Adulation

"What is taking him so long?" Louis stated throwing his head back.

I laughed. "Well we kind of made him go on the ride about three times right after he got a pretzel with cheese. When you mix a hot day with food and a ride that shakes you violently, you're not going to get a good outcome."

"We should just go on another ride. We'd be done by the time Niall got out," Louis pleaded.

I laughed at the way he was acting. "C'mon Louis, don't you have some patience?"

"Not really."

We all laughed.

"Why don't you and Jay go?" Harry asked. "I mean you two and Niall were originally the ones that wanted to go on the ride again. Skyler didn't want to and I know I didn't want to. We can just wait on Niall and then we could meet back up with you guys."

Louis looked to me with the puppy dog face making me giggle.

"Well I don't know, but I guess I could... Race you there!" I said, taking off before Louis could even comprehend the situation.

"That's not even fair!"

"Yeah, it is," I shouted back to him.

My heart was racing. I couldn't help, but love the breeze in my face as I ran. This was just so enjoyable. The footsteps behind me got louder and louder to the point where I thought he was literally on my heels. We were so close to the ride. Out of my peripherals I saw movement on my left and when I looked over, Louis was right at my side. I sped up my pace.

School Track, don't fail me now!

To my luck, it was a tie. We looked over to each other and giggled. Both of us were a bit out of breath, but not by much.

"You know, you're a pretty fast runner," Louis stated as we waited in line.

I smiled. "Thanks, I did track back in school. Started track in middle school and ended it in high school."

"Really, what events did you do?"

"Well I'm a sprinter."

"Clearly," he agreed.

I smiled at his comment. "I did the 100 meter dash and the 200 meter, but I also did field events like long jump and javelin."

Louis was so kind to me. Even though this was probably just a one day hanging out kind of thing, I slightly wished that we could be friends because he's a cool guy. Not only Louis though, but the other two as well. They're the type of people who you just always wanted to be around.

Louis and I never did end up finding the others. We kind of just went off on our own. The two of us went from ride to ride without skipping a beat. At one point Niall found us and went on few different rides. Niall said he was going to go with us one more time before meeting back up with Skyler and Harry. The one we chose- no, they chose, was one that I was trying to avoid. It reminded me of the ride back in New Mexico called The Sea Dragon. It pretty much was a larger and scarier version of a swing. All it had were loose bars to hold you in the bench-like seat as it swung back and forth. It swung you so high up that it looked as if you were going swing in a full circle, all the way around.

As we got closer to the front my heartbeat increased rapidly and my breaths became short and quick. "Hey guys, I think I'm going to sit out this one. I'm not really in the mood."

The two turned to face me, but I guess my face showed the lie because Louis smirked. "Are you really not in the mood or are you just scared?"

"I-I'm not scared. I just don't want to."

Shit, Jay! Why'd you just stutter? Now you're going to have to explain

Niall laughed. "You're such a little liar!"

"Okay, yeah, I might be a little scared to go on this one, but I have my reasons."

"What reasons do you have? Did something happen?" Louis asked as we inched ahead.

"Sort of. Back in New Mexico we have a ride like this called The Sea Dragon. Skyler and I went on it this past spring break. The bar holding us in was broken."

Both of the guys jaws dropped and Louis spoke up. "Were you at least sitting in the middle?"

"No, we were on one of the two very ends. It didn't help as well that the guy running the ride didn't even see or hear us yelling. Neither of us noticed the bar was broken until I almost fell off at the highest point of the ride."

"Oh my gosh Jay, I'm so sorry," Niall said.

Even though Louis shook his head in agreement with Niall, he had a weird look on his face like he was contemplating. "Will you go on the ride if we check the bar before the ride starts? We can even have the guy check as well. You can sit between me and Niall for extra comfort. I mean you don't have to if you really don't want to."

He was trying so hard to get me to go on this ride and it made me kind of curious. Most guys wouldn't keep pressing after anyone told them something traumatic.

"Why are you still making such an effort to get me on this ride after be told what happened?" I said, but my words didn't come out mean or bitter. They were purely out curiosity.

