Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

Nelson. Like something is clearly up with them close. I look up at Will. His jaw seems tense. I try and distract him. All I can think is she sure rebounded fast, and I can’t help but feel a bit offended that it’s with Kyle. Our double date wasn’t that long ago.

"So rides first or waterpark?" I already know what he'll say. Will takes his theme parks seriously.

He puts his arm around my shoulders as we walk over to everyone. "Rides first. Always rides first."

Jessica sees us and rolls her eyes. Yep, never liked her. We wait for some more of our classmates to show before descending on the park. Will and I have season passes so we don’t have to wait in line with everyone else. He got me my pass as my birthday present this year. I have two presents, funnel cake and my pass. Funnel cake is my favorite and definitely on the agenda for today. Before meeting Will, I had never gone on a roller coaster. I sometimes get motion sickness. Doesn’t stop Will from dragging me on every ride, and miraculously, I've never thrown up. I would follow him just about anywhere.

Since school is out, the lines are bad. There seems to be some other schools meeting up here today too. We are waiting in line for one roller coaster. When the line moves, he grabs my hand, pulling me forward to catch up. When we are caught up, though, he doesn’t let go. He keeps holding my hand. I have my sunglasses on, so I know he can't see my eyes. I stare at my hand in his. It's not like he never touches me. He does, but in the past, if he had ever grabbed my hand he would have let go by now. He pulls me towards the queue for the first car. That is my Will, a bit of an adrenaline junkie. And he still hasn’t let go of my hand.

"So after this one, want to grab some funnel cake?" he asks, leaning down.

I'm not short. He’s just tall. Maybe 6' 2” to my 5' 7”. "Hells yeah."

He grins, pulling on my ponytail.

"So you two finally hook up?"

We both turn at the sound. It’s Jessica and Kyle. She stands twirling a piece of her blonde hair as Kyle fidgets next to her, his hand hesitating before resting on her shoulder.

Will lets go of my hand. "Shut up, Jessica."

"What, you can't tell she's hot for you?" she goes on.

I feel my cheeks redden as I turn around, putting my hands on the gate.

Will looks down at me. "Just leave her alone, Jessica. You know we're just friends."

He can't see my face, but I wince. The next car comes, and I open the gate. He follows me. We sit down and lower the bar.

As the car slowly makes its way up the first drop, he turns to me. "She's such a bitch. You okay?"

I nod, not saying anything.

We're almost at the top. He turns my head to face him. "Come on. Talk to me."

I give him a weak smile. "I'm good." What I don’t say is. I'm in love with you.

He shrugs, chewing on the side of his bottom lip. He always does that when he's thinking.

We crest the hill, and he lifts his arms as we take off. He always makes fun of me for always holding on to the safety bar. It's like me in life, too scared to let go.

At the end, we go look at the pictures taken during the ride. The camera is at the bottom of the first hill. Will is looking at me, chewing on his lip. I look sad. He buys it. He has a whole album at home of us on roller coasters. I don’t like this picture, but I don’t say anything as he slips it into his backpack.

"I'm going to run to the bathroom." My voice is thick as I hurry away from him.

Sunglasses are good for hiding tears. I sit on the toilet, sniffling and blowing my nose. After washing my hands, I splash water on my face and dry my eyes. I reapply sunblock and lip gloss before I walk out. He's sitting on a ledge by some water fountains and stands as I walk over to him. He puts his arm around my shoulders, and we walk over to the funnel cake place.

"My treat."

"Twist my arm." I just don’t want him to take his arm away.

He does, though, when the clerk passes us our order. One bottle of water, one cake. We always split them.

"You sure you're good?"

I have a mouthful of cake and wait for it to dissolve before answering. We are sitting in the shade. Our sunglasses are off so I have no way of avoiding his blue eyes.

"I'm good." I lie.

He chews his lip but doesn’t say anything else.

We've already gone on all of his favorite rides. "Waterpark?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "When was the last time we rode bumper cars?"

"Like a billion years ago." I laugh.

He's trying to cheer me up. I love bumper cars.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

I throw away our trash, and we make our way to that end of the park. Halfway, he drapes his arm around my shoulder again. I shiver, and he looks down at me. It's really hot out to get the chills. There is no one in line when we get there so we have the whole track to ourselves. I bee line for a pink car as he calmly strolls over to a green one at the other end.

"I'm coming for you," he teases, pulling the strap over his head.

"You can't catch me," I shout back.

He gives me his lopsided grin and rubs his hands together ominously.

I shiver again, my arms covered in goose bumps.

The music turns on as the cars come alive. I take off only to back track and turn away when he goes the opposite direction that I expect. With all of