“Four years,” I say quietly.
The summer before everything fell apart.
“You must be excited to be back. I haven’t been here since I was twelve.” Ella stands so close to me I catch a whiff of her perfume. It’s so strongly floral, my first thought is that she’ll be a bee magnet all day.
“I doubt it’s changed much,” I tell her, even though I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe everything’s changed and I just can’t see it yet. Although when it comes to Wonder World’s budget, that’s doubtful.
I look ahead at Owen and Knox side by side and take in their differences. Owen with his longer limbs and lean muscles, just a tiny bit taller than his brother. A fact he’s never let Knox forget. He’s always carried himself like the world is a place that was made for him. So easy and comfortable in his own skin.
Knox is built differently. Broader through the shoulders and more constrained somehow—taking up exactly the space he means to and not an inch more. While Owen moves through a crowd like he belongs in it, turning heads without trying, Knox cuts through it. People just get out of his way.
They have the same dark hair, same bone structure, same skin tone—you can tell they’re brothers if you see them side by side. But everything else is a study in opposites. Owen wears his emotions right on the surface, where anyone can reach them. Knox keeps his hidden away, letting no one else find them.
Owen has never once made me work to know what he’s thinking. Sometimes I wonder if that’s a good thing.
I almost walk right into Owen, who’s stopped to pull up the park app on his phone. How he doesn’t have the layout of thisplace permanently marked on his brain, I’ll never know. “Okay, so if we hit the Tilt-O-Whirl first, we can probably get on in a few minutes. Then we loop back around to?—”
“I need coffee,” Knox interrupts.
“You haven’t had coffee yet?” Owen asks, his eyes just as wide as mine. “No wonder you’re being extra dickish.”
“Some of us didn’t have time for a leisurely morning.” Knox’s eyes finally flick to me, just for a second, and I feel them as physically as a punch to the chest. There’s an accusation in his gaze, a look that says he knows exactly why we’re late.
My face is flaming as I turn away.
“Coffee it is,” Owen announces, completely missing the tension between us. “The stand is right around the corner, if I remember correctly.”
He takes hold of my hand and pulls me along, his excitement infectious. We move through the entry plaza, crossing under the massive twisted metal arches painted in primary colors with their iconic sign front and center. Two W’s on either side of their clown mascot, Giggles. I never liked that thing’s spiraling eyes or too wide grin, and he’s everywhere…on trash cans, on banners hanging every few feet, on the side of funnel cake stands and water fountains and balloon kiosks.
“There’s your friend,” Owen teases, pointing to a character actor dressed as Giggles, waving at families passing by.
“I hate clowns,” Ella chimes in.
Owen chuckles. “Yeah, Sunny here had nightmares about Giggles until she was in middle school. Or was it high school?”
I glare at him, but can’t keep a straight face, not while he’s looking at me with that dumb, smirk. “Middle school. But to be fair, Knox didn’t help it when he hung that poster on my bedroom ceiling while I was asleep. I woke up to those dead eyes staring at me.”
Owen laughs and Ella shoulder bumps Knox. “Oh my God, that’s so mean, babe!”
His only reaction is an indifferent shrug.
Owen pretends to drag me toward Giggles, crooning that we should really get in line for a picture. I smack his arm and in not so many words tell him he’ll be dead to me for the next month and he relents.
Iced coffee and muffins in hand, we make our way toward the central area of the park. The area is already overrun with families wearing matching t-shirts, gaggles of teenagers, and couples holding hands. The energy is just like I remember, and the noise…it’s a lot. There’s laughter and screaming from the nearby coasters, outdated pop music blaring from hidden speakers, and the clunky whir of rides in motion like a background soundtrack to it all.
It’s sensory overload. Every direction I turn, there’s something grabbing my attention. Between the massive circus animal fountain in the center of the courtyard spraying water in timed patterns while children toss pennies into its depths, or the game booths lined up along the main pathway and their attendants hollering at every passerby. And of course, there’s the towering silhouette of their newest coaster, Velocity, in the distance. That beast makes my stomach drop just looking at it.
“God, I forgot how intense this place is,” Ella says, clutching her coffee with a death grip as a group of teenagers almost runs her over.
Knox moves ahead of us, cleaving through the crowd like he’s on some kind of mission. He doesn’t wait to see if we’re following…just assumes we will.
There’s so many choice words I could call him. But I keep them all inside, repeating Owen’s mantra to myself.It’ll be a good day.
Owen falls into step beside him, talking about ride schedules with a mouth full of muffin, while Ella loops her arm through mine. I stiffen at first, but force myself to relax.
“Is it weird?” she asks quietly. “Being back here?”
I watch Knox’s shoulders, the rigid set of his spine. “Yeah,” I admit. “It’s weird.”
