CHAPTER 1

This place is horrible. I know it sounds lame, even whiny, but it is. Biting my lip didn’t work anymore to hold back the nausea I felt whenever we returned here. The hotel smelled of stale cigarettes and body funk no matter how much I held my breath or concentrated on something else. I just wish…I wish things were like they were last year. When my father was working his big corporation job and my mom was entertaining his co-workers at holiday parties.

“Sorina! Get out to the car. Your father is dropping us off while he goes looking for a job. They’re hiring day workers for that building project near the city.”

A sigh slipped out before I could stop it. “Coming. You need help?” I tried not to upset my mom more than my dad already had, but it was hard not to be a bit miffed at the way things had turned out.

“No, you go ahead. I have to clean up in here before your dad honks the horn again.” My mother’s tan fingers tucked the dingy sheets under the mattress. Her jet-black hair escaped her bun to frame her cocoa-colored face.

I bent over and moved her out of the way to finish, tossing a smile over my shoulder. “I’ll finish up real quick, okay?”

She returned a pinched grin that resembled a cross between crying and hidden happiness. It looked painful really, and every time she did it, I hurt a bit inside.

Hurriedly, I stuffed the clothes my father had tossed around the room in the rolling suitcase my mom placed by the lamp. Then I rolled up my makeshift bed in the corner next to the bathroom. I grabbed the rollaway suitcase and tugged it behind me.

At the door I gave the place a quick once-over, before slamming it shut. The hallway didn’t smell much better than the room, worst actually, but at least there was a breeze from the air conditioner. Summer didn’t seem so fun. At least not anymore, and it was hard to believe that when I was in school – those were the better days.

I got to the car and gulped, hearing the raised voices inside. Hesitating a moment, I let my gaze skip across the dingy buildings crammed together on each side of the seedy hotel we’d stayed in. Its brick front did nothing to dull the blinking white sign that read, ‘Vacancies’. The street wasn’t too busy since it was the morning time. Way past the time the sidewalks and roads were lined with scantily clad ladies.

“That’s all we had!” my father’s yell escaped through the open window. His rapid Spanish rolled off his tongue in harsh, short phrases.

I jumped, jerking out of my thoughts. My father rarely spoke Spanish anymore, since he fought so hard against having his nationality exposed at work. He hated having an accent so much he’d told my mother to never teach us the language. So that left me being another girl of Hispanic descent who didn’t speak a lick of the language.

This happened all the time now. The fights about money, Dad’s drinking, and his late nights, which ended in mom crying. Oh, and fights over the use of the one vehicle we owned. Shrugging off the stabbing pain in my chest, I got in the backseat. The suitcase gave me a bit of trouble, and I yanked it inside, then dumped it on the floor beside me.

“Hey, baby girl,” my father pushed out hoarsely. His pale hand patted the top of mom’s seat. Then he bunched his shoulders while his hands tightened on the wheel, after slipping a frown at Mom.

What was this about? I tried not to close my eyes to figure out what Mom did to upset him again. Hopefully, it’s not because of me staying upstairs to clean. I waited with bated breath, and gulped down the saliva that built in the back of my throat as my father gave me a searching gaze, then turned around.

The car pulled off and I slumped back in my seat in relief. My father and I had been close at one time. We used to talk, at least when I was in middle school. But when high school started, his job got demanding, he got meaner; things were set to change. Nothing changed for the better.

My mother’s voice came out with the apologetic hitch I’d gotten used to, “Um, honey, I’m not taking you to your aunt’s house today. She can’t handle more than your brother this summer. She’s doing us a big favor letting him live there now.”

I wish I could live there with my aunt. If I did, I could go back to my old school, get a part-time job and help my parents. For some reason, they didn’t want me staying with her though.

My mother cleared her throat, almost as though she knew my mind was fighting to get out of this forced conversation.

“Okay, then you want me to go into the city with Dad? I could hang out at the museums or something.” I brushed a curly brown lock of my hair out of my eyes. I used to wear it straight, when I had a blow dryer. But when you are moving quickly, under the cover of night, you forget things.

“No, I have a surprise for you,” Mom said, practically hopped in her seat.

I stared at her; I couldn’t help it. It’s the first time in a long time I saw a real smile on her face. Dad drove faster, like he didn’t want to take part in it. I bit my lip again, curious.

“You didn’t have to do that. I don’t need anything. I just want to help,” I added, watching my father closely. He didn’t budge, only hit the gas harder, taking the exit to the amusement park. His brown hair, now cut short, gave him a harsher appearance than I was used to when he was working.

