Only Tonight

One | Only a Coincidence

“Well, I want to go on the ferris wheel!”

“We want to go to the Haunted Hayride,” argued Sean, staring at me with unmoving eyes. He was ready to fight with me on it even though we basically already were, no surprise there. The rest of our friends stood behind us—Cassie, Derek, and Leslie. Our group of friends had been this way since freshman year when we met.

“No fair!” I said. “Just because all of you want to go on Haunted Hayride doesn’t mean I can’t get to go on the ride that I want.” I crossed my arms immaturely, ready to stand strong with my opinion even if it took the rest of the night.

“Please, Paisley,” begged Cassie who nudged her eyes over to Derek. They had been shamelessly flirting all night and were finally getting somewhere. Cassie had gone from walking next to him to holding hands. They’d liked each other for as long as I could remember and the whole point of this carnival thing was to get them together. Our whole group was in on it.

I did want my friend to finally get the boy she tried to so hard to get, so I gave in and looked down at the floor, “Fine.”

Sean grinned and slapped me on the back purposely. “That’s the spirit, Paisley!”

I glared at him before slapping the back of his head. “Don’t hit me, you prick!”

He rubbed his head and gave me a scowl. “So damn aggressive,” he muttered under his breath as the rest of the group cheered at my choice.

“Okay,” Leslie said, “we’ll meet back right after since the carnival will end by then.”

Everyone nodded and they went one way while I went the other. I turned back once and saw Derek and Cassie talking animatedly and wondered if this would be worth it. They had probably purposely chosen the Haunted Hayride to make out in the dark. It was kind of creepy if you thought about it. Making out with a ton of stupid fake designs popping out every five seconds to supposedly “scare you.”

It had better be worth it because I kind of felt nervous as I walked alone in such a huge crowd. Though it was loud and bright with summer lanterns strung everywhere and the chatter of people, I felt anxious as I walked towards the Ferris Wheel.

Why? Only because there was a legend about the ride that proved true.

The talk was that if you rode on the ferris wheel on the last day of the carnival, especially around closing time, you would be granted complete and utter luck in your love life. This meant whether you were single or not, you got something out of it. If you were single, your crush and you would progress or you’d find a boyfriend. If you were with someone, any fights or anything you wanted to smooth away would be cast away and it’d be rainbows and butterflies. I heard a woman even got proposed to after she rode it, even when she had been fighting with her fiance.

So of course the idea of it attracted me, a girl who had never even had a boyfriend in her teenage life. It was sad, really.

I mean, I did believe in being an independent woman and that you don’t need a boyfriend to remain happy but I was turning seventeen soon and the end of high school was nearing by. Prom was this year and I couldn’t show up alone, no matter how stubborn and indifferent I tried to act around my friends when it came to a guy.

But I was sick of always watching Cassie or Derek talk about each other in their lovesick way or watch Leslie with her girlfriend, Angel, when she visited from her all girls school on the other side of town. Everyone in our group had some sort of love life—even Sean, for Pete’s sake! And all he did was have flings and one night stands but it was more than what I had. I hadn’t even kissed a stupid boy yet. I would like to say I was happy waiting for “the one” and that stuff, but it was hard being a teenager in a world where everyone had someone to hold and cuddle with. It was getting to me.

There was no harm in trying to get better luck, right?

I wasn’t throwing myself at anyone or trying to get in bed with anyone too quick. I was just…enhancing my chances at love. No harm done.

Maybe it was because I was trying to avoid going to the ferris wheel or maybe it was just because I was craving some food, I stopped by a vendor that sold hot dogs and cheese fries and even shakes.

I handed the old chubby man a five and he handed me my pink cotton candy—another thing on the menu. You couldn’t go to a carnival and not get some cotton candy. It was like a silent tradition between everyone. I also got a vanilla shake in case I got thirsty later.

Walking, I thought maybe I could just ride some other small attractions while I made my way to the ferris wheel… No, I told myself, Get over yourself. There’s nothing to be scared of. Stop avoiding it.

