Temporary Bliss

Unfortunately we ended up losing the game, so no one was really in the mood for partying. Not that I would be able to go out to any parties anyway, since my curfew was eleven, and the game didn’t get over till 10:30.

I waved to Cameron as he pulled out of my driveway and then typed in the 4 digit code to unlock the front door. I slipped off my shoes and walked into the living room where my mom was watching the nightly news.

“How was the game?”

I leaned against the wall, “It was really good! I actually watched part of this one. It was such a close game, but we ended up losing.”

“That‘s a bummer, those boys deserve to win. Well, there‘s always next year.”

“Mom,” I laughed “I graduate this year.”

She sighed, “Oh, that‘s right. I keep forgetting that. What am I going to do when my only daughter leaves for college?”

“Don‘t worry, I won‘t be studying abroad like John.” I gave her a genuine smile and then said goodnight.

I slowly trotted up to my room and grabbed an old t-shirt and pair of Scooby-Doo boxers out of my dresser and headed to the bathroom to change. I pulled my hair back and washed my face after tweaking the water to the right temperature.

I flicked the light off in the bathroom and shut the door then jumped on my bed, laying down on my back. I turned my head to the right and saw a picture of Cameron and myself, causing me to smile a little. It was taken by Caroline back when Cameron and I first started dating.

“Come on, Charlotte, please?” he begged for the millionth time.

“No! I’m not riding on that death trap!”

Cameron was trying to get me to go on this ride with him. It was like a roller coaster, but it was just a big vertical circle. So basically, it was like going on a roller coaster that was only upside-down loops. First off, I didn’t trust the rides at fairs. Secondly, I wasn’t a fan of going upside-down over and over and over again.

“It’s not a death trap, it’s The Ring of Fire.” He corrected me smartly. “Caroline is going, so you should go!”

“I most certainly am not going on that!” Cameron shot her an ungrateful look.

“Why can’t Zach go with you?” I whined.

“Because, I have to stay here and protect my woman from carnies!”

I rolled my eyes, “Oh, because you’re so strong.”

“Babe, she’s making fun of me.”

“My point exactly!”

Cameron stepped in front of me and grabbed my hands, “Scar.”

“What?” I mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

“Please, please, pleaseeeee? I’ll do anything you want!”

“I don’t wanna go on that ride, does that count?”

He chuckled, “No. Just, come on. If I thought that ride was unsafe and was going to breakdown do you think I would let you go on it?”

“No.” I huffed.

“So will you go on it? I’ll get one of those caricature things with you that you want so badly.”

I smiled a little but didn’t say anything. A huge grin broke across Cameron’s face and he wrapped me up in his arms in one of his famous bear hugs. He let me go and slowly started leading me over to the line.

“Cam, I’m going to throw up.”

“No you’re not. You’re just excited!”

“More like scared out of my fucking mind.”

Cameron and I stood in line as Zach and Caroline stood on the other side of the railing.

“On a scale from one to ten, how nervous are you, Charlotte?” Zach asked.

“I don’t know, eight.”

“Well, how can we get that up to ten?” he paused and let a smirk slide onto his face. “If you look at the top of the loop the ride kind of shakes. The workers that put these things up really don’t care if it breaks or not. They probably forgot a few screws and bolts. You’re gonna get on and this whole thing is going to crash down.”

“I hope a carnie comes and kicks your ass.” I remarked before turning my back to him.

Cameron’s arm wrapped around my shoulder and his lips brushed against my ear, “Don’t listen to him. He won’t even go on this ride, so he’s the wimp.”

I smiled and leaned into Cameron’s side just as the ride finished up. Here comes the vomit.

“Okay, let me get a picture of you two!” Caroline said as she pulled out her camera.

“Yeah, one last picture before you two die!” Caroline shot Zach a look.

Cameron loosely wrapped his arms around my neck. Naturally my hands rested on top of his arms as I leaned my head against his.

“Aw, you two are so cute.” Caroline gushed as she snapped the picture. The line started moving and I could feel my legs turning to Jello. Cameron’s hand on the small of my back gently urged me forward and up the stairs to the ride. With each step I felt more and more sick. I wanted to just turn around and run out of the line, but the embarrassment of people seeing me back down was stopping me.

I handed the worker my five tickets and stared at the carts hooked together with bars over the top; the thing looked like a cage.

“You want the front?”

“God no! Get the middle!”

