LAILAH
FIFTEEN
Walking up to the entrance to Six Flags with the sound of screaming people, the clicking of the roller coasters, and the music blaring over the speaker was exhilarating.
I tugged on Jay's hand once we made it through the security check towards The Demon.
"We have to hit this one up first, it's my favorite," I announced.
Jay had decided that I had to be attached to him at all times, unless on a ride or in the bathroom, because he's convinced I'll get lost in the crowds. Even though it wasn't peak season and people were still in school, all the college kids were taking advantage, making it busier than we expected.
"We can't leave the others behind," Jay answered, pulling me against his chest, trapping me in his arms as he looked down at me. "I wasn't kidding about the rules, Beautiful, know that I will be keeping track if you break them."
"You really should be careful saying shit like that around her brothers, they might not understand how you mean it," Cami pointed out an impish grin on her face.
Jay's steel colored eyes looked down at her and frowned. "They should appreciate that I'm keeping her safe."
"Oh, that I don't think they'll have a problem with, it's the spankings that come later I'm talking about," Cami explained. "Lailah's family is as traditional and vanilla as they come, let's not stress them out too much."
This actually got a bark of laughter to come from Jay, which shocked both me and Cami.
"What's funny enough that you got him to laugh?" Parker asked when he joined us.
"Nothing you need to know," Jay stated.
Soon enough, the rest of our crew gathered with Hudson and Kyle pouring over a map of the park.
"I have a foolproof method of making sure we hit every ride at times that are known for being the lowest wait time.
The trick is making sure we start with the right ride off the bat, or it will throw the whole process off," Kyle informed Hudson, and proceeded to tell him all about whatever brilliant math thing he used to find the right variables.
"Yo, Kyle," I called out. "What’s the first ride? We need to get this show on the road. It's already fifteen minutes past opening."
Sure enough, that was all I needed to say to get the reaction I wanted, causing Kyle to blurt out the name of the ride. "Raging Bull!"
Jay led the charge after studying the map the whole drive down, saying something about needing to know all the exits and lay of the area.
We might be at an amusement park to have fun and relax, but I wasn't sure that relaxing was a concept that Jay or Hudson completely understood.
Raging Bull was one ride that took me a few years to actually go on, since it had one of the steepest drops right at the beginning but once I sucked it up and did it, I was hooked.
"Fun fact about Lailah," Dylan piped up as we got in line for the ride.
"She is one you literally have to force onto the ride no matter what she says, because in the end she loves it.
Just wait, she'll be fine, then as she watches the ride go and the people panic she'll get cold feet and try to bail—don't let her. "
I gaped at him. "I do not."
Kyle snorted. "Oh yeah you do, sis."
"Trust me, that won't be a problem if she's attached to Jay all day," Micah said, giving me a wink when I glared at him. "He won't let her back out of anything she's agreed to do or rules to follow. Isn't that right, Cookie Monster?"
"Oh, you are so not getting lucky tonight," Cami snickered.
Micah just shrugged like that fact didn't bother him one bit, he already knew he wasn't going to be sharing the bed with me tonight.
That didn't mean I wouldn't come up with some way to retaliate later on, when he'd all but forgotten about his comment.
It didn't take us long to get onto the ride, thanks to Kyle's skills and I hopped right on and pulled the bar down around my lap without any hesitation.
"Dude, you really fucked up this time," Parker commented as he got in the car behind me and Jay. "Did you see the look on her face just now?"
"Fuck off, Care Bear, worry about your own issues hanging out with us today," Micah snapped back at him.
I snapped my head around and gave them a dirty look. "You keep that shit to yourselves, no matter what happened in the past she is here as my brother's girlfriend, and she will be respected as such. Do you hear me?"
They both nodded their understanding, so I turned back to the front satisfied, feeling Micah's tinge of guilt.
It was sure coming in handy having this connection to my moody man-child.
Then we were off and all conversation stopped as we climbed up the massive incline, the rattling of the coaster all I could focus on.
