True Summer Love

Everything around Tiffany was bright, loud and full or energy. From up here on the Ferris wheel, one hundred feet above the carnival below, she could see the bright lights of the games and the rides. She could see young kids carrying big sticks of cotton candy and clutching tightly to balloons. She could see parents clapping and cheering as their children won games and laughed excitedly as they went around and around on rides.

Music was blasting from a tiny stage where a local band was playing covers of all the popular songs and the hillside in front of the stage was full of people dancing or sitting around in lawn chairs or on blankets. Lovers holding each other and mothers rocking their children to the beat of the music.

Tiffany felt her heart breaking apart in her chest as she looked at Lance out of the corner of her eye and saw him picking at his jeans uncomfortably. She let her gaze travel up to his sad face. He was looking out into the dark night, staring at the stars. His normally smiling face was pale and drawn tight. His lips were drawn in a thin line and his blue eyes were red and wet though he had yet to let any of those tears fall.

Tiffany wiped her hand quickly across her own wet cheeks and then dried it on her denim shorts. She heard Lance sigh.

"Please don't cry, Tiffany. We both knew the summer was going to end." he said quietly, the warmth of his deep voice and southern accent washing over her body and causing her heart to speed up the way it always did.

"I know." her words came out as little more than a choked sob. Lance reached out and took her hand.

"You always knew I wasn't going to stay, Tiffany. I've got dreams that I've gotta chase, sweetheart." Tiffany covered her stomach with her hand and she took several deep breaths to fight the nausea that came over her.

'What about my dreams?' She wanted to scream at him. 'What about the fact that in about eight months I'm going to have your baby?' Tiffany did not say any of this out loud. Lance did not know about the life growing inside of her and she was not about to tell him. Not when it would destroy any chance he had of happiness.

Lance had been dreaming since he had learned to talk of being a country star. He had been on his way to Nashville when his truck had broken down in this tiny eastern Kentucky town and since Lance was only nineteen and had no way of paying for the repairs her father had done, he had agreed to spend the summer working off the debt in her fathers garage.

The two of them falling in love had not been a part of Lance's plans. It hadn't been a part of Tiffany's plans either. She was nineteen and had dreams of becoming an author and publishing books that would be read by thousands. She could easily fit Lance into her plans for the future but she knew that his future had no room for her or for their baby.

If she tried to tie him down with the baby he would resent her for it and he would always feel trapped. She did not want that for him. She loved him too much to tie him down to her and squash his dreams.

"Even though I knew this was coming…." Tiffany paused to sniff and swipe her hand quickly across her cheek again. "It doesn't make it any easier." Lance helped her out of the car as they came to a stop at the bottom and then they stood face to face under the glow of the Ferris wheel lights.

"I'll come back for you, once I've made it big. I'll….." Tiffany shook her head and smiled a sad ghost of a smile.

"Don't do that, Lance. Don't make me promises that you won't keep." she begged. She could tell that her words made him angry when she saw the color in his cheeks.

"You don't know that I wouldn't keep it." he said. Tiffany sighed and laid her hand on his arm. She had to end this now and get away from him before she broke down completely.