Out of the Morning and Into the Night

“Where to?” the cab driver asked Roxine while she stepped into the cab.

“Circus Circus, please,” I asked as I climbed in behind Rox. He nodded once, started the timing machine, and pulled out into the traffic. Everywhere we seemed to go, there was always traffic. It wasn’t much different than back home, with the exception of the explicit magazines and billboards scattered around town.

“Wow,” Roxine finally spoke after a few minutes. “There’s a lot of guys here wearing sandals. Why is it that guys back home wear sandals and look gay, but here, they wear sandals and look super hot?!”

“I don’t know, but that guy right there is really hot!” I said, not realizing how loud I said it. Rox started laughing when the guy looked over at me and smiled, as I shot him a smile back through the open window. I rolled the window up, and we both started cracking up laughing.
“Wooow dude, you said that so loud! And he totally heard you!” Roxine almost couldn’t breathe, she was laughing so hard.

“I didn’t even realize the window was down!” I said, trying to calm myself down.
We were laughing so hard, we never realized we were finally arriving at Circus Circus. As the cab driver stopped at the front door, we stepped out of the car, checking to see how much we owed him. I dug through my pockets, grabbing out a few dollars and handing it to him, thanking him.

While we were making our way to the entrance, a girl who appeared to be younger than us in an orange shirt started giving us dirty looks. “What’s her problem?” Roxine asked, pointing to the girl in the orange shirt.

“I dunno, just ignore her.” I replied.

We entered the hectic casino, sounds of slot machines ringing and people cheering when they won a hand of poker. As we made our way across the floor, we looked at the signs pointing in different directions, telling visitors where everything is.

“COME ON!” Rox grabbed me and walked over to the escalators.

The escalators slowly took us up a floor. “It would’ve been quicker to take the stairs,” I complained, watching yet another person walk past us on the stairs located next to the escalator.

“Morgan, you know how lazy I am, I can’t walk up stairs!” Roxine laughed as we reached the top and stepped off. The entrance to the theme park was just ahead, so we continued walking, receiving awkward glances from people walking by.

“Is there something on my face??” I looked at Rox. “Everyone keeps staring at us today. I wanna know why, is there something different about us?!” I must have said it pretty loudly, because there were more people staring at us than before. I looked down at the ground and made my way into the indoor theme park, with my best friend at my side.

“I WANNA RIDE THE ROLLER COASTER!” Rox screamed, sounding like a little kid. When we begun walking up to the ride, I noticed we had to have a special wristband or ticket to ride.

“Got seven bucks?” I asked her as she dug some money out of her pocket.

“Sure do, let’s go buy our tickets! I wanna ride the rideeeeeeee!” She dramatically dragged out the word ride, causing me to chuckle a bit.

The girl at the ticket booth didn’t speak English well, so it took us a while to get our tickets. A line was beginning to form behind us as I became more impatient. When she finally handed me the tickets, I grabbed them and led Rox over to the roller coaster. There were only a couple people in front of us, so it wouldn’t be long until she finally got her way. There were two girls in front of us, maybe fourteen years old. They looked at us smiling, then looked away.

“Wow, the first people to actually think we’re normal here,” I whispered to Rox. This whispering suddenly caught the attention of the girls in front of us, who continued to stare at us while we waited. The car arrived back to the station, welcoming the next group of passengers to board.

“Wheeeee! We’re next!” Roxine squealed as the girls looked at us one last time. As the car begun pulling away, Rox squealed again in excitement. “I’m so excited! This is gonna be fun!” She just couldn’t drop her excitement about going on the roller coaster.

We turned around and watched the people fly past us, screaming in joy. While we were still turned around , the ride returned and the riders stepped out.

“OUR TURN!” Roxine shouted, pushing me into the coaster.

I pulled the bar over the top of my head, waiting for the ride to start. Once we started moving, finally making it to the first hill climb, I shouted a few colorful words. I didn’t realize how high up we were going to go, and need I remind you, I’m deathly afraid of heights. Roxine laughed at the colorful speech I was giving as we went higher and higher. My talking was cut off by the first drop, which left us screaming.

We headed into the first loop, when suddenly-“CRAP, MY HAIR! MY HAIR’S GONNA FLY OFF!” Roxine was shouting. She had put her extensions in that morning, and forgot about them when getting on the coaster. I cried from laughing so hard at the sound of her screaming and freaking out about losing her ‘hair.’ When we got off the ride, the awkward glances started once again, but now they had a reason to stare.

We walked around for a while longer, going on the many different rides the indoor theme park housed, as well as playing some games before we decided it was time to go back to the hotel.

We found our way back to the front door to call for another taxi, this time, being picked up by a van. The taxi driver asked us where we’d like to be taken as I climbed in, and sprawled out across the backseat with Roxine sitting on me.

“Why the hell are you sitting on me? There’s a whole other row of seats you could sit in!” I asked, gasping for air. She looked down at me, laughing and pointing.

“I dunno, it’s more comfy to sit on you!” I pushed her off as the taxi was moving, making her slam her head against the window, which received us a glare in the rear view mirror from the cab driver.

There wasn’t much traffic on the way back to the hotel, it was all on the opposite side of the street now. We made our way quickly back, thanking and paying the driver once he dropped us off.