You sit around getting older

“Wheeeeeeeeeeee!” Gina let out a cry of joy as the roller-coaster spun across the edge of the park, weaving up and down through the tall, mountainous cliffs. She had a bright grin on her face as the car passed under a small stone archway, and Nick found himself smiling right along with her. The excitement in the other girl’s cries…

It reminded him of when they were kids.

He held onto the roller-coaster with all he had, as it traveled the remainder of the track before finally coming to a stop.

Gina hopped out with a gleeful smile, and clapped her hands. “Oh my gosh!” She cried. “That was so much fun!”

“Yeah,” Nick agreed, getting out as well. “It really was.”

He looked at Gina, and felt grateful that she was having so much fun. That was really what today was all about, wasn’t it? The two of them taking it easy and having fun.

Then her eyes met his, and he saw the warmth in them.

It makes sense that she’s this happy, he thought. After all… this place is the theme park of her dreams. It’s practically her fantasy, made manifest.

Nick couldn’t imagine what his own idealized theme park would look like. But he respected the creativity of Gina’s design.

“So, what do you want to do now, then?” Gina asked, looking at him.

“That’s what I should be asking you,” he replied with a laugh. “This is your park, after all, isn’t it? You’re the one who knows where all the fun places are.”

“Hmmm… you’re not wrong there,” Gina agreed, nodding. She looked around. “It’s a little too early for lunch, still… …Wait, that’s right! We were going to do the sand burial thing, I totally forgot!” She smacked her forehead with her hand and let out a groan. “Okay, let’s get going,” she said, nodding to Nick. “No more distractions this time!”

Nick didn’t really know what to say to that. He just stared at Gina and wondered if she was being serious or not. After all, SHE had been the one who’d gotten distracted, not him!

“…Works for me,” he agreed, hoping that she wouldn’t run into something else that would catch her attention. He followed her down the path towards the sandy beach in the distance. One of the only patches of sand that was the actual color that sand was supposed to be. That was the kind of thing he appreciated about Gina’s creativity- she didn’t just stick with what you expected.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at the shore. It wasn’t anything like the beaches back on the island. It was a tiny little cove; more of a lagoon, than anything. A small little lake with a shallow slope of sand leading away from it. From the edge of the black platform to the water was barely more than ten feet.

But it was enough, he felt.

“There it is, isn’t it beautiful?” Gina said with a wistful sigh, staring out at the cascading falls of water rolling down the side of the cliff, and into the lagoon. “I really put a lot of effort into this. …Well, I mean, I didn’t put the effort in, but, well, I came up with it, so that has to count for something, right?” She said with a laugh, scratching her head.

Nick laughed along with her. “Fair enough,” he agreed with a nod. “And if you ask me, you did a pretty good job here, Gina.”

“Really?” Gina looked at him with sparkling eyes. “You mean… you really like it?”

“Sure I do, it’s incredibly pretty,” Nick assured her. He knew how much Gina desired approval, and while he didn’t appreciate the desperation in her voice, he was happy to comfort her as much as she thought she needed.

After all- he agreed that this was a beautiful place, and Gina deserved the compliment for her design.

“Welcome, lovebirds!” A voice called from up the beach. Andy strolled up to them with a comically-oversized shovel clutched behind her back. It was more of a snowshovel than anything that would be used on sand.

“I take it you both signed up to be buried alive?” She chirped, as if that was a perfectly normal thing to ask. Nick wasn’t the biggest fan of her phrasing it that way, but he couldn’t exactly argue with her, since that was basically what they were doing.

“Yeah, I guess so?” He said, nodding slowly.

Andy grinned from ear to ear. “Perfect!” She chirped. “That’s just what I wanted to hear. Now, come with me, please, we’ve got the perfect spot set up for you both!”

She led the two of them down the beach, to the spot where she picked out, right smack in the middle of the artificial sunlight.

Nick looked down at the patch of sand. He wasn’t amused by what he saw.

Gina, on the other hand, covered her mouth and resisted the urge to burst out into peals of laughter at the sight.

Andy had already pre-dug the holes, which explained why the shovel was covered in sand. But more notably, the two holes were right in front of two headstones.

The mascot batted her eyelashes innocently. “Now, if you’ll both get in…”

“You’re really selling the whole ‘buried alive’ thing pretty hard, aren’t you?” Nick asked, looking at Andy sarcastically.

“Hmmm?” Andy pinched her lips together tightly and batted her eyelashes. “Whatever do you mean?” She asked with an innocent smile on her face.

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. There was no point in arguing, this was just how Gina had dreamed the little vixen up. “Well, I’m not going to complain,” he said, walking over to the hole.

“Whoa, hold on there!” Andy jumped in front of him and held up the shovel menacingly. “Where exactly do you think you’re going?”

“Uh…” Nick glanced at the hole pointedly, then back to Andy.

The pigtailed redhead rolled her eyes. “I mean, you’re not going dressed like that, are you?” She scoffed, pointing at his clothes.

