page 66 of Her Wicked Knights
My heart lurches inside my chest a second before the ground rushes up to meet us. The car drops, and it fucking races toward the ground, toward the yellow track that's laid out before us like a marble run, with loops and curves and dips and inclines.
The further we get, the more speed we seem to pick up, which is great, because we need it to propel us through the loop.
I glance at Tripp when we're upside down, finding him with his lips still pressed together, his hair obscuring his face in the nanosecond where we stay upside down before it pushes us through into the next curve.
There's screaming and laughing all around us, and honestly, I'm not sure which of them is coming from me. I just know that I've never felt more alive than I do right now, right here.
I'm disappointed when we begin to slow, preparing to slide into the station, but I get a chance to check on Tripp and find him with his eyes open now, relief obvious on his face.
"That was amazing!" I tell him, grinning so hard my fucking cheeks hurt when we pull into place, and the restraints unlockfor us to take our leave. I'm contemplating running around to get right back in line, but something tells me Tripp didn't enjoy that half as much as me. "Not a roller coaster person?"
"I thought I was going to die in mid-air... like, my heart would just stop."
"Why'd we do it then?" I frown. "I didn't realize you didn't like roller coasters."
"I like them." He laughs. "I'm just terrified of them."
I decide not to argue with that logic, because it's a pretty damning summary of how I feel about him. I like him, and I have for a while. But I am terrified of telling him that... terrified of telling him that I think I actually surpassed like in junior year. I'm terrified of losing what we have in the pursuit of something that we can never be, and if the most we can do is share Marley, then that has to be enough for me.
"Well, this time, let's do something that doesn't terrify you. You said you liked water rides?"
Tripp grins in excitement and leads me toward the center of the park, where the haunted houses for tonight sit, quietly waiting for the evening to transform them into a place of terror. They ring the big blue lake in the center of the park, which we skirted on the way to the roller coaster. I was too busy looking at everything that I didn't realize there was a ride in the center of it, but as we walk toward the giant clown with his gaping mouth ready to swallow us, Tripp's excitement fades.
"Noooo!" He groans, turning to me suddenly. "It's closed!"
"Maybe the workers just closed it for a break? We can ask someone when it will be open again."
"No." Tripp frowns. "It's closed for renovations. They always close before winter."
I suppose that makes sense, since it's late fall and the weather is pretty chilly for a water ride. "Damn it." I sigh, hating his disappointment. "You know what this means?"
Tripp's eyes seek mine, waiting for an answer to my own question. "What?"
"It means we have to come back, obviously."
"Fine." Tripp pouts, but I see the smirk on his lips, and I can tell he doesn't hate the idea of coming back again one day.
"Until then, what else do you want to do? All the food smells good, and that big wheel in the sky looks like it would have a hell of a view."
"A hell of a view?" He laughs. "Of what?"
"I don't know." I shrug. "The park. The woods around us."
I don't care what the view looks like, honestly. I only suggested it because the thought of sitting so close to him, of having him to myself, is too great to ignore. I don't expect him to actually go for it.
"Alright. But only if we wait for the yellow one."
"The yellow one?"
Each car, it turns out, is painted a different color. When they rotate in the sky, it makes something of a rainbow. And why we have to wait for the yellow one, I don't bother asking. If yellow makes him happy, I'll wait for the yellow one... even though you can't see what color car we're in from inside.
Tripp looks too pleased for me to remark about how tame this is, so I keep quiet, grinning to myself as we sit side-by-side, our knees knocking against one another since these cars weren't created with full-grown men in mind. The wheel moves at a glacial pace, but next to me, Tripp looks more at ease than I've seen him in... ever.
"What?" He asks, noticing my gaze on him.
"Nothing."
But also, everything.
