Dark One: One for Sorrow... (The Khiara Banning Series Book 1) (9 page)

Eight

“Where the hell did you go?” Asks Cara, as she and Tristan walk through my bedroom door, sit down on my bed and wait for my answer.

Blushing, I realize that I’d forgotten to text her to tell her what was up. “I’m so sorry, Cara. I swear, I had every intention of texting you, but I got kind of caught up in the hanging out with Cael. He’s…” I search for a word, “different.”

Tristan raises his hand as if he was in class, and I have to laugh at the sheepish look on his face. “Should I not be here right now?”

“No! I mean, no you shouldn’t not be here right now…I mean you can stay!” I say awkwardly, feeling bad that we’d all but completely excluded him from the conversation. “Sorry Tristan, I bet Cara didn’t tell you how awkward I can be sometimes.”

He smiles, “No, she warned me. I just didn’t believe her, but I guess she was right. I’ve gotta say I’m kind of happy she was, because it makes for an interesting friendship.”

Grinning I reach out and tousle his hair, “I’m glad we’re friends then.” He looks as if I’ve just made his day, and I can’t help but laugh some more as his face turns a bright red. Maybe he doesn’t have very many friends at his school. Cara had told me that he goes to this very prestigious private school about an hour or two from town, a very
posh
place tucked into the woods. It’s a boarding school and he lives there, being originally from the city of Montreal over in Quebec, but he works at the mall in town for extra pocket money.

“I’m glad too. I was worried you wouldn’t like me, actually,” says Tristan, all awkward and cute, and right then, I really see what Cara likes about him and I can only hope that they work out well. I like his guy for her. I just hope she smartens up and doesn’t end up hurting him. I’ll have to talk to her about it later.

Cara links one of her arms through mine, rolls her eyes and says, “Well, we’re all glad. Now, let’s get down to business. I want Ice cream and cheap thrills, and I
know
you guys don’t have any of that here.”

“You want cheap thrills? I can take my shirt off if you’d like.” I say sarcastically, “But you need to take me out on a date first.”

“Or, we could go to the amusement park and ride the Tilt a’ Whirl until we puke.” She says, already standing up.

Laughing, I say, “There’s that option too, I guess.”

Cara slaps my arm, “Shut up already and let’s go. You can tell us what you did with Cael
the lover boy
on our way there.”

We stand up and walk out of my room, momentarily forgetting about Tristan. Pug whines from my room as we open the front door, and Cara and I both almost collapse into a fit of giggles as we run back to my room to get Tristan.

“Hurry up!” says Cara, all excited and ready to go.

“I have no say in this, do I?” asks Tristan.

Cara and I both look at each other and smile, “Nope.”

Once we get in Cara’s car, I tell them all about Cael and his café, and even about before that, the day of Cara’s party. Tristan listens intently, and Cara voices her opinion on the matter.

“You got a job and a boyfriend all in one day? Skills girl, you’ve got skills.”

Is he my boyfriend? I’m not really sure, considering we haven’t even gone out on a date yet.
“I guess so, at least for the boyfriend part anyway. I’m not entirely sure…I don’t know him all that well, we’ve only known each other for what, two days?”

Cara slows to stop at a red light and once she’s stopped, she applies a fresh coat of lip-gloss, “Well, find out then. Call him, invite him to come.” She offers me her lip-gloss and I shake my head.

“Just call him, Khiara. It won’t kill you!”

Grasping for any excuse not to call him, I say, “He’s busy tonight, actually. He’s got this thing to go to…”

“What thing?”

I bite my lip. “Just a thing, you know a function of sorts,” I lie.

Tristan sighs and pats me on the shoulder from the back seat, “A function of sorts? You’re a bad liar, Khiara.”

“Yeah well…you suck,” I turn around to stick out my tongue at him like a five year old that’s just been told that she’s not allowed candy and he grins at me, which just makes me more annoyed.

“We’re here!” crows Cara an hour later, as we pull into the parking lot of Monster’s Domain amusement park, which is located a couple of hours away from our town. We park close to the gate; hardly anybody is here because of the rain. Monster’s Domain is one of the smallest amusement parks to exist with only one roller coaster, three small water rides, one Tilt a’ Whirl, and some bumper cars, but it’s a great place to be, and I think I even trumps Disney.

“Do you think they’ll close the place if the rain gets bad?” I ask Cara as she twirls her hair with her finger absentmindedly as she watches Tristan rifle through his wallet for his bankcard because he doesn’t have a season’s pass.

“No,” she replies, “They’ll just shut down the non-water rides. I mean, we’re already wet because of the rain, so why not right?” This reminds me that I should probably put my phone in the car for safekeeping, and like he’s read my mind, Tristan says, “You two should put your phones in the car, don’t want them shorting out, do you?”

Cara shakes her head and I say, “Nope. That’s just what I was thinking, actually.”

He smiles and says jokingly, “I read your mind. I’m pro at it, go ahead and test me.”

