Relationships Are Like Rollercoasters

“Pep,” DJ began, as they pedaled their bikes ( DJ on her plaid retro bike and Pepper on her black one) down the sidewalk to the park, “Have you been wondering as much as I have, why Justin and Ryan are not talking to us?”
They turned down the sidewalk to the gazebo and parked their bikes kicking down the kick stands, “Actually, yeah, I have been,” she said, “I actually miss that noob talking to me.”
“Well, you know how I feel,” DJ said sitting on the swinging bench in the gazebo and Pepper sat down next to her, “I always miss Justin. The only reason I said yes to Jeremy was because he’s extremely cute and if I didn’t say yes to him I probably wouldn’t get a date at all to the dance.”
“That’s how I felt about Danny,” Pepper said.
“And I feel really bad for Christian and Cindy,” DJ said, “They are like bouncing from us to them all the time, because they won’t talk to us and we don’t even know what we did!”
Pepper sighed and mumbled ‘mhm’.
“Well, hey guys!” a cheerful girly voice said. Pepper and DJ looked up to see Cindy on her skateboard riding towards the gazebo. Yes, Cindy skateboards. She and Christian are like pros.
“Hey Cindy,” DJ and Pepper said in a monotone voice.
“Why so glum?” Cindy asked, kicking her skateboard up and walking into the gazebo.
“We were just thinking about Justin and Ryan. Oh! That’s another thing, why did they decide to go and ask out Summer and Meagan?! I thought they hated them as much as we did!” Pepper said throwing her hands in the air.
“Oh, about that,” Cindy said quietly.
“What?” DJ eyed her.
Cindy just looked down and smiled nervously.
“Cindy? Do you know something we don’t know?” DJ said sternly.
“Yes but I can’t tell you! I swore I wouldn’t spill!” she said.
“Cindy! Come on! We’ve been best friends since diaper days! Can’t you just spill this once?!” Pepper begged.
“But- But-,” she stuttered. She didn’t know if she wanted to tell. She’d feel really bad if it ended badly.
DJ got down on her hands and knees and crawled over to Cindy. Pepper did the same. And with them saying, “Please! Please! PLEASE!” over and over again, Cindy cracked and told them everything.
“You broke their hearts!” she quickly covered her mouth after saying that.
“What?!” DJ said, standing up.
“NO! I shouldn’t have said that!” Cindy said standing up and getting ready to zoom off on her skateboard.
“What does she mean?!” Pepper asked DJ.
“I don’t know but, we are gonna chase you home if we have to Cindy!” DJ said running over and hopping on her bike to follow Cindy who was skating down the sidewalk.
Pepper followed and they ended up chasing Cindy all the way back to her house where she told them everything.
“Really?” Pepper automatically felt bad, but that was just because she felt bad hurting anyone’s feelings.
The smile on DJ’s face had never been bigger or more genuine and she couldn’t stop giggling, “Justin actually likes me,” she kept repeating to herself like some mental patient.
“It wasn’t obvious to you before?” Cindy said to her.
“Nope,” she replied, that grin still on her face, she was sitting on Cindy’s bed hugging her knees to her chest.
Pepper just shook her head while Cindy rolled her eyes.
Then they heard a knock on the door and Christian popped his head in the room.
“Hello ladies!” he said sweetly. Coming in and planting a sweet kiss on Cindy’s lips. She giggled and hugged him, grabbing a hold of his hand as they sat next to each other.
Pepper and DJ looked at each other and made that gagging face where you stick out your tongue and point to your mouth.
“You’re just jealous,” Cindy whispered to them.
Pepper crossed her arms and said, “Heck no.”
DJ looked down at her fingers and pouted, “So?”
Cindy and Christian just laughed.
“What do you guys wanna do?” Christian asked.
“Oh!” Cindy said jumping, “I just had a great idea!”
“What?” Pepper, DJ, and Christian said all at the same time.
“You guys should go hang out with your dates. I’m sure you don’t know much about them and you should get to know them before you go to the dance with them!” Cindy explained, “And besides; I’m sure you could practice you’re flirt skills. You’re gonna need em at the dance.” Cindy winked at Pepper and DJ and they remembered that they needed to be as flirty and sexy at the dance as possible to make Justin and Ryan jealous.
“That’s a great idea!” DJ said hopping up and taking out her cell phone, quickly scrolling to Jeremy’s number on her phone.
She hit the ‘new text message’ button and quickly sent a simple text to him.

wanna meet me @ the park in 15?

