Firefly Night

-Chapter One and Only-

"Is this your first time?" Dex asks with a hint of mischief in his eye. I can't help but gaze at it and how large and.. menacing it is. "Scared?" he says. It is indeed my first time, likely my only time. Of course I'm scared.

"A little," I say as I look down to my beat-up Converse All-Stars. They were once a jet black shade of night, but now they wear a dull shade of dusty brown and frayed laces, blending perfectly with the dirt road on which we walk.

Dex smiles. "Oh, come on, you were so excited before."

I look up again. "That's before I knew how big it was." He laughs and shoves me playfully, catching me off guard so that I almost fall into the dusty path. "Dex, you asshole!" I yell when I recover as he sprints away, laughing.

"Oh sorry, Kendall, I can't hear you over the sound of me winning this race!"

I giggle and begin to run after him. It's 2:38 AM and Dex had sneaked me out of my house so we could go on an adventure. He said he'd been waiting until the perfect time to show me, and climbing into my bedroom window about an hour ago, he told me that this warm, mid-August firefly night is the perfect night to show me the majesty of the old, abandoned roller coaster. There used to be an amusement park here, years and years ago, but after a fatal accident involving one of the rides, the park closed down and has been abandoned ever since. All that's left is one roller coaster, rusty track, jammed controls and all.

"Dex, wait up!" I yell as my blonde hair glows with silver in the moonlight. I see him turn around and smile in the distance, shortly before stopping in front of a broken, faded sign that read, in dull blue and red lettering,

Electric Zipper

As I catch up to him, catching my breath, he turns to me and kisses my cheek. He's never done that before. "I know we've been best friends for a while," he looks down and smiles, "and.. I'm glad I could show you this. I've always wanted you to experience it with me."

I realize I'm blushing. There's a moment of warm, tranquil silence between us as the fireflies illuminate the air around us.

Dex is the one to break it. "So, follow me." He says with that trouble-making smile as he grabs my hand and drags me into a beaten-up control booth, complete with broken windows and chipping paint. There's an old, empty coffee cup on the desk near the controls, on which states "#1 DAD". I smile and wonder where that dad is now, how his kids are doing, whether or not his spouse is still with him. Or alive, depending on how old this ride is.

"Dex? When exactly did this park close down?"

He shrugs as he rummages through a pile of old belongings in a corner. "Not sure," he says, "but wait - check these tickets."

He hands me a small stack of entry tickets. I examine them, one in particular, the only child ticket of the bunch. The date says July 17th, 1952. The dad may not be alive, but his kids probably are.

I hand the tickets back to Dex as he holds up what he had been looking for. "A remote?" I asked, confused.

"This is what I'd been working on for the past few months. For your birthday."

Oh right, it's my birthday. I smile. "What does it do?"

He points to one of the coaster cars. "Get in and I'll show you."

I take a step back. "I'm not so sure, Dex."

He smiles and brushes his bangs from his persuasively mischievous eyes. "What are you afraid of?"

Before I can answer, I feel his sturdy arms around my waist, lifting me and throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. My stomach vibrates against him as I laugh, as I slap at his back to let me go. He carries me to a coaster car and plops me down in one of the seats, sitting down right next to me. He explains why he's sitting on the outside; so there's no chance of me getting hurt. Pointing to the remote, he presses the biggest green button at the top. To my surprise, the cart begins to move, slowly at first, eventually making it's way to a steady 5 or so miles per hour.