So Now, Run

I looked around me and took in the lights of the rides around me. Luckily Garrett kept my outfit casual so I could actually enjoy this.

“Are you sure this okay? Like, you don’t think this is ridiculous or childish right?”

I could see the genuine concern crossing his face, worried about making a good impression. I just smiled, shook my head, and gave him a small peck on the check.

“No. I don’t think it’s ridiculous at all. I’ve always loved going to the fair. Where did you find this place? I mean, it’s fall. I would have thought fairs wouldn’t be around this time of year…”

“This place actually stays open year round, except for extreme cold or bad weather.”

“I’ve lived here almost my entire life and I never knew this place existed. How far are we away from Chandler?”

“And give away my secret location?! No way!” He chuckled. “Besides, I want to keep this place our little secret. I mean, for as many years as it’s been open, there’s still so many people that don’t know about this place. Hell, my grandparents met here when they were teenagers.”

“Aww that’s so adorable! PLEASE tell me it was like in The Notebook!”

“Oh God, you’re not one of those girls are you?” He looked at me in utter disgust.

I just bowed my head slightly, bit my lip, and looked at him through my top lashes. “Maybe…”

Honestly, I really wasn’t a huge sappy romance person, and truth be told I abhorred The Notebook in all its unrealistic ideals about romance. That movie led to my strong disgust of RomCom movies. It opened my eyes to how ridiculous the whole thing was. I felt like an idiot for falling under its charm. Call me a cynic. I don’t care. It’s not that I don’t believe in love and romance, but the extremes that modern day romance novels and movies take it are completely unrealistic. Maybe that’s the appeal. Maybe it’s the fact that for a couple of hours, women can fantasize about men they’ll never have and ideals of what they think a man “should” be. Personally, I’d rather read and watch movies that accurately show what “true” love is. Whatever the hell it is. It’s not always being flagged down at an airport. It’s not being kissed expectantly in the rain. It’s not being a being actively pursued by the arrogantly handsome smooth talker that you act that you want nothing to do with. It’s none of these or whatever kind of stereotypical scenarios that movies or novels will have you believe. Love is waking up to find that he made just enough coffee for you to have a mug as well, while leaving the coffee pot on to keep it warm. Love is those arguments over big decisions and little details. Love is putting a towel in the dryer for the other while they’re in the shower so it’ll be warm when they get out. Love is letting him have the last of the Oreo cookies when you’d rather eat them yourself. Love is the small details that we often take for granted that show each other that we care about them. I feel like the whole idea and concept of what love really is has been so, for lack of a better term, romanticized to the point where we no longer recognize what love truly is when we see it; often times overlooking it in pursuit of bigger and better things.

So, was I going to tell Nick that I’m not a sappy romance person? Not in so many words. I’d rather him discover through our time spent together. That’s another thing. Love is noticing the details and quirks of the other person, both positive and negative, and still wanting to be around them all the time as well as finding them as the most amazing person you’ve ever met.

I have no idea where things will go with Nick. Who knows how serious things will get between us. I’m excited to find out. So far things are going great, and I look forward to getting to know him more and establishing a more solid friendship with him.

I didn’t realize I had zoned out and that Nick was talking to me until I saw his hand waving in front of my face.

“Hey, are you okay? You uh, sorta blanked out on me. Am I that boring of a date?”

“No, sorry. I just uh, nothing. Sorry.”

“Haha ok. I was just apologizing if I offended you about the whole ‘Notebook’ comment. I was totally kidding…”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. You didn’t hurt my feelings. Honest.” I gave him my most genuine smile showing him I truly wasn’t upset with him over the comment.

He smiled, grabbed my hand and led me through the fair gates.

***

“You totally cheated!” I yelled in mock anger as Nick sank his last basketball in the hoop.

“Hey, just because we’re on a date doesn’t mean I’ll automatically let you win. Ya gotta win all on your own!” He laughed back.

“Well I would have had a better chance if somebody would’ve quit elbowing me in the arm every time I went to take a shot!”

“Hey, not my fault that you’re so short and decided to take a shot whenever I did, therefore causing me to elbow you. There’s a reason basketball players are tall.” He winked at me, trying to contain his laughter.

I just rolled my eyes and crossed my arms while fighting off my own smirk. He then wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we made our way to the guy at the booth asking what prize we wanted. He looked to me and I shrugged. I’ve never been much of a stuffed animal person so I’d let him get whatever he wanted.

“Charlie, which one do you want?”

I shrugged again. “It really doesn’t matter. I’m not much of a stuffed animal person.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! Besides, if I get a stuffed animal, I want it to be because I won it, not because I’m on a date and it was given to me.” I then smirked and pulled from his embrace, as he stood there, mouth agape, completely stunned that I playfully was able to throw his words back at him.

