Two | Only Darkness

When suddenly the ferris wheel stopped to a halt, I didn’t panic. I thought okay, well, maybe they were just stopping it for a while to let us enjoy the view of the city. Or maybe because since we were the last ride of the night, we were getting special treatment—an extended ride. That all made sense until I looked out the window and saw that almost all the rides had stopped and I could barely tell if the blobs of darkness were a person or a pole.

“Well, it looks like we might be here for a while, Paisley,” said Landon, the first person to speak after a silence of observing what the hell was going on.

I looked at him and saw that he hadn’t moved an inch since we halted. Did he really not care we were stranded hundreds of feet up in the air?

“You think we’ll be alright?” I asked tentatively. I didn’t have a problem with heights—in fact, I almost liked them. I was afraid of darkness though. Just the thought that maybe the light wouldn’t come back on for the rest of the night and we’d be stuck.

Landon didn’t look down but he did look across and said, “Don’t worry, look.” He pointed out to the luminous city. “It’s just the carnival out. They’ve probably already got tech support helping out right now to get us down.”

“Yeah,” I replied, “you’re probably right. The circuits must’ve been jammed from so much use or something.”

“Yep,” he agreed. “Just relax.”

So, I did. I didn’t have to worry. The lights were probably going to come back on any second now and it didn’t hurt that we had a whole beautiful view of the city since we had stopped right at the top of the ferris wheel. It almost felt as if we were looking at a painting of some sort instead of the actual thing.

What did worry me were all the suspicious and disappointing things happening.

First, my friends ditched me to go on a stupid ride. Second, I waited in line for the ferris wheel only to get rejected when it was my turn. And now there was a blackout? Was it the universe telling me that I was a screw-up in love that I might as well stop trying so hard because I was going to go nowhere? After finally managing to try out this magical ferris wheel, I seemed to be getting signs that maybe it wasn’t for me.

I pulled my legs up onto my seat to get more comfortable. The whole cart shaked left to right as I did. It kind of felt cool, being dangled in the air in the dark.

“Please,” Landon whispered. I looked at him, remembering he was there. For some reason, in my head, I pictured riding the ferris wheel alone so it was hard to get that illusion out of my head. “Please stop moving.”

And then I noticed how pale he had gotten. “Oh my god, are you afraid of heights?”

He winced as I moved in surprise to my new revelation. “No, of course not.”

“Oh,” I said. Then, I moved my legs again and crossed them, sending the cart moving very gently. “Then you won’t mind if I move around? Stretch?”

Landon’s eyes remained shut as he drew in a breath shakily. “No…,” he said. I tested that by bending to my right to stretch my arm and Landon squeezed his eyes as we moved again. “Okay, fine, I give up. I’m afraid of heights, okay? Go on and laugh.”

I did. I let out a rude howl of laughter. “That’s really funny.”

“Why? A lot of people are scared of heights.” His lips were a straight line.

“Because you look like this badass guy with your fake white hair and your piercing and your headphones in your ears at all time,” I answered, smiling, “and then we get onto this and the minute it shakes, you can’t even breathe properly.”

He let out a little laugh. “I guess you’re right.”

I was glad he stopped squeezing his eyes to let out at least a laugh but he still didn’t dare to open his eyes. “Is that why you won’t look down?”

“Yes,” Landon replied, biting the insides of his cheeks.

“Hey, it’s all right. It’s really cool,” I told him. “Trust me. Everything below us is dark and stuff and it’s kind of like we’re floating in the middle of a black hole or something.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.” He started biting his lip. It looked like he was going to bite his own face off if he didn’t get on the ground as soon as possible. I almost felt bad but then again I really wanted him to see how cool it was too from up here.

I reached forward and the cart moved again and I think I heard Landon squealing. But I went forward and placed my hand over his. “Hey, Landon,” I said. It was the first time I said his unusual name. “It’s okay. Please trust me. You’re going to regret it if you miss this chance. When will you ever get stuck on a ferris wheel during a blackout again?”