“What’s wrong with how I’m dressed?” Nick protested, looking down at his shorts and button-up short-sleeved shirt. “I didn’t even pick these clothes out, in the first place!” He reminded the mascot, looking over at Gina.

Gina held up her hands. “Whoa, hey, I just picked out stuff I’ve seen you wear before,” she defended herself.

Nick knew better than to protest.

Andy scoffed. “Listen now, there’s no need for you to worry,” she said, shaking her head. “All I’m saying is that you don’t want to get sand in your nice clothes, do you? Because it’s never coming out.”

“…This is a dream, though,” Nick reminded her. “So that doesn’t really matter.”

Andy grunted at him.

“Come on, Nick, it’s fine!” Gina was already starting to strip out of her clothes. “It’s not like we’re going to be naked, or anything!”

She revealed that she was wearing a bathing suit under her outfit. A nice two-piece bikini. Nick nodded in approval. It was more modest than he would have expected Gina to pick out, but he wasn’t going to complain.

“Ah, you like the way I look?” Gina posed for him, emphasizing her breasts. “How about when I turn this way?” She asked, pushing her butt out towards him next.

Nick responded the only way he reasonably could, and gave her a swat on the rear. Gina jumped up straight and flashed him a grin. “Whoa! Hey, now!” She cried, shaking her head. “That’s a little more handsy of you than I would have expected, Nick!”

“It’s your transformation to blame,” he said with a smile that he hoped Gina would understand meant he was just playing around with her. “Don’t look at me!”

Gina knew it wasn’t the transformation. She got the message, and she responded with a cheeky grin. Just what she was hoping to see!

“Well… what are you gonna do?” She laughed, and shook her head. “I guess this stuff just happens, yeah?”

She waved her ass at him again, then danced aside before he could give her another spanking.

Andy nodded in approval. “Now, that’s the sort of back and forth we appreciate here!” She said with a smile. “Anyway, our little skank here has the right idea. We’re going to get you down to your bathing suit, lover boy!”

She snapped her fingers, and suddenly Nick wasn’t wearing the clothes that Gina picked out for him anymore. Now, he found himself clad in a pair of black swim trunks.

Well, it could have been worse, he figured. She could have put him in a speedo or something.

Gina whistled in approval. “Glad to see all your workout sessions with Dani seem to be paying off. You are still doing that, aren’t you?”

“When I can,” Nick replied. It was harder than he’d expected to fit a consistent workout routine into his schedule when he had to meet the dating obligations of so many women, but he was doing his best. “Actually, I was going to go today, but, well…”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, guess I kinda got in the way of that, huh?” Gina scratched her head. The smile faded from her lips and she glanced down.

Nick immediately felt bad. “Hey, no, it’s okay,” he said. “Tomorrow is my day with Dani, so we can just work out then, instead. It’s not a big deal. Plus, I got a pretty good workout playing laser tag with you earlier!”

“Don’t forget about pool,” Gina reminded him.

Nick wasn’t sure if he should mention to Gina that pool wasn’t actually a sport. Eventually, he decided that it probably wasn’t the right move. Instead, he went along with her and got down into the pit of sand.

“Hands inside the hole, please,” Andy said, nudging his arm with her shovel a couple of times. “If you wouldn’t mind?”

“Huh?” Nick looked up at her. “Why?”

The pigtailed girl rolled her eyes. “Why do you think?” She asked. “Because if you have your hands out of the hole when we fill it back up with sand, you’ll dig yourself back out again, and where would the fun be in that?”

Nick wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.

“…Also, the therapeutic benefits are much more pronounced if your whole body is submerged in the sand,” Andy said next.

No, Nick was pretty sure that if that was actually the reason, she would have mentioned it first. He looked suspiciously at her, but the woman looked so suspicious just by breathing that it didn’t even matter.

She just smirked.

“We’re going to bury you up to the neck,” she said, starting to shovel sand onto his chest. “Initially, we were burying people up to their nostrils for maximum treatment, but, well, that didn’t end up working, I’m afraid. We had a couple of accidents.”

Nick didn’t even bother responding. He knew she was just messing with him, since this whole park was a figment of Gina’s imagination. At least Gina herself seemed to be loving this, as the punk girl was resisting the urge to laugh her head off with glee.

He was glad SOMEBODY was enjoying themselves.

Soon enough, they were both buried in the sand up to their necks. Nick found it to be more uncomfortable than he’d expected. It wasn’t even that the sand was hot- it wasn’t, really, not the way he’d expected.

But the pressure on his chest was a lot more intense than he’d anticipated. It felt like the sand was trying to squeeze the oxygen out of his lungs, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling at all. He couldn’t even move, either, that was the thing. All he could do was just sit there and try not to suffocate as the sand pressed down all around him.

After a while, though, he managed to get used to it. The trick was taking short, shallow breaths. And it helped that, soon enough, he found his body adapting nicely to the way that the sand was feeling. Until it started heating up, anyway.

