"I can go..." I offered.
"No. Stay," both of them chimed. Now we were all standing and the two opposites were glaring at each other.
"Okay..." This was extremely awkward.
"What do you want, Warren?" Cariba asked him.
"You," he finally answered.
FINALLY. Hallelujah! Praise the lord, the boy finally admits it.
"As your second choice to Indica," she assumed.
"As my first," he clarified.
"Yeah right," Cariba said, doubtfully and then I wanted to personally slap her for being so stubborn and cold. And I think Warren thought the same thing because after his jaw dropped for a moment of incredulousness, he turned to me.
"Now you know why what I want shouldn't become what I need," he sighed. "Thanks anyways."
He started walking away and Cariba was loosening her stance and giving me questionable eyes, but when she wanted to say something, Warren turned around to face us once more.
"And speaking of need...Zaine is headed toward the boardwalk," he informed.
"That's seven miles away," Cariba muttered to me.
"Seven miles is five minutes to him when he's running," Warren shrugged and then tossed me some keys. He started walking away again and now, I started nudging Cariba and muttering things to make her ask him out or something.
"Warren!" I finally yelled. He turned around, now with his hands in his pockets. I looked back to Cariba and she had wide, beady eyes, telling me not to do what I was about to, but she gave me no choice. "Want to go with us to the boardwalk?"
Cariba smacked my shoulder and I swear I felt her freeze some of the water in my body, but of course even if she did, my immortal homeostasis prevailed.
"S-Since you're his best friend and all," I added.
"Sure?" he answered half-heartedly. I handed the keys over to Cariba and commented that she should drive since she's the one who knew where the boardwalk was. And just to get under her skin for breaking Warren's heart, I let him sit shotgun, claiming "I didn't want him to have to climb in the back". I already knew that Cariba was slowly wishing I would've stayed in San Antonio with Zaine.
When we got to the boardwalk, there was a daily carnival going on, but I doubt Zaine would be within all of these people.
"Is there anywhere he liked to go when you came to carnivals?" Cariba asked Warren.
"The only place he used to like was the Ferris Wheel, but I wouldn't trust he would go there," Warren answered. I started looking around, seeing that aside from the carnival board walk, there were people going down to the beach.
"We can just walk around and ask anyone if they've seen him," Cariba suggested, but by then, I was veering off in the direction of the ramp down to the beach. "Or not..."
We had split up when I traced a hunch down the ramp, towards the shore. Eventually, I had tossed off my flip flops and leisurely walked about because I knew well that if I looked for him, I wouldn't find him. I'd have to stumble upon him. Thankfully, it only took five minutes before I saw him walking toward me. Neither of us said anything, but after he looked at me once, his eyes dropped down as if he was ashamed of something. I took that moment to hug him around his torso and his muscles quickly coiled around me as well. After a moment, I pulled away.
"Come on, let's go," I nodded. I started to walk off, but his hand slid down my arm and made contact with my hand. This time when I looked up at him, he was frowning.
"You don't care about...?"
"About what?" I asked, confused.
"Me," he clarified. I sighed because I was mad that he still thought I didn't care. "Why I'm here instead of the house."
"I have a feeling that you won't believe me if I say that everyone needs a break, but fine...why did you leave?" I asked him. He let go of my hand.
"Do you...like Cheshire?" he muttered. I laughed. I really laughed. He only raised an eyebrow.
"You're kidding right?" I asked him. He shook his head. "I don't like Cheshire. Sure, we're friends I guess, but where do you get that I like him?"
"You were so willing to hold his hand in front of everyone and then you offered me off to Indica as if you had the right—"
"I was proving a point!" I insisted inside of a laugh. I reached out and grabbed his hand and laced our fingers. I got serious now. "I already know that Cheshire is still hung up on Alice and I just want people to be happy, so I called out Indica, amused Cheshire, and made Indica consider something that she wanted...which was you."
"Then why can't you make me happy?" he asked in a whisper.
"I'm trying, but..."
"What is it, then?" he asked. I then made a decision that I wouldn't accuse anything. I would go about it in the way I wanted.
"Depends...are you going to let me make you happy?" I asked him. He closed his mouth because we both didn't expect my reply, but then he slightly nodded. Then, I smiled and laced our fingers to pull him along. Immediately, he started looking around like it wasn't his place to be here.
"What are you doing? I'm not meant to be here," he told me like some socially anxious person. And just to prove him wrong, I walked up to a group of teenagers that seemed to be our age. His hands tensed up before I let go.
"Excuse me," I told them and the three girls and two boys looked over. "What do you think when you see...him?"
I gestured to Zaine and he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and half-smiled.
"He's hot," the shorter girl with highlighted brown hair complimented.
"Dude, you're built," the guy with the dark longer hair admitted.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" the blonde girl asked and surprisingly I didn't say anything or get jealous...but Zaine had reached over to reclaim my hand.
"Well—"
"Why did you ask us about him? There's nothing wrong with him," another girl with long, light brunette hair said as if she knew exactly what and why I was doing this. She had light highlights, pale blue eyes, clear skin, and a brilliant smile playing at her pink lips.
