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“Oh shoot, ah I’m a dollar short.” I looked at the teenager running the funnel cake booth. “I’m soo sorry.”

“Here” A stranger from the line behind me put out a dollar on top of the money I had on the counter. The kid nodded and took it before I could decline.

“Thanks.” I said biting my lip and turning to face the stranger. I looked over my shoulder quickly before the kid could bring me back my sugar topped cake. A cute face smiled back at me. “I’ll pay it back, I swear. I just have to find my friend.”
“Hey it’s fine.” He smiled following me out of line. I grabbed a fork, then thinking I grabbed a second one. As he was beginning to walk away I followed him.

“Hey, you can have some of it. I mean, a dollar of it was yours. Why’d you leave the line if you were buying one?” I asked as he turned around. He had dark brown hair and unique eyes looked back at me. He angled away from me. He looked familiar somehow.

“I should really get back, there’s some guys waiting for me…” he said trailing off.

“Oh c’mon.” I said teasingly “You were in line. And I can’t eat this whole thing. My friends won’t help me they’re all ‘dieting’.” I held out the fork and walked closer. He wasn’t very tall but he was pretty young, maybe a bit older than me. Still I couldn’t figure out his eye color. Green-blue? Goldish? Green? Hazel? It seemed a color all on its own. He smiled and looked at the ground shifting from foot to foot.

“Fine.” He said laughing a bit and I handed him the fork and we headed to a nearby table. I sat down and began trying to cut the deep fried batter with my fork. It wasn’t working. I looked up to see him watching me.

“What?”

“Ah, nothing.”

“What?” I asked annoyed, he laughed a little.

“Like you said earlier, most girls are ‘dieting’.”

“So? You haven’t tried to cut it, I’d think you were.” I said still trying to cut the cake. I glared at it a bit which only made him laugh more.

“I kind of am.”

“Why?” I asked looking at him. He was perfectly fit, in fact in fantastic condition. Looked like an athlete, really muscular. “You’re absolutely… uh… fine.” He started laughing and I felt myself turn a bit red. “I didn’t mean… I mean… You don’t need to watch your food so much like I do…”

“You don’t either.” He said catching his breath a little. “Just have to watch what I eat that’s all, not too much bad stuff.”

“Yeah, right.” I said scoffing. “I can’t keep eating like this or I’ll be a balloon.”

“You’re absolutely fine.” He said smiling at me again, mocking me. I turned to glare at him but found I couldn’t. He was smiling too nicely for me to do anything partly mean. I turned back to the evil funnel cake of steel reddening even more.

“Screw it.” I said and tore a piece with my fingers. “Sorry, hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t” He said smiling at me again and copied me.

“You look familiar…” he stiffened at my words.

“Yeah?”

“Like I’ve seen you before but I can’t place it….”

“So you don’t know who I am?”

“No…” I said and he relaxed a bit then he looked at me quizzically

“You would share funnel cake with a stranger?”

“You are one and you paid for some of it so, yes.” I nodded “Well so we’re not strangers anymore, I’m Catie.”

“Cool.” He said fighting a smile.

“What’s up with that?” I looked at him. “When you tell someone your name you usually should get one back.”

“Sorry,” he said laughing a little at me “you’re going to have to live with the nameless.”

“Ohhh, one of those people…” I said shrugging “whatever as long as you’re not like Justin Bieber or anything.”

“Darn you guessed it.” We both laughed. Continuing to eat the sweet, crunchy fried dough I watched the people passing. “So you’re here with friends?”

“Huh, yeah.” I nodded looking back at nameless. That’s what I was going to call him until I found out his real name.

“Where are they if you aren’t with them?”

“Ah, hanging out with their boyfriends, thought I wouldn’t down on them.”

“Why would you ‘down on them’?” he asked sounding like he’d never heard the phrase before.

“Because…” I fake sniffed “I don’t have a boyfriend.” He laughed at me as I continued to fake sniff. “And they’re going on roller coasters which I HATE.”

“You’re afraid of roller coasters?” he asked eyes wide.

“Shut up, yeah.” I said looking down. “They’re scary.”

“No they’re not. It’s just going up and…”

“They’ve already tried, trust me you’re just wasting breath.” I said looking up at the huge wooden roller coaster that loomed above me. It ran all the way across the park dipping with screaming people. A shiver ran down my spine and I closed my eyes.

“Fine.” He said putting his hands up defensively. “You’re really missing out, you know.”

“I don’t care.” I said quietly and swallowing. “Where are your friends?”

“On the other side of the park…”

“Why are you away from them?” I asked trying to divert the conversation from my coaster phobia.

“Just needed to take a walk.” He shrugged.

“Well your alone and I’m alone, want to be alone together?” I asked getting up and throwing away the left over funnel cake. He took out his phone and quickly texted someone.

“Yeah, guess so for a little bit.” He said looking up at me and putting some sunglasses on. They only made him cuter. We started to walk around the park and I searched for an ATM machine.