"Well I believe what happened to you was just a freak thing. I don't think you should carry around a fear like that on your shoulders and let it keep you from enjoying times like this. I guess I kind of like helping people get over their fears."

I thought about it for a second. "Well you sold your case, but only if you do all that you said you would."

"Deal!"

In a matter of seconds we reached the very front of the line and were getting on the ride. I tried to sit in one of the seats toward the middle, but Niall and Louis refused to let me sit there. I gave in and we sat on the most terrible spot, one of the very ends. Louis held true to his word as I sat between the two and watched the boys as well as the person running the ride check the bar. The ride began slowly, but as the speed and height increased, I started to panic.

Holy- Jay, why in hell did you agree to this?

I held on to the bar in front of me for dear life. We were getting higher and higher with every swing. My heart felt as if was going to burst out of my chest at any second. As the ride got closer and closer to reaching the highest point, I kept trying to look away. I didn't quite understand the level of how scared I really was until I found myself curled into Louis' chest trying to find comfort in him. I needed to hold on to something that can hold me in return. I needed to hold on to something living. It helped because I had one normal thought pass through my mind not relating to the ride and it was about if I had just invaded Louis' personal space. Luckily, Louis didn't mind what I did because he put an arm around me and started comforting me.

"C'mon Jay, it's not that bad. I'm holding on to you, Niall is too."

I felt another hand rub my shoulder. "Yeah, were right here, Jay. Louis and I won't let anything happen."

"Opening your eyes won't cause anything to go wrong on the ride. That would be ridiculous. You can still hold on to me and I'll still hold on to you. Just open your eyes."

I nodded and lifted my head up a little before opening my eyes. My grip on Louis got tighter only to loosen when I felt more appeased.

"So how do you feel?" Niall asked stepping off the ride.

I smiled. "Actually not too bad. I actually kind of enjoyed it."

"See, I told you we wouldn't let anything happen to you!"

Laughing and nodding, I turned to Louis on the left of me. "I'm sorry for squeezing the life out of your arm."

"I'm sure it'll get its feeling back soon," Louis joked.

Niall stuck with us a for a bit before he went back with Harry and Skyler. At that point Louis and I took a break and just walked around and talked. I told him how Skyler and I met and the craziness of moving to and from the UK. As we talked he got us cotton candy to split.

"It seems like it's been forever since I've had cotton candy, thank you!" I said taking off a piece of the blue fluff.

Louis smiled. "Anytime," he paused looking at the ground for a second as we strolled. "Jay, you know I really like hanging out with you, Skyler too and I know the boys feel the same. It's been fun."

It was good to know he kind of felt the same. "I agree, it really has been fun. I've enjoyed today."

"Well I'm glad to hear that because we should definitely do this again!"

Louis' phone vibrated. Checking his phone, his eyes widened and he started nervously looking around.

"We need to go," Louis told me as he grabbed my hand and ushered me out of line.

"What's going on? Is everything okay?" I asked as our pace hastened

Louis was still holding on to me as he replied. "Harry was spotted, Niall too. It's just a matter of time before I'm spotted."

"Do you think we can make it to my car?"

"Maybe, but probably not all at the same time which would be hard," Louis answered before pulling me off to the side.

We were in some corner with trees surrounding. I think it was enough to hide Louis for a short period of time. We called the others and made a plan. The three guys were going to stall while Skyler and I got Minnie Mouse. When I pulled up to the front, the boys were spotted at a good distance making a dash for the car. Skyler jumped out of the passenger's seat and opened the back door only to go and taker her seat beside me. The boys were now closer and you could hear them yelling at each other over the screams.

"Niall go ahead of me I want to sit in the middle!" Harry shouted.

"No, I wanted to sit in the middle!" Niall yelled back.

They were being like little kids.

Harry began to argue back. "You sat in the middle last time, so its only fair-"

Yelling, I interrupted. "Would you guys just hurry up and get in the car!"

The three jumped in and I took off.

"What ever happened to bodyguards?!"
*****
Sorry this one's a little shorter than the rest, but what do you think? Should I keep the chapters long? Make them shorter like this? Or does it not really matter?

Notes