16. Ivy Jade
Ivy Jade
Tonight, I ditched my heels and vintage outfit for some loose jeans, a comfy pullover sweater, and the ratty sneakers High Jynx found me.
Not my finest moment, it’s just… I didn’t want to keep ruining my heels and cute clothes.
Could I afford better ones? Absolutely. I just didn’t have any dedicated shopping I wanted to do in this city.
The only thing I didn’t ditch was my safety necklace.
I held onto that thing as if it were pepper spray, my own personal repellent for gross, creepy monsters. I stashed it away in my purse.
Once I got there and paid for my ticket with cash, I went through the turnstile.
I sat on one of the nearby benches and waited for High Jynx to find me.
The park was still packed, no doubt, it was Halloween week, but it was getting harder to differentiate between the guests and monsters, because everyone was dressed up.
I saw tons of little Monsters, Inc. characters galore, Sally and Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas, Terrifier clowns—mini and adult versions, yikes—and even some kids who weren’t dressed so scary, like a princess, some frogs, puppies, and unicorns.
Maybe I’d been looking at this crowd all wrong.
The atmosphere and energy of the park felt overly joyful, even with screaming kids and laughing parents.
It made me smile. Looking back, I wished my family had done something normal like this growing up.
It wasn’t like we never visited an amusement park; we went to Disneyland a lot.
California, Tokyo, Paris. Typically, my parents and their work friends would rent the entire park out for us kids.
I’d never really seen something as suffocating and crowded as this, but I liked something about it.
Loud skating sounded from afar. My head whipped to my right so quickly, and there he was… High Jynx in all his glory, running up and scaring unsuspecting victims near a large circular walkway just up ahead.
My lips tugged into a smile, watching as horrified guests ran off, screamed, or jumped as high as a cat. This was almost as fun as watching terrible drunk karaoke singers pour their hearts out into believing they had musical talent—what, it’s true.
High Jynx hadn’t seen me.
There was a surprising sense of anxiety that lived within me. It swirled in my stomach like I was back in school, waiting for the teacher to call upon me to read out loud. Only, this was a good feeling. Anxious, yes, but in a way that felt like it could manifest positively.
I wanted to find Tallulah’s rings, of course, but I also didn’t want to find them too quickly.
I wanted to spend more time with this performer who had me in a bit of a chokehold.
I wanted to know more about him, like the way I knew Antonio.
Who was High Jynx really? What was his favorite movie?
Was he allergic to avocados? Had he visited any other countries?
What was his favorite music–although I could guess it probably wasn’t bubblegum pop like mine.
His entire persona had taken up so much of my mental real estate these last few days; I was curious what our time together could really look like.
He and I. My little secret friend—a fantasy figure I began to build in my head, like a knight ruling over his scary kingdom.
I even started wondering about his lips, about how his kiss would feel.
And when we almost had that moment in the fun house, I wanted to yell at the screaming guests who ruined everything for us.
The gnawing what-ifs scratched at my head. What if I hadn’t been such a scaredy cat? What if I gave in to his arms that pulled me in when I got nervous? What if I could… invite him to Tallulah’s wedding as my plus-one? I think I was allowed one of those, regardless of Antonio.
Oh, god…
Why was I so into him? His tattoos, the way his clothes fit him, his makeup. My smile grew. He scared a group of young women, who then pulled their cameras out and grabbed selfies with him. One of them got a little too close for my liking.
Meanwhile, things with Ro were… different.
When we talked earlier today, he understood and apologized for what happened all those years ago.
Maybe this whole time I’d been much harsher than I realized over what happened at Gustav’s graduation party.
Maybe it was crazy to think this, but Ro may have been the only person to ever truly listen to me.
He showed me his patience, so why wouldn’t I show that back?
Was this why Tallulah changed? I noticed her interests shifted after Gustav’s graduation party.
Her clothing stayed preppy throughout high school, but toward the end of our senior year, she began to express her interests more openly.
Black babydoll dresses, fishnets, velvet textures, lace, grungy goth vibes, black sharp eyeliner, and deep burgundy lipstick.
By the time she left for college and came back home, we were two different people. Well, Tallulah dropped out halfway through to open her own curated vintage store in town. Everything was goth–so not my vibe–but it was beautiful; she found something she really loved.
For me… I wasn’t sure what I loved in life.
I lived for what Mami and Papi wanted from me, but never once considered what I wanted for myself.
I knew I enjoyed reading, stories, romance, and my own curated library.
And of course, Nelly. She was the best Pomeranian a gal could have.
God, I missed her. I should have brought her with me, but I had her stay behind with our house and dog sitter.
Out of nowhere, the scraping sounds crashed into my field of vision.
I held my chest. “Oh, my god…” I looked up to see High Jynx skating toward me on his knee pads.
