Robyn (10 page)

What kind of party had rules?

Ours did.

Any ride that required someone actually work it — like Screaming Falls — was closed. Since no lifeguards were officially on duty — but lifeguards were everywhere — we had access to all other areas of the park. We were supposed to watch out for each other, always do things in pairs. No one, according to Mr. T when he made the announcement, was supposed to be a lone wolf.

The kiosks with drinks and ice cream and snacks were left full and unattended. We could just take what we wanted.

For the first hour, Mr. T and the manager of each section were at Scavenger’s cooking up free hot dogs for anyone who wanted them.

“This is really cool,” I said to Whitney when we sat at a table with our dogs. “Did you have any idea that they’d do all this for us?”

She shrugged and took a bite. “I’d hoped.”

“It must be costing them a fortune.”

“Not really. Hot dogs are cheap. So what if all the employees have a couple of them? It’s not that much. We’ll have happy employees and happy employees work harder.”

She sounded like some sort of commercial.

“Including you?”

She laughed. “Not me. This was just an excuse for a party.” She nodded her head to the side. “So, it looks like Caitlin got her guy.”

I looked over my shoulder. Caitlin was
sitting at a table with Tanner. She was smiling, looking happy.

“Yeah, I think she did.” I wondered if he’d kiss her tonight.

“Hey.”

I jerked around at the familiar voice. Sean sat between Whitney and me.

“This is pretty cool,” he said before taking a bite of a hot dog. He was wearing black swim trunks, a black tank top, and black flip-flops.

“You’re really into black, aren’t you?” I said.

“You know it. Wearing the park uniform … it’s torture to put it on every day.”

“Guys, I’m going to go get us all an ice cream,” Whitney said.

It looked like Sean was going to object, maybe offer to go with her, but she’d headed out before she’d finished telling us what she planned to do. Which left me alone with Sean. It wasn’t that I really felt uncomfortable being with him. I was just having a difficult time understanding our relationship.
Quite honestly, I was spending more time talking to him lately than I was spending with Caitlin.

Sean finished off his hot dog. I tried to make an origami swan with my limp napkin — which really didn’t work too well.

“So … have you been on the Bermuda Triangle this year?” he asked.

“All work and no play —”

“Makes us both dull, right?”

I smiled. “I’m not dull.” Or maybe I was, I thought, as I looked at my limp swan.

“Hey, guys,” Whitney said, coming back over without ice cream. “We’re going to do a train at the Bermuda Triangle. Come on, let’s go.”

She had about a dozen people with her. Nick and Jake and a couple of other guys and some girls I hadn’t met.

Before I could even decide if this was something I wanted to do, Sean grabbed my hand. “All work and no play — we’re the two dullest people here.”

“Speak for yourself,” I said, laughing.

“Caitlin, Tanner! Come on,” Whitney called out. “We’re going to break the Guinness World Record with a train of people going down a slide.”

“Is that even a record that’s recorded?” Sean asked me.

“I don’t know.”

He was still holding my hand, but I figured it was just, I don’t know, reflex maybe. I was sure it didn’t mean anything — to him at least.

It was kind of a strange thing to realize that it actually meant something to me. I wondered when I started to like him — as more than Caitlin’s brother, as more than my supervisor. The truth was I didn’t want anyone else holding my hand. I didn’t want to go down the slide with anyone else.

But there were so many people that I realized I probably could end up with someone else — unless Sean didn’t let go of my hand. So I did something that I, shy Robyn, never did. I held on so he couldn’t let go.

When we got to the Bermuda Triangle, everyone gathered around the stairs that would take us to the top of the slide. Gathered because Whitney was blocking the entrance.

“Okay, everyone listen. We have to go up boy girl boy girl. At the top, we all sit down, put our arms around the person in front of us, then the train will start going down the slide — don’t let go.”

“Is this safe?” someone asked.

“Probably not. But who cares? Chickens stay behind. The rest of you, let’s go.”

“As a supervisor, I probably shouldn’t do this,” Sean said as people edged past us.

“You’re not a supervisor right now,” I said. “At this moment, you’re just an employee.”

“I guess. Okay, I’ll do it. Let’s go.”

When we got to the top, we were the last in line. I put my arms around Tanner who had his arms around Caitlin. Sean put his arms around me and I almost stopped breathing. I liked it so much. I liked him holding me.

“Everyone ready!” Whitney yelled.

A resounding chorus of “
Yes!
” echoed around us.

“Let’s do it,” she shouted.

We heard screams as people started going down the slide. Of course, we hadn’t given any thought to the logistics of moving forward to the edge of the slide while still sitting.

“Ah!” Caitlin yelled. “The chain broke.”

“That’s okay,” Tanner said. “Two’s more fun anyway.”

I let go of him, and he and Caitlin moved to the edge of the slide and went over together.

“Guess it’s just us,” Sean said.

I looked back at him. “I guess so.”

“So, do you want to do it solo?”

I shook my head. “Not really.”

“Okay.”

We moved to the top of the slide and sat down. He put his arms around me. “Ready,” he asked near my ear.

A shiver went down my spine. I nodded.

“Here we go!”

He shoved off, pushing himself and me over the edge. We were hurtling down the slide —

And suddenly there was no slide. Just the emptiness. I don’t know how he held on to me, but he did and we plunged into the water together. Sean was heavier, he was going deeper so he let go of me.

When I broke through to the surface, I was sputtering and laughing. Sean popped up just a few seconds later.

“That was fun,” he said. “Maybe I’ve spent too much of my life trying to do the right thing.”

It seemed like a confession of sorts. I didn’t totally understand why, but it made me feel like he was talking about something else. Suddenly I was very much aware of him as a guy — not as Caitlin’s brother.

