“Seriously Spence, we should just try and find someone and ask for directions,” Veronica said.
“I’m telling you, if you just wait another five minutes, I swear I can figure out this map,” Spencer said frustratedly. Both of them were parked outside a massive map. Due to the sheer scale of the piece of land the park stood on, the map outlining the various attractions and where they were in the park was equally massive, with extreme levels of intricate details to go with it. The only problem was, rather than putting the names of the attraction next to each ride, instead there was a number label. In front of the map was a little plaque, clearly meant to house a list explaining what each number meant, but instead contained nothing, thus forcing Spencer to instead squint at the map and try to figure out what each ride is based upon its picture representation.
“*Ugh* I swear Spence,” Veronica said, double checking her phone and confirming for the fourth time that she did not get any cell coverage in this massive park.
Veronica and Spencer had been dating for nearly 3 years. They had met each other in their sophomore year of high school, but didn’t make anything official until senior year. It was a massive relief upon both of their shoulders when they realized that they would be going to same college and not have to deal with the struggles of a long distance relationship.
That isn’t to say their relationship was perfect, it was actually far from it. Spencer, who in addition to being student council president was also on the soccer team, was extremely popular at their college, which meant that he was often invited to parties. While he’s yet to have waken up in an unknown bedroom with a girl, there have been videos shared of him sharing sloppy smooches with girls who were definitely not Veronica.
Veronica was not nearly as gifted in terms of popularity. But what she didn’t make up in popularity, she made up for in attractiveness, which ultimately meant that she could get into any party she wanted. She was very much the “stereotypical blonde”: extremely attractive, but not the best when it came to classes. Most of her grades were C’s (Hey, C’s get degrees), and she was taking the bare minimum amount of classes in order to finish her education major.
One of the primary reasons these two had pooled into this trip, and were looking for the tunnel of love in particular, was because their relationship had hit a rough patch recently. During the St. Patrick’s day celebration, both Spencer and Veronica had gotten black out drunk. Around the end of the night, they both ended up at the same frat party, where Veronica, after seeing Spencer kissing another girl, she lost it. In a drunken fury, she had grabbed the nearest boy (who happened to be Spencer’s best friend Richard, adding a much greater level of complication to the matter), taken him up to one of the free bedrooms, and let him have her way with her.
Of course, after the fact everyone involved on all sides felt the deepest regret for everything, but at that point the damage had been done. Both Spencer and Veronica recognized that this trip was probably the last chance for their relationship to rekindle. If neither of them felt anything after this ride, they would agree to break up on good terms.
“Look, I’m just going to go and try to find someone who can help,” Veronica said, stuffing her phone back into the pockets of her jeans, and marching away from Spencer, who was still hard at work examining the map.
She didn’t have to walk far until she found an assistance kiosk, which was essentially a large poll in the ground with a button that read, ‘If you need assistance: press this button’. She pressed it, and no more than two seconds had to have passed before she heard a voice behind her, “Sorry to keep you waiting miss, I got here as fast as I could.”
Veronica practically jumped, but turned around and found Sapphire standing behind her, “Oops. S-sorry to scare you miss.”
“I thought you were working the front gate.”
“W-well, since you’re the group’s the one I’m supposed to let in, they moved me off to the help desk. So, what seems to be the problem?”
“Nothing much, me and my boyfriend were just wondering if this park had a tunnel of love?”
“Of course miss, wouldn’t be much of a theme park if we didn’t have something to offer for couples. Here, let me follow you back to the map so I can point it out.”
Sapphire and Veronica walked back to the map, where Spencer was still studying the map intensely. “Excuse me sir, *Eep*” Sapphire jumped slightly as Spencer turned around, staring at her angrily as she broke his concentration, “Sorry! This lady said you two were having trouble finding things around the park. W-which is completely understandable since we haven’t installed the index yet. S-so I was just going to point out some points of interest…” Sapphire’s voice petered to a whisper as she continued her explanation.
“Oh sure, go right ahead,” Spencer said slightly sarcastically, giving Veronica the evil eye as he stepped away from the map.
“So,” Sapphire said, walking right up to the map. “Here’s the front entrance,” she pointed to the bottom of the map, “This is where we are currently,” Slightly north and to the left of the entrance. “This is the midway, if you want to play some arcade games or do something, this is the place to be,” she pointed more north and to the right of where she was pointing earlier, “our gift shops are located here near the entrance,” South of where they currently were, and further left, “And this, is where you can find our tunnel of love,” she struggled to reach up near the top of the map, as Sapphire was a rather petite gal, but she was just able to point to a spot near the upper left corner of the map, “you can’t miss it.”
“Thank you Sapphire,” Veronica said to the park assistant as Spencer began walking away.
“No problem miss, it’s what I’m here for.”
Spencer and Veronica spent the rather long walk to the tunnel of love in pretty much silence, Spencer out of a slight anger that Veronica would go behind his decision (especially after all she’s done so far), and Veronica out of frustration that Spencer was mad at her (again, for especially things in the past that she did when she was drunk). The silence just added to the eeriness as they passed through the silent park. Past empty tables in front of fast food restaurants, rides with such great names as ‘The Spine Ripper’, ‘Undead Revenge’, and ‘The Carousel of Change’ (Hopefully for rides later in the day), theatres for live shows, empty and unmanned kiosks.
Eventually they reached the spot Sapphire had pointed out on the map to them, where Spencer said, “You see! No wonder I couldn’t find it on the map. It’s not even called the Tunnel of Love!”
What was the name for this park’s version of the Tunnel of Love?
1.) Closer Than Ever
2.) Without You, I’m Helpless
3.) Understanding Your Other Half
4.) You Complete Me