"Oliver" - Carnival Ride

This is a part of my story called "Oliver". It is still in outline form save a few pieces, and this is the most completed part. This scene takes place about a quarter of the way into the story. You don't need any background, you can figure out the important stuff through reading this. Its quite long, I couldn't decide on a place to cut it off and chose instead to share it all. The story, like the other two so far posted, are based on a dream I had. This scene is based on a second dream I had about the same story. The characters are real people, though personalities may be a little different based on what I needed for the sake of plot. So this is for Kelsey, Ashley, and Caitlyn! Enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------

Oliver had been on my mind all day when Kelsey called me, inviting me to join the girls for a night out. There was a sort of carnival set up in the parking lot of the mall that they were going to that evening with some other kids from school. The carnival was small but it came every year in October, a little taste of fun and difference for the restless youth of Elyria. Seven o’clock rolled around when I heard the beep of a car horn in the driveway. I grabbed my purse and yelled goodbye to my mom, rushing outside and slipping into the backseat. Kelsey sat upfront with Caitlyn, who was driving, and Ashley sat with me in the back. They immediately started with stories and commentary on the day’s events and I let myself get wrapped up in the high school drama, laughing at the ridiculous stories they told about the students I had once shared a classroom with. I found myself missing high school during those moments, envious of the community they were a part of, how connected everyone was. I loved the college, but people were entirely on their own there, and I couldn’t help but resent that.

Fifteen minutes pass quickly when you are gossiping with friends. I felt as though I had just gotten in the car when Caitlyn put it in park and we unbuckled our seat belts. Stepping out of the car I smiled up at the all the lights. It was starting to get dark and the Ferris wheel glimmered against the cloudy backdrop. The four of us bought our tickets and passed through the little gate, excited to get started with our evening. Of course, we all had different ideas as to what would be fun and what we should do first. We decided on food, since none of us had ate anything in hours, though even that was a challenge for us to try and decide on one place. In the end we decided to divide and conquer, go where you wanted and meet back in five minutes. Sitting down for dinner was the most fun I’d had in weeks, I realized, as I found myself laughing and smiling with my friends, all other concerns far from memory.

We spent the evening riding small rides, eating fattening desserts that were only worth it at fairs and carnivals, and enjoying our time together, stopping to chat with other friends as we came across them. We finally made our way to the Ferris wheel, much to my happiness. It wasn’t huge or anything but it did allow us to look out over the rest of the carnival. It was like a tradition to me to ride the Ferris wheel last, a soothing end to a fast-paced day, but I didn’t mind going on it early. The cars only held two people each so we paired off, Caitlyn with Ashley, Kelsey with me, and clambered into the small seats. The breeze was a bit chilly but I didn’t mind. Kelsey called up to Caitlyn and Ashley, who were laughing at something down below. More like giggling, I noticed, and I followed their gaze down into the crowd with a grin on my face. The only thing that could have Caitlyn giggling so much was a cute boy. Caitlyn turned around and pointed, confirming my original guess, and Kelsey and I both leaned a bit to get a good view. The wheel had stopped spinning to let more people on, leaving us near the top and with a perfect view to pick him out.

“Down there, with the brown hair. I think he’s staring at us.” Caitlyn giggled. I was grinning as I looked down, but my smile fell from my lips quick enough to startle me. I blinked twice, my heart racing. “Isn’t he cute?” Caitlyn shouted excitedly as the wheel started to move. She was right. He had a beautiful smile on his face and he was staring at us.

“Wait, where is he? I don’t see him!” Kelsey frowned.

“Right there! Next to that girl in the pink hoodie.”

“Oh! I see him! Oh, he is cute, Cait! I think he’s staring at you, Stephi.” Kelsey giggled. I was glad she didn’t take enough time to really look at me, for my expressions would have worried her. She was right. He wasn’t staring at them. He was staring at me.

We came too low for me to see him again, going around once more. He wasn’t there this time, much to Caitlyn’s dismay. I searched the crowd desperately. Where was he? Was it really him?

Once we were off the ride, Caitlyn was immediately searching the crowd for his face again, which made Ashley and Kelsey laugh. I tried to laugh along, at least smiling enough when they looked at me to keep them from asking questions. I pushed the crazy thoughts in my head out of my mind, my heart beat slowing, insisting that there was no possible way it was him. It was only mid-October. I must have ate too much funnel cake.

