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Confessions and Freefalling

“You,” Chris said, looking down.

“You,” Pete said at exactly the same time, looking straight at her.

Chris gasped and looked up, her eyes wide with surprise. “What?”

“You,” Pete repeated. “I’d choose you. Is that so surprising?”

“Ummm…I don’t know…”

“Well, it shouldn’t be,” he said. He tucked a piece hair behind her ear and then he rested his hand on the side of her face, “Because you’re awesome.”

She smiled. Her hand went to his, “I think you’re pretty awesome too.”

A few seconds of silence passed. “I’m going to kiss you now. Is that ok?”

She nodded. He leaned forward, closing the gap between them. Their lips touched. It was
electric.

It wasn’t until a few moments into the kiss that Chris realized she was crying. Pete noticed too.

“I can’t be that bad,” he said half-joking. When her crying increased, he became completely serious. “What is it?”

“I-I don’t know,” Chris said through her tears. She sat up and took deep breaths trying to calm down. Pete sat up too and rubbed her back. Chris’ mind was racing. She wanted this. She had been thinking about Pete all day. What the Hell was going on? She tried to rationalize her thoughts. Contrary to the last few days, she hardly cried. So what made her cry? Well, things that made her cry were things associated with Matt.

Her thinking fell apart then. In a questioning voice she said, “Matt?”

“Matt?”

“I don’t know why, exactly, but I think Matt has something to do with the hot mess that is me at this moment.”

Pete kissed her temple. “Matt’s a big part of anything we do, ever. Don’t worry. I get it. When you figure it out, let me know?”

She smiled slightly and nodded. After a few seconds she said, “I answered your question, can I have water now?”

He laughed and fished the water and aspirin from under the bed where he had hidden it earlier. “You should probably go to bed if you have a headache,” he said, “We’re leaving pretty early tomorrow, right?”

She swallowed the pills then said, “Right.”

Pete kissed her on the head then got up and said, “Night.”

“Where are you going?”

“I do actually have my own bed here,” he said smiling. Then more seriously he said, “I didn’t think you’d want me to stay after the Matt thing.”

“That’s sweet and I appreciate it,” Chris started, “But I can’t watch CSI all by myself…”

“Do you want me to stay?” When she nodded, he broke out into a huge grin. “I guess that’ll be
ok.” He got back in bed. Referring to the episode he asked, “Do you have any idea what’s going
on?”

After a few moments of watching Chris replied, “I think it’s the one where the prostitute was killed and left in the gutter?”

“Isn’t that every episode of CSI?”

“That’s why it was a safe guess,” she said laughing.

She was still sitting up. Pete was lying down. After a few minutes of her staring at the
television Pete spoke.

“Hey you.” Chris turned toward him. His arms were open. “Come here?”

She smiled and lay down in Pete’s arms. Her head went to its favorite spot on his chest and his
hand entangled itself in her hair. They lay there watching tv for a while.

“Peter?”

“Ya, Christina?”

“No matter what happens with whatever this ends up being, I love you, ok?”

“Deal. I love you, too.” He kissed her forehead. They soon fell asleep, smiles on their faces.

***

The alarm on Chris’ phone went off at eight the next morning. She had to lean across Pete to silence it on the bedside table. He groaned. “Do we have to get up?”

Chris laughed, still leaning across him. “Yes we do.”

His arms encircled her and pulled her down towards him. “Five more minutes?”

“Five more minutes,” she conceded, hitting the snooze button.

Five minutes later, Chris extracted herself before Pete could trap her again. She walked to the bathroom giggling as Pete struggled to drag himself out of bed. She was brushing her teeth when Pete came in.

“I’m gonna go downstairs and get ready,” he said and he kissed her cheek.

She smiled and continued to get ready. She bunned her hair and put suntan lotion on her face. She put on her bright blue bikini with the white polka dots and another pair of athletic shorts. She put on a tank top over it and in her bag she packed sunscreen, a hair brush, a towel, an extra t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and underwear. Once she put her sunglasses on the top of her head, she was ready to go.

Downstairs someone had made a pot of coffee. Chris poured herself a cup, sat down, and ate a poptart.

Becca came down stairs. “Care to lotion me up?” She asked wiggling a bottle of suntan lotion.

“Only if you do me next.” Chris said taking it from her.

“What are we talking about?” Joe asked interestedly as he and Sara walked into the kitchen.
“You’re doing each other?”

“Shut up, Joe,” Chris said as she squirted lotion into her hand and started rubbing it into Becca’s back.

When she finished, she wiped her hands off on a paper towel and took her tank top off. While Becca did her back, Chris put lotion on her front, she had forgotten to earlier.

“Sexy,” Sara said coming into the room. “Why wasn’t I invited?”

“Early bird gets the worm,” Becca quipped.

Soon everyone was in the kitchen, ready to go. “Gasp,” Chris said sarcastically, “It’s only eight forty-five and we’re all ready. It’s a miracle.”

Then the car was there. They piled in. “I could get used to going everywhere in a limo,” Joe
said.

“Maybe you will someday, aren’t you guys on your way to becoming ridiculously rich and famous?” Sara asked.

“On our way, but not there yet,” Patrick said.

On the way they joked around and made fun of Sara and Joe who were now obviously together. When they pulled off the highway Sara, Becca, and Chris started clapping and giggling like little girls and talking about all the things they wanted to do. Soon the driver lowered the partition to ask where they wanted to be dropped off. With no hesitation, the girls said, “The Old Park, please!”

