I'm a little tired from what had just occurred so at this point I'm not even paying attention to my whereabouts, and am merely following my brother back to the sun chairs. However, after a while I notice that the scenery looks unfamiliar.
"Are we going the right way?" I finally speak up.
Silence .
"Cole!" I speak again this time pulling on his arm.
"Yeah, I heard you the first time. We're just taking a detour." Cole responds while looking around the park as we walk.
" Ummm, ok" This doesn't feel right. Why wouldn't we just retrace our steps?
We stop for a moment. I look in front and see there must be a hold up since there are tons of people waiting to walk too, in front of us.
"This is weird. It's like we're waiting on a line" I comment.
"Well, that's because we are on a line" Cole smirks while pointing to a sign labeled 'The Twister'.
My hearts feels like it dropped to the floor.
"You're joking, you must be." I stare folding my arms in front of me.
Cole just starts laughing and manages to convey to me that this is no joke.
I'm now angry, "Cole, what didn't you understand when I said not to pressure me?!"
"I mean yeah, I know. But it's the least you can do to make up for your inconvenience before" he smirks.
"No... No, I'm not going on this ride. Isn't this the one that turns all over?"
"It is, but you'll love it!" He responds wide smile with his hands on my shoulders, facing me.
"Yeah, I'll pass" I respond beginning to walk away.
"Good luck finding your way back alone!" He calls after me while remaining on line.
I stop, say nothing, and then slowly begin to walk back to him. He knows I have a fear of being lost or worst... kidnapped.
"You wouldn't go on this ride alone"I finally break the silence.
" I totally would. And you wouldn't walk back alone" he then smiles to himself and adds " something might go wrong"
I step back on line and give my brother my most angriest of stares. "You're really annoying"
He laughs and hugs me from behind recognizing that his plan has worked. "[y/n] trust me, you're going to love it! I'm proud of you."
"I had no choice" I roll my eyes.
"Still. It'll be fun" he smiles.
It's finally starting to settle in that I'm actually going through with this when I see that we are closer to the front of the line.
"What if I get water in my ear again?" I nervously ask.
"I don't mind going back to the first aid, so that won't be a problem." Cole responds pushing his hair back.
"What?!"
"I'm kidding. That won't happen on this ride because I'll be with you. We'll literally be together on the same float tube." He answers.
"Oh, I didn't realize you use a float to go on this ride" I say while letting out a sigh of relief.
Cole smiles at me and checks his phone through his water proof case.
"Does mom even know where we are?" I ask concerned.
"Yeah, I let her know we were walking back past some rides you like" he answers nonchalantly.
I don't like that he lied to mom.
Cole notices me thinking and says, "Don't you dare say anything other than what I text mom about this."
"Cole, you kind of lied" I say while placing the goggles on my forehead on my eyes to use as sunglasses.
He picks up my goggles threatening to release them back to my eyes and says, "It's just a stretch of the truth. You will like this ride".
I flinch away when he looks like he is going to release my goggles and then realize he gently puts them back where they belong.
"[y/n], would I do that to you?" He laughs. He then adds, "And honestly, tell mom whatever you want".
Before I can make sense of anything, a park worker looks at us and tells us that we are next and to sit together the float tube he is holding.
"Thank you" Cole take the float and then looks at me, "Ok [y/n] don't be scared. I'll sit in the back tube and you can sit in front of me."
I proceed to sit in front of him and can't believe this is happening. There truly is no way out so I don't even try to talk my way out or leave.
"Ok.... and we're together the whole time" I say aloud to Cole, but more as a statement, than as a question.
"Right... oh yeah, and a worker will talk to us before they push us down" He adds.
The worker walks over to us. He has blond bleached hair and is wearing black sunglasses. He looks like he is about to tell us the same set of directions he has been telling the first hundred people who went on this ride before us.
"Okay, so... stay in the ride at all times. Don't get up and stay laying down on your back." He then looks at me, "You are going to lay on this guy while you", he then looks at Cole, "are going to lay on the float back"
Cole shakes his head in agreement as though he's heard this shpeel before. I just stare open mouthed processing the whole situation.
"Okay, got it?" the worker asks.
I somehow manage to shake my head yes, and without much notice we're off.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" I literally cannot stop screaming during these first few seconds.
I hear Cole behind me laughing. He's not laughing at me, that's his way of enjoying the ride.
Our float moves very quickly at each turn which gives me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. It also zooms super fast when it's not making a turn. We then are airborne moving from one slide to a lower slide, now seeing more of the pool of water below us.
With this change in slides I involuntarily turn my head afraid to look, but Cole manages to quickly turn me around. The worker did mention I need to lie down the entire time, so I manage to quickly lie back down.
Falling onto the new slide, water from the slide above is now pouring onto our entire float and making us drenched. It's at this point that I hear a camera click. This must be one of those rides that takes a picture of you and then expects you to buy it later before leaving the park.
The ride then stops and a sign appears with a voice from a recording. It sounds like the worker who spoke to us earlier. "Attention, touch the sign if you wish to leave The Twister. If you wish to continue for one more twist and turn, remain seated."
"Cole, I'm hitting this sign!" I call out to him while beginning to follow through.
I could feel my brother pull me back down shouting back, "No!"
Before I can reach back for the sign again, our float turns down to a new slide that is now enclosed so it is pitch back. Now we are both screaming while sliding along until sunlight finally appears and we are airborne once more before jumpily landing into the pool of water. Two teenage workers wearing referee t-shirts nonchalantly pull our float to the side and point us to the towels nearby.
We climb out of the float tube and walk over to dry ourself with a towel.
"So? What did you think?" Cole asks while dragging out the word 'So'.
"I feel like I''m still on the ride" I respond.
"Yeah, that can happen, especially if you haven't gone on this one before."
"It definitely was scary.... but, it was also sort of fun at the same time"I add while drying myself off with a towel.
"See! I knew you would like it. [y/n], there's rides that I'm afraid of too, but that doesn't stop me from doing it because in the end it's fun."
"Ok. We'll I do think that might be it for today with the rides" I smile.
Cole laughs and says, "Come, let's go back to the sun chairs".
Walking back, now the correct route, I notice that it's a lot later than I thought it was. The sun is a cool pink/orange color, and the air is turning a bit cool.