He cleared his throat and halfway pointed to a stuffed bear above his head. The guy working pulled it down and gave it to Nick. Nick once again put his arm back around my shoulders and was shaking his head. “I’ve gotta hand it to ya Nickelsen, I can tell it’s gonna be difficult to keep up with you. I accept the challenge.”

“Keep up with me? What’s that supposed to mean?” I chortled.

“It means you don’t take shit from anybody and you dish it back just as fast. I like that. It’s rare to find in girls. Most of the time they’re too busy trying to act like someone they’re not or just aren’t that interesting. You’re sassy and witty. I like it.” He grinned down at me.

I grinned back up at him and we continued walking down the midway. We hadn’t walked too far when I jerked from his embrace, finding a game I knew I could beat him at. This game happened to be my specialty. Water gun races were always my favorite and for some reason I was always so unnaturally good at it. Granted, I never found them to be that difficult, but Garrett and Trey always got mad at me whenever they played against me because I always won. They had terrible aim. Which explains why I sometimes hated sharing a bathroom with Garrett.

I ran over to the water guns and gave the girl behind the booth my ticket while waiting expectantly for Nick to join me. He chuckled and rolled his eyes while handing the girl one of his tickets. He sat down on the stool next to me and hunched over his water gun, like he was preparing for battle while I was waiting for the siren to go off signaling the race had begun. The bell went off and I instantly hit the target, Nick hit the target just a couple seconds shy of me, but was quickly gaining speed. I pressed on the buttons harder, hoping the extra force would make the water come out faster and allow me to regain the lead I previously had. Next thing I knew, the sirens went off and the light above Nick went off signaling his victory.

I deadpanned. Really? How the hell did he win again? I looked over to him, unimpressed that he beat me at my best carnival game, and he just chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

The girl working grabbed the stuffed Despicable Me minion from atop Nick’s water gun target and handed it to him. Once he got it I reached for it and he clicked his tongue at me. “And what do you think you’re doing?”

“Just getting what rightfully should be mine…”

“Should be? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe I won that. Besides, I thought you only wanted the prize if you won it yourself.” He laughed.

“Yeah, well, I always win this game. Every time I play against my brothers and—”

“And you just assumed you’d beat me? It’s because I’m a guy isn’t it? Sexist.” He narrowed his eyes and half smirked.

Flustered, I just huffed and crossed my arms as he once again pulled me towards his side as he draped an arm back around my shoulders. After walking around the entire fair in a comfortable silence, enjoying the weather and the atmosphere, he guided my shoulders down one of the side paths that lead to rides. I began to slow my steps as I stared in wide-eyed horror at the rides that lay before me. As much as I loved the fair, I hated rides. Well, not all rides, just the ones that spun you quickly or jerked you around hard enough to give you whiplash, which was essentially all of them. Not to mention I hated how unstable the rides were. I mean think about it, the fair comes to town for a few weeks, but the rides aren’t permanent. They are portable. The portable part is what I struggle with most. I don’t care that this particular place is permanent so the rides don’t move, but I have too many bad memories of Garrett and Trey playing tricks on me on while riding the rides, making me think I was falling off.

When Nick noticed my slowed steps, he stopped and looked towards me. “What’s wrong?”

“I uh, just don’t feel like going on rides…”

“Why not? Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine I just…don’t like them.”

“Okay. We won’t go one those you don’t like then.” He said, looking at me as if what he said would be obvious.

What he didn’t realize is that there weren’t any rides here that I would get on…

“Uh, haha yeah. Okay.”

“C’mon. The Himalaya is my favorite.”

He then grabs my hand and pulls me behind him as we make our way to whatever ride he’s talking about. We approach the ride and I look at him quizzically.

“Uh, I’m not so sure about this…I don’t like rides that spin fast.”

“This thing? Ha. It wishes it could spin fast. I promise you, this ride is super fun.”

I look back and forth between the ride and Nick skeptically before he just tightened his grip on my hand and led me to the line. I stood in anticipation, nervously biting my thumb, a bad habit I picked up from Gare.

It was finally our turn in line and Nick looked back at me. I look at him, reflecting the nerves I was feeling internally. He just rolled his eyes and pulled me behind him. He leads us to a cart to sit in. He let me slide in first, being since he said the heavier one needed to sit on the outside. Whatever. At this point I was just waiting for this ride to be over. He reached over his left side for his half of the seat belt, and motioned for me to grab the rest of the belt from my right. Oh, so it’s one of those rides where we share one fucking seatbelt. Great. I handed him the clasp for the belt, and he clasped and tightened it before grabbing the bar in front of us and bringing it down over our laps as added protection.

“Relax girl! I promise you, the most you’ll be on this ride is a little dizzy. It literally only goes in circles, and fairly slow at that. You’ll be fine I promise. I’m right here next to you.”

