* * *
About ten minutes and five brownies later, we pull up to the north end of the mall parking lot. The number of hot rods on display is staggering.
There's new and old Camaro's, Corvettes, Mustangs, Trans-Am's, and even a couple newer-model Dodge Vipers, which I love. Off to the side, just as Bryson mentioned, there are a few carnival-style games, and possibly the biggest Ferris wheel I've ever seen in my life.
As soon as I step out of the car, Becca comes running up to me.
"Check it out," she says, holding her phone up to my face as Holly walks up smiling.
I see a text which reads, "Why is breaking up with someone so hard? This is Brian BTW."
I smile with excitement as I look up at her. "That's awesome! He must have gotten your number from Carson."
"I guess so," she shrugs, pulling her phone back.
"Wow, there are so many cars here," Holly says as she looks around.
Bryson looks over his shoulder and scans the parking lot. "Yeah, there's actually a lot more than last year."
As the four of us walk around, we stop and gawk at pretty much every car we come across. Even though I know Becca and Holly came for me, I'm happy to see they genuinely do seem to be fascinated by the cars. After only a few minutes, they end up breaking away from Bryson and me and walking off on their own. This was for my benefit, obviously.
So Bryson and I walk around together, checking out more cars for the next thirty minutes or so before heading over to the games.
"You want the big stuffed panda?" Bryson asks, looking back at me after racking up an unprecedented eighty-two points on the "Nothing but Net" basketball game.
As fluffy and comfy as the panda looks, I definitely don't want it. I want the basketball on the bottom shelf. But I press my lips together as if I'm trying to make a decision.
"Um, no, I want that basketball," I say, pointing to it.
"We'll take the ball," Bryson says.
I knew the basketball would bring us a lot closer together than that giant stuffed panda would.
Bryson turns around and hands me the ball with a smile. "There you go."
"Sweet," I say, looking down at it. "You gotta teach me how to use this thing."
I look back up and toss the ball to him. "I want to learn how to dribble between my legs like you do in the games."
"Oh, whatever," he jokes with a cocky attitude, tossing the ball up and spinning it on his finger. "I figured you'd want to learn the hard stuff."
Then he shows off even more by bouncing the ball off his head and catching it back on his finger.
"Nope, we'll get to that. Now, dribble!" I demand, pointing to the ground as I try to keep a straight face. But as he breaks into laughter, a grin slowly pushes through my serious expression. I quickly pull it back, still pointing to the ground.
"Okay, okay," he finally says, standing up straight.
"You want to take a bigger step than normal so the ball can go through." He looks at me as I nod. "Okay. Then just dribble at an angle, and make sure the ball hits directly underneath you. And then catch it on the other side." He starts walking and dribbling between his legs with every step, as if he's walking normally with no basketball at all. I watch with excitement.
Then he stops and looks at me as I stand there, my body language all sassy with my arms crossed, my hip out, and my toes pointed.
"Piece of cake," I say as I take the ball from him. But this is clearly going to be a catastrophe. I mean, seriously, I need to learn how to dribble before I can dribble between my legs.
As I proceed to try over and over, kicking my legs up to the sky with each attempt just to get the ball through to the other side, Bryson keels over in laughter.
"What? That doesn't count?" I ask, looking back at him and laughing.
He straightens up and walks over to me. "Um, no, it doesn't," he replies, trying to catch his breath from laughing. "But we'll work hard on that later," he promises.
I smile and nod.
Then after a short pause, he glances over his shoulder and then back at me. "Ferris wheel?"
"Sure," I smile. He takes the ball from me and slides his fingertips across my palm, just before interlocking our hands together with a soft grip. Chills instantly run up my spine, and even though I'm not nearly as nervous as I should be, I am a little nervous as we walk to the Ferris wheel. It'll be a temporary escape from the crowd--just the two of us, which presents a couple of nerve-wracking opportunities.
First of all, the opportunity to tell him I'm a genius which, believe it or not, I've yet to make a final decision on. But I'm afraid that given the right moment, I'll end up blurting it out and then regretting it. Second, the opportunity for him to give me my first kiss, which I'm actually one hundred percent ready for now, but still nervous about.
