There was so much to like about her. She was smart, funny, outgoing, honest, pretty… God she was stunning! But it wasn’t even those traits that make me like her; it’s that I keep wanting to see her, I keep wanting to spend more time with her. The time we spend together is so precious to me, I wish those moments would last longer. I don’t even remember the last time I laid wide awake in bed thinking about a girl.

It was her smile that made my heart skip beats. 
It was that twinkle in her eyes when she was excited.
It was her laugh which had become the soundtrack of my life. 
It was the way she was so different from anyone I’d ever met that had me tripping, falling, and stumbling for her.

But who could blame me? She was always so good at being different that I felt attracted to her since day one.

“Mark come on what are you doing?”
I’m admiring her from this spot. When I looked at her it was like nothing existed except her, she stood out from the crowd and it was hard not to stare.

“Nothing I’m just thinking.”
Thinking about how long it’s going to take before I get the courage to tell her I like her and finally ask her out.

“About what?”
She holds out her hand to help me up. It was the way she forgets that she isn’t even strong enough to lift me up, but always insisted on helping. She was so cute…

“About how Jackson is going to freak out when he sees how high that coaster is.”
Ahh, have I mentioned we never really hung out separately? It was always us four; me, her, Jackson and Jinyoung. Jackson, Jinyoung and I have been friends since high school; we were pretty much inseparable, and when we met her it became the four of us. For as long as I could remember, Jackson, Jinyoung and I were like a packaged deal; you’d never get just one of us, it was all of us or none of us. And when we were growing up it was okay, but now that we’re older I’m coming to find that some things shouldn’t have to be shared.

“Yeah you’re right. Let’s just blindfold him and pretend that it’s a surprise? He’ll definitely get on then!”
Where did she get those ideas from? She was full of them, whether they be bad ideas, good ideas or equally good bad ideas. She was crazy, and to think she had this idea to pull on Jackson.

“I agree that it’ll probably be funny, but he’s not going to take it so lightly.”
Knowing Jackson, he’ll probably be mad about it for a while. From a first impression view, Jackson seems like he’s into these kinds of things – like he’s an adrenaline junkie – but honestly he’s a big baby. This coaster was definitely something Jackson wouldn’t even dream of getting on.

“You’re right. But it’s okay because we can just buy him some chocolate later and he’ll forget all about it.”
She seems so sure of herself and it’s honestly the cutest damn thing in the world.

“I don’t know… What do you think Jinyoung?” 
Jinyoung looks up at the coaster placing his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sunlight.

“You know… Jackson will be mad we forced him onto this. But I think she’s right, let’s just buy him some chocolate and if he’s still mad about it later we can pay for his meal.”
That’s the thing about Jinyoung, he was the problem solver of our trio. Whenever we would disagree on things he would turn the situation so that we would all benefit from it. I felt like that was where he was good with her. He was so reasonable, so fair.

“See Mark, Jinyoung always makes things easier.”
She winks at me and drags me to find Jackson. That was right, Jinyoung did make things easy; it was just his nature. It made me want to be more like him so she would notice that I too could be reasonable and fair. To be honest I’m not used to feeling jealousy, I usually just brush it off and move on but I don’t know. I’m telling you it’s her, I want her attention and I don’t want it to be shared. I don’t even know if Jinyoung likes her or if he is just messing with me on purpose.

“Jackson! We have a surprise for you!”
Jackson’s eyes lit up at the sight of her and I imagine that’s how I look when she talks to me.

“Really? What is it? Wait, why are you blindfolding me Mark…”
Jackson immediately backs away from me and looks from me to Jinyoung, from Jinyoung to her and then back at me again.

“She said it was a surprise, we have to blindfold you.”
She smiled at him and as if on cue he completely gave in. It made me think, does Jackson like her too? He always did what she said without question, he always asked about her and god he would never shut up about her when we’re at home.

“You’ll be really surprised!”
She grabbed Jackson’s hand and I felt a tug at my heart strings. I know I shouldn’t think too much about it, I mean she held onto me too. It was just something natural given how close we are with each other right? Plus, I haven’t even told her that I like her yet so I shouldn’t feel nervous. And I’m almost positive neither Jinyoung nor Jackson like her, because if they did, they’d already tell me. At least I’d hope they didn’t like her. They wouldn’t expect to hear it from me though, I usually kept those kinds of thoughts to myself.

“We’re almost there Jackson.”
She looks at Jinyoung and I, I could tell she had a hard time containing her laughter. It was cute to see her so excited over something like this; only she would get a kick out of torturing Jackson like this.

“Okay Jackson, I need you to take a step here. Okay and then sit down, I have to buckle you in okay?”
Jackson’s smile immediately disappeared and you could see in the change of his body language that he was no longer excited.

“Wait, why are you buckling me? Where did we go? Hey, I’m serious if you –”
She took off his blindfold and you could see the terror in his face.