As we started through the crowd I tried to let my mind fall away from the boy in the crowd. We had just bought some drinks when my attempts proved futile. Caitlyn let out a gasp and starting pointing ahead.

“Look! It’s that boy!” she exclaimed. We all turned to look, and much to my horror, there he was, smiling at us.

“O, he’s really cute.” Ashley laughed again. The three of them starting chatting while I stood back, staring at him through the crowd. He just stood there, that perfect smile of his painted on his face, his hands in his pockets as if he were patiently waiting for us. Caitlyn had the bold idea to go say hello, (“He looks like he’s alone! Let’s keep him company!”) and I followed silently.

“I’m Caitlyn.” she immediately introduced herself, holding out a hand to shake. He smiled down at her, taking her hand and shaking it gently.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Oliver.”

Was this what drowning felt like? My lungs closed up on me, I couldn’t get any air into them and I felt my head begin to spin. I couldn’t hear anything around me, all my senses focused on his perfect face, until Kelsey finally snapped me back into the real world.

“Stephanie? Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” she asked, staring at me with worry. I shook my head a little bit and looked up, forcing a smile to keep them at bay. His hands were back in his pocket, and I stared for a moment.

“Stephanie. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.” The smile on his face was one I had seen too often, like he was laughing at an inside joke, but this time I was actually in on it, too. The others didn’t seem to notice, much to my relief.

Caitlyn started chatting with him and they quickly accepted him into our little powwow. I lingered in the back while he spoke with her a couple yards ahead of us. He never looked back at me, never gave any hint that he knew me at all. I swear he looked at me the least of any of us as we continued to meander through the small carnival, going in circles as if there would be something new to try the next time around. I began to doubt myself, wondering if this was simply the universe's idea of a joke. Perhaps its was just a coincidence that they looked alike, had the same smile, same name. As much as I tried to convince myself of this, I knew it was useless. This really was Oliver. He really was here. And he really was ignoring me.

The evening was coming to a close. Caitlyn suggested going on the small rollercoaster at the far end, the one ride we had yet to go on. We all agreed and made our way back. Once we came to the end of the line, I claimed that I had ate too much and my stomach wasn’t up for the ride.

“Are you sure?” Kelsey asked with a frown.

“Yes. I shouldn’t have had that funnel cake.” I smiled.

“Ugh, fine. Well, if you‘re going to be a party pooper, you can hold our purses.” Caitlyn laughed. I nodded and took the bags into my arms.

“Mind if I sit this one out as well?” I looked up to see Oliver standing back, smiling at Caitlyn pleasantly. “I’ve never been a fan of roller coasters.” He explained as if admitting to an embarrassing secret. Caitlyn frowned but couldn’t really tell him he had to come on board.

“Sure. Wait for us, though?” she asked him.

“Of course. I’ll keep Stephanie company.” He never looked at me, his eyes hooked on Caitlyn and the other girls. They smiled and got into the line. I stood trying to relax away the goose bumps that covered my entire body after hearing him speak my name.

Before they were even out of sight, Oliver suddenly turned to me. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and revealed a piece of gum. “Walk with me.” he insisted. It wasn’t a question, but I nodded, dropping the gum into my bag.

He led me away from the bulk of the crowd, taking my hand. Had I been thinking straight I would have worried that Caitlyn, Ashley, and Kelsey were watching and could see us walking away, hand in hand, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I was only thinking about him.

We didn’t stop moving, he just kept walking, pulling me along. I was afraid that something was wrong. If he were here, now, and with me, taking me somewhere without telling me why, something had to be wrong. Didn’t it? He finally slowed down, coming to walk beside me instead of ahead of me, but he never dropped my hand.

“I’m sure you have many questions for me. I‘m early.” He finally said. I turned to him, my mind snapping back.

“Yes I do. And yes, I noticed. Why were you following me?” I felt a little self-centered to assume that he had indeed been following me, but the look on his face told me that I wasn’t wrong. He frowned, looking straight ahead. Still never looking at me.

“I wanted to see you.” he said simply.

“See me? One more week and you would have seen me. I mean, I know I don’t understand everything. But I have realized a pattern here. It’s always Halloween, always. When I saw you out there … it scared me. I was afraid something was wrong.”

“No. Nothing is wrong. I just couldn’t wait another week.” He finally looked at me and my breath caught in my throat when he smiled. “I’m going to be busy when I’m here, officially, and I wanted to have time with you.” Oliver went on to explain. He continued to smile, but it seemed strained. I couldn’t help but feel concerned, and I knew he could read that on my face. “Don’t worry, Stephanie. It’s just … work stuff.” He smiled so brightly that I couldn’t bring myself to doubt him.

