Roller Coasters and Butterflies (Rini Through the Years)

3 (pov. Nini)

It was the next day, and we were all in the designated eating area of the hotel for breakfast. We were all super excited because today was the day we were going to Six Flags.

Why aren't you eating your waffle?" Asked Ricky while he was watching me pick through my food.

"Because I hate the way the syrup tastes. I always hate the taste of hotel syrup." My face showed signs of disgust.

Ricky laughed. "If you hate the way it tastes, then why do you always put it on your food?"

I shrugged my shoulders and Ricky cut a piece of the waffle I hadn't touched yet, and put it into his mouth. He rubbed his stomach. "Scrumptious."

I jokingly rolled my eyes. "You're such a dork."

Ricky pulled out his phone. "Anyway, I wanted to show you this video of Demon's Destiny, the roller coaster I kept talking to you about."

He turned on YouTube and scrolled through his watch later playlist. When he got to the video, he pushed play.

I stared at the screen and I could feel my hands start to sweat. "Ricky I can't watch this right now."

"C'mon Nini it's really cool."

The video started in a tunnel, and then traveled up a very huge hill.

"So I've heard that it's a 100-foot lift hill..." Started Ricky right before the drop. "And the drop is 90 feet!"

I put my elbows on the table and ran my fingers through my hair as I forced myself to watch the video that made me nauseous.

Once the video ended. I turned my head to look at Ricky. I wore a strained smile.

"So we're so gonna ride it on the front row right?" He asked, full of excitement.

I shrugged. "I don't know if I want to ride it at all Ricky, that ride looks pretty intense."

"Nini please. It'll be fun."

"I know..."

"And I want to ride it with you for my first time."

"Ricky..."

"Can you please just think about it? We won't ride it first." Ricky was pleading and I didn't want to make him feel bad.

I sighed. "Ok I'll think about it."

His face lit up. "Thanks."

I really wanted to ride all of the roller coasters with Ricky. There were lots of cool ones and I knew me and Ricky would meet the height requirement for most of them. It's just that, my stomach doesn't do too well with roller coasters, and if I could change that, I would.

Ricky was always the daredevil in our friendship, or the one who would make dumb and stupid ideas. Part of the reason why we didn't always get along in Elementary school. It was as if he wasn't scared of anything, and didn't care that people could get upset with him.

One winter, when we were ten, Ricky's dad took us sledding at a park. The park had the best playground equipment, but when it snowed, it was known for having the best sledding hill in the area. We lived in Utah, so that meant we got a ton of snow. We craved amazing sledding hills.

The hill was really big and had a sign nearby that stated you had to be at least ten years old to go down it. It was the first year we were able to go on it and we were both really excited. Especially Ricky, who later told me he had held in his pee for almost three hours because he didn't want the fun to stop.

When Ricky was little, if he was really excited to do something, like a big boy opportunity to ride down a sledding hill, some rules were placed on him by his parents because Ricky was a wild child, and either got himself hurt or into trouble. That day, I remember his dad telling us we had to stick together and not wander off, I also remember him saying that we had to let him know when we were about to go down so he could watch us, and lastly, I remember him telling us we couldn't close our eyes while going down because there were too many people around, and accidents happen on sledding hills. We both agreed because if we didn't, there would be no sledding for us. I knew Ricky's dad trusted me the most when it came to following rules more than Ricky, which made me feel like I was older than him even though he was a few of months older.

I remember at one point Ricky's dad had to take a phone call but he told us he would still be watching. So I went down the hill, and then called up to Ricky for him to go. He yelled down and told me he wanted to show me a trick, I asked what it was. He said he was going to go down the hill with his eyes closed, trying to keep his path as straight as possible. I was hesitant because I knew we weren't supposed to close our eyes, but his dad didn't seem to say anything. I didn't realize he wasn't really paying attention to what anyone was saying except for who he was on the phone with. Even his yelling child. So I approved of Ricky's cool idea.

The cool idea didn't end up being so cool because Ricky ended up crashing into another kid halfway down, and the two of them rolled the rest of the way without their sleds. It was a pretty tragic moment. Ricky was crying, the kid was crying, I was crying, the parents were upset. Yep, pretty tragic. Ricky's dad scolded his son for going against his rules, and scolded me for not telling him Ricky wasn't behaving; and ended the sledding day for the both of us. I remember being really mad at Ricky for a while because of that. So yeah, Ricky had a long history of crazy ideas.

I do learn from him though, to be a little more adventurous. I needed to use what I learned, if I wanted to have fun at Six Flags.