“Race you to the edge of the pool,” I said.

I swam as hard as I could, trying not to think about all these crazy feelings and thoughts that were jumbling around inside
me. But no matter how hard I swam, I was no match for Sean. He reached the edge of the pool first and hefted himself out of the water. Then he reached down to give me a hand up.

I put my hand in his and wondered when he’d gotten so strong. When he pulled me out of the water, and I was standing in front of him breathing heavily, I wondered when being close to him started making my heart thump.

“So what’s next?” he asked.

“The rapids?”

“Let’s go.”

He took my hand again, and it made me wonder what he’d say if I told him the truth — that what I really wanted next was a kiss.

*  *  *  

It was kinda strange. Sean and I ended up doing all of the rides together. Whitney had disappeared to who-knows-where, with who-knows-who, and Caitlin was hanging out with Tanner.

The first time our paths crossed after the Bermuda Triangle, Caitlin had given me a big grin, like she was absolutely happy, totally into Tanner. The next time, maybe some of the novelty had worn off, because she’d given me a what-are-you-still-doing-with-my-brother look.

But she wasn’t so worried about it that she was going to leave Tanner to find out what was going on. I was glad because I wasn’t really sure what was going on. I was having fun with Sean.

“Do you like Screaming Falls?” he asked.

“It’s my favorite. I was really sorry they closed it down for the night.”

“You can keep a secret, right?”

“Oh, yeah. No problem.”

“You can’t even tell Caitlin — and you absolutely can’t tell Whitney, because we’d all get in trouble.”

“I know the party was Whitney’s idea, but it’s not like she’s the boss. And she’s not exactly Miss-do-everything-she’s-supposed-to-do either.”

“Still, she … we just don’t want her to know about this.”

“Who is ‘we’ and what is ‘this’?”

“I’m putting my job in your hands.”

Then he put my hand in his and started pulling me off toward the shadows. They hadn’t left any lights on in this area, because we weren’t supposed to do the rides in this section of Thrill Hill. Most required an attendant.

Sean turned a corner and started leading me up the stairs that would take us to the top of Screaming Falls.

“Wait, what are we doing?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you because I swore I wouldn’t tell a nonsupervisor —”

I heard a scream and then a splash.

“Are y’all doing the slide?”

He put his finger to my mouth. “
Shh.
We gotta hurry before we get caught.”

I laughed. “You’re not Mister-I-never-do-anything-I’m-not-supposed-to-do.”

“Keep it a secret, okay?” he said as he pulled me up the steps.

Lisa was waiting at the top. “Morgan, supervisors only.”

“She won’t tell.”

He pulled me into the booth and closed the door.

“We’re going to do —”

The floor dropped out before I could finish asking him if we were doing this together. I hadn’t even realized that he’d wrapped his arms around me and I’d wrapped mine around him. But we were hurtling down another slide, holding each other.

It was fun and exhilarating.

I liked this slightly bad Sean — the one who wanted to have a good time. We hit the water, went under, bounced back up. Then we were swimming to the side to get out as quickly as possible — before we were discovered.

They sounded the alarm to signal that they were going to start turning off the water to the various slides.

Sean and I started walking toward Tsunami where we’d left our stuff on lounge
chairs earlier. We’d been so comfortable going down slides together, traveling through the rapids. Now suddenly we were quiet, almost like strangers.

I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t think of anything clever — or at least un-stupid — sounding.

Caitlin was waiting for us at the lounging deck. “Tanner is going to take me home,” she announced. “I already called Mom and she said it was okay.”

But she hadn’t asked me if it was okay. She was leaving me to ride home alone with her brother. What was wrong with her?

I guess when it came to choosing between a possible boyfriend or a best friend that she was going to choose the possible boyfriend.

“All right,” Sean said.

“I’ll talk to you later,” Caitlin said.

Maybe she was getting back at me for hanging out with Whitney. But that just wasn’t Caitlin. We were on the same team always. Unfortunately we’d had so much going on that we really hadn’t had a chance
to talk, and she had no idea that I was starting to have all these thoughts about her brother. But even if we did have time, I couldn’t tell her that I was starting to like Sean. She’d never understand.

She thought he was irritating.

I watched her and Tanner walk off, holding hands.

“Seems kinda serious,” I said to no one in particular.

“Yeah,” Sean said, reminding me that he was standing nearby.

“I wonder if Whitney could give me a ride home,” I murmured.

“What?”

I looked over at him. “Well, I just hate for you to have to go to the trouble —”

“We live in the same neighborhood.”

“I know, but I know you put up with me because I’m Caitlin’s friend.”

He stared at me for a minute, shook his head, and sighed. Then he shifted his gaze past me. “Whitney, can you give Robyn a ride home?”

“What? Oh, sure.”

“Sean —”

“It’s okay. I get it. You’re Caitlin’s friend. I’ll pick you up in the morning.”

Watching him walk away, I wondered what had just happened.

I heard Whitney’s flip-flops slapping the ground as she walked over. She had a towel wrapped around her waist, her wet hair caught up in back with a jeweled clip.

“What was all that about?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I saw you guys hanging out. I thought maybe …” Her voice trailed off.

“Maybe what?”

“That you liked each other. You’re always hanging out together.”

“I thought he liked you. I mean, he never yells at you for not working and he always wants to make sure you’re happy.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s always looking out for you, telling me to be friends with you —”

“So you’re friends with me because he told you to be?”

My night was going from bad to worse. “In the beginning, yes, but not so much now. I mean, now I like you. I want to be friends.”

“Well, geez, thanks so much.”

She started walking toward the entrance.

I glanced around. Almost everyone had left.