Who You Are (Liam Payne)

Chapter 2

"How do you feel?" I finally let go of Emma's hand, us both panting.

She rolled her eyes as she always did when she didn't want to admit something. "Exhausted."

"Only exhausted?" I pushed her.

"Fine, I'm feeling great! I feel like what happened just a few minutes ago doesn't bother me at all anymore," she shot me a sincere smile.

I smiled back and hugged her tightly. "Yes, Emma. This is exactly how you should feel."

"Thank you," she pulled into me one last time before breaking our distance.

When I looked up, our school bell tower had the middle-sized hand pointing to 9, indicating that the bell was going to ring in four minutes.

"Oh yeah, I was supposed to ask you this earlier, but we got interrupted." Her grin came back and she looked excited again. "So yesterday, my mom was asking me if I wanted to go to Six Flags during the break."

"You should!" I held her shoulders and jumped up and down excitedly. This was me. I had this habit of cutting people off when they were talking just because I got so excited.

"Hold up, Alex," she calmed me down. "Let me finish first."

I covered my mouth with my hand, letting her know that I was shutting up.

"And she told me that I could take one of my friends with me!"

"Seriously?" She tilted her head and rolled her eyes again. I mouthed 'sorry' to her with a sheepish smile on my face.

"Yes. Last night, I was thinking about who to take because, you know, there is you, Tina, Lisa, and others."

"Please pick someone other than me." Yes, I was hoping she didn't choose me.

The smile on Emma's face suddenly disappeared. "Why?"

"I'm afraid of roller coasters." 

"Really? Why didn't I know that?" She put one of her hands under her chin and the other on her waist. "But you know what? I'm afraid you don't have a choice."

"Emma!" She was definitely taking a revenge at me.

"Look, the bell is gonna ring soon. Let's get to our classes, huh?"

Before I could make a move, she quickly ran across the campus to the building on the other side. What just happened?

Damn it. I hate roller coasters.

---

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" I complained once I got into the car. Emma's mom was taking us to Six Flags and I looked like I just got out of bed.

"Dude, I was calling your name for like 15 minutes. You didn't wake up until I poured water on your face." 

"Thank you so much for that," I said sarcastically.

I spent the rest of the ride to Six Flags by putting on make-up, fixing my hair, eating breakfast (Yes, I packed a loaf of bread!), and dancing with Emma to the loud music.

Emma kept saying how excited she was, but I just rolled my eyes every time. I wasn't a big fan of amusement parks, especially when it came to rapid roller coasters. I had been there a few times with my family, but I always escaped when they went on those thrill rides.

"I will be at the Grand Carousel the whole day," I said as we were lining up for tickets.

"Whatever you say, I'm gonna drag you anyway. Hey, that rhymes!" Emma was always going to be Emma.

Her mom dropped us off a while ago in the parking lot where we walked about 15 minutes to here. The weather was hot as usual and I already looked sweaty. What can you expect when you live in this sunshine place called California?

"I will never go to an amusement park on a weekend again," Emma said as she tied up her hair in a ponytail.

"Don't forget to remember that," I rolled my eyes.

Hey, we two could combine and win an award at rolling eyes.

The line moved slower than a turtle. The security guards were constantly checking everyone's bags. A man was talking on a loud speaker, announcing the rules of the park to the newcomers and reminding to the re-visitors. One of the things I hated about amusement parks was that we couldn't bring any food into the park, aka we bought their super-expensive food or went starved for all day long.

"Ahh!" Someone stepped on the back of my sneaker, taking it off from my foot. 

"I'm so sorry, love." The person behind me responded quickly. The first thing I noticed about his voice was his accent, his British accent. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." I crouched down and put my shoe back on in place, without even looking at him once, annoyed. What was the rush?

"Hey," Emma elbowed me and signaled her head to behind me. 

"What? Is he doing something to my hair?"

"You're dumb. No!" She whispered in my ear. "He's cute."

Oh my god, Emma. Can't you make it less obvious?

Before I could turn around and look at his face, the security guard yelled at us for delaying the line. I peeked a look when my hang bag was being checked only to see the guy facing his back to me, talking to his group of friends. He was about one and a half feet taller than me, wearing an Adidas hoodie.

Since I would be dragged along the whole day, I didn't bother to grab a park map.

"LEX LUTHOR: Drop of Doom," Emma read the name out loud and I took a glance at the paper.

"What the heck?" The picture showed a really high free falling ride, probably the highest I'd ever seen in my entire life. "There is no way we're going up there."

No.

I would rather die than being dropped from a 400-foot height.

"Shut up. You're going with me."

"I'm going to die, Emma!"

"You won't, trust me. It's going to be lots of fun!"

Before I knew, I was being dragged like she was yesterday. 

"We have to go really fast or the line is gonna-" she stopped suddenly. "Hey, look!"

"Adidas."

Total word count: 1999