What if I’d been tricked?
I hadn’t given a second thought to coming to a random location at midnight… and I was by myself and vulnerable, with no one to know for days if I went missing. In panic, I pulled out my phone to call for another ride when footsteps crunched behind me.
Turning on my heel, the night illuminated in green, and two familiar X’s for eyes looked down at me. “Jax?” I asked, as if to check to see if she were really real.
“Birdie,” she answered, walking up to me. “Thanks for coming.”
“What’s happening?” I asked.
Jax rubbed the back of her neck. “I thought this would be a fun way to… well… to ask you on a date.”
A small laugh left my throat. “By scaring me senseless in an empty parking lot?” It was only then I noticed all the train tracks around us. This wasn’t the theme park from before, but something like a train station or intersection.
“It’s more interesting this way, don’t you think?”
“Take off your mask,” I challenged, fighting my smile.
Jax hummed, and I could hear her smirk in her reply. “No, I don’t think you’ve earned that yet. You haven’t answered my question. Will you go on a date with me? Right here, right now?”
Considering for a moment, my answer was easy. “Sure.”
“Sure?” she asked hopefully.
Somehow, I’d found freedom in confinement, I’d found security in the chase, I’d found Jax in the mystery and heat of finding adventure again. I couldn’t pass that up ever again.
“But…” I amended slowly, before my heart pounded, and I turned on my heel.
“YOU’LL HAVE TO CATCH ME FIRST.”
