The Change

Chapter Eleven

I heard carnival music. So, we must be at the carnival.
"Open your eyes!"
I was right. We were at the carnival. "Wow!"
I looked over at Harmony, who caught my look. "Which ride are we gonna go in first?" I asked.
"The biggest one here." She answered.
The Vertigo. It was tall. It was a swing ride. That was the first one we went on.
"You ready?" Harmony was sitting next me, because the worker dude had split us up. There were only two seats per arm, anyway. At least I was with my best friend/ sister and not some weird stranger who looks at people the whole time, like the guys sitting behind us. They looked buff, like they could beat up a sixteen year old, and all they were doing was checking us out. One had a red polo shirt, and the other a blue polo shirt. I turned around and whispered to Harmony, "Who are those creeps behind us?"
"I don't know, but they look like real assholes. I don't like them, maybe we should just move to some other seats...."
The started. I quickly glanced back at the two boys behind us. They weren't looking at us anymore. "Okay, they're not anymore."
"Good. God, they give me the chills." She stretched out her arms and closed her eyes. "If you close your eyes, it feels like you're flying."
"Really? Cool."
"Do it."
I stretched out my arms and closed my eyes. It did feel like you were flying! It was amazing! When the ride stopped, I looked back real quick, and the stalkers were looking at us again. "Let's go." I said. I didn't like those guys at all. They gave me a bad vibe, like they were bad people. We walked over to where the two Coreys were.
"Aw, that was awesome!" They both exclaimed. I still felt uneasy about the whole situation.
"Hey." Corey said to me, putting his hand to my cheek. "Everything alright?"
"What? Oh yeah. Yeah." My voice got quieter.
"Come on, babe. What's the matter?"
"It's just...."
"There were these cereal creeps behind us, and they kept peeping over at us. Really weird. But it's okay, 'cause we're with you guys now. Right, Ana?"
"Yeah. It's just... they give me a really bad vibe."
"It's okay." Corey wrapped me in his warmth. "I got you now. Nothing's gonna hurt you." I felt safe in his arms. So safe, I almost let my guard down.
"Okay." I said. "So, what ride are we going on now?"
We went on the Twister, next. It was fun, except those guys were on it. We went on the Himalayan, and they were there, too. They were following us everywhere we went, tracking us like a hunter stalks its prey, watching our every move and trying to predict our next. Corey had his arm around me the whole night, and an eye on any guy who passed us. Feldman kept Harmony close to him, and had her walk on the inside of our group, where I was, too. What started off as a fun night turned into our boyfriends becoming our bodyguards and us being scared, possibly for our lives. Everything was okay, except when we got hungry.
"Are you two sure you don't want us to come with you?"
We felt bad for ruining their fun. Somehow, we had gotten it into our heads that it was our fault. "Yeah, we'll be fine."
"Okay. We won't be too far away."
Feldman stepped up. " I don't wanna leave you guys. It doesn't feel right."
"We'll be fine." Harmony tried to convince herself more than Feldman.
"Okay, okay." They walked off to the taco stand. We had wanted pizza, and they had wanted tacos, which was how we got into this situation.
"Okay, we'll be fine." I said that so often to myself that night, I was starting to believe it. We walked to the pizza truck and ordered two slices of pepperoni pizza. The lines weren't long because it was getting towards sundown, and people who were there in the morning had left. We sat down at a table to wait for our boyfriends, alone. We'll be fine, we'll be fine.... I kept telling myself. I started to build up a false confidence, a false sense of safety, until they came.
"Hey, girls. How about a drink?"