28. Alone Together, You & I (Part Two)
The next twenty minutes used up more of Krislynn’s brain cells than any other moments in her life thus far. She wasn’t exactly a thinker, except the spontaneous times her head got an idea, but even then she wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed. She had trouble understanding what the both of them, Jace and herself, was going to end up doing that night. There was no doubt that they’d see Chase and everyone else again, but her concern was that night – what were they going to spend it doing?
Neither of them remembered the way back to the bungalow, and worse, neither of them could remember a single phone number even if they had a working phone in hand. They were stuck there like two kids lost at a big supermarket – one without an intercom.
“I guess we could wait in the car,” Jace suggested. “Though I query it wouldn’t do much.” He paused and sighed as he took out his phone and held down a key. The Blackberry lit up almost instantly displaying the word ‘welcome’ before the screen blacked out once more. It must have been the tenth time he’s done that, Krislynn realized, but each time the phone only teased them, bringing up their hopes before crushing it.
Remembering that Michelle and Seth were playing games at the stands to win prizes, Krislynn and Jace decided to walk back to the heart of the amusement park and try their luck there. Although their motives had been pure in the beginning, they both soon forgot the seriousness of their situation and caught themselves lost in a couple of games. Krislynn won a keychain, a toy doll and a small plush elephant from a couple of mini games, all of which, she gave away to some of the younger kids who didn’t win a prize.
Jace smiled at her with subtle admiration as he bit into a large pretzel he had brought only a moment before. “That was pretty nice of you,” he said. “You didn’t even know them.”
“I like kids,” she told him. Her hands reached up to the back of her head and pulled the elastic out of her ponytail. Even though the temperature during the daytime felt a lot like the middle of hell, the night was surprisingly cool, and her ears were raw from the overexposure of the night chill.“I lived in a trailer park back in Canada,” she explained. “So I used to help the mothers babysit their kids whenever I got some free time. It’s sort of hard making a living as it is. Paying daycare fees on top of that is just murder.”
“I sort of try to help people out whenever I can.” Krislynn shrugged and then idly shook out her hair which fell like a dark, velvet curtain around the back of her head. She watched Jace stare at her in enchantment and then shake his own head in embarrassment as if to stir up the thoughts in his head.
One hand holding onto his pretzel, he stuff the other in the pocket of his tie-dye colored shorts. “You’re so different from all the other girls I’ve met so far,” he quietly murmured before taking another nibble. “Still, you could have held onto the keychain or something – to remember our eventful expedition by.”
Krislynn laughed. “Chase’s house doesn’t use keys,” she said. “It has those security pin things so it wouldn’t have been very useful even if I held onto it. Besides, if I were to keep something, it would have to be...” Her words trailed off as her line of vision landed on a big, bug-eyed panda bear, with little, white wings on its back. In complete truthfulness, it wasn’t that attractive looking of a creature, but that simple fact might have only accentuated her desire to hold the plump plush in her arms.
So began an hour long of ball throwing into a wooden basket to get the plush. It was the only stand with that specific toy and there was only one, but the odds were against her from the very beginning as Jace apologetically pointed out. With the angle the baskets were positioned, the trajectory of the ball was destined for failing and even if it, by a chance of luck, went in and didn’t bounce out, there was another set of concepts that stopped the player from winning the bigger prizes.
As stubborn as Krislynn was, she just could not win the odd looking bear, and eventually cried out in built-up frustration. Maybe it was fate, or maybe it was sheer luck, but it was this exact outburst that made Michelle, who was with Seth a few yards away, locate the both of them. “Krissy? Is that you?” Michelle walked up curiously, but when the light hit Krislynn’s face and she made out all of her features, she ran up to give her a hug. “I thought I would never see you again!”
“You’re being dramatic,” Krislynn laughed. “But I’m so glad we found each other!”
After Jace quickly explained what happened on their end, Seth told them Chase had called him and deduced to about the same story, that Jace’s phone probably died and that they were probably both too airheaded to remember how to get back to the bungalow, and asked Seth if he could look around for the both of them. “We met up for a bit and decided that we’d search this half of the amusement park, and Pete, the other half.” Seth chuckled. “Poor sucker is probably still looking around. Should I text him or should I just let the guy run around for a bit?”
Michelle rolled her eyes and pulled out her own phone. “Don’t be so mean,” she said as she started a text message for Pete.
“He was the one who called me fat earlier,” Seth muttered.
“You’re still holding onto that?!”
He pouted before wrapping his arms around her waist. “And what if I am?” He cooed seductively into her ear. “What are you going to do about it?”
Michelle giggled before planting a big kiss on the tip of his nose causing Krislynn to roll her eyes this time around. “Chase was right. You guys are disgusting,” she grumbled. “Jace is still eating you know! Don’t just make babies in front of him!”
The four of them paused to laugh before Jace wrinkled his eyebrows in curiosity. “Speaking of Chase,” he began, “if Pete is searching the other half of the amusement park, where did Chase go?”
“Oh, he lost Rock, Paper, Scissors so he had to go home and see if you guys did actually remember the path back to the bungalow and are waiting there.” Unconsciously, Seth pulled out his phone from the pocket of his jeans and peered at it. “Though I did text him ten minutes ago and he hasn’t texted back. Wonder if he’s okay.”
“Well, he’s just back at the house.” Jace snickered. “He couldn’t have gotten himself into too much of a predicament.”