“I got you a Seasons Past to Fun World.” A giggle escaped her lips.

I blinked. Really? I couldn’t believe it. My mom spent $75 to buy me a season’s pass? No wonder Dad was mad at her – even me. He didn’t say it, but I could tell he was angry at both of us.

“Well, say something.” Mom twisted around in her seat.

I plastered a big grin on my face. “Thanks. Wow, uh…” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to make my father angrier but inside, deep inside, I was jumping for joy. If I couldn’t stay at my aunt’s, I would’ve had to stay at that hotel, all day long. The thought of it made me sick. It did.

The car jerked to a stop in front of the sign, about a half a mile from the entrance where you’d have to pay for parking.

“I have to get going,” my father mumbled, flicking the switch to unlock the door.

I rushed to open it as my mom stuck the ticket in my hand.

“I should be back by closing. If not, the bus runs till 11 p.m. Just take it to the hotel, if you can borrow money from someone.” Dad forced out, not even bothering to look at me.

Mom’s smile had faded and tears gathered in their place.

“It’s okay, I’ll work on getting bus fare today. Don’t waste the gas to pick me up. I’ll see you at the hotel.”

My dad turned then. “Wait. Don’t go there until your mother picks you up. I haven’t paid for the night. She’ll be there if we made rent.”

I nodded numbly, this time trying not to cry right there on the spot. “Okay, see you, Mom.” I barely stepped back in time before Dad gunned the engine and they took off.

The walking didn’t bother me. Actually, with each step, I felt lighter. A season’s pass for the entire summer, full of riding roller coasters and more. Who wouldn’t want that?

Funny thing was, I’d never come to this park. My friends from my old high school were planning a school’s out trip here the week my parents withdrew me and we moved to the hotel.

I got up to the gate, glanced at the flower designs in the shape of a bear and wanted to just sit there and smell the fresh blooms for hours. Things I’d taken for granted past year made me ache to go back, relive that last year just so I could savor all the things I’d wasted. Like food, I’d go back and have all those Belgian waffles my mom made for Sunday breakfast. The ones I’d tossed in the trash because I wanted to stay slim.

“Stupid,” I uttered, then caught my breath at the lady’s shocked expression at the ticket booth. “Sorry, I was talking about myself.”

She raised a gray eyebrow. “How can I help you?”

I slid the ticket through the small hole at the base of the glass case she sat in. “I have a season’s pass and I’d like to go in. Is there anything else I have to do?”

The woman nodded. “There,” she pointed, “at that building, go over and have your picture taken.”

I caught her name from her nametag. “Thanks.”

She smiled at me, and then yelled, “Next!”

Adjusting my backpack, I headed to the building to take my picture. The line was long, but I didn’t mind. I set my bag on the ground between my legs and fished out my bubble gum lip balm. It was my last one and helped me imagine I was eating candy.

A bunch of kids ahead of me were playing and joking around. They had their music on their iPhones pumped up loud enough for everyone to hear. A guy in the back of the group had brown curly hair and dark brown eyes. He was taller than me and seemed to have a permanent grin on his face.

Yeah, I stared at him. He was a work of beauty. Not the kind of guy I would date when I was in my old school. I tended to like the nerds more. Them and me—we had more in common, not to mention they usually didn’t have picky taste in big-busted blonde cheerleaders. They didn’t mind my bright, hi-yellow complexion and rounded butt I tried to hide in skirts. Even though my mom had a darker hue, I was fair-skinned like my father but looked Latina, like my mom. I didn’t get my father’s blue eyes like my brother. Many days, I’d wished I had. As far as being blonde, I’d tried coloring my hair once. It didn’t even take that well since my hair was so dark. Cute guys, still never noticed me. Anyhow, that doesn’t matter. I ditched the skirts I used to hide my big booty, because they just didn’t work with all the walking I had to do. Boys didn’t notice me now at all since my hair was always in a ponytail, and I wore the same few shirts I was able to salvage from the house before it got seized by the police. I sighed, realizing my daydream of the cutie ahead of me, would never come true.

“Are you going to move? Today?” The girl behind me nudged my back.

“Oh, sorry.” I picked up my bag and dragged it a few steps forward with me.

“Maybe if you weren’t staring at that guy you would’ve noticed the rest of us were waiting,” she humphed.

I released a long breath and tried to ignore her. Seemed like no matter where you were there was always someone who wanted to spit on your day.

Finally, making it through the line, I flashed my plastic pass at the woman who waved me through with a snort.

“Yeah!” I answered her pointing finger.

