I toyed with the bracelet around her wrist, crafted from a curious combination of paper and plastic. It was among good company with the thread bracelets that she crafted idly during classes—she was good enough that she didn’t have to look at the knots she tied, and so teachers didn’t mind. Around us the squawks and screeches of the carnival assaulted me. She relished them.
“I just love a cheap thrill,” she confessed to me, trying to justify buying the twenty-five dollar bracelet that gave her unlimited access to the smattering rides. Her smile was sheepish.
Apparently she wasn’t aware of the sexual implications of that sentence. I arched an eyebrow.
“You do realize what that could mean out-of-context, don’t you?” I asked. She giggled as she held my hand, dragging me to the nearest ride: the bumblebees. It seemed she was starting me off easy. I, too, had bought a bracelet, even though I didn’t like rides, because I didn’t intend to leave her side for a minute tonight.
Her act of mock-alluring was genuinely alluring. I wondered how she’d take it if I kissed her then and there. “But it’s so much cheaper,” she gushed. “I get charged by the night, not the hour—and twenty-five dollars for four hours!” Her chirp was clearly faked. “So much more economical.”
It was hard to think of clever comebacks with her. She was pretty and snarky and everything that came from her was oddly attractive. Biting her lip against a smile, against all smiles, she hopped up on the curb and, with arms spread, began to tiptoe across the yellow stripe. I put my hand on the small of her back—to stop her from falling, I’d have told her assiduously, if she’d questioned the action.
We were in line for the most formidable of rides at the corny local carnival. The only thing that stopped me from bolting when I saw the way the passengers were suspended cruelly, held upside-down for long moments, was the way she leaned into me, the way she began to smile with anticipation. This terror excited her. Experimenting, I wrapped my other arm around her waist. I wondered how she’d take it if I kissed her then and there. “It’s gonna be awesome,” she assured me. I wasn’t quite convinced.
“I’ll be really upset if we die.” My words went almost directly into her ear, though perhaps more towards her chin. She was taller than me, standing as she was on the curb. I walked and she teetered forward a few steps. The next go was sure to be ours.
Her shirt tonight was sleeveless—it had been hot in the afternoon—but as the night progressed, it got colder and she was chilled. We huddled together for warmth—or at least we kept this our motive on the surface. Before I got on the ride, they made me take off my glasses and put them on the control box. She led me blind to our seats. She held my hand as the thrill rumbled its
start.
I wasn’t sure if I screamed when we hit the peak—I felt like screaming, as the chilly air blew past, and the blurred lights of the carnival whirled in directions they were never meant to go. And then my own weight was nearly pulling me from my seat, causing me to strain against the bars that held us in place. I wondered how she’d take it if I kissed her then and there. Perhaps it was all the blood in my head that caused me to lean over and do it, whether she wanted it or not.
Breathlessly, we got off. I put on my glasses again just in time to see her smile at me broadly. “I just love a cheap thrill,” she confessed to me.
Post a Comment