I breathed in a long sigh and ended up coughing because some dust got in my nose. But my inner conscience was right. I needed to stop avoiding the stupid ferris wheel. It was worth a shot and if the magic didn’t work on me, oh well. Nodding, I took long strides to the ferris wheel and then started sighing again.

The line was longer than my Christmas wish-list, that’s for sure.

There were bunches and bunches of people all trying to contain themselves and not trample over the silver metal barriers that were supposed to help organize the line, though it just looked more messy. I saw tons of couples, snuggling next to each other in the biting wind and smiling. Jealous, I hoped they tripped on the metal barriers. There were also some people that were going solo like me, but not as many as couples.

I knew there was no way to avoid waiting in line and since I was already there, I just got behind the last person at the end of the line. The whole one hour that had passed, I carefully and slowly ate my cotton candy as time went by because if I finished it, what would I do for the rest of the long wait? I was an impatient of a person as it was and I did not need to start getting angry. That definitely would just grant me bad luck instead of good.

Suddenly, someone shoved me from behind and I felt ready to kick them in the ass because my cotton candy was half way done and I was not getting any warmer standing there and the last thing I needed was a touchy-touchy douche trying to feel his way. I turned around and said, “Watch it.” I threw in a glare.

The adolescent boy around thirteen said, “Whoops,” and started giggling with his friends. I really wanted to stab them with the cone of the cotton candy but decided that I should stay mature in the situation.

I turned back around, pissed, and saw a face staring back at me—the person I had accidentally bumped into when I was being shoved.

“Sorry,” I said immediately, looking at my shoes. It was embarrassing and I bet the person felt as angry as I was when the stupid thirteen year old bumped into me.

I looked up and tried not to gasp out loud at the boy.

I wasn’t shocked at his perfectly shaped face or his really really nice blue eyes. I wasn’t shocked at his piercing on his lip that shone in the growing night. I wasn’t shocked at his sprinkle of soft freckles across his cheeks and the tip of his nose.What I had failed to process was his mop of hair that was incredibly white. So white I knew it had to be fake.

“Is your hair fake?” I said as the boy said at the same time, “It’s okay.”

“What?”

“What?”

“Oh sorry, nevermind,” I responded, immediately turning my eyes again and looking at the cotton candy in my hand instead of him. Hopefully he’d just turn away. He did…after several seconds of staring at me like I was crazy (which I was sure I was after that little slip of the tongue). I couldn’t believe I had actually let my mouth run.

I felt a nudge against my lower back, dangerously close to my rear.

I zipped around at the pubescent boys again, ready to cut their hands off and ship them off to sell in the black market. “Really?” I asked, crossing my arms at them.

“What?” said the boy from earlier, crossing his arms back.

“Stop touching me or I swear I will end your life before you even finish puberty,” I threatened, putting my hands on my hips, cotton candy and shake still enclosed in my hands. “Leave me alone.”

“Leave me alone,” mimicked the stupid boy, placing his hands on his hips and struck a pose. He was probably the ringleader of this whole mafia of little pubescent boys. They probably thought they were cool and gangster by touching an older female. Wrong idea and wrong girl.

I got my knee ready to jam it up the ringleader’s crotch and hoped that he would never have children in his lifetime and many more to come, but a voice spoke out before my actions could.

“Hey,” the soft deep voice said, “leave her alone.”

“Who are you?” Ringleader said, bringing a hand to fix his snapback. Was this guy the only one that talked in the group of idiotic boys? “Her boyfriend?”

The guy with the white hair stepped up so he was standing right next to me. “No, but if you don’t quit it, I will not hesitate to call your mother, Wes.”

Ringleader suddenly straightened up and his eyes looked worried but tried to remain calm. So he had a name. Wes. “Uh,” he said, “that’s not my name.”

“Wes,” White Hair Guy said with a threatening tone to it and it shut him up.

