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You escape from Pete on the Ferris wheel.
He’s too busy flirting to even notice that you’re gone, and when he does, you’re already out of sight. The line is short and you ask the guy how much it’ll be for you to stay on and never come off. He laughs before saying it’s on the house. The house being one of Pete’s friends from football, who’s hosting the New Year’s Eve party. Pete had dragged you here, when you’d been perfectly content to watch the parties in the New York on TV, or maybe some repeat Christmas movies. You don’t like parties.
But you like Ferris wheels. You could stay up here forever. Your favorite part is when it stops at the top, and you can see the valleys of snow, hills that seem to go on forever. For a winter in Colorado, it’s not deathly cold. You can see your breath and the snow isn’t melting, but you’re not chilled to the bone. It’s an almost comfortable cold.
From your vantage point at the top of the Ferris wheel, you can see Pete strike out with the girl he’s talking to, and you can see Pete turn around to talk to you. It takes him a moment to see that you’re not there, and he looks around. A moment later, your phone buzzes.
“Hello?”
“Did you turn invisible? Where’d you go?”
“The bathroom,” you lie, and you watch as he lifts his arms in exasperation.
“So you’re inside. When there’s a ton of cool shit out here.”
“Sorry if I didn’t want to cramp your style.”
“Yeah, whatever. Just come find me when you feel like it. At this rate, I’ll be kissing you at midnight.”
“Ew,” you breathe. “Now I’m definitely staying away from you.”
He sighs. “You’re not really in the bathroom, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Fine. I guess I’ll find Claudia and –“
“Yeah, she’s not going to kiss you either.”
“I wasn’t going to say that, but now that you mention it, maybe Steve…”
You laugh, and he chuckles at the other end of the line.
“Sorry I dragged you here, Mykes… If you wanna go, you totally can.”
“I’m not leaving,” you assure him. “Just not kissing you.”
“Okay. Fair is fair. Come hang out when you feel like it.”
“Bye, Pete.”
“Bye, Myka.”
He goes into a tent after he hangs up, and soon he's out of sight from your high vantage point. You can see that the line for the Ferris wheel is getting longer down there, and you’re sure that you’ll be kicked off soon.
Up here, you feel infinite. The air feels thinner – logically, you know that it’s not thin enough for you to feel a difference, but it’s the principal of the thing – and it’s probably warmer, though the wind doesn’t help. Your car shudders and you’re slowly taken to the ground, stopping periodically as people get on. There’s a commotion at the bottom of the wheel, as you watch a girl skip the line and practically beg the operator for a ride.
“Hey!” A boy chases after her. “We’re going home.” He tugs on her arm and she sends him a venomous look.
“Never,” she growls. She turns back to the operator. “Please, please.”
The boy pulls her to his side and you hear her yelp. “I swear to God,” he hisses, and the rest of his words are hidden by her curtain of black hair. The operator steps in.
“Hey now, no need to get rough.”
The girl looks at him pleadingly, and your car stops at the bottom. The operator nods and looks at you. “Is it okay if I let her on with you?”
You nod, watching as the girl scrambles to get into the car, the boy close behind her. He huffs, before storming off and out of sight. The operators locks the two of you in place, and you could swear that you hear the girl sigh in relief. She hides it well, but she rubs at her crook of her elbow and you try to not stare too nosily.
About halfway to the top, she finally looks at you. “You saw all of that, didn’t you?”
You nod.
“He’s dreadful, really. Thinks that he has to have control of me all of the time.”
“I know how that feels,” you murmur, hoping to add some sympathy.
“I’m Helena,” the girl says, not outstretching a hand.
“I’m Myka.”
“Myka,” she says, testing it on her tongue. “I like that.”
“It’s okay.”
The wheel stops at the top, just how you like it. The presence of Helena makes it warmer than earlier, and in the distance, the two of you can see fireworks. Helena turns to you. “So, what does Myka do in her free time?”
The first thought that comes to your mind is work. Your father has you working whenever your home, and he thinks that you’re taking an extra class in the morning, but really you just like getting to school early so you can finish your home work. Part of you wants to spill how frustrated you are that he expects you to work at the store every minute of free time and still maintain the grades that you have.
“Read,” you say instead, before you realize that makes you sounds like a nerd.
“I like to read, too,” Helena muses. “What school do you go to?”
“South Springs.”
“I’m at Wolcott Academy.”
Of course, you think. “Why Colorado Springs?” you ask, because her accent isn’t American and you wonder why here, of all places.
“I have an uncle, though the academy is considered boarding school, I guess. He’s estranged, but my parents saw fit to send me here.”
“Do you like it?”
“I’m beginning to.”
You glance at your watch, suddenly anxious to be on the ground. It’s three minutes to midnight, and you want to see if Pete finally found someone, if Claudia ends up kissing Steve, and if Sam is even here. He hasn’t texted you back.
“So was that guy your boyfriend?”
Helena leans back into the car, making it rock slightly. “Heavens no. He wishes.”
You laugh.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No. Well, kind of. Probably not. He hasn’t shown up tonight and he was supposed to meet me here.”
“Bummer,” Helena sighs. You look at your watch again. “Are you curls natural?” Helena asks.
You nod, self consciously tucking one behind your ear. You push your glasses up your nose, fixing them into place.
“They’re beautiful.”
“Thanks.”
A minute to midnight.
“Guess this won’t be moving anytime soon,” Helena says, glancing down at where the operator has been and where he’s currently not.
Thirty seconds.
“Myka?”
“Yes?”
Down on the ground, there’s a low chant. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen…
“May I kiss you?” The chanting grows louder and the last of Helena’s words are drowned out, and you turn to her in surprise, not sure if you’d heard right.
She takes that as a yes, leaning in and pressing her lips against yours just as the fireworks erupt around you. Your lips feel like static electricity, your hand resting on Helena’s knee and hers curling around your neck. She opens her mouth and you do, too. Her fingers grasp into your hair and she pulls away, and the world comes back into focus.
You kiss her this time, your lips moving insistently against hers and your hand wrapping around her wrist. You stop when the Ferris wheel starts moving again.
She looks at you with something like surprise in her eyes, and her swollen lips glistening, reminding you of just a moment ago. You want to kiss her again, but you’re nearing the ground and the operator tells you that it’s time to leave.
She gets out, pulling her hand out of yours (when did your fingers get intertwined?), and waits for you to follow. And she smiles, a short small smile, before turning away and disappearing into the crowd of people.
“Myka! You’ll never guess!”
Pete runs up to you, and you turn to him, numb.
“I totally made out with Amanda,” he gloats. “Where were you?”
“Hiding,” you say. You point to the Ferris wheel. “Up there.”
“That’s no fun.”
“It kind of was.”
It’s later when you find that you can’t stop thinking about her, can’t close your eyes without seeing her face.