Chapter 11 - Battling Our Fears
"Uncle Nate!" I watched as a little girl who resembled Nicole ran towards Nate with a large smile on her face. When she reached him, he picked her up and hugged her tightly as he turned around in a little circle. I couldn't help but to smile as I watched them.
In the corner of my eye, I noticed an elderly woman walking towards me and I turned to her with a smile.
"And who might you be?" she asked with a smile of her own.
"I'm Cadence-"
"She's Nate's girlfriend."
I opened my mouth to correct Nicole but Nate walked beside me and placed his arm around my shoulders just like before. I looked at him with a blank expression as he introduced me,
"Grandma, this is Cadence."
Once again, I noticed that he didn't call me his girlfriend nor did her deny it and I was beginning to wonder why. And even though I was slightly confused by his antics, I chose to smile towards his grandma and ask him later.
I watched as his grandma walked towards me and gave me a tight hug. Reluctantly, I hugged her back and looked at her when we pulled apart.
"It's very nice to meet you Candace," she said to me. Immediately, I noticed Nate stiffen beside me before he spoke, his tone rigid.
"Grandma, her name is Cadence not Candace."
His grandma lightly tapped her forehead as she chuckled slightly before placing her hand on my arm.
"I'm sorry about that sweetie," she said. I forced a smile towards her while in my mind, I couldn't stop wondering why Nate had reacted like that to that name.
* * *
"You know, I'm really scared of roller coasters," Nate said as the we reached the top of the track. My head whipped in his direction as I began to feel guilty. It had been my idea to go on the roller coaster and he had not said anything about bring afraid and now, it was too late to turn back. Because, before I could say anything, we started moving forward and he grabbed onto my hand tightly, closing his eyes as he began to scream.
I couldn't hold in my laughter for the whole ride, as his screams only got louder. However, all too soon, the ride ended and we were walking side by side towards another ride. But to his disappointment, I couldn't stop laughing at the memory of his screams on the roller coaster.
"It wasn't that funny," he said, his voice showing his displeasure.
"It's not just your screams but the way you held onto the bar so tight-"
"Okay, I get it Cady," he said as he covered my mouth with his hand. But I still couldn't stop laughing. And because of that, he pulled me over to the side before removing his hand.
"Isn't there anything that you're afraid of?" he asked, causing me to shake my head.
"You're just saying that. There must be something," he tried to get something out of me.
The truth was that I was terrified of the haunted house. The first and last time I had gone into a haunted house was when I was seven years old. I had been attending my cousin's twelfth birthday party and at the age of seven, I didn't know much. And so when she, along with her brothers asked me to join them, I had happily agreed. But after going through the excruciatingly long process of walking through the house, having monsters popping out at me here and there, I had promised myself that I would never do it again. That one experience had scarred me for life.
I thought that I had been doing well keeping my face devoid of fear but when I saw a sneer on Nate's face, I could tell that he had figured it out.
"I know where we should go next."
"Where?" I asked, slightly afraid of what he was going to say next.
"You'll see," was all he told me.
"Why don't you tell me first?"
"Why do I get the feeling that you're scared?"
"Scared?" I laughed mirthlessly, "I'm not scared of anything."
"Then it shouldn't matter whether I tell you where we're going or not."
* * *
We went to the haunted house. At first, I was able to act as if I wasn't afraid because there was a long line. However, as it got closer to us, my hands began to feel damp as my heart raced. I couldn't tell if Nate saw my change or not because as soon as it was our turn, he grabbed onto my arm and dragged me in.
We walked through a narrow hallway as a light at the end of the hallway blinked. I stopped walking, causing Nate to do the same.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I can't go through this, I'm really scared of haunted houses," I told him. Initially he looked at me without any expression, almost as if he was trying to determine whether or not I was lying. But when my fear got the better of me, causing tears to run down my face, that was when he began to panic.
"Why did you tell me you that you were afraid?" he asked.
"Because I didn't really think we'd go inside," I said as I began to fully cry. He walked closer to me and wrapped his arms around me as my body shook subconsciously.
"Okay, it's going to be okay Cadence. We can't go back since we're already inside," he told me. And at the sound of that, my crying got worse.
He turned me slightly to face him and used his finger to lift my chin, causing me to look at him.
"Don't let that scare you, Cadence. I'm here and we'll get through this together," he smiled as he said that before he turned me back around.
Slowly, we took several steps towards the blinking light before the scares began. And the whole time, I couldn't figure out why my heart was racing.
Was it because Nate and I were walking while he was practically hugging me? Or was it because I was scared?
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