Pepper did the same quickly sending a text to Danny.

hey u! wanna hang out Lulu’s Café? say 15 minutes?

In no time flat they both got their reply texts.

Jeremy: of course! c u soon! :)

Danny: u bet sexy ;) c ya there

DJ smiled and Pepper laughed and rolled her eyes.
Cindy and Christian were kissing and talking and snuggling and all that gooey crap. So DJ and Pepper yelled, “Goodbye lover birds!” and quickly left the scene and went their separate ways on their bicycles.
DJ took her time going back to the huge park she was at earlier that evening and enjoyed the warm air blowing in her face and the music coming through her headphones she had put in her ears. It was about 6:30, the setting sun making everything look golden everywhere and the sunshine hit everything just right.
Soon she arrived at the gazebo where Jeremy, with his long-ish brown hair moving in the breeze, was sitting already.
She smiled hopping off her bike and putting her iPod in her pocket. She skipped over to the gazebo and plopped down right next to him.
“Hey there!” she said cheerfully.
“Hey, long time no see,” he said turning to her flipping some of his hair out of his face.
“I saw you yesterday at school, silly goose,” she said laughing.
“Well, that seems like forever ago to me,” he said giving her a sweet smile.
“You’re so cute,” she said laying her hand on his which was on his knee.
He slowly flipped his hand over to take a hold of hers and soon their fingers were intertwined; which sent shivers down DJ’s spine.
“So what do you wanna do?” she said standing and pulling Jeremy up with her.
“I don’t know,” he pondered for a moment; rubbing circles on the back of DJ’s hand, “We could just go for a walk?” he said it more like a question.
“Yeah! That sounds great! Just let me chain my bike to the gazebo,” she said as she let go of Jeremy’s hand (to his disappointment of course) and did just that. Jeremy walked out of the gazebo and onto the sidewalk.
DJ finished and quickly took Jeremy’s hand again making him flick his gaze at her once more. They both caught each other’s eye and smiled shyly, both looking down at their feet as they walked.
“You want a piggy back ride?” he asked out of the blue.
“You read my mind!” she said cheerfully. So Jeremy crouched down and DJ gently hopped up and laid herself against his back; wrapping her arms around his neck in the process.
“Wow! You’re really light!” he said to her, keeping his hands under her legs to keep her up.
“Well thank you! You’re really strong Mr. Muscles!” she joked. In truth he wasn’t humungo muscular; just in a normal guy-ish way.
They laughed and DJ laid her chin on his shoulder, “We should play twenty questions.”
“Ok, well since it was your idea you go first,” he replied.
“Ok, favorite color?” she asked him.
“Definitely green.”
“Favorite animal?” she asked.
“Mammals,” he said simply.
“That’s not a specific type of animal though!” she laughed.
“Well, I can’t choose! I just know mammals are my favorite!” he chuckled.
“Same here!” she smiled; every time she had to breathe in she inhaled his scent which lucky for her was really sweet and smelled like laundry detergent and some type of cologne.
“Ok well what’s your favorite color?” he asked her.