“Good, I didn’t want the front either.” Cameron chuckled before selecting a random seat in the middle. He let me get into the cart first and as soon as I sat down and pulled the black, cushioned chest bar down I felt claustrophobic.

I closed my eyes and rested my head on the head rest. I am going to die. I am going to fucking die. They are going to have to extract my tangled body from this cage. I gripped the handles on the chest bar, causing my knuckles to go white. I pushed every bad thought from my head and concentrated on my breathing. I felt a warm hand on my knee and I opened my eyes to see Cameron smiling at me.

“Look at you, facing your fear.”

“I swear to god if you don’t wipe that fucking smile off of your face I am going to kick you so hard in the you-know-where.”

Cameron let out a laugh and loosened my grip on one of the handles and laced his fingers with mine, giving my hand a quick squeeze as the workers began to check everyone’s safety bars.

No turning back now.

The ride slowly started moving forward, going about a fourth of the way up the circle then back down and backwards up the other side of the circle. This went on until it had enough momentum to get all the way to the top. I tightly shut my eyes and squeezed Cameron’s hand as I tried not to visualize the ride breaking apart.

“I hate you, Cameron. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”

“Well, I love you!”

I opened my eyes just as we were upside-down and let out a whimper, we were a lot higher up than I thought. “oh god, get me off of this.”

And then the line of carts went down and I shut my eyes and let out a scream.

Three minutes later the ride was at a stop and I was laughing along with Cameron as we got off of the ride.

“That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”

“Yeah, whatever. I guess it was kind of fun.”

Cameron’s hand grabbed mine as we walked down the stairs where Caroline and Zach were waiting, “Now, let’s go get a cute caricature together.”

The smile faded off my face when I wondered how much longer I would be this in love with him. I rolled over, facing away from the picture and closed my eyes focusing on why I loved Cameron and drifted off to sleep in the process.

I was abruptly woken up by my phone ringing. I groggily sat up and rubbed my face with my hand a little before I glanced at the clock; midnight. Who on earth would be calling me? I looked down at the caller ID and saw it was no other than Michael Martinez. I hit the silence button and set my phone in my lap, turning on my TV. A minute later my phone rang again, when I saw it was Michael I was annoyed, I hit the mute button on my TV.

I answered it just as he was talking to himself, saying “Damn, Charlotte, pick up your phone.”

“I did.” I chuckled.

“Oh, hi. Well good.”

“Yeah, so what‘d you need.” I said a little harsh.

“Woah, what‘s wrong with you? Finally realize you‘re not in love with Cameron?”

“Just tell me what you want and stop being a dick.”

“I wanna hang out, girl!” his voice was higher and less offended.

“Too late, my curfew was eleven.”

“So? Sneak out. You said you wanted to disobey your parents.”

“I‘m not in the mood to hang out, especially with you.”

"Just get your ass out of the house, I‘m already out here.”

I got up and walked into my closet and grabbed a sweatshirt.

“I see you hesitating, just come on.”

“Are you stalking me?” I laughed a little, looking out my window and seeing his lanky frame standing down in my backyard.

I stuck my middle finger up at him and then heard him laughing through the phone. “Thanks for that.”

“I‘ll be down in a second, just let me get decent.” I sighed, hanging up on him.

After putting on a pair of jean shorts and my sweatshirt, I slipped out of my bedroom and quietly closed the door behind me. I snuck out the back door and into my backyard. I slipped my flip flops on once I reached the cool grass. I nervously walked over to him, I stopped a few feet away and we both looked at each other.

“Where have you been?” I interrogated.

“I called in sick to work.” he shrugged. “I couldn’t just show up the next few days. I needed time.”

“Why the hell did you need time?”

“In case you don‘t remember, I kissed you.”

“So? It didn‘t mean anything.” I replied nonchalantly. “Why did you do it in the first place?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I just wanted to know what it would be like to kiss you.”

“That‘s really selfish. I have a boyfriend. Did you even think of how much that will screw up my relationship?”

“What do you mean WILL?” he paused, “You haven‘t told him yet, have you?” I shook my head. “Why not? It‘s not like you did anything, it was all me. So you wouldn’t be in trouble… Unless, you felt something... Unless you liked it.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, “yeah, right.”

“If you don‘t like me that way, you won‘t have a problem with this then, right?” his arm grabbed my wrist and he tugged me forward, his eyes closed and he leaned in.