Krislynn smoothly tuned out the rest of the conversation. Yeah, she thought to herself, Chase couldn’t have gotten into that much trouble by himself. He was only back at the house. With LaCienega. Alone.
The pit of her stomach turned, and she was pretty sure it was what people liked to call ‘gut feeling.’ She was definitely having one and it was screaming that Chase was going to get himself into a ton of uncalled for trouble if she didn’t stop him in time. “Shit,” she cursed under her breath and then quickly yelled, “We have to go back! Now!” The two guys and Michelle all stared at her like she had suddenly lost her mind, and after taking a short breath to calm down, she said gentler this time, “I mean, I’m kind of worried that he hasn’t texted Seth back. Can we go back to the house – just make sure he’s okay?”
Seth nodded. “Yeah, why not? It’s getting pretty late too. We should just meet up with Pete and then all go back together.” He turned to Jace and pulled out a piece of paper from his pockets. “Here. I got some guy to give me a scrap piece of paper earlier and wrote down the address of where we’re staying. You’ve got a GPS in your car, don’t you? Just put this in there.”
Smiling, Jace took the piece of paper. “Oh that’s perfect,” he laughed. “Thank you. I just followed the back of your car when we came here so I really have no idea which way to drive back.”
“It’s all good man.”
After Pete texted back about meeting in the parking lot, the four of them got prepared to leave the amusement park with Michelle and Seth leading in front. Dejectedly, Krislynn spun around to stare at the ugly panda bear one last time before turning to leave when she felt a light tug at her elbow and found Jace holding her back. “Do you really want that bear?”
“Well I–”
Before she could finish what she was saying, he quickly led her back to the stand and got the teenager at the counter’s attention. “Excuse me. My friend here really wants that bear you have suspended from the ceiling, but she’s not having much luck winning the game. Do you think I can purchase the bear from you?”
Krislynn let out a small gasp. “No, don’t do that! It’s just a toy Jace. Please don’t waste any money on me.”
“I’m sorry dude. Can’t sell it to you even if you gave me a couple hundred bucks for it.” The young man at the counter ran his fingers through his over-gelled blonde hair before sighing. “The old geezer who runs this place is super uptight. These toys are made to be given out as prizes. I’d get into a lot of trouble if I made individual sales.”
Jace frowned. “Is there really nothing you can do?” He asked persistently. “Please! Perhaps there’s another way for us to get that bear?”
“Well... there’s only one way to get that bear and unfortunately, that’s to win the game. Sorry dude.”
Krislynn gently thanked the boy before ushering Jace after Seth and Michelle. Luckily, the park was slowly becoming more vacant due to the lateness of the night. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to spy the couple a little off in the distance.
After catching up to Michelle and Seth, Jace apologized once more for not being able to get Krislynn the bear, and it amused her – though she didn’t show it to Jace – why he would be so concerned about getting her something to remember their night by. Just as her mind was about to dive into a couple of theories, Pete showed up a little on the drunk side, and Jace pointed at the opposite end of the parking lot – where his own car was parked.
“We’ll see you back at the house then,” Michelle called out. “Are you riding with us Krislynn? You can make sure Pete doesn’t puke inside the car.”
“I’m not drunk,” Pete snapped before drinking the last bit of whiskey in the bottle. “Chase drank most of it anyways.”
“And you let him drive back by himself?!” Krislynn yelled.
Pete and Seth’s face both morphed into that of surprise and sudden realization. “Oh yeah...” They murmured.
“Well no wonder he’s not texting you back!” She cried.
“Don’t worry. He’s okay!” Seth spoke up. “He didn’t look drunk at all when we met up before so it completely slipped my mind that these two have been drinking. He got back to the house before he disappeared on me though so I mean... at least he’s home.”
Great. Here was another one to add to the list. He was back at the house with LaCienega. Alone and drunk. There was no way tonight was going to end peacefully.
In the distance, Jace hadn’t heard the course of their short conversation. “Actually,” he screamed from afar. “I was thinking I’d go to the store and pick a couple things up! You know, some graph paper, a calculator and a couple of protractors?”
Pete narrowed his eyes and rested one arm on top of Krislynn’s shoulder to stop himself from swaying back and forth. “It’s like midnight and he’s going to do math?” He laughed. “That’s pretty swag.”
Seth laughed and pulled Pete off of Krislynn before throwing him in the backseat. After yelling goodbye from across the parking lot to Jace, Krislynn hopped inside the car. The drive back was relatively smooth, but since they were hurrying to get back, it wasn’t too much of a surprise when they got pulled over by the cops for speeding. Seth hit the steering wheel as he cursed under his breath. “Come on,” he groaned. “We’re like a block away.”
Krislynn rushed out of the car as Seth parked it on the side of the curb. “I hate to leave you guys, but is it okay if I go back to the house first? I’m just worried that–”
“Take it.” Michelle interrupted to hand the house key over to her. “You should probably run or else the cops are going to throw a fit.”
Krislynn laughed and took her advice, dashing down the rest of the block to the bungalow at the end of the street. When she saw Chase’s truck parked by the driveway, she exhaled a small sigh of relief, but then she heard the noise coming from inside the house and quickly made her way inside. At the doorway to the kitchen, she abruptly came to a stop. Did she get here too late?
Or did she just arrive in time for the show?