Trapped in The Happiest Place on Earth

Twelve

Everyone applauds and Dastan leads me away. Still in a daze, I follow him trying to process what just happened.

Dastan kissed me.

About a hundred people witnessed it.

What?

Dastan walks incredibly fast, so it's next to impossible to read his expression. When we reach the parking lot we both silently slide into the front seats and stare out in front of us. He pauses before turning the car on and plays a tapping game with his fingers on the steering wheel.

The car's so dark; so quiet. All I hear is myself breathing.

"What just happened?" I ask wearily.

"Um," He says as the tapping gets louder. "I'm pretty sure I just kissed the girl."

"Right," I say not daring to look at him. "Got that,"

He laughs and I can just imagine his cheeks getting redder by the second. "I'm sorry," He says.

"Why?" I ask, laughing.

Don't judge me. His laugh is kind of contagious.

"Well, I just kissed you in front of a bunch of people," He says.

"Yeah, I know."

"Well," He says. "Um,"

I raise my eyebrows. "What?"

"Nothing." He pauses. "Uh sorry for...violating you."

At that I burst out laughing.

"I'm absolutely never going to forgive you," I say. I catch a grin of his.

"Hey, I apologized," He remarks. He starts the car and we make our way back the the Animal Kingdom.

Although he clearly answered my question, I still want to know what just happened. This evening doesn't make any sense. For the last few weeks all I've done is follow Dastan around the parks, picking fight after fight with him. And in this one evening so many things have changed. All the way from Dastan taking me the Gharadelli just to make things up to me, to the bench when I swear time stopped, our shopping trip, and playing with the Perry the Platypus stuff, and then there's the acopello

group and Kiss the Girl, and...yi yi yi. If only I had bought a journal. I don't know what to make of it all, and maybe if I just wrote it all down I would know what to think right now.

The wavering question in my head continues to circle around and around.

What changed?

That's what I should have asked him. Not that wimpy "What just happened?"

I'm such a girl.

Dastan carries my shopping bags through the park until we reach the tree. He sets them on my bed and walks confidently back to the door. I follow him out.

"Hey, I'm serious." He says softly. "I am sorry, and I shouldn't have done that earlier."

I frown. Then why did you kiss me? I think.

"It's okay," Is all I say.

Silence.

"Oh, and let's not mention this to Fairy Godmother. I could be fired." He adds.

"Well we wouldn't want that," I say. "Who knows what freak I'd get next."

"Hey, I'm not a freak," He says.

"Uh huh, whatever makes you happy."

"Not a freak."

"Right..."

We stand there in silence, at the mouth of a tree that was never supposed to be seen by someone as normal as me. For the first moment on

this vacation, (you know, if you still want to call it that,) I take the moment in. Of how many people would die to be able to do what I've been

doing. How awesome this experience would be to so many people, including my family. My mom would just love to be here right now- to get as many

behind the scenes tours and ride the attractions over and over as much as I have. And then there's Dastan... how did he get put in charge of

me? Why wasn't it someone else? And why do I care. Why do insist on believing that this would be ten times worse without him? Why-

"Well, I'll see you in the morning," Dastan says breaking my thoughts "Fantasia."

"Fantasia," I repeat.

Why do I get this feeling that I'll actually miss him when I go home?

I hear him disappear behind the foliage. "What changed?" I mutter to myself.

In the faint distance I hear Dastan's voice. What he says remains a mystery.

You know what I really want to know? Why out of all things that are going wrong in my life, do I only think about him and what the heck he means to me. Why?