WARNING: CHAPTER MAY INCLUDE SOME EXTREMELY CUTE & ADORABLE SCENES, SO BEWARE.
- chapter 056 –
I could hear the ambulances and I could see the sirens as the car was being consumed by the dancing flames. Her scream pierced my ears as he was taken away on a gurney, and her arm was bleeding heavily. All I could do was stare at the scene before me. It was chaos; it was maddening.
* * *
Thirty Minutes Earlier
The pang of leaving hit me again—as hard as a diamond. It came at me from out of nowhere. Suddenly, eight days left, was all I could think about as I sat in the car and looked out the transparency of the window.
It was still hard for me to fully understand, to get through my head, that I was scheduled to leave soon. It was surreal almost. I dreaded boarding that plane that was supposed to fly me, along with Peyton and my parents, home. Mostly because this, this right here in California, has been my home for the past three months and saying that I wasn’t ready to leave yet would be a massive understatement.
I had been in Florida my whole life, since I was born. I was tired of seeing the same environment. It’s getting old. California was refreshing and new to me. It felt good to have some new surroundings. And unfortunately for me, I had become attached to them. Huntington Beach would be forever missed, since nothing compares to it. My family here would be missed. The memories, the people, the fun and the excitement, the scenery—all of it. Just thinking about leaving dampened my mood along with my entire day.
And don’t even get me started on Jake Austin Carter. I could hardly stand the thought of leaving him. Sure, I’d miss everything else formerly mentioned, but Jake? I didn’t even want to imagine it. If thinking about leaving the scenery behind dampened my day, then the thought of Jake being here and me being there put a whole rainstorm into the equation, entirely flooding my mood with sadness.
Leaving him and putting a three hour time difference and a whole lot of the US between us killed me.
I sighed, reminiscing on the memories of when Jake and I hadn’t even met each other in person yet. When we Skyped all the time, when I would get in trouble at school for texting him in class. When we had our late night phone conversations.
Sure, all of that was pretty damn fun and amazing, but the real deal was a million times better. You can’t exactly kiss someone through a screen. And wow, I would miss his kisses. I hadn’t even thought about that until now.
To be honest, with the gnawing, aching inclination of my lips on his in the back of my mind most of the time, I could hardly even go a couple days without kissing him. Living without him until Christmas, when we would fly out to see family, would be a very, extremely hard challenge for me.
I wasn’t sure if loving someone to this extent was very healthy. And if it’s not, then I would need some pretty amazing professional help.
A car horn yanked me back into reality, as I jolted up in my seat. We were stuck in traffic.
Still. It had been a good amount of time since we first got caught up in the horrifying maze of cars that sat ahead of us, thirty minutes at the least, and from the looks of it, we hadn’t moved much. The street had turned into a parking lot in a matter of minutes. I just wanted to get to wherever we were going.
Patience—it was never one of my strong suits. In fact, impatience was one of my most prominent qualities.
A horn blared once again, boisterously and right into my ears. It was the same person that had honked the first time. I looked through my window to the very plump man with a red face that sat in his minivan, his car lining up perfectly with ours next to me. I guess I could say that impatience sat right at the top of his list of prominent qualities, printed in fat, bold letters.
I sent the man a death glare, clearly annoyed, but not nearly as much as he seemed to be. The guy could seriously use a chill pill. I didn’t see why he was honking to begin with, because it was pretty clear to just about anyone who had eyes that he, along with everyone else on this godforsaken street, would not be going anywhere any time soon due to the traffic jam.
“Some of these people are just really persistent,” Jake commented with an eye roll. “Even a blind man could see that we’re not going to be going anywhere any time soon.”
“For real,” Danielle said grumpily from the back seat. “With all this freaking honking every two minutes it’s hard to get back to sleep.”
“Just put some earphones in. Here, you can even use mine.” I fished them out of my bag and tossed them to her.
She smiled. “Thanks.”
“What are best friends for?”
“Buying Starbucks for each other,” she chimed, giggling.
“Oh, of course. How could I possibly forget that one?” I mused sarcastically.
“I don’t know, it’s basically Rule Number One in a best friend-sister relationship.”
“I’m sorry, it just seemed to have blown past me.” I couldn’t help but giggle at our pointless conversation. “I promise to buy you Starbucks if we happen to see one.”
“This is why I love you,” she said. “But I love Starbucks more.”
“Oh come on, can Starbucks quote every line of Mean Girls with you?”
“Okay, fair point made, Alexandria.” I scowled at the use of my full name, as to which Jake snickered.
“Jake, oh my gosh, do you see what I’m seeing?” Mason questioned from the back, causing all of our attention to dawn on him.
“What?” he replied, his eyebrows furrowing together in that adorable, I-want-to-kiss-him-right-now kind of way.
“Two wild basic white girls have appeared!” he exclaimed, quoting Pokémon.
