Chasing Cars

Chapter Fourteen: Bounce Houses and Ice Cream Heaven

Louis pays and we both enter the bounce house area. There's only little kids here, give or take the few parents supervising. We put our shoes into the shoe compartment.

"Oh my God, all of these people probably think we're nuts." I whisper to Louis.

"Too bad!" He grabs my hand and drags me over to the big bounce house. It's one of those bounce houses that are like an obstacle course. "Okay, on the count of three. Whoever gets to the end first has to..."

"Dance around this place singing how much they love the other person." I finish his sentence for him.

"You're on." He grins and counts off, "Three, two, one...go!"

I race through the bounce house, attempting to knock Louis over several times, as he did to me.

I fell over and yell, "Ow, shit! Louis! Help! I hurt my ankle! It kills!"

"You're just trying to make me come back!"

"No, seriously! Louis! Please! Come here! Now!" Please believe me, Louis!

"Oh, crap, you're serious!" He says in realization and runs over to me. He reaches out a hand, "Here, come on. Let's get you out of here."

I grab his hand, pulling him down to the ground. "Ha, loser!"

I run through the rest of the obstacle, and Louis never catches up. I leap out of the bounce house and turn around to face a struggling Louis. He comes out of the bounce house, and we're both panting. 

I grin at him, and he points a finger at me, "You cheated!"

"No, you were the stupid one who came back!" I shake my head.

"Did you just call me stupid?" He threatens, jokingly, coming over to me and tickling me.

"Louis! Stop it! You know I'm ticklish!" I squeal.

"You're a cheater! Admit it!" He continues to tickle me.

"Lou!" I spit out between gasps of air and laughter. "I...can't....breathe!"

"Yes you can!" He laughs. "Now admit you're a cheater!"

"Fine! Fine!" I give up, literally unable to breathe anymore. "I cheated!"

He let go of me, and I caught by breath. 

He grinned at me, "Ha! You have to dance around singing how much you love me, now."

"No! I still won! You have to run around!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Fine, how about we both do it?" I offer.

"How about we bounce in that," he points at a different bounce house, "and then we do that? Because if I have to do that, I would like to leave with dignity."

"You think you'll have dignity after doing that?" I laugh, taking his hand and skipping to the other bounce house.

We bounce around in the square bounce house.

"You're the best for bringing me here! I feel like I'm four!" I laugh.

"You are four!" He replies simply.

"Yeah, add fourteen to that!"

"You're not even nineteen yet?"

"Nope!" I smile. "I turn nineteen at the end of September!"