"Please Stay"

Lia finds herself surprisingly tongue-tied and overwhelmed while face-to-face with her first big crush (set about three years before the start of WIHP) (prompt : "Please stay")

"Please stay."

"Ok" Lia says but it sounds an awful lot like "I can't"

"I love you," Casey responds sounding  more like "See you in a bit then"

"Come with me" a voice that sounds like Lia's blurts

"I can't," Casey says, or maybe "I won't"

"Please." Then "It'll be fun." or possibly "I'm scared."

"I love you," she says it this time, the words disguised as "Just this once?"

"How are you not terrified?" Casey's desperate stormy eyes beg while with a cocky tip of his head his lips spill "Give me one reason why."

"I am. Don't you see that?" Lia's white knuckles scream back "Well, Phoebe's dragging Abbey, Abbey's dragging Ava, Ava's dragging me, and so I'm so I'm dragging you? That work?"

"Come on Case, are you coming or not?" Lucas looks up from Kate, tearing his eyes if his girlfriend just long enough to impatiently tap a foot at his best friend

"I'm coming. I have no clue why, but I am."

"It's the Lia affect. She's a charming little piece of work isn't she?"

"Very charming indeed."

Lia winces as her eyes slide to the side, trying to read if Abbey or Ava seem to feel the coolness radiating off of the boy as he offers the three words of agreements.

“I’m sorry,” Lia whispers as her sleeve barely clips Casey’s, pulling her arm close, making herself smaller, trying to never touch anyone ever again.

“It’s fine” he keeps his hard stare turned away from her. Lia sucks in a breath trying to put together the words to say something more, make sure he knows what she’s really trying to say. But the love and fondness is gone from his tone, the code is gone and with it, Lia decides her apparent charm and eloquence has vanished as well.

“K. Cool.” God if only the shaking wood beneath their feet could just stop screaming the imminent arrival of the next train so one of them could have time to turn and run. Run from the roller-coaster that neither of them wanted to ride in the first place, run from the feelings that neither them know how to take in.

Lia intently keeps  her stare on the vibrating post in her vision, willing it to come into focus, to only be so soft-edged because she’s not wearing her glasses. Tries to will it take her mind off of how much she wants to talk to Casey, be with Casey  that she can practically feel his arms sliding around her waist, holding her from behind, scent familiar and calming. 

The coaster pulls up and children and adults alike burst from their seats with a playful energy. leaving a looming emptiness as Lia drops the foot into the entirely too small car behind giddy Phoebe and boisterous Ava. It shrinks even further as Casey lands and perches on the black seat next to her.

Awkwardly she feels, she sends him a nervous sideways smile as Ava's arm extends over the dividing seat and sides her palm tightly into Lia's braced grip. 

"I'm sorry about dragging you along on this. That's what I meant. Before. I mean."

"I know. And really, it's fine. It's stupid to be afraid of these things anyways."

"Yeah. Well, I'm still scared." She admits. blushing and pulling her hand free, twisting anxiously with the metal belt on her lap.

"Me too," he whispers, half a giggle breaking through the nervous breath

Ava's arm, captured by Phoebe disappears and for a second, Lia's not sure if their car grows or becomes incredibly small. 

"Well, if you die, I won't make you go again."

"Thanks. And I'll do my best to keep you from flying out on the turns."

Lia's insides release a tension that a send a shiver through her body with a pleasant twist. Now, right now, she notes, pleased, they don't need a code, don't need to pretend or hide. She's sitting with and talking with a boy, a boy, she finds beautiful and perfect. Maybe she didn't stay outside with, but somehow they ended up staying. Maybe they're she just being twelve and stupid, and romantic, and fooling herself that she could love this thirteen year old boy. But right now, as she sits, wanting to run, thinking that she could die, she realizes, after years of being told it, sometimes good things come of being afraid. 

She knows, and it's practically screaming at her, it won't last. Sometimes though, even seventh graders need a little something magic