“How is Ben doing?”

“He’s doing really well. That was a fluke, you know, nothing to worry about now.” I reminded him.

“I know. I still can’t help but worry.”

“Is that why you keep coming back? To make sure he’s not …”

Oliver shook his head. “I came back the second time to see you.”

One thing I still was not use to was how straight forward Oliver was. He didn’t hide things and when he answered my questions he didn’t hold anything back. It sometimes caught me off guard. I wasn’t use to such honesty in people.

We continued walking, though now is silence. My mind wandered to focus on our hands. I never realized how intimate and comforting hand holding could be, or maybe it was just him that made something so simple seem so fantastic. We stopped at a bench not far from the roller coaster and sat down. Our hands were still locked tightly, and I stared down at them. I then realized that he was staring, too, but not at our hands, but at my face. I looked up at him, my cheeks immediately turning red, and he smiled.

“We have something, don’t we?” His words were simple, but they still held so much meaning.

“Yes, we do.” I replied with a nod.

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Every time I see you, you have aged. Its hard sometimes, to see you so little.”

“You never seem to age at all. Each year, you look precisely the same.”

He smiled that same secret smile again, and I longed to be in the know.

“Why is that?” I asked him. “I know so little about you, and everything I do know leads to more questions.”

“I promise I’ll explain this time. But not yet. Your friends are about to get off the ride.”

We rose to our feet and started towards the ride, still linked at the hands. As we rounded a corner and into sight, he automatically dropped my hands, and smiled at me. “I’d hate to appear as anything less than a gentleman.”

It was impossible not to laugh at this as we came up to the girls, which almost helped ease the moment. They seemed a little confused, but it wasn’t hard to convince them that things were okay.

“I needed a drink, Stephanie offered to come with me.” Oliver’s voice was like velvet and worked it’s magic on them. I handed back the purses to each of them and they started on about how bumpy the ride was and complaining of whiplash. I felt like I was going to get whiplash myself as Oliver immediately resumed the role of not knowing me and walked in front with Caitlyn instead.

The booths were beginning to close and we figured it was probably a good time to leave. The five of us exited the carnival and headed towards the parked cars. As we came closer to Caitlyn’s car I realized that he was parked next to us. It was a car I had never seen, but I knew it was his.

“That’s ironic.” He laughed as we came up to the cars. They laughed along at the obvious irony. I laughed at how ironic it was that they found it ironic.

“It was nice hanging out with you all tonight.” Oliver began.

Caitlyn was the first to reply.

“I had a lot of fun, Oliver. It was lucky we ran into you, huh?” I could have snorted, but held it back. The quick flash of a grin on Oliver’s face informed me that he had noticed, and I tried not to laugh even more.

“Yes, it was quite lucky. Thank you for allowing me to join your group for the evening.” I could tell that his proper language was winning them over, and so I stepped aside and opened the car door, dropping my bag onto the back seat.

One by one Kelsey and Ashley gave Oliver a small hug, the awkwardness of new friends apparent in their body language. Caitlyn stood to Oliver’s side, determined to have the last hug. Oliver turned to me and I tried to keep a straight face.

“It was nice meeting you, Stephanie. I liked our little chat.” He smiled. I forgot to breathe.

“No problem,” was all I could manage in response. His hands had returned to his pockets, and he didn’t reach to hug me. I made no gesture forward either. Kelsey, Ashley and I made our way into the car, leaving he and Caitlyn alone. I heard them laugh and he gave her a hug. “It was nice to meet you.” I heard him say as I shut the door. She got into the driver’s seat with a wide smile and Kelsey started poking fun at her. Oliver seated himself in his own car, and I stared over at him. He looked over at me as we started to pull out, and I couldn’t look away. He smiled sweetly at me, and my heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was hiding something from me, but I tried not to worry about it for now.

The girls were staying the night at Caitlyn’s house and originally I had planned to go home. Caitlyn dropped me off and I sat outside on the porch, sending prayers into the wind. I sat there for nearly an hour before I finally gave up and realized that he wasn‘t coming. I came inside and said hi to my mother before proceeding upstairs and packing a bag.

“I’m going over to Caitlyn’s for the night, okay?” I called as I came down the stairs.

“Sure. Have fun.”

