for, liar

Chapter 68

"We'll start off easy. The sky ride is a classic and it gives you a whole outlook of the entire fairgrounds. It's really beautiful and will spit us out at the other end where most of the rides are."

Miles walks me up the steps and shows the teenager standing at the entrance our wristbands to let us in. The line actually wasn't too bad for this one, probably because everyone else is on the far more exciting rides. We didn't even have to use our fast passes.

"Why would you want to start with the chill stuff? Wouldn't we do better if we get the crazy stuff over with first?" I suggest.

He shakes his head. "Yes, but I really like the sky ride and I think you will too."

He smiles at me and grabs my hand. The worker at the start of the ride rushes us over to the designated markers on the ground to stand.  The brightly colored seats hang from a long cable that stretches further than we can see from the loading dock. A faded yellow seat comes rolling in behind us and the worker urges us to sit when it gets close enough. Miles hops in and pulls me down next to him. The worker quickly grabs the bar and pulls it down over us to keep us from falling off before the cable carries us past the dock and over the fairgrounds.

It moves slowly and we can see other people on the opposite side riding back to the dock we entered on. Miles points in front of us to the ferris wheel we're heading towards. Every ride has different colored lights constantly flashing in the darkness.

"Ferris wheel is next. I hope you're prepared." He teases me and squeezes my hand.

"I'm not scared anymore. I swear."

I lean my head on his shoulder and stare out over the skyline. Everything looks much smaller and peaceful from up here. I don't have any reason to be afraid anymore. I guess I was just too inexperienced with height to not be scared of it.

The sky ride starts to lower and we wrap around the other side where another worker is stationed. They pull up the bar, urging us to jump off and move to the side. Miles slides off first and puts his hand out for me. I grab it and easily escape from the seat just in time for them to let another couple on. Miles thanks the worker and walks us away from the unloading dock.

He starts walking down to where the ferris wheel is to a line wrapped around the corner with people. Who knew such a simple ride could gather a huge crowd like this. It's cute and all but I can't see it be worth any more than a thirty minute wait.

As we're about to skip the line, we overhear a group of teenagers talking about one of the new rides. Curiosity is going to get the better of me if I decide to chicken out and not go.

"Can we go on that one instead? The one that guy was talking about? Hydro shock?"

He looks at me, concerned. I know he didn't expect me to want to go on anything crazy.

"Are you sure you're up for that? I thought you wanted to take it slow."

I grab his hand and yank him away from the ferris wheel entrance. "I don't. Let's go!"

I jog to the sign for Hydro Shock and let Miles lead the way to the fast pass entrance. There's still a few people ahead of us so we're able to see the ride activated before we actually get to get on it.

All passengers sit in a lit neon green claw looking contraption and the machine throws the claw in all different directions. The more I watch it and hear people screaming, the colder my feet get making me want to bail. I need to distract myself from my childish fears. I've already made us go this far.

"So are you okay now?" I ask Miles.

He breaks his focus from the ride and looks down at me. I wrap my arms around his waist and stare into his eyes, waiting for his response.

"Yeah, I'm great. Are you okay?"

I was hoping for some details here. I feel like he's just not going to tell me anything tonight. It's only going to get harder to ignore the yearning questions I have the longer I'm here with him.

"I'm good. I'm glad you're back and safe."

He leans down to kiss me just as the ride comes to a halt. Half excited and half terrified people climb off and go out the exit. Just as I think I'm over the nervousness, we take our seats in the intimidating green claw. I can't even hold Miles' hand because we have our own separate chairs where we have to hold onto the handle bars on the sides of our heads.

"You sure you want to do this one? It's okay if you change your mind. I can get the worker." Miles tells me over the blaring retro music coming through the speakers right above us.

"I'm not chickening out! I got this." I tell him, tightening my grip on the handlebars.

My whole body is covered in chills and the ride hasn't even started yet. I keep my eye on the worker checking everyone's safety strap. When he gets to the last person, he walks off and gives the activation guy a thumbs up. The music turns to a loud buzzer and I close my eyes to brace myself for movement.

Within a few seconds, the ride lifts into the air and starts to rotate. The breeze picks up, worsening my chills and I still can't open my eyes.

"Bree! Are you looking?" Miles yells to me from my side.

He must've known my eyes were closed. I feel like keeping my eyes closed would keep me from being afraid, but being in this much motion and not being able to see what's going on is only making it worse.

I loosen my grip on the handlebars and snap my eyes open. I don't know what I had expected to see. Everything is moving too fast and the lights are blocking my ability to focus.

I want to see Miles. I want to know how he reacts to things like this even if it's just observing his facial expressions.

It ends in a few short minutes and the next group of people are loaded in. My feet feel heavy beneath me and my head is just a little fuzzy, but I don't hate the feeling. I can see why people find this exciting.

"Did you like it? Did you open your eyes?" Miles asks, grabbing both of my hands when he faces me.

I laugh and nod. "It was alright." 

"Alright? Are you joking? That was fucking awesome!" He exclaims.

This was the expression I wanted to see. Pure joy and excitement.

"Good, then onto the next one."

Revised;