Matthew Kube

Hot Tubs, Slides, and Gangs, Oh My!

“Our brother loves water rides!” One of the girls says, smiling. I turn as a guy next to them is standing up. He has a ratio of skin to tattoos of about fifty-fifty, is well over six and a half feet tall, and looks muscular enough to be able to defeat Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, and Bruce Lee in a fight in under two minutes. He towers over 15-year-old, 130-140 pound me. “I love water rides! Want to go on one?” He says, smiling. I smile awkwardly, I glance, scared, at the two girls nearby. I had asked the two girls because I wanted someone to go with on water slides. Preferably one of them and not having my plus one look like they eat puppies for breakfast. Then I feel bad, just because he looks like he could rip me in half like a piece of paper doesn’t mean he will. I don’t want to seem rude. It’s only one water slide, what could go wrong? Even in the most family-friendly places, dark and dangerous people may be lurking around.