“Wow, guys, look at that ride,” Wes said out of nowhere, pointing to somewhere behind me, his voice shaking as he spoke. “That looks way more fun than this stupid ferris wheel. Let’s ditch.” The other boys nodded like suddenly realizing the ferris wheel was nothing more than a stupid object. They all tried acting like badasses and hopped over the metal separator, though the last boy tripped and I had to stifle a laugh.

“Hey, thanks,” I said, letting my eyes wander to White Hair Guy.

“No problem,” he answered, offering a small smile before turning around.

I wanted to start and continue conversation but the guy had already turned around and I had lost my chance. Instead, I ended up staring at the back of his fluffy white head and wondered how I could speak with him again because let’s be honest, he was pretty cute and looked around my age. I had never seen him before.

And tonight I was taking so many chances, why not take more?

“So, how’d you know the ringleader—I mean, Wes?” I asked, taking a sip of the vanilla shake. The whipped cream had already melted but it still tasted good.

The boy turned around and looked around as if to make sure I was talking to him. Of course, I was talking to you, doofus. Would I be talking the wall?

“Uh,” the boy said, taking out his headphones that I hadn’t noticed before, “he lives in my building. A floor below actually.”

“He seemed to really listen to you.”

White Hair smiled a little and shrugged. “I don’t know why. I don’t even have his mother’s phone number actually. I barely know them. I just hear his mother shouting his name several times a day from my room.”

I grinned. “Must be hard to sleep.”

The grin is returned. “It actually is.”

A unwelcomed awkward silence started settling in and I had barely even said more than three sentences to the guy. I thought of something to say, anything. I was never good at conversation with anybody. I was just lucky that most people I talked to liked to talk more than I did but it seemed White Hair didn’t. The sounds of rides and people cheering when they won prizes surrounded us. We were getting close to the booth to pay for the ferris wheel.

“So, you here with someone else?” White Hair finally said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He looked around me for anyone accompanying me.

“Me?” I said, “Uh yeah, but they’re not really here right now.” I pointed to left of me in the general direction of where they were. “They’re riding the Haunted Hayride. Ditched me.”

White Hair finally cracked a smile. “Ditched you, huh? Kind of what happened to me,” he said. “And I went on that earlier. It was just dollar store bought designs and lots of screaming and disgusting smelling smoke.”

“Sucks for my friends now,” I said, grinning. I took another sip of my shake.

“I guess so.” He looked at the food in my hands. “What’re you drinking?”

“Double whip-cream vanilla shake,” I answered. “Want a sip?”

I almost smacked myself in the face because here I was, talking a cute boy I had just met and I was already asking if he wanted to swap spit with me. Not even five full minutes in the conversation and I was scaring him away. Thankfully, the line moved and it was White Hair’s turn to pay for the ride.

“Two-fifty,” the mustached-man said behind the counter. He looked incredibly bored and ready to leave already. I would be too if all I could do was watch other people have fun.

“Sure thing,” White Hair said, pulling out three dollars. The old man looked at the bills in annoyance. He sighed as he reached for fifty cents as change and basically slapped it on the counter. “Thanks,” White Hair said anyway, taking the coins and walking through the open gate to where a couple people were waiting to get on.

When I went up the counter, the lazy mustached man started closing his safe box of money and locking it with a key. He started picking up his cell phone and other belongings and stood.

“Hey,” I said, “Where are you going?” I was about to panic.

“Home.” He pointed to a small clock in the booth that read 9:55PM. “Last ride of the day, sorry, hun. Come back some other time.” The carnival ended at ten.

“What?” I was incapable of saying anything else, afraid to explode.

“We are closing the ferris wheel,” he said, louder this time so everyone behind me could hear me too. Everyone else who was waiting—only a couple other people—groaned and started retreating and leaving. I didn’t let out my breath.