Landon didn’t move his hand away so I took it as a good sign. He did sigh and finally opened one eye. He saw my face and how close it was and then opened both immediately. I quickly backed up to where I should’ve been and our seats shook together.

He let out a hiss. It sounded like a train letting out smoke. “Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, I’ll do it,” he said. “But if I don’t like, I’m not opening my eyes for the rest of the time we are stranded up here or I will barf or faint. Or both.” He made a face.

I laughed, the sound vibrating against the silence. It was really nice being stuck in the middle of the air. Away from everything. “Deal,” I said.

“If I barf on you, it’ll be your fault, Paisley.”

“I understand,” I said, nodding and grinning.

Slowly, Landon peeled his eyes off of my face and inched them closer to the windows. He slowly moved, one leg and arm at a time to the edge of his seat. He shut his eyes one last time and breathed before opening them and looking down before he could convince himself otherwise.

He gasped.

And then flinched all the way back to his seat, causing us to move even worse than before. His eyes widened and he flinched the other way, which only moved us more. It was hilarious watching him squirm back and forth before he finally calmed down and sat square in the middle, careful not to mess the balance he so efficiently created.

“You think…that...is cool?” Landon breathed, his hands squeezing his knees. He kept his eyes down at his dirty converses.

“Well, isn’t it?” I said, beaming.

He raised an eyebrow at me, looking up. “You’re crazy.”

“And so I’ve been told.” I sighed, grinning and rested my back against my seat. I felt like my mission was accomplished after seeing him squirm like a little boy afraid of cooties. I crossed my arms and continued grinning at him.

Landon obviously saw that I was having a grand time from his little incident. He smirked at me. “So, besides scaring the crap out of people and accusing them of having fake hair, what other hobbies do you reside in?”

“Well your hair is fake.”

“Says who?”

“Says me,” I rebutted. “And it is, isn’t it?”

He sighed again. “Yes.” His hand went through his hair, trying to fix it from moving back and forth from seeing the pit of doom outside. “Jeez, do you have to win at everything?”

“Yes,” I said, smiling. “I’m quite competitive.”

“I can tell,” Landon said, grinning back at me. It was another first for this night because he was smiling at me with all his teeth and it looked so natural and beautiful. His hand was still caught in his hair still and he kept grinning with the distant light of the city illuminating his face in a soft blue.

My heart skipped a beat.

I brought my hand to my chest. I felt my ears reddening. Did that really just happen? I needed to get a grip. Sure, I was desperate enough to come up on the “magic” ferris wheel of love, but in no way was I going to start having feelings for a boy I’ve barely known for over a couple hours. I didn’t need to get rejected for the millionth time in my life. I’ve had enough embarrassments for this lifetime.

“You okay?” Landon asked, his eyebrows knit in concern. He looked at me clutching my t-shirt and my worried face.

“Yeah.”

“You sure you're not afraid of heights, either?” he joked.

“Yeah.”

I almost threw myself out the window because I couldn’t even speak properly. All I kept saying was one word. I tried not to look at him with his halo of white hair and really unique eyes. Yes, he was cute and nice and scared of heights in an adorable way but I needed to stop acting like a love-crazy lunatic! Which I was.

An awkward silence started spreading through inside of our small space like a blanket of snow on a December day. What could I say without scaring him off?

“And for the record,” Landon said, always interrupting the silence first. “My hair isn’t white. It’s just really really blond. Bleached it too much by accident.”

“It’s more of a white to me,” I responded, offering a small smile.

He stared at me with challenging eyes. “Well, it’s blond.”

“White.”

“Blond.”

“What is your natural hair color anyway?” I asked, curious.

“A secret.” He was smiling and then added, “I originally dyed my hair to make myself look more punk rock. I’m in a band.”

“A band?” I repeated. That was news to me. I knew most people in our grade at school and I was sure nobody ran a band as well. Was he even in high school? “How old are you?” I asked.

“Me?” he said, tilting his head. I nodded. “Seventeen, you?”

