Wanderlust ✓

10. Joyous

You're going down.

And Bam. All three bottles crashed down from my direct center hit. Both boys stared at me with disbelief. "I'll take my pink bear now, please," I smiled sweetly at the worker.

He handed it over without a word. I turned back to Parker, who's mouth was agape and grabbed his wrist to drag him away.

"Come on, I wanna go on the Ferris wheel!"

"Wha- how did you do that?" He asked, confused and looking back and forth between me and the booth that was becoming farther away.

"My dad's the baseball coach for my brother's team. I've had some practice over the years."

He laughed, shaking his head still in disbelief. "Well damn. One more thing I now know about you."

I smiled back at him, joining the queue for the Ferris wheel which was circulating in a slow pace. "There's a lot of things you still don't know about me."

He leaned back again the wood railing, "Alright, well tell me about your love for Ferris wheel's."

I smiled in remembrance of my childhood carnival memories, "I wasn't always a fan of them. When I was five, I went to the fair with my parents and they thought it would be a good idea to put me on one. Big mistake. I threw up on my mom's purse as soon as the thing started to rock. The moment we got to the top and I could look out, the view surprisingly calmed me down. Every year, I got better and better at relaxing on the way up and opening my eyes at the tippy top where I was the most comfortable."

Parker reflected my beaming grin before the attendant motioned us into the basket. He locked the door behind us and went over the basic health and safety rules with us.

"Keep all body parts inside the cart at all times," his monotone voice rang,"Do not rock the carriage back and forth as it could become a safety hazard. The total ride is around 10 minutes. And for the love of god, keep your pants on."

With the final check, he spun back round to the control panel and we were moving up.

"Keep all body parts inside the cart at all times, oh look at me I have to watch a wheel spin all day and remind two teens not to fuck even though I know they won't listen to me blah blah blah."

I hit his shoulder at the last bit, turning around to face where the stand was to see if the attendant had heard. Luckily enough, he hadn't as his eyes where still glued to the controls in front of him.

I realized that I hadn't noticed us almost cross the halfway point before we stopped. I could feel my nerves kick in as the small basket gently swung in the breeze. I gulped, eyes focused ahead before screwing them shut, trying not to think about it. I felt something warm take my hand and interlock our fingers, giving them a small squeeze.

"You can now look," Parker mumbled to me.

And somehow I already trusted him, which scared the shit out of me. I did as he said and opened my eyes to look out again. We were now stopped at the top and all I focused on was the bright blue ocean ahead of us that went out for miles.

"It's beautiful," I said, astonished by nature's talents. I breathed in, smelling the salty ocean air and enjoying the soft breeze that left our cart swinging just lightly, barely noticeable.

"It is," Parker whispered next to me but when I looked at him, he wasn't looking at the same thing I was. Instead, he looked into my eyes not even giving the ocean a second glance.

After a couple of seconds, my cheeks began to heat up again as I turned my head back to the sea. Admittedly, I expected him to slip his hand out of mine, to place it back down at his side as the worst was over but no, he squeezed tighter, like he was trying to remove all of the gaps between our palms. His thumb lightly brushed over my knuckles which was no help to my cheeks but out of the corner of my eye, I could see the light brush of pink that had gradually begun to take over his cheeks.

The cart started moving down again but I didn't feel the need to close my eyes again, instead opting to watch the world move as we were slowly lowered to the ground, cart still swinging slightly in the light breeze. Parker stood up as we were lowered, stretching out the muscles in his back and arms releasing my hand in the process. I felt a wave of disappointment at the loss of contact but certainly didn't feel relief when the cart jerked to a sudden halt and the entirety of his body weight came crashing down on me.

"Ow! You dumb ass get off of me,"I try shoving his shoulders up, "it feels like you're crushing every single one of my ribs!"

Parker looked back up at me, a cheeky smile on his lips, eyebrow raised.

"Man, I would say that this is an awkward position to be in, but now that you mentioned your ribs being crushed, I might have to stay here. If only I knew it would've been this easy to get rid of you in the first place. I could even make it look like an accident!"

He begins laughing at himself as I bring my knee up between us and used the force to push him away whilst he continued to giggle to himself like a little school girl. I rolled my eyes when there was a buzz of a speaker below us;

"Sorry for the delay ladies and gentlemen, the change over of staff wasn't as smooth as we hoped however, the ride will now continue. Thank you for your cooperation." buzz. buzz. buzz.

The Ferris wheel started up again as we finally made our way down to the ground. A new attendant opened our basket and Parker stepped out first offering his hand back to me,

"M'lady," he bowed dramatically.

The attendant smiled amused at his antics much like I was. I graciously accepted his hand as he tugged me out pulling me into his side. With one last thank you to the attendant we began walking away; Parker's hand in mine tucked into each others sides without a care in the world.

•••

"Yes mom, yes, I'll stay safe at the festival. Don't worry. I love you too! Good night," I said ending the phone conversation with my worrisome mother. I understood why she was worried. I was her only daughter and we were joined at the hip constantly. She's seriously going to have to be medicated when I go off to college because I don't know what she'll do without me around.

My sad expression must've set off Parker because he sat down in front of me at the end of the bed. "You're really close to your family, aren't you?"

That brought a smile to my face, thinking of all the memories I have with them. "Yeah, my parents are college sweethearts and I have a little brother. We do everything together."

I saw a glimmer of jealousy? flood his face but he gave me a small smile. "You're very lucky, Paige. You should hold onto those relationships for as long as you can."

I hadn't seen him call his own family yet. I couldn't help the push.

"Are you going to check in with your own family?"

He sighed, shuffling off the bed to grab some sweatpants out of the drawer. With his back facing me he said, "Nah, they don't care. My mom's too distracted, slaving over her husband and his spoiled kids. I try to distance myself as much as I can."

"I'm sure she'd at least appreciate a text saying that you've arrived safely."

Although he had a small smile on his face, his eyes had a glossy sheen to them. My gut began to twist. "Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think she'll read it or notice that it's come through."

With that, he walked into the bathroom to change. Wrapping my arms around myself in an attempt to get rid of the ache in my belly, I sat down on the bed. Sometimes, I need to think before speaking.