“So, Mr. nameless, what do you do then?” I looked at him as I pulled my hair up into a ponytail, pretty sure it’d look awful, and I didn’t care.

“Like for fun or what?”

“Whatever.” I shrugged.

“Uh, hmm… how do I explain this…” My mind searched for where I’d seen him before. “Well I like sports, they’re fun and I can kind of play the guitar.”

“Kind of?” I said laughing “How can you ‘kind of’ play?”

“I’m not very good and I don’t have much time to practice.”

“Ok,” I said teasingly “What’s your favorite sport?”

“Uh… what’s yours?”

“Ok, me first I guess, definitely hockey. It’s really exciting.” I felt like my head was going to
explode it was bothering me so much that I knew him.

“Same here.” He smiled.

“Awesome…” I said trailing off because I found an ATM. I walked toward it. “Funny…” I muttered because the ATM was right next to the puck shooting stand, hockey. I saw nameless looking at it. I got my cash and handed him a few dollars. “Here, now we’re even.” He turned to look at the money in my hand.

“What?”

“Go try it out, I see you looking at the hockey game.”

“That’s way more than I gave you.”

“Ok, if you win something I get it.”

“What do you want?” he asked looking at the stand.

“That big, huge, doggy.” I smirked. The huge St. Bernard dog was the prize you got if you made it each time.

“Fine.” He said taking the money and giving me a cocky smile. I put away the rest of the money I’d gotten and leaned against the wall to watch. A young, blonde, and overly friendly attendant helped him set up giving him 5 pucks and a stick. “This stick is crap.” He said looking at me.

“You play?” I asked raising and eyebrow.

“A little.” He winked at me and blondey’s face fell a bit. He set up and looked at the goalie cut out, moved the puck a bit. Like a pro he aimed and shot. The puck flew perfectly into the upper right hand corner of the net, which was unguarded.

“Nice.” I said and he raised an eyebrow.

“Want to see me do it again?” he grinned at me.

“Someone’s a little over confident.”

“Really?” he asked getting ready to take another shot. He made it again, through the five-hole with perfect accuracy.

“Okay that was probably just lucky.” He repeated it for the rest of the pucks. I was stunned and blondey told him he could ‘have any prize he wanted.’ I’m pretty sure that had a double meaning but he asked for the big, 3 foot tall, dog and handed it to me. “Whoa…thanks.”

“You paid for it.” He shrugged and winked at me.

“How’d you get so good? Kind of play my butt, you were like a pro.”

“You know…” he said looking a bit uncomfortable “Practice and green vegetables, the
usual.” We both laughed.

“This thing is kind of hard to carry.” I looked at the dog I was hugging then back at him. “But I love it.”

“Are you going to name it?”

“Her, and yes… any ideas?”

“Nope,” he smiled and patted my new dog “all you.”

“Hmmm…” I patted the dog as I thought. “Ava.”

“Ava?” he repeated eye brows raised.

“Yeah, short for avalanche, my favorite hockey…” suddenly all the pieces were put together and a light bulb turned on in my head. He looked down. I walked over to a nearby bench and set Avalanche down. He’d stayed put. I stood right in front of him and he didn’t even look up. I slowly reached out and took off his sunglasses. “You looked familiar…” I said quietly. He looked up a little to watch me take my phone out and inspect the wall paper.

“Hey are you…” I turned to see a cutesy looking red-head and a group of her friends looking at now-not-nameless. “We saw you at the hockey thing and we thought…”

“Why the hell are you talking to my boyfriend?” I glared at her; I hoped it got the point across. I was never good at acting.

“Sorry, just…”

“Whatever, obviously you have the wrong person.” I shoved Ava into his face and put his sunglasses on top of my head. “C’mon Michael.” I said grabbing his arm and tugging him away. I pulled him behind a shop and took my dog back.

“Michael? Really?” he asked me.

“I had to think of something quick, ok? I know its way close to your real name… sorry.”

“No really, thanks, and I’m sorry. I’ll go now.” He began to walk away.

“Wait, wait, wait… whoa.” I shook my head into my dog. He turned back to look at me. “Do
you think I’m mad at you?”

“Aren’t you?”

“No.”

“You’re not? Not even a little.”

“Uhh… maybe…” I smiled. “But I don’t care. You’ve made me laugh when I’ve had a crap of a week. A crap of a month. My boyfriend broke up with me almost, let’s see, about a month ago… the big turd… and that’s why I’ve been eating crap and getting fat.”

“You’re not fat.” He interrupted

“I’m not done yet! But see, there’s another thing. No one’s around or cares enough to say things like ‘you’re not fat’ or eat funnel cake with me or win the cutest stuffed animals.”

“Sorry…”

“Not done yet… and I’m sorry I sound like a whiny teenager but it’s true and I hate my life, usually, but the past hour’s been great. I don’t care if you’re the famous Matt Duchene, boy wonder or Justin Bieber, boy superstar…”

“Oh now you care?”

“Hey, almost there… You can’t leave. There.”

“Why not?” he asked raising an eyebrow at me.