I sighed and nodded my head. It wasn’t Nick I didn’t trust, it was the ride. Even though I wouldn’t have to worry about falling out of this ride, there was no way to, I was still frightened.

Sensing my worry and without looking, Nick just grabs my left hand in his right and holds it, squeezing it tightly before relaxing his grip on my hand. He kept our hands interlocked the entire time, refusing to let go. Once the worker had gone around the circle and checked to make sure everyone’s bar was locked, he went back into the booth and started the ride, turning up the 50’s music that was playing overhead. I won’t deny the music was a reassuring part of the ride, even if I was still scared shitless. I felt the ride start to propel us forward in a circle while gradually raising us up and down.

I found myself at one point during the ride with the biggest smile on my face, and leaning forward, caught up in the exhilaration of this simple ride. Next thing I know, I feel the ride slow. I leaned back disappointed and began to unbuckle the seatbelt before I felt Nick’s hand pull mine away from the seatbelt. I look at him quizzically before he shakes his head and moves my hand back to the bar. I turn and face forward and quickly understand why he wouldn’t let me unbuckle our seatbelt. The ride started picking up momentum again, however this time we were being propelled backwards. Just when I thought I couldn’t enjoy this ride any more, we went backwards.

The ride started to slow again, too soon for my liking, before Nick raises the bar on our lap and unbuckles our seatbelt and offering his hand to help me out of the swinging cart. Once I got out, he kept looking at me with this smug look.

“What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“You had fun. You loved that ride. Admit it.”

“Ha. Yes. I did enjoy that ride. Happy?”

“Very much so. What do you want to do next?”

I just grasped his hand and ran back towards the line for the ride we just got off of. I heard him laugh at me from behind as I led us back.

I couldn’t tell you how many times we rode that ride. I lost count after the first seven times we rode it. Luckily Nick never tired of the ride, or at least he never said anything about wanting to do something different. He seemed to be enjoying it as much as I was. After riding for a few hours, Nick looked at his watch.

“Shit Charlie, I need to get you home.”

“Why? It can’t be that late.”

“Try again. It’s about 11:15.”

“What. How late is this place open?”

“Usually not until the last person leaves. They’ve never really had a set time, but people typically try to leave by 11:30 out of respect to the workers.”

“Oh. So I guess I’ll be getting home late tonight huh?”

“Um, not exactly…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you know how we drove around for a while before I took the blindfold off?”

“Go on…”

“Yeah, we’re actually not that far from your house, and we will be there well before midnight. I was stalling so you wouldn’t know where we were going.”

“Ok, but wouldn’t it be ruined by me seeing the route on the way back?”

“No, because I expect you to keep this place our secret.” He smirked as he put his arm back around my shoulders and led me towards the parking lot to his car.

He unlocked his car and opened my door until I was inside, seated. He then closed my door, and made his way around the front of the car to get into the driver’s seat. He started the car and handed me the cd holder he had.

“What do you want me to do with this?”

“Pick out a cd. Anything you like.”

“We’ve already spent a night doing things I liked. What do you want to listen to?”

“Who’s to say that my idea of doing what I liked included spending time with you? Seriously, pick an album. I love everything in there. Pick out whatever you want.”

I began thumbing through the various cd sleeves, thoroughly impressed with his taste in music, as it matched mine. I found an album and was about to put it in.

“What cd did you choose?”

“Tommy by The Who.”

“Oooh, uh, you need to pick something other than that…”

“But I thought you said I could choose any album I wanted to listen to?”

“I did, but I didn’t think you’d pick the one album I can’t stand. Sorry. You’re gonna have to put it back.”

“Seriously? You hate Tommy?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“I guess I just don’t understand why you’d have it in here if you hated it so much. Ok, well, I’ll just choose something else.”

Bummed that we couldn’t listen to it, I opened his cd holder again and began looking for the appropriate sleeve before I felt his hand over mine.

“Hey, I was just kidding. We can totally listen to Tommy.”

“But I thought you hated it?”

“Charlie. I was just kidding. Seriously. Am I not allowed to give you a hard time? Here, hand me the cd and I’ll put it in.”

“Are you sure? Because I can look for something else if—”

“Seriously. There’s no need to. Tommy is my favorite album by The Who.”

“You’re shitting me right now.”

“Why?”

“That’s my favorite Who album.”

“Even above Quadraphenia?”

“Especially over Quadraphenia. I mean, the album is good, but for some reason, it will never hold a candle to Tommy in my opinion.”

He just sat there, nodding his head impressed. “Wow, I uh, never thought we would have so much in common.”

I laughed a bit. “Me either. But uh, it’s uh, kinda nice huh?”

He smiled. “Yeah, yeah it is.”