“Oh! Here it comes!” Gina called from next to him. She turned her head towards him and flashed a toothy smile. She must have expected this to happen, Nick realized.

“The sand’s starting to get hot! We’re really cooking, now,” she joked playfully.

It was kind of surreal, seeing Gina buried. Because of her long hair, Andy had gotten creative, and pulled her tangled locks up above the edge of the hole before Gina got buried. What resulted, then, was the sight of Gina’s head sticking up out of the sand, and a sea of dyed hair splayed out around her like a small lake.

Nick thought it was kind of pretty, but also a little creepy. With the headstone behind her, it really did look like Gina had been decapitated.

He shivered slightly.

“This is okay,” he said, even though the heat wasn’t exactly pleasant. “Oddly enough, it DOES feel kind of relaxing.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Gina nodded. “Relaxing! That’s the perfect word for it,” she chirped. “A nice, relaxing soak in the hot sand…”

And only a little bit of pain.

Nick could acknowledge after a couple of minutes that his initial reaction wasn’t that fair. This was better than he’d feared, and Gina definitely seemed to be enjoying herself, which was the important part. And even if he couldn’t do much more than turn his head and wiggle his fingers a little, the view of the water was pretty breathtaking.

He turned his head, and saw that Gina was staring at him. Her eyes were deep pools of chocolate as they stared at him, and he suddenly had the distinct feeling that there was something she wanted to say to him.

“Gina? What… what’s up?” He asked hesitantly.

She bit her lip. “Nick… can we talk?”

A chill went down Nick’s spine even in the hot sand. He stared at his childhood friend with alarm, not sure what to say.

“Talk?” He stammered. “You… you want to talk? About what?” He asked.

Gina’s eyes slid down to the sand. Then she slowly raised her head and looked at him again. She had a pained expression on her face. “I know, okay?” She said quietly. “Sorry… I didn’t just choose this so we could have fun.”

It took Nick a second to process what she was saying. Choose this? Choose what? What was she even talking about?

Did she mean choose this theme park?

Or… no…

Nick suddenly realized where he was.

He was buried to his neck in the sand. He couldn’t move at all. He could only look at Gina, and have Gina look back at him.

If Gina wanted to tell him something, but she was afraid that me might try to run away, or that SHE might run away before she said what she needed to say, then this was the perfect setup for that, because neither of them could escape!

It was actually kind of insidious. Nick couldn’t help but respect the play, coming from her.

“Gina…” he didn’t know what she was going to talk to him about, but it didn’t matter. “Listen, you didn’t need to bury me in sand for me to hear you out, alright?” He assured her. “Whatever you want to talk about, we can talk.”

“No, I know,” Gina murmured. She nodded as well as the layer of sand beneath her chin would allow her. “I just… needed a little push, that’s all. Otherwise, I might just up and run away, and neither of us wants to deal with that…”

Nick suspected that was the case.

“So, what is it?” He asked her. “What did you want to talk about?”

Gina bit her lip. “Nick, I… I just… really don’t know what to do,” she confessed. “Or where we’re going. You and me.”

Nick felt a note of hope throb in his chest. Was… was Gina saying what he thought she was saying? Was this for real?

“What is it?” He asked. “What do you mean?”

“I… I really care about you, Nick,” Gina told him. The way she said that, it was as if she expected that Nick wouldn’t even believe her. “I know how that sounds, but-”

“I know you do,” Nick interrupted her.

“Huh!?” Gina looked at him in shock. “Wait, what do you mean!? No, I’ve been super-casual with you this whole time!” She exclaimed. “I’m not… …You’re just delusional, is what you are!”

She began to strain, trying to pull herself out of the sand. But it was no use, she was trapped.

Nick wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have said that. He’d been trying to reassure her, but it looked like he’d just scared her off.

“…I’m so dumb…” Gina groaned. “I… I wanted to spend today… telling you how I feel, but… you already knew?!”

“I-I wouldn’t go that far!” Nick said. “I mean… I know you care about me, Gina, but that doesn’t mean I know ALL about your feelings or anything.”

Gina bit her lip and contemplated that for a second. “…So… you’re saying that you don’t mind?”

“Mind? Mind what?” Nick was completely lost. Did Gina really think he would have a problem with her having feelings for him?

Why would she think something crazy like that?!

“Gina…”

“I’m so dumb…” Gina groaned. “I… look, for a while now… I’ve been really stuck trying to figure out my feelings, and what I want our relationship to be like. That… that’s the real reason why I brought you to Dream Alley, Nick.”

She raised her head and looked him in the eye, hoping that she could convey her sincerity to him like this.

“You and I… we’ve had a complicated relationship. And I like having fun with you, obviously, of course I do,” she said. “But… I think I want more than that.”

Nick was amazed. He’d been waiting for Gina to say that for longer than he could remember. “Gina… that’s…”

“I just… don’t know how to express it,” Gina said quietly. “What I want.”

Now that she thought about it, though, burying the both of them in the sand probably wasn’t the way she should have gone.