"He looks fine to me," a strawberry blonde commented, checking us out.
"Well actually he's rather...ill," I started, dramatically and it caught their attention. "He has some crazy belief that he's too much of a stick-in-the-mud to have fun."
"I am not!" Zaine denied immediately, completely offended as the other teens got it.
"Then why do you keep complaining about being here?" I whined. He looked down and then slightly around.
"You know why..." he breathed lightly. I narrowed my eyes at him and then looked to the five teens while dropping our hands.
"Thanks anyways," I told them and started walking away from them and Zaine with purpose.
"Aspen...Aspen, wait," Zaine called, but now I was on route to the Ferris Wheel. Right as I was beginning to see the line for it, I was caught around the waist and pulled to the side. My breath was caught as well and I was looking right up at Zaine. His brown eyes searched deeply for something on my face. "What are you getting at?"
"Hopefully you," I said honestly. My heart was beating faster and faster and I had no control over it. Even the lights and crowds were nothing compared to being pressed against him.
"Fine," he said, suddenly breaking my trance because he let go of me completely and stepped back. "Where are we going to have this supposed 'fun'?"
"The Ferris Wheel," I answered with a smile. As soon as I said it, the whole situation changed. At first, when he asked me what we were going to do, he had a sort of smirk to his lips in amusement or maybe just ready to mock my eagerness, but once I said 'Ferris Wheel', there was a brief weakness in the Man of Steel. His eyes darkened a shade and his lips even slightly parted. The corners of his lips turned down and his Adams' apple bobbed in a nonchalant gulp he tried to hide. But of course this was all in a matter of a second to a second and a half because then he forced a smile and nodded. What was up with that?
I started walking again and lightly heard a stressful sigh from behind.
=XXX=
"Why the Ferris Wheel?" I asked him. We were stopped near the top and he was sitting awkwardly. He had either hand on each knee and he was looking everywhere he could but straight down. I didn't think he was scared of heights, but there was something else.
"Huh?" he asked.
"When we were looking for you Warren said you used to like Ferris Wheels but he didn't trust that you'd come here," I told. "Why?"
"Why did I like them, or why wouldn't I be here?" he asked in a hiss as if he was developing a bitterness towards Warren.
"Both."
He sighed and smiled as if saying "Yeah right". And I glared at him until he understood that I was tired of him pushing me away.
"Warren thinks he knows sh!t about me, but he doesn't," he said.
"Alright, then I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so excited," I apologized, feeling low. There was only a brief silence though.
"I haven't been on a Ferris Wheel since I was eight," he suddenly muttered. That must almost be ten years for him and I'm guessing it had to do with the Academy. Because suddenly, he grabbed the side. "I need to get off."
"Well we're a hundred feet in the air, so—"
"Aspen, you don't understand," he said.
"I understand that a Ferris Wheel comes back down eventually so there's no need to freak out," I sassed him. "And I also understand that no matter how much I try with you or there are times when I feel bad for holding back because of Tyler, I know that it hurts a hell of a lot worse when it's you shutting me out without any damn explanation."
And still, like the good gentleman he had normally been, he didn't even argue! We sat apart the entire ride and I wasn't going to storm off once we got to the ground, but I had to admit that I was hurt and mad. I was trying. He was supposed to let me make him happy and he wasn't doing that. And at least I had the decency to have Tyler as a causing factor, but him? From my understanding he hadn't had a girlfriend at all. From my understanding he hadn't had anything. From my understanding...I understood absolutely nothing about Zaine Union's previous life.
And though there was a large and significant part of me insisting that I didn't need to, I knew that I did. But nonetheless, I still felt and cared strongly for him, no matter how sub-consciously stubborn he acted.
"Are you okay now?" I asked him once we were on the boardwalk.
"No," he said. Well, now I don't know what to do. I crossed my arms as it became chilly in the evening and then Zaine steered me into a nearby shop. I looked up at him with dull eyes and no matter how bad I felt, my heart's pace increased. D4mmit. "I'm sorry. I really am. I like you more than you know, but there are just some things that I can't..."
"It's fine," I lied, avoiding eye contact.
"It's not," he insisted and cupped my chin to force me to look up at him. "Not until you're okay."
"How can I be okay with—"
"Hey! You found him!" Warren cheered out of nowhere, walking in, separating us and hugging him. Zaine still looked at me though. Warren looked between us as I noticed Cariba came in with the same frown on her face as me. When she walked in, he looked between all three of us as if he was hiding whatever happened in our absence. "Everything okay?"
"Debatable," Cariba and I answered at the same time before we left with linked elbows and grumbled our way back to the car.
"I hate him," she said.
"I completely understand," I agreed, for both Warren and Zaine. Zaine for being stubborn; and Warren because if he never suggested the stupid Ferris wheel, we could've been I don't know, slamming a hammer down on a metal plate to win an obnoxious stuffed animal or something. "Except, you get to hide in the ocean. I'm forced to room next to it."
She put her arm over my shoulders and squeezed.
"You won't be alone," she promised.