16

Whirlwind

“Julie, I have a suggestion,” Ryan said, coming into my room. I looked up from my studying to see Ryan and the rainbow band-aid was still on his finger, which make me giggle a little. It had been a few days, and the weekend had arrived. I was slowly growing accustomed to this new situation, although I knew this wasn’t permanent. I sort of wished it was sometimes though, Ryan’s parents were very supportive and called me Julie, which made me happy.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I know you said you didn’t want to yesterday,” Ryan said, forcing an awkward smile, “but I was wondering if you wanted to go out today.”

“Where to?” I asked. I did feel a little better, and a date with Ryan would cheer me up.

“I didn’t think that far,” he said, putting his hand on his chin to think. “Do you want to head into the city to visit the amusement park there? We can ride some rollercoasters. They also have a section dedicated to animals, so there's a bunch of things to do there.”

“Hmm,” I said. “You know what, let’s do it.”

“Yes,” Ryan said, a lopsided grin appearing on his face. “I’m so glad you decided to go. I’ll get ready with everything we need.”

***

“Where should we go first?” Ryan said, looking at a map of the amusement park. We had just got in, and the park was so big we had no idea where to go.

“I want to see the animals, so I think we should go to Zootopia first," I said.

“Sure, that’s to the left here,” he said, pointing towards a big sign that said Zootopia. We walked in to immediately be met with a polar bear.

“Is that polar bear eating his own poop?” I asked, looking at the white bear taking a big whiff of a brown lump on the floor. “Oh my God, he is, ew.”

“He’s just getting nutrients Julie, don’t judge,” Ryan said, laughing.

“Nutrients?” I said, turning away from the disgusting scene. “I guess it is natural, but I still don’t want to see it. It ruins my image of the innocent polar bear.”

“Lots of animals eat their own poop,” Ryan said. “Humans are the exception if anything.”

“Thank God,” I said, shaking my head.

“Anyways, let’s move on, this fucking polar bear won’t stop eating its poop,” Ryan said. I glanced to see the polar bear still doing it and turned back immediately. Ryan laughed even harder at my disgusted reaction.

We walked past a few other animal exhibits before we came upon some prairie dogs. Two were kissing one another, which I found adorable. “That’s so cute!” I said. “They’re so fluffy.”

“That they are,” Ryan said, looking down at the information panel. “They actually greet one another with a kiss, which is why they’re smooching.”

“That’s cute,” I said. I suddenly noticed a ride to my left, one that I was very excited to ride. “Let’s ride the Lost Valley ride! I heard they have lots of cool animals there.”

“Let’s get in line now then, It might take a while.”

***

“Finally,” I said, looking up from my phone. We had been waiting in line for 30 minutes before it was our turn to get on the ride. A bus that was painted to look like a tiger pulled up, and the attendant there invited us in. “Let’s go, Ryan.”

"Sure," he said, grabbing my hand which made me furiously blush. We climbed into the back of the bus together, still holding hands. It seemed like he just didn’t want to let go, not that I was complaining. I slowly leaned my head on his shoulder as the bus started moving, cuddling up to him. The bus went along the bumpy road for a while before stopping. A voice came over the intercom, explaining the current area we were in and what animals we were looking at.

“Look, it’s a camel,” Ryan said, pointing at the humped animal lying lazily on the floor. “Look at the bird.”

“What bird?” I asked, looking closely out of the window. I finally spotted a tiny black bird walking around the camel’s hump after a few seconds. “Oh, there it is! That’s cute.”

“It is,” he said. The bus suddenly lurched as we began moving again. All throughout the ride, we saw lots of animals. From goats to llamas to giraffes. They were cool to look at, but nothing special.

“Oh my God,” I squealed. I got off Ryan’s shoulder and leaned close to the window so I could see. “It’s a tiger!”

“Wow,” Ryan said, putting his face right next to mine to see the tiger. “That’s a big boy right there.”

“Oh my God, there are babies too,” I said, looking at some adorable tiger cubs. “They’re so cute, I want to keep one.”

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Ryan said, laughing. “Maybe make enough money to own a zoo one day.”

“Like I would become that rich,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It’s okay, I’ll get the knockoff tigers. A cat.”

***

The ride came to a final stop right outside the gift shop. "Well, I'll take it as a sign we should go in," Ryan said.

"It's a clever sign by the park to make people spend more money," I retorted.

We left the bus and went in. It was a pretty common gift shop, full of plushies and toys of the critters we had just met on the ride. We split up for a minute and I was looking at books. All of a sudden, I felt Ryan behind me, so I turned around and came face to face with an adorable tiger plushie.

"Maybe there's a way for you to have a tiger after all" Ryan's voice projected from behind the stuffed animal.

“That’s so cute,” I said, taking it in my hands and playing with its ears.

“Why do you like tigers so much anyways?” he asked. “They’re cute, but nothing special.”

“Because I’m as ferocious as a tiger,” I said, curling my hand to imitate a cat. “Rawr!”