Snap. A girl with a camera stuffed a ticket in my hand. “Great smile. Bring me that ticket after 2 p.m. and I’ll have your picture for you.”

***

I’d ridden every single ride in the park – twice. My stomach was hurting, and I was hungry. But who cared, I didn’t have to go to that hotel for a few more hours. I searched around the open food court of restaurants and ignored the growl of my stomach. Forcing myself not to jump for joy when a lady tried to clear off the half eaten plate of food her crying kid didn’t want.

I rushed over to her. “I’ll clean this up, ma’am. Did you want me to help you put him in the stroller?”

The woman sighed then threw me a distracted smile while she pressed the kid down into the seat to secure the buckle. “No.” She pushed the stroller away.

My mouth watered as she disappeared around the bend. I twisted around to sit as a slender brown-skinned guy came over to clear the table.

“Wait, I’m not finished here.” I sat, biting my lip. My fingers seemed to have a mind of their own as I snatched some fries and stuffed them into my mouth.

The guy’s mouth dropped. “You want me to give you a refill on the soda?”

I nodded, stuffing the hotdog in my mouth. “Thank you,” I muttered between bites.

Commotion sounded behind me, I twisted a bit in my seat to see what was going on as I finished off the last of the soda.

A group of teens were running around and tossing cups and plastic plates at each other. While they veered off to the side, that guy – the cute one from the line, headed my way. I searched around thinking he was meeting up with one of his friends, but he plopped down on the seat across from me.

I swallowed and coughed. And choked, forcing my hand in my mouth to make it stop. Embarrassing. Why couldn’t I just disappear? Right now. At that moment. Seriously.

He slid on the rounded bench to come closer.

“Whoa!” His broad hand patted my back.

I didn’t know whether to lean back into it or move away. I fought against my bubbling stomach, so I wouldn’t spew orange soda on his white shirt.

“I’m,” cough, “ok-ay now.” Several more coughs escaped as I held up my hand in surrender.

He started rubbing my back. Oh my God. I actually shivered. I don’t think I’ve ever been close up to any guy who looked this good, much less touched by one. My coughing stopped, but yeah, I faked a few more just because I didn’t want him to stop rubbing me.

“I’m sorry I caused your coughing fit. I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that.”

I swallowed and released the breath I’d been holding. “Not a problem. I’m alright now,” I squeaked. No, please tell me, I didn’t just make that sound.

“You really okay?”

“Yes.” And I was staring again. He had to have the longest lashes I’d ever seen on a guy. His hair was that messy kind of wavy. It fell just so to the side just above his eyes. My fingers itched to touch it. His lips slim on the top and full on the bottom made me bite back the crazy notion to kiss him.

Then the side of his mouth kicked up in a smirk. “Can I ask you a big favor?”

“Anything.” Did that breathy answer just come through my mouth? Get a grip, Sorina. He is so out of your league.

“Are you sure about that? That’s giving a guy way too much to think about you know.” He laughed.

Trying to grab back a bit of dignity, I replied, “I was just kidding.” I waved.

“I wish you weren’t.” His eyes landed on me, studying me, before he leaned in.

He was going to kiss me. I know it. I wanted it. I must have been dreaming. “Ah,” slipped out as I flattened my hand on the table to stop it from shaking.

“Can you pretend to be my girlfriend today? My friends all paired up and are ditching me on rides. So I want to one-up them and spend the day with someone else until my car ride home comes.” His hand moved from my back to the table. “By the way, my name is Tristan. And you?”

“Sorina. Santos.” I kept blinking because I couldn’t believe this hot guy just asked me to be his girlfriend—for the day. What did I do to have the heavens open up and give me this day? I hope it’s not a set-up for something bad to happen. But at this point I don’t care, I’m just so happy my mom bought me that pass. I know Dad was angry with her for spending our rent money on it. It was too late to worry about that now anyhow.

“Beautiful.” Tristan’s lips turned up, causing that lower full one to poke out like it was taunting me to touch it. “Your name…and you.”

“You, uh, too.” My hand trembled slightly as I smoothed my hair back into my ponytail. Am I flirting? Gosh I never did before, but this felt good. Real good. “So what do you want to do now?”

Tristan stood, grabbing my hand on his way up. “Get on the coasters.”

He literally laced his thick, firm fingers through mine and didn’t let go, even though I was sweating. Tristan tugged me with him and traced my fingers with his thumb. I felt like I was plugged into an electric socket; every stroke bought me to life.

“You sure you want to get on this one? It’s known to make people barf.”