“Rainbow; but if I absolutely had to choose it would be blue. I hate pink! Mark my words I absolutely hate it,” she laughed and Jeremy chuckled.
“I guess that’s why I liked you then. You never wore pink!” he smiled and she laughed again.
It got quiet as Jeremy carried her down the sidewalk.
But then DJ spoke, “Oh! Can you let me down?”
“Sure,” he said letting her slide off his back. She took his hand and dragged him up the hill that was a little ways off the sidewalk. But it was a pretty large hill and once at the top you could almost look down on the rest of the park.
They reached the top and DJ immediately plopped down on the ground on her stomach.
“What are you doing?” Jeremy asked, looking down at her.
She pulled on his jeans and said, “Come down here and find out.”
So he did what he was told and laid on his stomach right next to her.
“Can I know what we are doing now?” he asked looking at her.
“Look,” she said to him pointing out at the horizon.
The sun was just beginning to set and the entire horizon was like huge watercolor painting of reds, purples, oranges, gold’s, and yellows all sweeping together as the bright sun crept below the horizon.
DJ had her phone out and was taking a picture.
“Wow, how did you know this was here?” he asked her.
“Here,” she handing him her phone and he scrolled her all her photos, some of them were her and Justin, some were her cats, and about 70% of them were sunsets. Not a single one was even remotely the same.
“You took all these sunset pictures?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said simply, “It’s kind of a hobby of mine. Me and Justin were hanging out here at the park one time and we found that usually the best view of the sunset and sky was up here so we come here once a weekend and just kinda talk.”
“Oh,” he said handing her back her phone, “Did you guys come up here yet this weekend?”
“Nope,” she said simply, “Justin hasn’t exactly talked to me since you asked me to the dance yesterday.”
Jeremy chuckled, “He’s jealous I take it?”
“He must be,” she said rolling over onto her back, “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“I think he is,” Jeremy said rolling over on his back to and scooting closer to DJ.
“What makes you say that?” DJ asked.
“Well, I see the way he looks at you and the way he’s always so close to you all the time,” Jeremy said, “That’s what all guys do when they like a girl. They can’t take their eyes off of her, they feel like the closer they are the safer she is from other guys, they try to make her smile as much as they can because they don’t want to see anything but a smile on her face.”
DJ smiled at that and blushed because his eyes were on her face the entire time. He noticed how her eyes were sparkling.
“You have the prettiest eyes,” he said to her.
She giggled, “Thanks.”
It was then she realized that their faces were inching closer to each other and he was leaning in for a kiss. But once their lips were about to meet she dodged and kiss his cheek instead; avoiding her first kiss.
“We save the best for the dance,” she said quietly.
She giggled again and hopped up running down the hill yelling, “Race ya!”
Jeremy smiled at her kiss, still feeling the tingling spot where her lips met his skin.
Then he jumped up and ran after her yelling, “No fair you got a head start!”