“That’s funny,” Ryan said, tousling my hair. “But I’m sorry to inform you that you are nowhere near as ferocious as a tiger.”

“Aww,” I frowned, acting like I was devastated. “No tiger?”

“No tiger,” Ryan said, shaking his head. “All I see is a cute girl.”

“I-No-Stop!” I couldn’t speak properly, my brain being all fuzzy from what Ryan just said.

“I won’t,” he said, a lopsided grin on his face. “Let’s go, I’ll buy the plushie for you.”

“Thanks,” I said, holding onto his arm. “I really wanted it.”

“Of course,” he said. We purchased it, and Ryan swiped his card to confirm the purchase. It was certainly overpriced, costing 30 dollars for a mere plushie. “What are you going to name it?”

“Kitty,” I said, hugging it tight. “They’re cute and small, like a kitty.”

“Kitty,” Ryan said, barely able to hold back his laugh. “Does Kitty have a gender?”

“Kitty is agender,” I said. “They don’t need a gender, they’re just Kitty.”

“That’s cute,” Ryan said. He patted the kitty’s head and pulled on its cheeks. “Do you want to put Kitty in my backpack so you don’t have to carry them around?”

“I’ll keep them in my arms for a little longer,” I said.

***

“Where should we go next?” I asked, looking at the map. “We’ve finished checking out Zootopia. There’s European Adventure, Magic Land, American Adventure, and Global Fair.”

“U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” Ryan chanted, before giving up and laughing. “But no, let’s go to the European section.”

“Sure,” I said. “The biggest rollercoaster is there, you know.”

“Oh, is it,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “What’s it called? I haven’t been here since I was a kid, and I couldn’t exactly ride the rollercoasters back then.”

“T Express,” I said, looking at the map. “It’s massive, look at it. It takes up like a tenth of the map alone.”

“Wow, that is big,” Ryan said, peeking over my shoulder to look at the map. “Let's ride it. I bet you're going to scream so much.”

“I will not,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You’ll probably scream like a little baby though. Wah, that’ll be you.”

“That is absolutely not me,” Ryan said. “I’m a massive football player, not a baby.”

“You say that, but we’ll see just how much you scream,” I said, giggling.

After almost an hour of waiting, we made it to the front of the line. I strapped in and pulled down the safety block. “Are you ready, Ryan?” I asked, looking over in the seat next to me to see him also all settled in.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “I’m kind of scared though now, aren’t you?”

“Not in the slightest,” I said, laughing. I was about to say more when the ride suddenly lurched, and we began moving up an incline.

“Shit,” Ryan said. “Can I get off this, I’m getting scared.”

“Nope,” I said, smiling brightly. “Get ready, Ryan. The drop’s coming soon.”

“Fuck,” Ryan said, leaning back in his seat. “Don’t worry, I won’t scream though.”

We finally made it to the top of the incline, the cart teeter-tottering. After a few seconds of suspense, it dropped, sending us flying downwards. Ryan screamed. He screamed a lot.

***

“Not scream?” I said, laughing so hard. I could barely even breathe, having heard Ryan scream next to me for the entirety of the ride. He sounded like a monkey that just got loose, hollering around.

“Look,” Ryan said, trying to defend his dignity, “I haven’t been on roller coasters very much, and this one was really scary.”

“Ah, oh my God,” I exclaimed, having to hold onto my sides due to how much they hurt from the laughter. I wiped a tear from my eye. “That was so funny, you were so confident you wouldn’t scream too.”

“Not my fault,” he said, shaking his head. “Everyone would scream in a situation like that.”

“Sure,” I said, before laughing. “Baby, Ryan’s a baby.”

“I am not,” he said, laughing as well. “Fine, okay, maybe I am.”

“Glad to see you admit it,” I said, leaning forward with my hands on my hips to utter a single word. “Baby.”

“Haven’t I heard enough of this?” he said, deflating.

“Fine, fine, you’ve heard enough,” I said, letting out one final laugh. “Let’s go to Magic Land now.”

***

“I want to go on that water ride,” Ryan said, pointing to it.

“Are you sure you won’t scream?“ I asked, giggling.

“I won’t promise,” he said, seeming unsure of himself. “But I’ll do my best.”

“Fine, let’s go on it,” I said. We waited a while before finally getting on the ride with a few other people. The ride was called Thunder Falls, and we got absolutely soaked. Ryan was lucky he didn’t make a promise, as he screamed quite a bit.

“My makeup,” I whined as we exited the ride. We got drenched, and my eyeliner was runny and my foundation was dripping off my face. “Give me some time to fix this.”

“Sure, no problem,” Ryan said. He leaned back on a wooden sign and opened up his phone. “These are the perks of being a guy, no makeup to fix.”

“Shut up, some guys wear makeup too,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Also, you’re the one who wanted to go on this ride in the first place, I didn’t realize it would get us so wet.”

***

“Hey,” Ryan said as we walked past a small stand. “We should try this out.”