Jay reached out and took my hand, unclenching it from the handhold in the harness and interlaced our fingers.
There was a slight pause at the top where we seemed to hang in midair before we plunged down, yanking a scream from my throat that didn't last the whole way to the bottom, where we entered into a tunnel and shot back up into the bright late morning sun.
Getting my breath back I grinned, tossing my arm up as we went down the second drop, still holding Jay's hand whooping my excitement.
All too soon, the ride was over and we had to get off, my body still vibrating with the adrenaline.
Glancing back at the others I caught sight of Phoebe, who was white as a ghost clutching onto my brother as he walked across the platform to the exit.
"Phoebe, are you alright?" I asked, rushing over.
She licked her lips and gulped down a few breaths of air before she could give me an answer. "I'm alive…barely."
"Why didn't you tell us that you were afraid of roller coasters?" I demanded, helping to steady her as we walked back to the front of the ride.
"I didn't want to be the one to ruin your fun together, your brother can't take much time off and I knew how much he missed you," she explained. "I just need some water and I'll be fine."
I looked up at Dylan and saw the guilty look on his face as he helped her to sit on a bench. "I'll go get a water bottle—be right back."
"Don't worry we'll stay with her," I promised, sitting beside her rubbing her back. "Is there anything else we can do to help?"
"If anyone has motion sickness pills or a patch, those always helped her," Parker suggested.
I pulled out my phone and texted Dylan to see if any of the gift shops might have that in the park. It made sense to me that they would, but you never know.
"Wait," Kyle spoke up. "Parker, do you know Phoebe?"
Parker looked over at me then Phoebe before he nodded his head. "Yeah, we were good friends back in high school, we lost touch since then."
"Talk about a small world, they say there is a separation of seven people for you to know someone. Seems that this worked out to be a case of two people," Kyle said, far more interested in the math of the situation than the fact neither of them admitted it before this.
An awkward silence fell as we waited for Dylan to come back, unsure of where to take things from here. So, I did my sisterly duty and came up with random small talk. "How did the two of you meet?"
"Oh, well we both work for the law firm but under different partners," Phoebe answered. "He wants to go into business law to be more helpful to your parents while they still run the diner. I like the more messy dramatic family and estate law, people show their true colors at that point."
"Wait, did you say estate law? Like that has to do with wills and trusts right?" I asked excitedly.
Phoebe nodded, a little surprised at my reaction. "Ah, yes exactly those types of things."
"Did you do school in the States or overseas?" I pressed.
As if Micah caught on to what I was leading up to, he set a hand on my shoulder and gave a gentle but firm squeeze in warning. I could also feel his worry through our connection begging me not to talk about this in front of the others.
"Overseas at Cambridge, why do you ask?"
"Well, I've been going to school overseas now at Ryevick University," I shared now ,trying to come up with a reason I asked that wouldn't make me look stupid. "I was just curious to talk about the differences between types of schools."
Phoebe gave me an odd look when I told her I was at Ryevick, but she schooled her face quickly enough that I assumed it was because I said something dumb.
"I've been to so many different schools all over the world, but none of them have been here in America.
That might be why I picked being here to be honest," Phoebe sighed.
"My father could not understand why I didn't want to take an internship closer to home, but it was time for me to spread my wings and be on my own.
Shortly after I was brought onto the team, I met Dylan and we hit it off right away, so I have to say it was fate. "
My heart warmed hearing this, having experienced this myself with the guys. How people like us could travel halfway around the world and find love was amazing.
"Hey sis, good call on the motion sickness pills," Dylan called out when he returned.
"They didn't have any in the shops, but I asked security if they had an EMS on staff and he had some in his pack.
They must be something special because I've never seen it come in a liquid form like this before.
You're just supposed to add it to water and drink it that way. "
This seemed to catch Hudson's attention, seeing as his family runs a pharmaceutical company, it didn't shock me he might have some incite. "Do you mind if I look at the packaging?"