The driver dropped them off and they went to stand in line. Soon they had purchased tickets and splash cash so they could buy stuff in the park without having to keep track of cash or a credit card. Then they were in the park. Chris and Becca both bought a waterproof disposable camera. They paid for lockers and then debated what ride to go on first.

Since the rest of them had never been there before, Chris, Sara, and Becca decided to take them
on Raging River. It was a tube ride that was forty-five minutes long and classic Schlitterbahn.

“Shit!” Andy exclaimed as he got into the water and sat on a big rubber tube. “Why is it so cold?”

“It’s water from the Comal River,” Becca explained getting into the next tube. She gasped as she sat down. “Chilly.”

“It’s still early in the season,” the lifeguard explained.

Then they were all in a tube floating lazily.

“I love the tube chutes,” Chris said, leaning her head back and letting her hands dangle in the water. “So much tanning.”

“Yup,” said Sara, mimicking Chris’ position in her tube.

“Why river water?” Patrick asked.

“It’s a cool thing about this park. The rides are all run with water from the river. It isn’t too far from here. You’ll see.”

“What do you mean ‘you’ll see’?” Pete asked.

“They have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into do they?” Chris said laughing.

“That was your evil laugh,” Stacy said. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine.”

“Seriously,” Becca said. “Relax. Enjoy the float.”

Becca, Chris, and Sara were leisurely chatting, which eventually put the others at ease. The ride twisted and turned, took a few small drops and went through a cave.

“In a little bit, the ride forks,” Becca announced, “Go right.”

The ride got a little faster after they took the right fork.

“Cave!” Chris exclaimed. Coming up was exactly what Chris said. When they entered the boys and Stacy stared at the cheesy under-the-sea scene sculpted inside. Chris, Becca, and Sara got out of their tubes and started jumping up and down in the same spot.

“Got it!” Sara said, victoriously sitting back in her tube.

“Me too,” Chris said.

“Damn it,” Becca said frustrated. “I hate being the shortest.” One more jump and she too was sitting in her tube. By this point, the others had all gone passed them. They girls paddled to catch up.

“Where’d you go?” Patrick asked.

“We had to touch the shark’s tooth,” Becca replied, like it was no big deal.

“It’s tradition,” Sara added.

“We’re weird,’ Chris said to their questioning looks, “We know. It’s ok.”

There were more drops on this part of the ride. Stacy got knocked off her tube when it flipped. Sara shared her “keep your feet up and crossed” technique, and soon they were all tubing like pros. They continued to float and talk.

Andy was in the front and telling a story, his tube turned so he faced the others.

“Pause,” Sara shouted. She looked at Chris and Becca who grinned wickedly. Together they said,
“Bye-bye, Andy.”

His eyes widened in surprise as his tube started to go down an incline that was steeper and longer than any of the others on the ride backwards. One by one they all went down. It ended in the river.

“Ewwww,” Stacy said when her feet brushed some riverweed. “Nature.”

“You’ve been swimming in a lake for two days,” Chris pointed out twirling in her tube.

“This is pretty cool,” Pete said.

“Just watch for snakes,” Becca said in a sing song voice.

Stacy gave a little shriek. “She’s kidding, Stacy,” Chris assured her.
The ride ended. They climbed out of the water and started walking back to the park.

“Where next?” Joe asked.

“Well there’s a few rides we have to do,” Sara said, looping her arm through his. “Soda straws, Hillside, Whitewater, Cliffhanger, and the roof slides, whatever they’re called now.”

They worked their way through the park. As usual the girls made it a competition, pushing each
other into eddies on the tube chutes so they would get stuck and racing on the slides. The others got into it too. Andy even won on the rooftop slide. They ate and then got on the tram to the other parks. They did the big rides first. The line for Master Blaster was long, but it was totally worth it. They were in the wave pool lazy river when the skycoaster swooped down. It was one of those “you and two friends strap yourselves to each other and let strangers drop you from two hundred feet in the air with nothing to stop you from hitting the ground but a couple of
bungee cables” kind of ride.

“I want to do that,” Joe said with awe in his voice.

“No way, that’s crazy,” Becca said.

“I’ll do it with you,” Pete said.

“Anyone else?” Joe asked. Each of them declined except Chris.

“It looks like it would be fun…” she said, but she was still unsure.

“Don’t do it, Tina,” Sara warned.

“Come on, Chris,” Joe whined. “It’ll be awesome.”

“I don’t know. It looks scary.”

“Someone’s a wuss,” Pete taunted.

“I am not a wuss,” Chris declared.

“Prove it!” Joe was shouting.

Chris launched herself at him and pushed him under the water. When she released him and he
resurfaced she said to him haughtily, “I’ll do it.”

She started to walk out of the water, when no one followed she turned around and said to them,
“Hurry up, before I change my mind.”

Joe and Pete rushed out of the water followed more slowly by the others. There weren’t very many people in line so it didn’t take them long to sign the forms and get in the harness.

“If I’m gonna do this, I need to be in the middle,” Chris told them.

The boys conceded to this demand. The operator strapped them in and hooked them up to the cables
while the lift they were on put them higher into the air. After giving them some last minute
instructions, the operator hooked them to the ripcord and lowered the lift.

They dangled in the air for a few minutes before the ripcord started to pull them the rest of the way up. Chris grabbed Pete and Joe’s hands. There was an ominous clunk when they reached the top.

“Joseph,” Chris started. “I’m going to kill you.”

A/N: haha just for you Jess. I actually have 131 pages of this written and this is like page 55 or something so maybe I'll just keep updating ridiculously. lol