“No!” I basically yelled. “You can’t just leave. This carnival doesn’t end till ten! And there’s no other time because you guys close up tonight and you aren’t coming back until next November.” I needed to get on that ferris wheel. It held the fate of my love life in its hands. I was sick of being unlucky with guys.

“Well, tough luck, sweetheart,” the man said, putting on his coat. “Come next year.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said. I crossed my arms. “I’ve been waiting for basically an hour in this freezing fucking weather and you’re telling me you’re going home? Listen here, bucko, I need to get on that ride by tonight. You have no idea how important it is to me. Just let me through, please.”

The man seemed pissed now. “Listen, I get it. But I can’t do anything. All the carts and seats are already full and unless some god forsaken angel comes down and offers you a seat themselves, you’re out of luck for tonight.”

I was tired of hearing that.

Out of luck, unlucky, blah blah. Screw that.

“C’mon!” I said, hitting the counter. “I’ll pay double.”

He considered it for a minute but then shook his head. “Really. There aren’t any extra seating available even if I did want to let you get on. Which I don’t at the moment.”

I was about to start cussing at this rude man again when suddenly White Hair showed up from the other side of the gate and said to me, “You can share with me. I’m riding alone anyways.”

I thought about it for a while since this guy was a stranger and I thought about our awkward silences and lack of conversation and being in a confined space with him might be uncomfortable. But then I thought about how I’ve been passing my entire high school life, always being rejected softly or being ignored altogether. Leading nowhere and always being frustrated with myself when I shouldn’t be.

There was a chance this ferris wheel might change that.

I took it.

I looked at the ticket guy and he begrudgingly nodded and spread his hand out for the money and I gladly handed some bills to him. “No drinks or food,” was all he said and I complied because I had managed to finally pass.

Entering through the gate as the last passengers got onto the carts of the ferris wheel, I looked over at White Hair as we walked to ours. “Thanks…again.”

He shrugged. “It’s no problem to me.”

We got inside our cart with dirty windows and hard seats but I barely attended to those things because I was actually in the magic love ferris wheel with its ominous power and I thought maybe this was it. I was going to stop being that one single friend finally.

The worker there told us instructions, like not sticking body parts out the windows or taking off our seat belts and I nodded before we were finally up in the air.

I had completely been focused on the superstition of the ride that I barely remembered that you could see the entire city from up so high. I pressed both my hands on the windows and stuck my face against it, but not too close because I didn’t want to get contaminated with god knows what.

It was stunning. Minneapolis looked just how a city should.

For the first time since I had moved here three years ago, I felt completely content with the city and everything in it. And like I belonged fully within the tall buildings and lights. Even the carnival looked cool from up here with it’s blinding decorations and swarms of people that were walking around.

My breath fogged up the windows so I stared at the beauty of the city one last time before turning away and almost jumping because White Hair was staring at me with his intense blue eyes. He was so quiet with his headphones and piercings and the soft far away light of the carnival that perfectly shone his face that I almost forgot he was there. Almost.

“So,” I said, “what’s your name?”

He took off his earbuds. “Landon.” Tucking away his headphones, he asked, “You?”

“Paisley.”

And then the whole carnival went black.

///

picture of the mystery boy to the side >>

i know i said i wouldn't start any new projects until i finished my current stories but i've recently uploaded decent chapters to both and it's time for a breather ok

and that is how i procrastinate my whole life

so how's everyone's summers? mine's good, i guess. i've been procrastinating and dodging my summer homework by reading books and writing and watching netflix and walking around at 6 in the morning. OH if you guys haven't read the Shatter Me series, please do. i honestly approve of it 101%. there's this guy named warner and he's really sweet with a difficult past and personality but he truly believes in his love and treats her as if she's equal and doesn't need protection. i fell in love with the parts where he expects everything great that the girl does because he knows she's so poweful and has so much potential unlike most main dude characters that try to steal that spotlight I LOVE THIS SERIES OK GUYS I SORRY I JUST NEEDED TO RAMBLE

good day,

Delly :)