"Oh…ah sorry he mixed it up for me, said since it was hospital grade, he needed to prepare it," Dylan explained, handing over the water bottle to Phoebe. "Why would you want to look at it anyways?"
I could feel how uncertain Hudson felt and tugged on our connection getting him to look at me. Giving him a questioning brow I looked from the bottle to him hoping he would guess what I was thinking.
"My family is in the pharmaceutical business and I was just curious what they would use, it helps to have that information in case she had a reaction to something in the medication," Hudson offered.
Dylan bit the edge of his lip as Phoebe raised the water to her lips. "I'm sure it can't be anything too crazy, he's an EMT after all, wouldn't he have warned me if there was a side effect to watch out for?"
"I don't know what training they go through here in America, but I know most are not taught as in-depth about medication as doctors or pharmacists are," Hudson sighed, rubbing his brow as Phoebe gulped down the water and made a face at the taste.
"We’ll just keep a close eye on her for the next half hour, if there's no reaction I'm sure things will be fine. "
"Does that mean we need to leave?" Kyle asked, sounding a little disheartened.
Dylan tossed his arm around our little brother's shoulders and grinned. "Nah little bro, you go with the others and have fun. Phoebe and I will relax and do some epic people watching while we wait for the meds to kick in. Once everything is fine, we’ll catch up with you, sound like a plan?"
Kyle nodded, smiling from ear to ear as he pulled out the map and looked at his watch.
I knew he was doing all the calculations in his head for the best ride to go on next.
"Yes, it's the Joker next! It’s new this year and I can't wait to try it out.
Come on, we need to get a move on if we want to hit the perfect window. "
Standing, I paused as Dylan took my seat on the bench. "Keep us updated okay, if I don't hear from you in thirty minutes, we’re hunting your ass down. Trust me when I say that Jay can find anybody when he wants to."
"Don't worry sis, we'll be fine, you're the one who gets lost all the time," he joked waving me off. "Don't puke. I hear that ride is like the Zipper from the state fair, but worse."
That made me pause, I didn't get sick on rides but the one time I did, it was because I tried to win the eat a whole pie and get another whole pie for free. Going on a ride full of blackberry pie was not the world's smartest idea and Dylan never let me live it down.
"It was the pie," I said defensively.
"Then isn't it a good thing you had another one to eat when we got home," Dylan shot back with a wicked smile.
"Keep sharing dirt like that and who knows what Phoebe might learn, still got that special stuffy you loved so much," I threatened.
Dylan turned bright red and started to stutter. "D…don…don't you dare!"
"You've been warned," I cautioned, giving him the hand gesture that I would be watching him as we walked away.
Jay took up my hand once again with a soft chuckle that was almost lost in the noise around us. "Watching you three makes me wish I had a sibling—then I remember I have these assholes," Jay muttered as he gestured to the four guys walking ahead of us.
"I would say they’re a pretty good glimpse into what it's like," I agreed.
Hudson slowed his walk to join us, taking my free hand in his. "Tell me why I'm so worried about Phoebe taking that medication?"
"Do we have any idea if the Day-Brite serum has crossed into the US?" I asked, looking at Jay.
"There have been no confirmed cases by the Elementi here, but it is one of the hardest things to detect.
It doesn't show up on any screening we've tried so far, but there is a spike in missing persons cases across America.
Enough that the FBI had been looking into it, even though there is nothing connecting them together," Jay shared.
"They’ve had the drug long enough that they could have found a new subtle way to administer it, versus injecting it like they had been doing," Hudson admitted.
"That fact alone makes me worried, it only takes one medical professional like that to start administering it.
People come here from all over and then go home, making it virtually impossible to trace where the dose could have happened. "
"Has your father's people come up with any other helpful attributes from their studies?" I asked hopefully.
Hudson looked down at me, his eyes sad, and shook his head. Those poor people that had been secret test subjects forever had their lives altered for the sake of others. They were the reason I was pushing so hard to find a cure through my blood, I just hoped we could find it in time.