“Basically seventeen,” I answered.

“So sixteen?” he said, grinning. My heart caught in my throat again. This was how my usual crushes went. A boy would be smiling or being polite to me and I’d fall for them, and then confess, and then get rejected. I always mistook normal courtesies as a sign of affection and ended up having to pay for it when they told me I was just a friend.

I put my thoughts away. No more crushes. “Yeah, I am. But I’m turning seventeen on New Year’s. Well, January 1st.”

“How funny,” he said, finally sitting up straight instead of hunching over in fear. I was glad I was distracting him from the heights. “My birthday is July 4th. It seems both our birthdays require mandatory fireworks.”

“It seems,” I said. I was having a good time—just talking to him about little things. Maybe I would get a chance with a boy like Landon? He was different from other boys I usually liked but he didn’t seem as rough as his appearance. I usually didn’t opt for guys with dyed hair and piercings but he was really nice, so far. “So, I’ve never heard or seen of you. Do you go to the high school?”

“Actually, no. I go to St. Bernard’s across town. It’s an all boys school so I guess you’ve never been,” Landon said, smiling. “I mean unless you’re secretly a boy.”

I laughed. “Yes, totally. This was my whole plan. I trapped you in here because I just wanted some advice to look punk rock like you.”

“Hey,” he said playfully, “are you making fun of me?”

I grinned and said, “Yes. I mean, who dyes their hair white?”

“Blond,” he corrected. “And I do. It gets more girls, trust me.” Now, he had gone from stiff to a relaxed, slouch in his seat. Even in a horrible slouch, he looked attractive. Maybe I had a thing for boys with dyed hair and horrible posture all this time.

“So what’s your band called?”

“Uh,” he replied, nervously smiling. “We’ve been having a really hard deciding and we’ve changed it over twenty times, no joke. Currently our name is, what, Citrus Lotion? I think that’s it.”

“Are you serious?” I broke out into a loud laugh. They must’ve really been in the slump for creating appealing names. If they were going to be punk rock, they shouldn’t have named their band after a scented lotion.

“It’s only for now, okay,” Landon explained, smiling with me. I laughed again just thinking about the name again. “You laugh really loud.”

My cheeks reddened. I hated my laugh. It sounded obnoxious and like I was a wolf howling to the moon. “Sorry,” I said, fidgeting.

“No, nothing to be ashamed of.” Landon crossed his arms and his eyes twinkled. “It’s really cute. It’s good to laugh like nobody’s watching.”

My eyes widened and I started to take after a tomato because he had just called my laugh cute. Sean usually insulted me and Derek didn’t even care. They were my only close guy friends and I didn’t last long with any other guy for them to hear my laugh. In fact, I usually tried to be wary of my laugh when I was trying to talk to a guy I liked. My laugh was always a turn-off.

And then here was Landon, admiring it.

I realized then if I liked a guy, I shouldn’t be afraid of laughing. That sounded stupid in my head as I thought about it. I mean, I shouldn’t be afraid to do anything if I liked a guy. If he accepted me for what—who I was, then that would be truly liking me. I shouldn’t be afraid of being myself in hopes they wouldn’t run away.

Maybe, just maybe, I’d been going at the concept of love with the wrong perspective.

“Thank you,” I said, hoping the dark was concealing my very warm and red face. I had just met Landon and he was already changing my view on things.

“No, thank you for the lovely sound of carefree laughter,” Landon replied, smiling. I almost threw myself out the window again but this time it was because he was being really sweet and I had to grip my seat to keep from squealing.

“You’re too sweet,” I said, smiling and looking at my jeans. “Why can’t I fall for guys like you instead of douches?” It was more of a question for myself but Landon looked at me.

“Then, why don’t you?” Landon grinned. “How about a coffee after this?”

                                okay so chapter two is up woo. i really like this story so far. their attractions for each other are easy going and relaxing. this is a light summer read. and please play the song to the side to add to the mood. i love john mayer♥ thank you for the support! keep at it pls