Hold Me Close & Don't Let Me Fall ✓

Chapter 17

I woke up the next morning, bright and early. "We gotta go!" I say loudly. Frank groans and throws a pillow back over his eyes.

"It's not even light out Georgia. Go back to sleep." He grumbles from underneath it.

"But the animals will be most active at sunrise, so I want to get to Animal Kingdom as soon as it opens."

He groans before moving the pillow and throwing the blanket off of him. "I love you but you're ridiculous." He says with a smile.

"You brought me here knowing full well what I am like." I say, rolling over to give him a kiss. "And I love you for it."

I got ready quickly and was bouncing around by the door, waiting for Frank to get ready. "We'll go grab coffee before we go, ok?" I say. That perks him up a little and we're leaving the room 5 minutes later.

We grab a bus from the main building and are waiting in line with some other early risers about 30 minutes later. "They're not even open yet?" He grumbles into his coffee.

"No but we want to get on the safari ride as early so that we can see the animals moving around."

As soon as they open the gates we begin to walk back to the Africa section of the park. We get on and the animals are actually out and about, and I get some great pictures.

Once we're through the safari we head over to India. "You have to do this next ride with me!" I tell him, bouncing up and down.

"How bad is it?"

"It's just a rollercoaster..." I say and we get in line for Expedition Everest. He's fine the whole time until we get to the very top of the mountain and the track ends.

"What's going on?" He asks, worriedly. I start laughing maniacally as the ride train starts going backwards and he starts yelling even louder. We stop by the broken Yeti, but he screamed anyway as it yelled and blew air at us as we flew back past it.

We were back on non-moving land, and he sank onto the closest bench. "I take it that was another nope ride?" I ask after I grab our ride pictures.

"You're actually trying to kill me this weekend, aren't you?"

I laugh. "Of course not. I just don't know what you'd like or not like so we're trying it all. Let's go grab some lunch at the resort before we go to Hollywood Studios this afternoon." I say, offering him my hand.

"Thank you." He whispers into my ear when he pulls me close.

"Shouldn't I be the one thanking you? After all, you hate people and the heat and yet you willingly decided to spend the whole weekend surrounded by both, just for me." I say before standing up on my tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek.

We wait in line for the bus and when it picks us up, we get off at the main stop for the resort, walking hand-in-hand to the food court to grab something to eat. As we sit at the table I can't help but stare at him. "Are you at least having somewhat of a good time?" I ask.

"I am. It's time with you, truly uninterrupted. I'm not even sure I remember the last time that happened." He says. I smile and nod. We finish lunch and head back out into the late summer heat. "So, final stop of the trip, Hollywood Studios."

"What are you looking forward to doing there?"

"There's this Toy Story shooting game ride thing. It looks like it's a lot of fun. And there's Star Tours." He perks up at this. "Yeah. And also, Rock 'N' Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror."

"What's Rock 'N' Rollercoaster?"

"You never listen when I speak do you?" I ask, jokingly. He gives me a look. "I was kidding. It's a rollercoaster that features Aerosmith music. I think you're going to love that one. I will warn you; it does go fast."

"The speed wasn't the reason I freaked out on Expedition Everest. The whole going backwards, that's where my issues were."

I nod. Our bus gets here, and we go enjoy our last day in the last park. His face when we approach the Tower of Terror is so worth it, I almost don't make him go on. "If you want, you don't have to come with me on this one." I say as I approach the line entrance.

He takes one look up at the "hotel" before looking back at me. "I can handle it."

I offer my hand and he takes it and allows me to pull him into the line. "You'll be fine. It's really not that bad." He nods, unconvinced. "I swear you'll be fine. If you need to, you can hold my hand the whole time."

We get through the line and somehow manage front row seats. I watch as he white knuckles the rail. "Honestly, you'll be fine. It's not that bad." When we get to the top of the ride and the car moves forward towards the windows before the drop, I feel his grip on my hand tighten. "You will be ok. After this, we'll go on a regular rollercoaster."

I watch him nod as the ride drops us the first time before coming back up and doing it a few more times. We're brought back down to the basement and get off the ride. "You good? We can take a break if you want."

"No, I'm fine. The next ride is right there. We can stop afterwards and grab like a drink or something." I nod.

"Ok. If you're sure."

"I'm sure. Let's go." And we head over to Rock 'N' Rollercoaster. The line for this one took forever and almost an hour and a half later, we were through the ride and heading over to Toy Story Midway Mania, which Frank proceeded to kick my ass at.

"I don't understand." I say, looking at our scores.

"You can't be good at everything babe." He smirks as we walk to the exit, exhausted from being up and going since 7am.

"Says you." He laughs and rolls his eyes.

"Did you have a good time?"

"I had the best time. Thank you so much!"

"Anything for you." He says kissing me. This weekend away had been great. But I was still worried about what the future would bring. With Evelyn involved we knew it was nothing good.