Don't Make Me Love You

Chapter 13

My glare couldn't have been darker. "I am not scared of roller coasters." I said.

Brandon frowned. "Then what's the problem?"

I opened my mouth to spout an excuse, but found I didn't have a believable lie. Finally my mouth snapped shut and I crossed my arms, turning away. "I just don't feel comfortable in small spaces." I said. "The seats are too close together."

"Then why don't we pick a different ride?" Brandon suggested.

I was almost taken aback at his generous offer. Admittedly, I had expected him to pester me and whine about how he wanted to go anyways. This was... unexpected. "Really?"

He smiled. "It's not fun if you're not having fun. That's what a date's all about."

For a moment, I was stunned. Then I blinked and brushed him off. What was I doing, getting caught up in the moment? I almost let myself smile. I shuddered. Brandon was good and that was creepy.

"Fine." I said. "Then what would you like to do instead?"

"What would you like to do?" Brandon asked. "You should pick."

"Oh, um..." Again, unexpected. My eyes drifted around the park as I tried to decide what would be fun. If my attitude wasn't clear enough, I wasn't much of an outdoorsy kind of person. It was hard for me to get into physical stuff. After a good minute of contemplation though, I pointed towards the bumper car ride. "How about those?"

Brandon grinned and grabbed my hand. "Awesome."

As he began tugging me towards the ride, I resisted the urge to rip my hand away in disgust. Gross. I hated how touchy-feely he was. Thankfully, with the bumper cars, he had to keep his hands on the wheels. The less hands on me, the better. It was actually pretty fun, once I stopped being so conscious of Brandon's close proximity, that is. We bumped around for a while, until we grew bored, then after several other rides and Brandon winning me a medium sized stuffed turtle, we took a break to get some dinner. It was almost too easy to forget who I was with and why. Which was a little scary.

I was just tossing my empty nachos bowl away when Brandon came jogging up to me. "Hey, the sun's setting." He said.

"Nice observation, Einstein." I replied, eyeing the sky.

He ignored my snide remark and gestured to the Ferris Wheel. "Why don't we ride that? It looks over the city."

I hesitated. "I don't really think-"

"Aw, come on." He urged. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he looked at me. "It'll be romantic."

I glanced at the wheel with uncertainty. The word 'romantic' was enough to make me want to vomit, but after another pleading squeeze to my hand, I sighed. "Alright." I said.

Brandon lit up like city lights and before I knew it we were taking our seats on the ride. Brandon probably would've liked me to sit next to him, but I chose to sit across from him instead. The wheel started turning slowly and we were on our way up into the sky. It was soon just the twoo of us in the quiet solitude of our car, making the air a little tense as I became hyper aware of my date.

Brandon didn't seem bothered though, and smiled as he stared out at the landscape before us. "It's nice up here." He finally said, breaking the silence.

I shrugged. "I guess. It's nothing special, though."

He turned to me. "What do you see then?"

I frowned and scanned the city. "Hm... Trees, buildings, people." I shrugged again. "Just the usual."