Serendipitу || afi

10 | Hopeless

"Hey! Who's there?" The security guard called, pacing over to us. My thoughts were going a million miles an hour. I was going to go to jail. My photography dreams were crushed all because of Ashton being stupid.

"Gregory! What's up, man?" Ashton called, leaning in for one of those half-hugs, but the guard didn't return it.

"Irwin." He sighed out of realization. I figured Ashton must have known him from childhood, he seemed to know a lot of people.

"I have a favor to ask you. It has something to do with your famous ride." He said perkily, raising his eyebrows at Gregory.

"Irwin, you do realize you aren't allowed in this park anymore?" Gregory said, not even have acknowledged me yet.

"It's technically not the park, because it's closed"

"No, that actually means it's illegal."

Ashton chuckled, and waving it off, "Look, I'm doing a project for school, and I need you to let us use your ride." He said blatantly, pulling out his wallet. The guard raised his eyebrows, but didn't object when Ashton pulled out a twenty and held it up to his face.

Either Ashton was really good at persuading, or the security guard was easy to persuade, because in less than 15 minutes he came through.

We walked through the creepy park in silence, and finally reached the ride. It was one of those rides that were always the tallest in the park. They went to the top, and drop suddenly and rapidly. I've always seen these rides, but ever since I was a little girl I had always been scared of it.

"You ready?" Ashton said, and I looked over at him and nodded. He must have sensed my nerves, because he fit his hand in mine and led me over to the seats of the ride.

Immediately it illuminated, casting neon flashing lights and loud music over the barrenness and quietness of the park. I flinched as the unsettling silence was overtaken by the even more unsettling carnival music.

Ashton gave my hand a quick squeeze and I looked over at him. "Leah, it's alright. I'm right here." Almost instantly, his words made me calm down and I felt a kind of warm feeling inside me. I didn't want to ever let go of his hand.

"You two lovebirds ready?" The guard yelled from his post.

Ashton chuckled, and yelled a "Yep!"

The ride started up. I had to admit, Seattle was pretty beautiful from this height.

The beach was empty, but it seemed like the town was still hustling.

I looked over at Ashton. The moonlight was glowing off of him, and I saw a glint in his eyes that I had never seen before.

I smiled. A real, true, genuine smile. His eyes met mine. I was mesmerized.

The world seemed to slow down at that moment, and nothing seemed to matter except that moment.

The anticipation for the drop hit me and I bit my lip. Ashton seemed to sense this and quickly interlocked our fingers again.

My heart started picking up pace. It wasn't like Ashton hadn't held my hand before, but this was a newfound feeling he was giving me. He leaned forward.

I held onto his hand tighter. He was beautiful in this moment. The moonlight was glowing around him in some sort of an aura.

His lips were a pale contrast against the darkness around. My eyes stayed fixated on them as the gradually came closer to mine.

Suddenly, In a split second, the ride dropped and we were back on the ground again.

I burst out into a fit of nervous giggles, looking over at Ashton. He returned that with a nervous smile.