Holiday Camp Romance

Chapter 4

The cold air hit me on the way out, making me aware I was in a short-sleeved T-shirt. I guessed the drinking inside had given me beer goggles and kept me warm. My code of attire may have been a bad decision, I rubbed my shoulders in an attempt to warm up.

"Oh, shit, sorry, of course, here." Jason shrugged off his jacket and put it around my shoulders.

"Oh, thanks." I wasn't expecting that.

I looked up at my surroundings, I didn't realize how late it has gotten until I saw the bright, colored lights of the helter-skelter lighting up the darkening sky. It appeared as though the sun had just set and was disappearing into the distance.

"Cool huh?" Jason's voice interrupted me admiring the beautiful view.

"Yeah, it's so pretty."

He smirked and said, "Come with me."

Once again, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along to his next destination, he was hard to keep up with.

He led me through the rows of chalets that acted as guest's accommodation, a feeling of nostalgia hit me as I remembered staying in one of the rooms on holidays as a little kid. It was eerily quiet and not a single light in the chalets was lit as the park hadn't opened to guests yet this season, so the only occupants within the resort were staff. The whole side of the resort reserved for guests seemed like a ghost town, the only lights were the street lamps lighting the pathway. I clutched Jason's jacket closer to me as a gust of wind flew past us, I hurried along to meet his stride while simultaneously deciding this area became slightly creepy while uninhabited.

The pathway we walked down soon met a small, arched bridge which led to the fairground, another wave of nostalgia hit whilst I remembered riding the tricycles that guests can hire from the bike hub over the bridge at speed, a childhood friend was sat in the seat next to me and didn't pull the break in time once we travelled faster going down the hill of the bridge, which resulted in us crashing into a bin and spilling the contents all over the path. I smiled to myself at the fond memory.

"What's got you so happy?" I looked up and realized Jason was stood on the other side of the bridge, arms crossed, grinning at me. I'd just been stood still staring at a bridge. Why had he not run off yet?

"Just remembering stuff from when I was a kid here." I caught him up quickly and we continued walking through the fairground, past the go-karts and carousel before finally arriving in front of the tallest ride in the fairground. This was a new addition to the park since I had last visited, the grand orange and white striped building spotted with blue shaped diamonds made me wish I was a kid again.

I followed Jason as he walked around to the entrance of the helter-skelter, a white picket fence was guarding the red staircase positioned at the entrance, making sure nobody could climb it after hours. I looked at Jason with a quizzical look.

He dug into his pockets and produced a key.

"We can't!" My eyes widened, he was going to get me fired on my first day!

"Of course we can, nobody finds out, no harm done!" His carefree attitude radiated off me as he turned the key in the lock and swung the white, wooden gate open. He stepped through and I quickly followed, in fear of somebody seeing us. We both walked up the red staircase, and through the doorway, leading to the spiral staircase inside the building.

I looked back through the doorway to the fairground, checking there wasn't anybody with eyes on us.

Jason saw my worried look. "The view at the top is insane, especially at night with the stars! You're never gonna get to see this when it's open in the day!" His persuasive tone got me to take the first step upwards.

He wasn't wrong, the sheer height of the structure would provide an amazing view of the fairground and resort lit up at night.

I looked back down at Jason, just one step below me and hesitated. He lifted up the vodka, shaking it in my direction.

"If you're scared do a shot." He held out one of the plastic cups he had brought.

Fuck it.

I took the bottle straight out his hand and took 3 long swigs. My face instinctively winced at the flavor.

"See, now you can do anything!" Jason said between fits of laughter. I could feel the alcohol sinking in now, and from his reaction, I think Jason did too.

"Lead the way!" I pointed up the stairs, clutching the bottle of vodka with my other hand.

"Yes, Sir!" Jason passed around me on the narrow staircase and started climbing the stairs. I clutched onto the bannister as I felt myself wobble on my next step.

I started to feel dizzy a few seconds later, the stairs were high and bent quickly. The striped interior of the ride didn't help with this issue either. I focused on Jason's back and the small stream of light peeking out from above, piercing through the darkness of the structure. It was slowly getting closer with each movement, and finally, Jason disappeared out of sight as the darkness consumed him.

I reached through the arch, grabbing at air, in an attempt to follow Jason. Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed my own and yanked me upwards. As my feet hit a wooden paneled floor sparkling lights surrounded me, fairy lights were strung around the wooden railings at the entrance of the slide, and I noticed a pile of mats were to the right of me, just before the slides drop. It was only when my eyes glanced towards Jason that I realized just how high up we were, I instantly grabbed onto the railing.

"Whoa." My mouth spoke before my brain processed it.

"Wait here!" Jason disappeared back through the archway until I couldn't see him anymore and all I could hear was a squeaky cupboard opening. He swiftly returned with a pile of pillows and blankets.

"We aren't sleeping here are we?" I looked at him skeptically. Even in my drunk state I could establish that sleeping on a wooden floor wouldn't be the most of idealistic places to rest my head for the night. Especially if I ended up needing to throw up, which was becoming more of a reality than I was comfortable with after the large consumption of alcohol I had drunk. That was going to be a big splat.

"I don't fancy getting fired, so no. But we can stay up here for a while." Jason said as he walked around the perimeter of the helter-skelter and stopped on the opposite side to the slide.

He placed the pillows down and sat on one of them, then patted the one next to him, signaling for me to sit. As I did so, he pulled a blanket over me and then pointed towards the sky. My eyes instantly followed the direction he was pointing. Wow.

The sky was consumed in darkness, only lit up by twinkling stars and the clearest view of the moon I'd ever seen. I pulled the blanket closer to me, snuggling into it, and didn't take my eyes away from the night sky until tiredness overtook me and my eyes fluttered closed on their own accord.