Discovering Alice

Chapter 3

                                                                I walk out on the porch, hoping I wouldn’t slip on the ice that was left over from the small snowstorm we got over night.  I cross my arms over my chest, if I wait inside my mom would figure out that I was going with a boy. And that’s saying a lot, since she doesn’t usually notice things.

I almost go back inside to hide under my blanket, embarrassed that I’d been stood up. When Cory pulls up in the driveway. I walk over to the car door, and instead of being overly nervous I feel calm. I open the door and smile at him, and I immediately smell the cologne he put on. It isn’t strong and it reminds me of summer, of heat.

“Hey, you ready to go?” Cory asks while biting his lip, he’s nervous. Which is good, because now I don’t feel like a total idiot. I smile at him.

“Of course! Let’s go.” Hopefully the night would turn out better than I’m thinking it will.

'~'

“I haven’t had cotton candy in so long! Thank you for buying it for me, but you didn’t have to.” My cheeks turn a little pink. I didn’t have any money since there wasn’t any time for me to work, as I was always watching Alice.

“Just the look on your face when you saw it was so worth five bucks. But you’re welcome.” Cory was in a leather jacket, which probably wasn’t keeping him very warm. But all guys had a built in heater, it seemed. So I’m not too worried for him.

“Yeah, well. Your happy dance is way worse than when I get excited for cotton candy.” For a second, I think I see him flush a little bit.

“You’re just jealous. Gosh, Iris, you’re such a hater.” Cory grins at me and then stops, which forces a couple of people to go around us. I yank on his arm. His eyes go wide and it looks like we just stopped in front of Disneyland.

“What are you looking at?” I follow his gaze to see the biggest and prettiest Ferris wheel I’ve ever seen before. I guess sometime while we were walking around it started to get dark. Which kind of scared me, where did the time go? The middle was lit up with bright lights, and the cars attached to it were different colors. Like purple, blue, pink, red, and so on. It was awesome looking, but I was scared of heights.

“We have to go on that! Come on!” He takes my hand and starts dragging me. I get kind of freaked. It’s not like I’m going to have an anxiety attack, but I was pretty nervous. I figure I shouldn’t tell him, I’ll go on it and I can get over my fear. And tell him while we go around a couple of times, he’ll be proud of me for getting over such a little fear.

I was so nervous that I couldn’t enjoy Cory’s hand wrapped around mine. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing so I didn’t say anything. We waited patiently in line for five minutes before we were called up to a bright yellow one. I felt a little better with the bar down in front of us. I let out a shaky sigh and look down as the wheel start moving.  We started going backwards, which scares me even more.  I tried not to let the fear show on my face, and either it worked or Cory was too busy looking down at everyone else. You could see everything in town, not that it was much to look at in the first place.            

The wheel suddenly halted, and since I wasn’t expecting it; I gasped. “Cory! I can’t do this, I need to get off! I’m terrified of heights!” There was a panic I’ve never heard in my voice before. The seat we were in was slowly rocking back, you could hear the creaking. Like it was taunting me, it was the only thing from keeping me from falling. I started to hyperventilate a little. It was intense and scary, I could hear my heartbeat like it was a too loud iPod.

Cory looks worried and puts my left hand between his warm hands. Since my hands were clutching the bar, the sudden movement of when he grabbed my hand rocked the seat even more. “Don’t move. You’re okay. Look at me, eyes on me. Don’t look down.”