I smiled, mustering up some bravery and squeezing his hand a little despite the butterflies in my stomach. “Oh yeah, I can handle it. I have to make sure I’m here for you to pull back your hair in case you lose your lunch afterward.” Tristan lifted my hand to his lips and gave me a small peck.

I inhaled a broken breath. “So you like helping damsels in distress?” I lifted my free hand and placed it on my forehead feigning a faint.

“You can say that. But sometimes,” he winked at me, “I like to make them distressed.” He tickled me under my arm.

I belted out a loud ungraceful laugh and covered my mouth just as the guy running the ride waved us on, rolling his eyes.

We got on the mushy sides of the cylinder, and braced ourselves before it started spinning. I didn’t know if I was dreaming or if this was a trick of fate, but Mr. Gorgeous took my hand then placed it on his heart. The ride spun off to a fast start.

Even though I’d ridden this monstrosity only twice before, vowing to never get on it again, here I was. He was worth it, even if I got sick. I didn’t feel a thing. Only the euphoria of having someone from my dreams holding my hand. His yummy face was stuck in place while the back of his head was plastered to the spongy wall from the gravity of the spinning cylinder our bodies were stuck to. Tristan gave me a wink, and stared at me as though I was the most delicious thing ever. Sigh.

The ride ended. I believe I floated beside him while he was complaining how slow the ride was. When I finally landed back to earth, we were standing at an eatery surrounded by trees. There sat stray picnic blankets and servers dressed like bunny rabbits.

“I know you’re not hungry, but I am. I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Besides,” Tristan searched around. “My friends would never look for me here.”

“Um, I can eat.” I stared at the back of his wavy hair until he found us a blanket to sit on. Regretfully, he released my hand to sit and lean against a tree. I crossed my legs and smiled at him, I was a bit afraid to say anything because my hand was shaking again.

“I hate this park. My parents got us passes for the season as part of our birthday present. If it weren’t for my friends wanting to come here overnight for senior week I would’ve sold mine.” Tristan chewed on a piece of grass and waved over one of the girls dressed as a pink bunny.

“Why?” I squeaked out. Then decided to just let him talk so I could hear that deep voice of his.

Tristan pointed to the menu in the girl’s hand. Even though she was dressed as a pink bunny, I swear she was flirting with him. He reached out, playfully rubbing her arm as he stood to talk about the dessert items.

The ping of jealousy I felt was wrong. Just wrong. The guy wasn’t my boyfriend, but I was having fun pretending he was. I sat there anxious for her to leave so I could have him all to myself again.

Tristan plopped down, leaned back with his head on his hand and started the conversation like he’d never stopped. “This place is a dump compared to the amusement parks in Florida. I can’t wait to start working this summer. Some of the guys and I are saving up for a week at the beach before senior year hits.”

“Sounds nice.” I slid off my practically empty bag. Then, I just listened to him talk as the moon rose higher in the sky.

“The girl’s going to hook us up with some extra food. I sweetened her, you know,” Tristan turned and smiled. “Think I’m good at that?”

“I guess.” But the truth was I wanted to say he was too good at it. Instead I gave him a small smile and wished I had the guts to lay my head on his chest.

“Once I get home, we’re going to fix my car. Waiting for dude to take me home isn’t cool. I like having my own stuff.” Tristan waved the girl bunny back over to us. She had tons of food on the tray.

He helped her place the plates on the blanket, whispered something in her ear. He took the small piece of paper she handed him and stuffed it in his pocket.

I didn’t miss that. Yeah, he totally got her phone number. I didn’t care; at least I wouldn’t let myself since he wasn’t really mine. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it hurt just a little.

“C’mon, dig in. I didn’t get us all this free food for nothing.” Tristan teased a french fry against my lips.

“Yum.” I opened my mouth as he fed me one after another. I was in heaven. Heaven!

“Crap! They found me. I gotta…” Tristan’s voice trailed off as he shot up.

Tristan grasped my hand to pull me up, and he landed a big sloppy kiss on my lips.

I slumped backwards a bit when he released me, then I pivoted to see who he was frowning at. About six or so kids from his group was moving in our direction. One guy about his height and build tugged an angry girl into his arms, hugging her and spinning her around before I could get a glimpse of his face. The other guys in the group waved Tristan over.

“Sorry, but I better go. I’ll be back tomorrow.” He bent and gave me one more quick kiss with soft, moist lips.

I lifted my hand to my mouth as Tristan ran over to the others. He slapped the guy that held the girl on the back, then placed an arm around them both.

The first kiss was a surprise, the second was a dream. Just the perfect ending, to the best day I’d had in what seemed like forever.