He stopped flawlessly right at my legs on the bench, and although it did scare me, I could tell he didn’t mean to.
He softly skated towards me, if that was even a thing.
“You’re back,” he said, with a knowing smile on his face.
“I couldn’t get enough of the Scare Park,” I tried to joke, hiding my bashful smile.
“Nothing scares you anymore, does it?” High Jynx said in a deep, guttural tone.
It was so hard to tell if we were even flirting anymore. Everything felt coded and laced with something I’d normally read in ‘Unmasking My Bright Knight.’ The whole interaction fed into something spectacular–something that felt reserved for fiction.
“I’m warming up to the appeal…” I said, crossing my legs and leaning in.
“I knew you would, Princess.”
My body liquified.
He stayed on his knees as he talked to me, one knee up and one down. We were at eye level with one another. Those painted black diamond-shaped eyes looked deeply into mine. And his red painted lips? I wanted them painted on mine. My fingers longed to touch his gorgeous jawline cut from stone.
“New outfit?” I asked, scooting to the edge of the bench.
High Jynx leaned into his raised knee. His face was close to mine. “I wear the suit jacket when it’s cold. I’m surprised you don’t have some kind of furry coat on. You know… cause it is pretty chilly out,” he stumbled over his words. It was so adorable.
Now that he said it, maybe I did underdress for the cold. My pullover sweater kept me just comfortable enough when the sun was out… but at nightfall, it felt chillier than I anticipated.
“Not today,” I said. “I just really need to find those pesky rings, so I’m sure I won’t be here too long.
The funhouse was a bust, though. Did you talk to the maintenance workers about the ditch today?
” I asked, feeling somewhat optimistic. I really didn’t want to go digging in the mud myself, and figured if the professionals who spent all day working in that spot couldn’t find the rings, then maybe they weren’t really there.
“I’m sorry, but the ditch was a bust…” he said, looking down at the tips of his shoes. He seemed just as disappointed.
“Shit…” I cursed, sighing. “I mean, shoot. Whichever word. Never mind—what about the lost and found? Anyone turn them in today?” I crossed my arms, trying to keep warm.
He shook his head. “There was nothing valuable in those bins for me to take.” He grinned.
I eyed him in a playful way.
“I’m sorry. That’s not funny. But I promise we'll find them.” He reached for my hand like he had before, and I happily took it. We began walking down the familiar path I’d already grown accustomed to.
“I think so, too. Well, I hope to, anyway. If they really are lost, my parents can replace them, I guess,” I said.
“You mean her parents?”
I shook my head. “No. It’s my brother’s wedding, too. And since it’s my fault I lost them, my parents will fix the situation before the bride and groom figure it out. I think they would be embarrassed that I lost them. They are very particular about their image.”
“Interesting,” he said under his breath.
The single word made me feel icky, like my parents solved problems by throwing cash around.
“Sometimes… I forget my life is pretty different from most people.”
He smirked. “I can imagine.”
My heartbeat pounded nervously against my chest.
“I’m not, like, spoiled or anything. I’m very grateful for my life,” I added quickly and defensively.
“I’m sure you are very grateful for your life,” High Jynx said, not with disdain or anything, just very even-toned.
I sighed. It’d been a long time since I was this nervous and tongue-tied.
It’d be best to leave before I embarrassed myself any further in front of him.
“Maybe I should just go in this direction.” I pointed toward the section where Tallulah and I stopped to eat a pretzel on our first visit.
Maybe I dropped the rings while hyperventilating near the haunted seesaw.
“I really need to find those rings. As you know… and anyway… I gotta go back to the chateau in thirty minutes. I can’t have anyone notice I’m missing.
Tallulah might kill me before Chucky does with his plastic knife. ”
He laughed. “I can't have him killing you. Who else would I look forward to seeing every night?”
I put my hand to my chin to make sure my jaw wouldn’t drop. I could just squeal like high school me with her first crush. All I could say was, “Thank you.”
“The Chateau Lumière du étoile?” he said.
I nodded. The way he pronounced the French accent was beautiful. “Yeah, that’s where my brother’s getting married.”
“You’re pretty fancy then, huh?”
I hesitated. “My family is comfortable, yes.” Typically, I enjoyed bragging about where I stayed, where my family came from, and their wealth, but it didn’t feel good to say any of that out loud to High Jynx.
Not that I was ashamed, it was more like…
I wanted us to be in this bubble we created together.
I wanted to hold onto it for as long as I could.
“I want to show you something… will you come with me?” he asked, trying to go in the opposite direction.
He could ask me the same question over and over again, and each time I’d say yes. I wanted to say yes to his adventure, his antics, his kingdom, and this fantasy.
I nodded, and he led us away.