“Because if you do I’ll have another crap day full of what ifs and… I have your sunglasses.” I patted the side of my head to make the point.

“Those were cheap, I can just buy new ones.” He smiled again and it made me panic. I really didn’t want to be left alone with only a huge dog. “But… I did want to do one thing with you.”

“What?” I asked realizing he was really close to me.

“I want to ride a roller coaster with you.”

***
I hugged Avalanche tighter to me as Matt bought tickets to ride the old wooden roller coaster. He walked back to me and I was shaking.

“I’m going to cry, I hope you know that.” My words were muffled because of Avalanche. He laughed and looked up at the sky.

“I said the same thing a year ago.”

“Were you terrified and shaking too?”

“Yeah.”

“Was someone forcing you to do something awful as well?” I asked trying to put some sort
of anger in my words but they still sounded like a terrified two year old.

“No, it was because I was about to do something I’d always dreamed of, I wanted to go with the perfect people and that was uncertain.” He looked at me and smiled. It calmed me a little to hear his voice and see his smile. “It’ll be fine.”

“I’m going to die.” I hugged my doggy. Matt put his hand out toward me and I looked at it.

“You can hold it if you want.” I nodded and reached out to take it. I put on a shocked face and looked up at him slowly, my eyes wide. “What?” he asked confused

“Oh. My. Gosh. I am never washing this hand again.” He laughed at me and pulled me toward the old rickety foe.

“You will if you puke on it.”

“Thanks for reminding me.”
Avalanche made it hard to get through the line. Then there were couples everywhere, like, making out. I held Matt’s hand as he read roller coaster trivia on the plaques hanging on the wall. I watched him read.

“You’re really cute, you know that?” I asked after examining his face for a few minutes. I felt myself turn a deep red. It’d just come out. “Noooo…! Come back words.” I said quietly and hiding behind Ava more. The other couples looked at us funny.

“You’re cute too, even with a big drooling Bernie in front of you.” He smiled calling my dog by the Avalanche’s mascot’s name. “5 minutes from this point.” He said pointing to a sign. I looked at it and my panic was back. My eyes prickled and I took a deep breath trying to stay calm. Fail.

“I can’t.” I choked out while my eyes filled with water. “I can’t, I’m too scared, I’m sorry…”

“Shhh…” he said as I started to cry like the pathetic loser I was. I hid behind Ava but I felt his hand leave mine and I lost it. “It’s ok, you’ll be fine.” He said hugging me.

“I’m going to die.” I mumbled through my tears and dog.

“Its fine, you’re going to be fine.”

“You know, this would be a lot more romantic if there wasn’t a huge stuffed dog between
us.” I said quietly my brain blabbing again. “I’m sorry, that just made it awkward.”

The line moved and he took my hand again. Still hiding in my dog I followed him. “Sorry and crap seem to be the words of the day.” He said making me laugh. I could hear the rollercoaster now. We were at the front of the line now. Matt made me give Avalanche to an attendant so I could ride. I tried to get out of riding insisting I should ‘stay with my baby’ but it didn’t work. I took deep shaky breaths trying not to cry and failing miserably. Matt looked at me and he looked worried. Then he did the same thing as before but there wasn’t a dog between us. I felt oddly calm and safe. He smelled good. “You’re right,” he whispered in my ear “This is way more romantic.” I laughed nervously and he pulled back to look at my face.
His sunglasses really ruined it though.

“Alright, ALL ABOARD!” called the attendant stupidly over enthusiastic. Matt grabbed my hand and led me to the fourth seat from the front. My breath caught as I freaked out.

“Breathe.” He whispered to me “And try not to look too freaked out. There’s a picture taken on the second bend.” He laughed. I smiled weakly but it didn’t fool him. “K, get in.” As they prepped us for our ride I began to have a panic attack. I held Matt’s hand, tight. “Calm down Catie.” He said in my ear.

“I’m not letting go of your hand or this lap bar and I’m probably going to scream.” I yanked my ponytail out letting my dark hair fall. Soon a bell announced our ‘train’ was leaving. We entered a dark tunnel and I closed my eyes. My jaw was tight but it didn’t stop the tears. I was probably killing Matt’s hand but he made no move to take it away. We arrived at the end of the tunnel and light hit my closed eyes.

“You have to see this Catie.” I shook my head eyes closed tight. “C’mon, one peek.” I opened my eyes to see us moving up higher and higher. I could see the city and the whole amusement park. Then I made the mistake of looking down.

“Oh gosh!” I shrieked “I’m going to die.” Obliviously I’d run out of tears and just breathed quickly. I could tell from the tension we were near the top. I felt Matt lean closer to me and heard him whisper, “I won’t let anything hurt you. I promise.” He took a deep breath, right before the fall. A moment of still and silence. “I love you Catie.”

I opened my eyes to see we were on top of the world and he was looking at me. Then suddenly we were flying down. He held my hand tighter but I wasn’t afraid. When the second bend came around I leaned closer to him and right before the camera flashed, I kissed him.