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After Pepper and DJ went their separate ways, Pepper rode her bike down the street to the local café called Lulu’s. It was the place that most teens hung out or went to on dates. It was a great hang out spot; relaxing atmosphere, great drinks and food, and great music being played.
She chained her bike to the bike rack and opened the door causing the friendly ding of the doorbell to ring.
“Hey Pepper!” Lulu, the founding owner herself, said as Pepper walked in through the door.
“Hey Lu!” Pepper said happily. Lulu was the most cheerful person in town and she knew everybody!
“You’re new hottie is over there,” Lulu said pointing to beanbags in the corner where Danny did indeed sit.
“Thanks,” Pepper said shyly and Lulu gave her a friendly wink.
“Have fun sweetie!” she said in a motherly tone. She was after all her parents’ age.
Pepper jokingly rolled her eyes and plopped down on one of the bean bags next to Danny as he said, “Hey beautiful!”
She laughed, “Hey handsome,” she said playing along.
They laughed and it got quiet for a second until Danny spoke up, “So why did you wanna hang out?”
“Well, I thought it would be a good idea to kinda hang out with you and get to know you better before we went to the dance. So that we would be completely clueless about each other when we are at the dance,” she explained.
“Oh, well that makes sense!” he said.
They laughed again, “Well, I’m glad you wanted to hang out,” Danny said.
“Really?” Pepper asked.
“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to just hang out and get to know you. You’ve always been kind of a mystery to me. I guess that’s why I’m so drawn into you. I’m used to girls throwing themselves on me,” he explained.
Pepper laughed, “I watch girls do that all the time.”
“It’s obvious isn’t it?” he asked chuckling.
“Um, yeah!” she said in a ‘duh’ tone.
Once again they laughed.
“We really like laughing don’t we?” he asked her.
“I guess we do!” she said simply.
So they talked for about an hour. Laughing and learning a lot about each other. Then they decided to go take a walk to the same park DJ and Jeremy happened to be.
“Hey look! It’s DJ!” Pepper said pointing to them running down the hill.
Pepper laughed at them. DJ would do that.
“HEY DEEJ!” Pepper yelled at them. They didn’t hear her at first because they both started to barrel roll down the rest of the hill.
Pepper and Danny walked up to them; they were lying on the ground cracking up in fits of laughter.
DJ looked up and saw them standing up above them, “Oh! Hey Pepper! And Danny,” she added.
Pepper noticed that their clothes were tinted green from rolling down the hill so many times.
“So, have you guys just been running and rolling down this hill in the dark for a couple of hours?” Pepper asked.
“Well, I don’t know about hours but, yeah pretty much!” DJ said cheerfully, looking over at Jeremy who looked over at her and they laughed again.
“Well, I’m glad you two are flirting,” Pepper mumbled.
“Hey, I heard that!” DJ said, “And thank you!” she smiled.
Pepper noticed how DJ slyly entangled her fingers with Jeremy’s and he did not hesitate to squeeze her hand gently. Pepper smiled.
Jeremy then stood up grabbing both of her hands and pulling DJ up with him.
She jumped up as he did so, but Jeremy caught her in his arms. They laughed again as DJ wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Geez, I’ve never seen Jeremy be so happy,” Danny said. He and Jeremy were pretty much best friends.
“DJ does that to ever guy she flirts with,” Pepper whispered to him. DJ grinned, proud of herself.
Danny then grabbed a hold of Pepper’s hand. She almost jumped and she felt her cheeks heat up.
“Aww! Look! Pep is blushing!” DJ said, still in Jeremy’s arms.
“By the way, are you gonna put me down?” DJ asked him.
“No, I may lose you. Who knows where you could run off to,” Jeremy said simply.
DJ giggled.
“Hey, maybe we could go get some ice cream you guys!” Pepper said as the idea popped into her head.
“That’s a great idea!” DJ said wiggling so Jeremy would let her down. He did just that and she stood next to him with their hands intertwined.
“Ok, UDF, Whipty Do, or Color Cones?” Pepper asked them.
Pepper looked at Danny and he looked at her, and DJ looked at Jeremy who looked back at her. And like on cue they all said, “Color Cones!”
Luckily it was only a couple blocks down the street. Once they were in about a 2 minute distance Pepper hopped on Danny’s back and DJ hopped on Jeremy’s back and they raced all the way there.
Danny and Pepper ended up winning because he’s a sports player.
They laughed and got of each other and walked in Color Cones hand in hand.
That’s when they saw two guys with shocked faces sitting at a table with two of their least favorite people.
Good ol’ Justin Bieber and Ryan Butler with not-so-good ol’ Summer Harris and Meagan Randall.
DJ’s eyes got wide, because she was the first and only one to see them.
“Pep,” she elbowed her, keeping her eyes away from Justin, “Pepper!”
“Whaaat?!” Pepper whined.
“Look. Over. To. Your. Right!” DJ said through gritted teeth.
Pepper looked over DJ’s shoulder slyly, but Ryan (with his spidey sense that only finds Pepper) had a feeling she was there and he looked right at her.
“Crap,” she muttered.
The two girls made sure they stayed in between Danny and Jeremy, blocking their view of the guys.
“What’s wrong babe?” Danny asked Pepper.
“It’s Justin and Ryan,” DJ pointed out, “Sitting over there with Summer and Meagan.”
Jeremy and Danny looked over at them and Justin and Ryan were staring over at them while Summer and Meagan chatted away.
Jeremy immediately wrapped his arm around DJ and pulled her really close.
Danny took a hold of Pepper’s hand and wrapped it in his gently but protectively.
The girls really loved the feeling of being wanted and loved but, it felt almost wrong. It was like they were missing something.
And they knew what it was; but did they want to admit it?