Page 33 of Finding Romance
I tap my foot as we stand there. Suddenly, Kasen’s big hand is on my shoulder. I freeze.
“You nervous, little escape artist?” he whispers in my ear and I shiver from the feel of his hot breath on my skin.
“A little,” I admit as I steal a glance up at the ride and immediately regret it.
His arm wraps around my front and pulls me back against him. “I got you. Nothing bad will happen,” he promises. I want to believe him. But the mind is a crazy place and I swear I feel my blood pressure climbing as we stand there.
I try to focus my attention in front of us, which doesn’t help because four teenage boys are standing there having a conversation that I wish I could ignore.
“I bet you puke, bro,” one says to a much taller one.
“Fuck off, Jake. I’ll be fine. It’s Aiden that we have to worry about,” he says, hooking his thumb to point at their friend.
“Me? No way. I’ve ridden this thing like ten times. It’s a piece of cake. Except…” He leans in toward them and I feel myself leaning in too. “This one time, a kid threw up and it flew back and hit everyone in the face. It was disgusting.”
“Ewww!” the three other boys say in unison.
“Damn, bro, that’s gross,” the tall one says.
“It was. But my mom bought us T-shirts and the park manager felt bad and gave us one of those lightning passes, so that was cool,” the kid says with a shrug.
The quiet kid perks up at that mention. “I got stuck on the one over there last summer.” He points to the tallest roller coaster. “We didn’t get park passes, but we did have to have one of those fire trucks with the ladders hoist us each down.”
“Whoa! That’s cool,” the short kid says.
I feel myself tremble as I remember getting stuck. Kasen’s arm tightens around me and he presses his warm lips to the shell of my ear. “Ignore them. Nothing bad will happen,” he assures me.
“What if we get stuck?” I whisper.
“Then, we’ll have more time to talk,” he offers.
I look up and wince. “What if we get stuck upside down?” I ask, motioning to the one loop in the roller coaster.
He looks up and then tightens his grip on me. He presses his lips to the back of my head and I suddenly am not thinking about the roller coaster. I’m thinking about how badly I want Kasen Saddler to kiss me, again.
The line moves and I realize we are next to get in a car. It’s a row of four and we get stuck next to the short and tall kid from in front of us.
The u-shaped harness comes down over us and clicks into place. Kasen reaches over and gives mine a little shake and then does the same to his. I can tell he’s satisfied when he drops his hand over mine, which is death-gripping the seat.
“This is supposed to be fun,” he says.
“Is now a bad time to tell you that I got stuck on a roller coaster once and I might have PTSD?” I state as I begin to shake a bit.
“Fuck. Seriously?” he asks.
I nod.
“Piper, why didn’t you say something?” he asks, and I can tell he feels bad.
“I…it’s silly. It was like ten years ago. I should be over that. This is probably a good thing, right?” I squeak as we lunge forward.
“Uh, I’m not a psychologist, but when was the last time you tried to overcome your PTSD?” he inquires.
I don’t answer as I look at the giant hill in front of us.
“Piper!” Kasen says loudly.
“Today,” I say quietly.
