Only Tonight

One | Only a Coincidence

One | Only a Coincidence

“Well, I want to go on the ferris wheel!”

“We want to go to the Haunted Hayride,” argued Sean, staring at me with unmoving eyes. He was ready to fight with me on it even though we basically already were, no surprise there. The rest of our friends stood behind us—Cassie, Derek, and Leslie. Our group of friends had been this way since freshman year when we met.

“No fair!” I said. “Just because all of you want to go on Haunted Hayride doesn’t mean I can’t get to go on the ride that I want.” I crossed my arms immaturely, ready to stand strong with my opinion even if it took the rest of the night.

“Please, Paisley,” begged Cassie who nudged her eyes over to Derek. They had been shamelessly flirting all night and were finally getting somewhere. Cassie had gone from walking next to him to holding hands. They’d liked each other for as long as I could remember and the whole point of this carnival thing was to get them together. Our whole group was in on it.

I did want my friend to finally get the boy she tried to so hard to get, so I gave in and looked down at the floor, “Fine.”

Sean grinned and slapped me on the back purposely. “That’s the spirit, Paisley!”

I glared at him before slapping the back of his head. “Don’t hit me, you prick!”

He rubbed his head and gave me a scowl. “So damn aggressive,” he muttered under his breath as the rest of the group cheered at my choice.

“Okay,” Leslie said, “we’ll meet back right after since the carnival will end by then.”

Everyone nodded and they went one way while I went the other. I turned back once and saw Derek and Cassie talking animatedly and wondered if this would be worth it. They had probably purposely chosen the Haunted Hayride to make out in the dark. It was kind of creepy if you thought about it. Making out with a ton of stupid fake designs popping out every five seconds to supposedly “scare you.”

It had better be worth it because I kind of felt nervous as I walked alone in such a huge crowd. Though it was loud and bright with summer lanterns strung everywhere and the chatter of people, I felt anxious as I walked towards the Ferris Wheel.

Why? Only because there was a legend about the ride that proved true.

The talk was that if you rode on the ferris wheel on the last day of the carnival, especially around closing time, you would be granted complete and utter luck in your love life. This meant whether you were single or not, you got something out of it. If you were single, your crush and you would progress or you’d find a boyfriend. If you were with someone, any fights or anything you wanted to smooth away would be cast away and it’d be rainbows and butterflies. I heard a woman even got proposed to after she rode it, even when she had been fighting with her fiance.

So of course the idea of it attracted me, a girl who had never even had a boyfriend in her teenage life. It was sad, really.

I mean, I did believe in being an independent woman and that you don’t need a boyfriend to remain happy but I was turning seventeen soon and the end of high school was nearing by. Prom was this year and I couldn’t show up alone, no matter how stubborn and indifferent I tried to act around my friends when it came to a guy.

But I was sick of always watching Cassie or Derek talk about each other in their lovesick way or watch Leslie with her girlfriend, Angel, when she visited from her all girls school on the other side of town. Everyone in our group had some sort of love life—even Sean, for Pete’s sake! And all he did was have flings and one night stands but it was more than what I had. I hadn’t even kissed a stupid boy yet. I would like to say I was happy waiting for “the one” and that stuff, but it was hard being a teenager in a world where everyone had someone to hold and cuddle with. It was getting to me.