Exclusive Excerpt from The Weekend Bucket List

by Mia Kerick

We already know where we’re going when we get into Cooper’s old Honda Civic. Over the past week, we’ve invested serious time talking about our greatest fears. And these were intense discussions. At first, we admitted to stuff we already knew about each other, like how I’m freaked out at the idea of getting lice and how he hates having sticky fingers. I then reaffirmed that I’m not much of a spider fan, and he owned up to his severe discomfort with the movie Jaws, but soon the discussions shifted to things we’d never confided to each other. He now knows that I would rather endure a twenty-four-hour stomach flu than speak aloud in public, and I know Cooper would do about anything to avoid flying in an airplane over a large body of water, which I figure has a lot to do with his shark-phobia. These conversations enlightened me—especially when Cooper disclosed that he can’t go number two in a public restroom. Probably TMI, but I tucked it into my memory bank, nonetheless.

We eventually settled on something that would force us to deal with a fear we both need to outgrow and would pull us out of the comfort zones in which we’ve so far wasted all of our teen years. Conveniently, we can stare our mutual fear in the face at the traveling carnival that is set up in the movie theater parking lot a couple of towns south of Wellington. Continue reading →