“Are you kidding me? I’m getting off right now.”
He fumbled with the buckles but it was no use. She had basically strapped him in so he couldn’t leave no matter what he did.

“Jackson you can’t leave we’re already in.”
She answered as if she were innocent and not the mastermind behind this entire thing.

“You know I don’t do coasters this high. I can’t believe you all lied to me.”
Jackson sulked as he crossed his arms.

“And you even sat us at the front, what kind of friend are you?!” 
He continued to sulk and she tried to comfort him as she looked at him from under his snapback. Again, that stupid feeling in my heart came back. She was getting too close…

“Jacksonnnnnnnn, don’t be a baby. It’ll be fun I promise. Jinyoung and Mark promised that they would buy you chocolate and treat you to dinner.”
She looked behind at us and winked.

“Jackson is totally ting himself right now.”
I whispered over at Jinyoung.

“Definitely. And we’re not going to hear the end of it; EVER.”
He was right, Jackson would never let this die down without reminding us every day that we forced him to do this.

“Jackson come on it was not that bad.”
The minute the ride ended, Jackson was the first to get off and didn’t wait for any of us. He was unbuckled and out faster than the coaster ride lasted. Jinyoung headed for Jackson as I headed towards her to help her get out.

“I think Jackson might be a little mad.”
She looked up at me as she grabbed my hand to get out.

“You think he’s A LITTLE mad? I think it’s more than just a little.”
We laughed as we walked out to find Jinyoung and Jackson sitting on the bench waiting.

“I’m so killing all of you. That was terrible and I never want to do that ever again. And if you guys do this another time I swear I will –”

“Jackson it wasn’t that bad. You were pretty cool screaming and everything.”
She tried to turn the situation around as he linked her arm with Jackson’s.

“Whatever, now let’s go for that meal I was promise before you force me onto another coaster.”
Jackson sulked as he dragged her with him. Jinyoung shook his head and followed behind them shortly after. There was that feeling in my heart again, it doesn’t usually happen this often. Maybe it’s telling me that I have to tell her, I have to let her know about my feelings before someone beats me to it. 

“Today was fun, even though you almost killed me by forcing me onto the coaster. But I forgive you.”
Jackson smiles brightly at her as he came in for a hug.

“Thanks for convincing us to come. Let’s do it again another time okay?”
Jinyoung gave her an adoring smile and patter her head as if she were a little girl.

“Alright, I’ll see you guys at home after I drop her off.”
She waved goodbye to the two of them and us to my car.

“I can’t believe you forgot where you parked, that’s totally you.”
She mocked as she walked in front of me. I liked walking behind her, I was able to admire how beautiful she was from this distance without her knowing.

“I’m forgetful, sorry. But at least I have you with your super memory.”
She looks back and laughs that laugh that made my entire existence happy to be living in this moment.

“Found it!”
She points to her left and jolts off running for the car.

“LOSER TREATS FOR ICE CREAM!”
Obviously she won, I didn’t even know where the car was and I just pathetically followed behind her.

“That’s not fair, I didn’t even know where the car was.”
She leaned on passenger door as she stuck her tongue out at me.

“You still lost and that means you get to buy me ice cream!”

“Whatever.”
I laugh. It’s not like I would let her buy ice cream for the both of us anyway. Finally being alone with her put my heart at ease; sort of. That weird pulling of my heart strings went away, probably because there was no one here to make me feel nervous or even jealous. It was just her and her singing to the radio.

“One scoops of strawberry on a waffle cone please.”
I told to the cashier before they even asked what I wanted.

“And one scoop vanilla in a bowl.”
She answered in response to me. We always did this kind of thing, I’d order for her and she’d order for me. It became our little ritual, and I prided myself in knowing her so well that we were able to do this.

“Thank you for the ice cream, and the ride home.”
She said as I walked her to the door.

“You’re welcome. It’s not like I had a choice.”
I joked as I nudged her.

“Whatever. Hey you know you don’t have to walk me all the way to the door. You could just stay in the car.”
How could I do that though? I wanted to make sure she was always safe.

“It’s no big deal really.”
She stepped up one step so she was as tall as I was; she did this everytime.

“I’ll see you again?”
She questioned as if we weren’t going to be seeing each other again. Should I tell her now? No one’s around, it’s just her and me. I should tell her, I should just spill my heart out right now. The way she’s looking at me… God I just…

“Um…”
, I can’t do it. My palms started to get sweaty, my heart started beating faster and louder I thought it would beat right out of my heart. My tongue felt thick and my throat became so dry I could barely make out a word.

“Duh. Goodnight.”
I managed as I cleared my throat. She smiled that smile that made my heart skip beats and in that moment I was so glad she didn’t suspect anything was weird with me for those few moments. I waited until she got in and walked back to my car. I drove a block down before stopping again to recollect my thoughts and calm my rapidly beating heart.

“Mark you idiot.”
I thought to myself. How do you mess up such a perfect moment?