After Bryson puts the basketball down, we climb into our little two-seater cart. And as the wheel turns, we move up a notch and then briefly stop for the cart behind us to unload. He reaches over and pulls me toward him, leaving his arm around me and his hand in mine in my lap. As we move up a few more notches, out of everyone's sight, he wastes no time; it's as if he's been dying to get at me. He can tell I'm waiting as he looks into my eyes, so he slowly leans in and presses his lips to mine. My thoughts and emotions spin out of control.
The next thing I know, this "first kiss" turns into a full-blown make-out session. Our mouths open and his tongue instantly meets mine. I feel his hand gripping the back of my neck, and I reach up and run my hand through the hair on the back of his head, placing my other hand on his cheek. His other arm wraps around me, forcefully holding me against him. The intensity is amazing.
We stay lip-locked and clinched together like this for a solid two or three minutes while the unloading continues. As we come back around and approach the ground again, we quickly break apart.
I'm flustered beyond belief. I can't think or see straight; in fact, all my senses have pretty much gone numb. I can't imagine a first kiss being any better, and all I can think about is him being all over me again.
Finally the unloading and re-loading is complete, and the wheel starts to spin. Bryson pulls my legs on top of his, and we proceed to make out and break apart with every full turn. I quickly fall into a euphoric state from being so close to him, floating up to the sky in the cool night breeze, the full moon shining down on us, and feeling his soft lips against mine every time we reach the top. It's definitely the best Ferris wheel ride I've ever been on.
When it sadly comes to an end, I'm hoping that my now-weak legs don't give out on me as Bryson helps me from the cart.
We hold hands and walk off in silence, repeatedly glancing at each other and smiling. I'm not sure if this makes us boyfriend and girlfriend or not, but I'd like to think it does. Right now, I'm just enjoying this incredible moment, and it looks as though he's doing the same.
As we approach the cars, I see Becca and Holly walking toward us, and I immediately begin straightening out my hair with my free hand, not to give anything away. But Becca's already smiling suspiciously, looking dead in my eyes as they walk up. If I had to guess, my cheeks are probably cherry red, revealing to her exactly what took place on that Ferris wheel.
As they walk up, in an attempt to avoid that possible topic altogether, I smile at her right away and ask, "Have you texted Brian back?"
She nods happily. "Yep. I'll show them to you later."
"Yeah, they've been texting for almost an hour," Holly grins.
"Sweet." I look at Becca as she looks at me, then a short silence falls over the four of us.
"Well, me and Dori were talking about going to get some ice cream earlier. Y'all wanna come?" Bryson asks, glancing at Becca and Holly.
Becca looks back at me. And because she and I have always seemed to be able to know what the other is thinking, she immediately scrunches her face and says, "No, I think we'll just go home." Then she glances at Holly.
"Yeah, I'm kind of tired," Holly agrees.
/> So after hugging them and saying bye, Bryson opens the door for me to hop in the car, and then we head off for ice cream.
A couple minutes later, we come to a stoplight, and we notice a Corvette and a Mustang from the car show lined up, revving their engines as if they're about to race. We pull up right behind the Corvette and stop.
I look at Bryson excitedly. "You think they're gonna race?"
"I hope so!" he exclaims. "They might not because there's usually a lot of cops in this area, but who knows."
I look in the rearview mirror and see Becca and Holly right behind us, so I pull my phone out to text them about the possible race. But as I'm texting, the light turns green and the two hot rods slowly take off.
"Aw, that sucks," I say, disappointed.
Bryson laughs. "I guess they didn't want to take the chance."
I look down, pouting with my bottom lip out, and erase the text from my phone.
Then out of nowhere, Bryson frantically looks my way and yells in horror. "Shit!"
As soon as I turn my head, I see two bright lights barreling toward me, and my hand instinctively raises to protect my face. And then?impact.
16
Change of Heart
I vaguely remember flashing lights. I remember unfamiliar people standing over me, talking and moving around frantically. I remember Becca standing over me, crying, and then being pulled away. I could hear her piercing screams fade as she fought to stay by my side. I remember catching one last glimpse of her as I strangely began to move. She was curled up in a ball on the ground, rocking back and forth hysterically, still crying uncontrollably, as someone I couldn't recognize knelt next to her.