“Ihate him,” I muttered, crossing my arms.
Sebastianleaned forward, sticking his head between Devin’s shoulder and mine. “I don’tknow why you let him get to you. Just ignore him.”
Iscowled. “I just don’t—”
Theboat lurched forward, and I responded with a squeal and a surprised jolt rightinto Devin’s side. He laughed, wrapping his arm around me.
“You’refine,” he insisted, but that boat began moving upward.
Ilooked up at him doubtfully. “Why are we climbing?”
“It’sfine.”
“Devin,why are we going up?”
“KJ,”he laughed. “Relax.”
Ilooked around us, and goddammit, we were getting higher. “This is too high! OhGod, I can’t do this!” Sebastian and Ty chuckled from behind us, and my liptrembled.
“It’sfine. Look,” Devin said, pointing ahead, “we’re going through thesedoors, and there’ll probably be a series of little drops—”
“Yousaid there were no drops, Devin,” I said, weak and pathetically afraid.
“It’llbe okay, you’ll see.”
Andthen, there was one little slope that felt like a twenty-foot drop. I pinchedmy eyes and held back my scream as my fingers dug into Devin’s side. But then,it passed. I breathed out a deep sigh of relief, feeling confident I could getthrough the whole ordeal. Next came the bursts of flames on all sides of us,and while my mind relaxed, my body remained tensed to a bone-stiffening degree.My fingers weretightenagainst Devin’s t-shirt, as weapproached another set of doors, and I heard Robbie whoop from behind us.
“Hereyou go, Firecracker! You ready?”
Mystomach flopped. “Dev, what—”
Hisarm tightened around me as the doors opened, blinding me with bright sunlight,and the boat started tipping … tipping …
“OhGod,no!”
Andthen, we werefallingand my eyelids slammed shut asmy stomach jumped to my throat and my knuckles blanched.
“OhGod, oh God, oh fuck, oh fuckingfuck!”
Itwas over in seconds that felt like hours, ending in asplash. I sat inthe unmoving boat, shaking, with hot, angry tears running down my face as theboat emptied. Devin leaned over, extending his hand.
“Kylie,”he said softly, his mouth curved in a smile that was both amused andguilt-ridden.
Igrasped his hand and on wobbly legs, let him help me out. I fell into him,gripping fistfuls of his shirt, as the embarrassing tears trickled down myface. He led me from the ride and rubbed a hand over my back in soothingcircles, and Richard asked if I was okay.
“Shewasn’t kidding about the ride thing,” Dev said, his voice floating onsuppressed laughter, and I pushed away from him, wiping furiously at my eyes.
“You’reall jerks,” I sniffled, wrapping my arms around myself.
“Aw,come on, KJ. I’m not laughing at you,” he said, reaching out to me. “Nobody’slaughing at you, right?” He glanced behind him, and Sebastian and Ty noddedtheir confirmation of his claims, but Robbie just smirked.
“Oh,I’mlaughing at you,” he said. “Gottagrow apair, kiddo. Stop being such a little bitch.”
“Gofuck yourself, Robbie,” I shot at him. “Goddammit,please. Go fuckyourself.”
Henarrowed his eyes, the challenge of his anger evident in those little slits ofgreen, but the smile hadn’t faded. “Just tell me where to shoot my load,Princess. I’ll pull my dick—”
“JesusChrist,” Devin groaned and thrust a hand out to him. “Robbie. Shut the hell up.Now isn’t the time.” Then, he turned back to me and said, “Come on. I think weshould go grab you a drink and calm down.”
