Bet Me

Chapter 12

“So, are you not going to tell me where you’re taking me?” I ask Luke, as he drives onto the ferry that would take us back to the mainland. “Do you really want to know? Do you not like surprises?” he asks me, glancing at me. “I like surprises.” I pout. “Then stop asking me questions.” He says. I continue pouting but I don’t say anything.

We sit in his car and make small talk while the ferry begins its course. It takes about 30 minutes before we reach the mainland. We arrive at the mainland and Luke starts up his car again. We keep up our small talk while Luke begins to drive. We drive for about 30 minutes before I start to notice where we are going. “Is that the Santa Monica pier?” I ask him. “Yup.” He smiles. “Are we going there?” I ask. “Yup.” He answers.

I smile because I love going to the Santa Monica pier. My family use to come here all the time when I was little. “I use to come here when I was little. I’ve never been on the rollercoasters though.” I tell him. “Really? Well, I guess that’s what we’re going to get on while we’re here.” He says, smirking at me. “Do we have to?” I plead. “I have to help you get over your fear!” he says, finding a parking spot and parking.

“No we don’t. I’m perfectly fine right here on the ground.” I tell him. He rolls his eyes and turns off the car. We get out and he locks the car and waits for me to meet up with him on the sidewalk. I walk over to him and he holds his hand out to me. I hesitate for a second before taking his hand. We walk to the boardwalk and we begin walking through the boardwalk, looking at the rides and booths.

“Come on, let’s go into the Pacific Park.” He says, pulling me towards the rollercoaster part of the pier. I sigh but follow him along. He pays for our tickets and we head into the park. “Well, these rollercoasters don’t seem too bad.” I say, looking up at the rollercoasters. “Elena, these are imposters. Wait until we go to Six Flags later on Tuesday.” He says, grinning at me. “I didn’t know you already planned out a second date. We haven’t even finished the first date.” I tease him. His eyes widen in surprise. “James said that it was a group outing.” He says to me. “I was just teasing you.” I say blushing. “Oh. Well, um. How about we start with the Sea Dragon?” he says, pointing to the ride.

I looked at the ride and it was like a giant boat thing that rocked back and forth. “I rode something like that before when the girls and I went to Carowinds last year.” I tell him. “Ah, the Southern Star. If you can get on that then you can get on this.” He says, pointing to the Sea Dragon. Instead of answering, I grabbed his hand and moved to the line. We stood in line and talked for about 15 minutes before it was our turn to get on.

When our turn comes, I climb into the second row and get seated. Luke comes in to the second row and takes a seat right next to me. Since this ride is smaller than the Southern Star, Luke and I are pressed against each other. “Would you like to hold my hand? You know, if you get scared or anything.” He says, holding his hand out to me. I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not scared.” I tell him. “Well, I was just using that as an excuse to hold your hand.” He says, grinning. I try to stop myself from smiling but I couldn’t help it.

“So, did my plan work?” he asks me, grinning. I roll my eyes and hold onto his hand. He smiles and the ride begins. I don’t scream but I do squeeze Luke’s hand a bit. When the ride is over, we get out and walk towards another ride. “That wasn’t too bad. That was nothing compared to the Southern Star.” I tell him. “Told ya.” He says.

While still holding hands, we walked over to the West Coaster. I looked up at the ride and noticed that there wasn’t any flips or loops. “Okay. This doesn’t seem too bad.” I tell him. He pulls me and we get in line. We continue talking while we wait. Finally, it’s our turn and we get into the 1st row. “Why Luke! Why! I don’t like the 1st row!” I complain as we put on our safety belts.