I went out and dropped my stuff into the car. Standing outside my door for a moment, I felt the warm breeze on my face, and realize that he wasn’t there.

When I got to Caitlyn’s they were surprised but didn’t mind my intrusion. We stayed up for hours watching movies and talking about Oliver. I didn’t participate much in the conversation. I didn’t have anything to add, really. It seemed strange to talk about how cute he was or how his eyes were “the perfect shade of blue”. Oliver was beyond all of that and it felt silly to try and lower him to such a level.

“I wonder where he’s from. I didn’t ask what school he goes to.” Caitlyn suddenly said. I was sure she had been talking about other things concerning him before, I just hadn’t noticed until this question.

“He’s from out of town.” I didn’t realized that I’d said anything until after the words were out of my mouth and they were all looking at me curiously.

“Did he tell you that while we were on the roller coast?” Caitlyn asked, sitting up from her pile of pillows. Part of me wanted to tell them the truth, to let them know that I knew him. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it, it would only lead to more questions, and I hated questions.

“Yeah. I made a comment about how your purses were heavier than my text books and he asked where I went to school.” I lied, but it seemed to work. They continued on and I simply rolled over, staring out the window. They finally assumed that I was just tired and let me be. They turned on another movie, but I didn’t pay any attention. For a moment I glanced out the window and I could have sworn I saw Oliver staring back at me. For the next two hours, I just stared back, not knowing if it was him or not, but not caring. It was almost 4am when they finally turned off the lights and went to bed. I realized that I wasn’t going to sleep that night no matter how much I tried. So, I got up and tip toed downstairs to get a glass of water. The kitchen was stuffy so I pushed open the small window above the sink. The breeze rushed into the room and gave me chills. I could have sworn I heard my name in the wind. I looked up. Standing there as if it were perfectly normal to be out in some stranger’s yard at an ungodly hour of the morning, Oliver stared back at me, a frown on his lips. I wish I was small and nimble enough to climb through the window. I wanted to cry as I watched him stand there. I knew now that something was wrong, and I was terrified to find out the details. I started to open the window even higher as to try and speak to him, but it closed on me instead. I looked up in shock, knowing it was his doing. His body was turned away, but he looked up at me with pain in his expression. He began to walk away and I felt my knees weakening beneath me. I blinked, and he was gone as quickly as the breeze.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I drove robotically the entire way home the next morning, not even realizing that I was at my house until I was parked in the driveway. I continued this way for two days, laying in my bed most of the evening on the thirtieth, counting down to midnight. Counting down to Halloween.

The next morning I got up early and poured myself some cereal only to realize that we are out of milk. I put on my jacket and some jeans and headed out to the store, too impatient to wait for my dad to go out shopping. When I came home I pulled in just as robotically as the day before. As I came up the walk to our front door, I turned, the glimmer of a car parked on the street catching my eye. Leaning on the door stood Oliver. I looked away and went inside.

My mom was in the kitchen making oatmeal when I walked in and put the milk away.

“I was wondering where you went so early.” she smiled. I didn’t say anything, moving around as if confused before finally standing still and leaning back on the counter.

“He’s here.”

“Who’s here?”

“Oliver.”

My mom smiles. “It is Halloween, Steph. I’m not surprised.”

I pause a moment. “He’s been here, mom. We ran into him at the carnival two days ago.”

She looked up at me, looking nearly as confused as I was. “We? The girls met him?”

“Yes. They don’t know that we know each other.”

She frowned but shrugged it off. “He’s early. So what? I’d think you’d be happy to see more of your friend.” she winked before heading downstairs, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I sighed, looking over at my cereal. I was no longer hungry.

I rush after my mom, hanging on the corner of the wall and staring downstairs at her desperately.

“What do you think he is?” I asked her. She took a moment to think, sighing as she contemplated the question, but ultimately smiled at me.

“I don’t know, babe. Does it matter?” she asked. I don’t know how to answer. “I think we should just feel lucky to have a little magic and mystery in our lives.”

I frown at her, though I knew she was right. Still, I couldn't help but feel that there was so much more to Oliver that I didn't know, that I needed to know. He was right, there was something there, but how were we suppose to know what it was if I didn't really know him? Magic and mystery. They were the perfect words to use. I loved the magic, but the mystery I could do without. "I only like mystery in TV shows and books, not real life." I said to myself, frowning as I carefully walked towards the front window. He was still standing there against the car, waiting. I stared at him, trying to will my feet to move.