“What is it?” I asked, peeking around some people to look at the stand. “Oh, it’s like a shooting game.”

“Exactly,” Ryan said. “We can compare how well we can aim.”

“I’ll go first,” I said. I closed my eyes to look through the scope, aiming the crosshair at the targets. I ended up hitting 20 in a minute. It was quite hard to aim, as the recoil would knock me back a little and mess things up.

“I can do better,” Ryan said, picking up the airsoft gun. “I’m a decent aim at video games.”

“I’m not sure that translates to real life,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But sure, go for it.”

I guess that some of that video game skill must translate to real life, as Ryan almost doubled my score at 38.

“Told you you shouldn’t have doubted me,” Ryan said, putting down the gun.

“Hey, how was I supposed to know your aim was this good,” I said. “Maybe you should sign up for the army.”

“The army?” he asked. He frowned, looking at me funny. “You sure you want me to get deployed to another country for a few years?”

“Actually, never mind,” I said, laughing. I really didn’t want Ryan to go, especially for a long time. “I wasn’t serious.”

***

It was pushing nighttime now, and we had explored every interesting ride there was. We ended up wandering around the botanical gardens silently when Ryan’s hand brushed against mine. Slowly but surely, our hands ended up wrapped together. I was quiet but just had to speak up.

“Can I just ask what we are?” I said, a little worried about how he would respond.

“What we are?” he asked, looking a little confused. “Well, what do you want us to be, Julie?”

“You can’t just flip the question onto me!” I said, frustrated. “I don’t know what I want us to be. Maybe… No.”

“Maybe what?” he asked, looking at me with a lopsided grin.

“Shut up, you know full well what I want,” I said, pushing my body weight onto him to no avail. Playing with a strand of hair, I began to speak again. “Maybe I want to be your girlfriend.”

“Well that’s a good thing,” Ryan said, smirking at me. “Because I’d like to be your boyfriend.”

“You’d really want to?” I said, looking up at him.

Ryan laughed before beginning to speak. “I’m astonished you didn’t think I’d want to. I literally kissed you and said I loved you.”

“Well, I got nervous and confused,” I said, desperately trying to explain myself. “I didn’t know if you really liked me or not.”

“If that’s not a clear indication I liked you, I don’t know what is,” Ryan said, smiling and staring into my eyes. “But is that what you would like to be? Boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” I said quietly, blushing. The thought of being a girlfriend, Ryan’s girlfriend, had my heart fluttering.

“Well then, it’s official,” he said, a lopsided grin on his face. “You’re my girlfriend, and I’m your boyfriend.”

“I, I like that,” I said. I smiled at him, immeasurably happy. “I’m your girlfriend?”

“You are my girlfriend,” he said. “My cute tiny little girlfriend.”

Not knowing what to say, I went into his arms, hugging him. “Thanks for today, Ryan, it was a nice date..”

“Of course it was, we got to spend time together,” he said, messing up my hair a little. “I really like you, and I’ll do anything to make you happy.”

“I love you,” I muttered, embarrassed to say the words. I buried myself into his shirt in embarrassment.

“Aww,” Ryan said, grinning. “I love you too, Julie.”

***

“Ryan!” I heard a stern voice say as we stepped into Ryan’s house. “Why didn’t you pick up my calls?”

“You called, Mom?” Ryan asked, a mask of confusion covering his face. He checked his phone before sighing. “Oh, oh my bad. I didn’t see them.”

“I was worried,” Ryan’s mom said, hugging him. “Please make sure to check your phone a little more often from now on.”

“Sorry,” Ryan said, rubbing an arm on the back of his head. “I’ll make sure to be a little more careful.”

“Why do you two look so giddy?” Ryan’s mom said as she stepped back. “Was today that fun?”

“Oh, well,” Ryan said, staring off into space. “I might’ve gotten a girlfriend.”

“You and Julie are dating now?” she asked, her eyes snapping to me. She was silent for a few seconds before breaking out into a smile and clapping. “Congratulations you two, I’m glad you got a girlfriend as smart and kind as Julie is. She’s been lovely to have as a guest, and I’m sure you’d make a great partner for Ryan.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said, looking down and swaying my body from left to right. I wasn’t used to being complimented, and hearing that I was Ryan’s girlfriend made me even more embarrassed. “I’m happy to have Ryan as my boyfriend too. He’s really the best person I’ve ever met.”

“Good to see we raised a good one,” Ryan’s mom said, smiling. “Anyways, you two should get some sleep now. It’s getting late, and you two have been out for hours “

“I am feeling rather tired,” Ryan said, yawning and stretching his arms high into the air. “I’ll get to bed now.”

“Me too,” I said, a wave of exhaustion suddenly covering my body.

“Good night, you two,” Ryan’s mom said, gently smiling.

I made my way up to my room and collapsed onto the bed. I hugged my cute tiger plushie, wishing it was my boyfriend, and drifted off to sleep.