“What colour is my bra?” I ask, giggling as his face goes red.

“Ouch!” He says as Cara swats him on the butt. “Answer the girl!” she demands. Tristan rolls his eyes, and shakes his head.

“Purple?” he says, and my heart stutters. I force a laugh and say, “No, it’s green. Tomorrow I’ll wear purple and ask you again.” My bra is, in fact purple. I write it off as a coincidence.

As soon as we’re past the gates of the park, the rain picks up speed and they close down all of the non-water rides. We ride the log ride four times before getting fed up with it, and then move on to the other rides as the rain slows down and they open them all back up.

“Yes!” Shouts Cara, as we walk and she dances in the direction of the Tilt a’ Whirl, her favourite ride.

Tristan shakes his head, amused as Cara runs off ahead of us, “Why is this her favourite ride?”

I shrug, “She likes to spin, really fast. I think that’s why she drinks so much. It’s the same kind of feeling.”

Contemplating this, he rubs his jaw, “I suppose so. I’m not one for drinking; it doesn’t really affect me, no matter how much I drink.”

I shrug again, “Yeah, well I wish that were the case with me. One drink and I’m half in the bag.”

Tristan smiles, rubs his jaw again and says, “Well, now I know not to let you near the alcohol at the semi-formal.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m glad you’re coming though.” I assure him, laughing as Cara trips and falls into a huge puddle. “It is not funny!” she shrieks, but a second late she’s laughing with me.

As we get to the Tilt a’ Whirl, Cara does this little victory dance when she sees that we’re the only people in line. We’re practically the only people in the park (which, might I add is a very large place and with hardly any people in it, looks a little creepy). The guy at the controls of the ride gives Tristan and I a cursory glance, but his gaze lingers on Cara a little too long, and Tristan doesn’t even seem to care so I let it go. All three of us take our own seat since we’re the only people on the ride at the moment –everybody else is taking advantage of the water rides- and wait for it to begin.

The control guy walks around to each of the seats, checking to make sure they all work and when he gets to mine his face suddenly changes from a mask of indifference, to a look of pure revulsion.

Startled, I ask, “Is there something wrong?”

He shakes his head, quickly composing himself, “There’s puke all over the floor, and you’re stepping in it.”

“Oh,” I say, as my stomach grows queasy. “Thanks for letting me know.” He shrugs, mumbles something close to, “It’s part of the job,” and walks off.

I get out and sit with Cara, who doesn’t bother to ask why I changed, because she saw the whole thing.

When the ride starts, the queasy feeling doesn’t go away, as it should. It gets worse by the minute.
I’m okay now, there’s nothing gross about this particular seat,
I think to myself. But for some reason, I can’t stop looking at the seat that I was sitting in. It’s mocking me, which is stupid, because dirty puke-filled Tilt a’ Whirl seats can’t mock well, anything, and I know that. But there it is giving off this terrible feeling.

Next to me, Cara laughs away, oblivious as ever to what’s going on inside of me right now. I wish I could explain it to her, but I wouldn’t know where to begin. Somehow, “That twirling purple chair made specifically for the amusement of people is terrifying me with its evil vibes,” doesn’t really sit well with me as a proper explanation.

All of a sudden, the chair starts to spin faster than all of the others, and I watch helpless as it starts to spin out of control, smoke rising around it. The ride suddenly stops, and we’re ordered by the control guy, Brandy, according to his nametag which I only just bothered to notice, to get off immediately. That one chair keeps spinning, and smoke keeps rising all around it until I notice the telltale orange flames of a fire. Come to think of it, I never saw any puke when I was sitting in it, which brings up a very confusing question.

What the hell is going on?

“Sheesh,” says Cara as we stand back and stare at the ride, “You have the worst of luck. It’s a good thing the control guy…”

“Brandy,” I inform her, and she shrugs. “Whatever. It’s a good thing he noticed or that would have been you in there. Thank
God
.”

“Seriously,” says Tristan, as he wraps his jacket around my shoulders, even as I try to fend it off. He looks upward and smiles, “Thank God!”

“Maybe we should go home,” Cara begins to say, but I put my hand up in a gesture for her to stop. “I’m fine. We should go on at least one roller coaster. It’s not late enough for us to go home.”

Cara frowns, “We have school tomorrow, Khiara. I actually want to pass math class this term with more than the minimum mark. If I don’t, you know I’ll have to go to summer school, and I’m not really into that sort of thing. I like
freedom
. So that I can you know, do stuff over the break. Plus if I want to get into nursing, I need to get serious, which has been exactly as hard as it sounds.”

The fact that she even bothered to study kind of surprises me, though I know she’s wanted to be a nurse since I fell off of my bike when we were kids. “How much have you studied for this test?” I can’t stop the apprehension from leaking into my voice.

She blinks at me, once, twice, three times, until she says, “Actually, for once I’ve studied a lot; remember my convo with Paul? I plan to pass, and I will. But you’re right about the time; it is too early.”