“Hey! I’m not basic,” Danielle pouted.
He smiled at her, and with the slightest bit of sarcasm laced in his voice said, “Oh yeah, of course not.”
* * *
After what seemed an eternity later, Mason cried out, “Thank God! The cars in front of us are finally moving.” He said it as if a massive weight had just been removed from his chest, honestly relieved.
And I was too.
“Well it looks like we won’t be here for too much longer,” Jake observed. It took a while for all of the cars in front of us to return to their normal pace, but when they did, I was grateful. We were finally driving again with a little bit of time left to get to where we were going. The traffic jam set us back a hefty amount of time.
It didn’t take long for us to notice that it had been an accident that set us back for so long. I could hear the ambulance and I could see the sirens as the car was being consumed by dancing flames. Her screams pierced my ears as he was taken away on a gurney. All I could do was stare at the scene before me. It was chaos; it was maddening.
There were three police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance on the scene, all of their flashing lights ablaze. The victimized car was pretty banged up, and that alone was a major understatement. After the fire had been extinguished, it was easy to see the damage. The entire front of the car was folded and crushed inward, the windshield was shattered, the vehicle was coated in long scratches—the car was totaled beyond repair.
My heart clenched for the woman that stood there in the arms of an EMT as she continued to burst out in hysterics, watching two EMTs place (who I’m assuming is) her husband into the back of the ambulance. One of her arms was covered in blood, but other than that she seemed fine. Though from this distance, it was hard to tell. However, her husband was not as lucky. Even with just a brief view of him, he looked nearly as damaged as the car—there was blood, and lots of it too. It was painful to look at.
“Oh my gosh,” Danielle murmured from the back seat. It sounded as if she was about to cry. I forgot about how dramatic she could be. “That’s so terrible.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” I chided, trying to reassure her, but of course I couldn’t be to sure about that. The accident looked pretty bad.
I couldn’t help but think about the time she cried when a hamster died in a movie. Just think of the emotional damage of witnessing of a horrific car accident could inflict on her and her over dramatic self. “It probably looked a lot worse than it actually is.”
She nodded absentmindedly, although her eyes continued to stare back at the totaled car and the woman and the EMTs and the ambulance as we drove away from it. I myself had never seen something as chaotic as that, except for in television shows and action movies.
But I was thankful when minutes later, it seemed like the car accident and Danielle’s emotional alter-ego had subsided.
Her moods could switch so fast.
“Crap!” she exclaimed.
“What is it, Dan?” I asked, concerned that something else was about to go wrong.
“I have to pee!” she stated frantically. “Like now!” Oh yeah, and Danielle had a bladder the size of a pea (no pun intended)—I’m surprised this is the first time she’s had a bathroom complaint.
“We’re going to be there soon,” Jake offered. “Can’t you just wait for like ten minutes?”
“No, Jake. I cannot just wait for like ten minutes. I am unable to just wait for like ten minutes,” she mimicked. I tried to hide a smile of amusement. That’s Danielle for you. Her strong urges to pee were usually sudden and out of the blue.
Jake shook his head, but a hint of a smile was on his lips. “Fine, fine. Okay. I’ll go to the next exit I see and we can find a gas station.”
“I’m praying that that will be soon.”
Two minutes later, we were pulling off onto the first exit off of the highway we spotted. Another three minutes later, we were parked outside of a large Sheetz gas station. Approximately ten seconds after that, Danielle was already dashing through candy aisles to get to the bathroom that was placed in the back, left corner.
We all went into the small convenient store. Mason decided to buy a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos with a small can of soda.
“Babe, you want anything?” Jake asked.
“I think I’m good,” I replied, walking into the aisle where he stood. He was looking at the array of candy that was spread over the shelves.
“You sure? They have M&Ms and I know you like chocolate.”
“Hmm…” I thought about it. “If I want M&Ms then I’m going to buy them with my own money.”
He let out a small, light laugh. It was music to my ears. “Are we still stuck on this page?”
“Apparently we are.”
He grabbed a share size of M&Ms. “What if I want some too?” He held up the larger bag.
“Then we can split the price.”
To my surprise, he was in front of me in less than two seconds. He hovered over me, standing tall and making me feel small. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“I’ve heard that before. So yes, I do know that.”
A faint smile tugged at his lips. Taking me off guard, his lips were on mine in an instant. I let them linger, not bothering to pull away even though this was a clear show of PDA. One of his hands slid down to my butt. Before I knew it, he was pulling away, wearing a smug look. He held up a small wad of cash.
It took me a second, but it clicked in my head. He just pickpocketed me! I usually kept money handy in my back pocket, but now the handful of cash I had were held in his hand. “How are you going to pay if you don’t have any money? I guess this one’ll just have to be on me, Alexandria.”
I don’t know why, but when he said my full name, it sounded kind of hot. But that’s beside the point. He just took my money!