We rode the rest of the way in a comfortable silence, with Tommy as our soundtrack home.
He pulled up in front of my house to let me out. I couldn’t believe the night was already over. I leaned forward to look around Nick to see that the front porch light was on. I looked to the upstairs windows and noted that Garrett’s light was on. No doubt waiting for me. I looked closely at the window by the front door and swore I saw Gare peeking out the curtain covering that tiny window. I rolled my eyes and unbuckled my seat belt and began reaching for the door handle to get out when I felt Nick grab my left elbow to hinder me from getting out of the car just yet.

“So, Charlie, uh, I really had a great time and I really want to see you again.”

I smiled warmly to him. “Of course you’ll see me again. You’re not rid of me yet.” I winked and went to reach for the door handle again, but not before he quickly pulled me in and placed a small kiss on my check.

“Good night Charlie. See you soon. Don’t be a stranger.”

“I won’t.” I then opened the door and walked toward my front door with the biggest smile on my face. I opened my purse and began digging around for my keys. I was about to unlock the door when the door flew open, blocking an irritated Garrett.

“What the hell Charlie? It’s almost fucking midnight!”

“Dude, chill. I wasn’t out that late. It’s—” I pulled out my phone to check the time, “only 11:40. Close to the time I told you I would be home. I don’t know why you’re freaking out.”

“I’m freaking out because my baby sister is out with…with…some—”

“Some what Garrett? C’mon, spit it out. I’m just dying to hear what you have to say about this guy. You know, it’s not exactly like you have the best track record with relationships so you can just back the fuck up.”

I pushed past him and ran upstairs, already sick of his bullshit.

I slammed my door behind me, and just stood there, fuming at the absurdity of Garrett and his assumptions. It wasn’t long before I heard him bounding up the stairs, and before I could think to lock it, he barged through our shared bathroom.

“Ha! You’re not escaping this conversation that easily!”

“Look Garrett, I don’t wanna talk about this right now okay? I’ll listen to your bitching tomorrow, but please for the love of all that’s holy, can you just leave me alone and let me bask in the enjoyment of tonight? Alright? He’s a really sweet guy and was very respectful. I really want to see him again, and he wants to see me. I had fun tonight Garrett. Honest. I just—uh, I don’t know. Just please, lay off if only for tonight and let me continue to enjoy the night I was having until I was greeted with your yelling!”

Garrett was silent for a few moments. With a cross expression, he curtly nodded his head in agreement and went to his room through our adjoining bathroom, closing both doors behind him.

I sighed, went over to my pile of clothes, and stripped down and put on one of my old baggy hoodies and curled up in my bed, wrapped up in the memories of my date this evening.

***

I’m not exactly sure what it was that woke me up that next morning, all I know is that I woke up, confused as to why I was sleeping in my old room. It took me a few moments to re-orient myself with my surroundings before a huge smile slipped across my mouth, remembering the sweetness of the guy I spent a few hours with the night before.

I looked over at my phone to check the time when I saw I had a new text from Nick.

Nick: Hey, I know it’s early and you’re probably still asleep. Hope I didn’t wake you up. I just wanted to say how much I really enjoyed last night. :)

I may or may not of squealed like a little girl. I quickly got out of bed and pulled on a pair of shorts before skipping down the stairs. I pranced my way into the kitchen and stood on one the tip of my left foot so I could reach up and open the top cabinet that held the PopTarts.

I continued to prance and swirl my way around the kitchen, kissing both Garrett and Trey on the tops of their heads before I joined them at the kitchen island.

“Woah-oh-oh! Looks like our little Char got laid last night!” Trey exclaimed.

I couldn’t help but turn a deep crimson at his crude assumption. I just ducked my head and ate my pastry.

“Dude, do you really have to talk about our little sister like that? Ugh. You repulse me.”

Trey just shrugged it off and finished off the last swig of his orange juice. “Hey sis, you uh, have a package? I found it on the porch when I came over this morning.”

Who could I possibly have a package from?

“Dude, you have your own house and food. Why do you come over here to eat?” Garrett asked.

Trey scoffed, “Because it’s free. Duh. Oh and uh, pretty sure I could ask you the same thing Mr.I-Now-Have-My-Own-House-But-Refuse-To-Leave-The-Nest.”

Garrett just glared at him.

I rolled my eyes at them both. “Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black huh? Ha. So Trey, where’s this package I supposedly have?”

He was in the process of shrugging on his jacket as he motioned towards the table right inside the front door. He then gave Garrett a slap across the head and kissed me on the top of my head before walking out the front door.

I followed Trey and looked over to my left at the table just inside the front door to see a green gift bag with white tissue paper sticking out. There was a card lying on top with my name written on it in a quasi-sloppy scrawl. Curious, I opened the card to find a short handwritten note:

You deserved this win anyway. ;)
-Nick

Grinning, I opened the bag and found the minion from the water gun race game the night before.