“Jake, give me my money,” I warned, folding my arms over my chest.
“Or else what?” he inquired. He was still smirking at me.
“Or else I won’t grant your three wishes as requested.” It was a lame comeback, but it was better than nothing. Was it, Alex? Was it really? Shut up, you.
“Oh no, I have too much planned for that to happen. I’ll give you your money.” Okay, maybe my comeback wasn’t that lame.
I held out my empty palm, waiting. He didn’t make a move to give me my cash back. Instead he said, “You didn’t say when I had to give it back.” Before I could register anything else, he was already headed for checkout.
I grumbled something along the lines of “stupid boyfriend” before grudgingly joining him in line. “Grumpy, are we?” he murmured with a smile.
I glared at him, but I couldn’t help the smile that threatened to break out on my face. He was already handing the cashier a five dollar bill to pay for the candy and a soda that I hadn’t seen him pick up.
“I’m not grumpy, I’m just a little annoyed because my boyfriend insists that he has to pay for everything, despite my constant protests.”
“You do know that that’s not a bad thing, right? This boyfriend of yours must be super nice,” Jake said.
“He’s not nice at all. He pickpocketed me while distracting me with a pretty heated kiss.”
“Sounds smart.” Jake picked up the bag that the cashier gave him and we made our way out of the store together.
“I wouldn’t say smart, I’d say purely evil.”
He smirked as he opened the passenger door for me. I climbed in. When Jake had settle into the driver’s seat, he said. “Would purely evil guys open car doors for the girl they adore?” His comment made my cheeks warm up. I wasn’t a fan of blushing. He adores you! “Or would they say that this said girl looks completely adorable when she blushes?”
That made my cheeks brighten even more. I hated him for it. Rolling my eyes, I turned and looked out my window so he could no longer see my tinted face.
“I know you’re still blushing,” he said.
“I don’t talk to evil men.”
“Evil? I don’t see any evil around here.” I heard shuffling before Jake poked my side, getting me to let out a little giggle. I turned around.
“What?”
“I said I’d give your money back to you.” He held out the two twenties, the ten, and a couple of ones. All of it was there—not that I expected him to steal any. Evil pickpocketer, yes. Thief, definitely not.
“I’m going to have to change where I keep my money,” I grumbled.
Minutes later, Danielle and Mason walked out of the store and towards the car. It took them long enough. She had a plastic bag in her hand. I didn’t doubt that she probably got way more goodies than needed.
I knew for a fact that she got a pack of Skittles—she was obsessed with them. She most likely got one of those to-go Nutella cups, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if she began to dip her Skittles into her Nutella.
The duo sat in the back seats, and once everyone was buckled in, we were back on the route to this mystery place.
I’d been right; Danielle and Mason had loaded up a small variety of snacks with a few drinks. They’d gotten a few candy bars, two packs of Skittles—of course—two sodas for later, and you couldn’t forget Mason’s bag of Doritos.
It didn’t take long to get to where we were going. I could see it on the exit sign before we even pulled onto the lot.
Kings Dominion.
A day here was bound to be one full of fun. I grinned from ear to ear. “Kings Dominion?” I questioned, beaming in excitement.
He smiled in return and nodded. “Yep.”
The last time I went to an amusement was at the beginning of the summer, and that too was with Jake. Our first date.
“We started our summer together at an amusement park, and now I guess you could say we’re ending it with one, too.”
I was still smiling like a Cheshire cat as he was pulling into the park.
“Fun fact: I’m extremely scared of heights,” Mason chipped in.
I raised an eyebrow at him as Danielle broke into a fit of giggles. “Oh my gosh, I’m definitely taking you on the Intimidator,” she said. “You may black out, but don’t worry—it’s completely worth a few seconds of unconsciousness.”
Jake and I began to laugh too as Mason’s facial expression transformed to one of dread. “Please tell me you’re kidding, Danielle.”
“Nope, she’s serious,” Jake told him with a smirk.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there if you need a hand to hold as you plummet to your possible death.” Danielle let out another laugh as Mason glared at her.
They were too cute.
Author’s Note: Probably scared the living crap out of y’all with the teaser last “chapter.” I would never kill a main—would I? But at least their all alive at the moment. And suddenly, I felt somewhat inspired to finish this story because I do still have a lot planned for it and the possible sequel. Inspiration was definitely something I didn’t previously have, as I was having serious doubts on even trying to finish this story, but I can’t really let all of you guys down like that. So, I will try my hardest to stay focused on this book of mine, because I’ve forgotten how much I loved this story, along with each of my characters, and I think I’m ready to start back up.
PS – I just want to thank all of you guys that have stuck with this story even though I’ve kind of been AWOL/a terrible author lol. It really does mean a lot that some of you guys still decide to comment and vote. And oh my goodness, I absolutely love reading your comments <3
See you all soon.
- Dani x ♥