On spring break, my friend Cameron and I go to the Stratosphere to ride a few thrill rides. My irrational fear of heights makes my hands clammy and my nerves shot. 

The elevator shook to the top of the building. Tourists packed tightly, and everyone avoided eye contact. This guy I barely knew was smiling like a little kid right at me and I told him I hated him.
   The door opened, finally, and everyone piled out. Cameron and I stepped out into the observation deck, and the first thing he did was lean in the glass that had a “do not lean on glass” sign. I stood square in the middle, and looked out over the city of Las Vegas, safely away from the glass. Cameron stepped back from the glass. Cameron stepped back from the glass, and daiquiri the size of his torso bobbed gently.
   “Okay,” he said, “so how high are we?” One thousand feet in the air?” He went on about some helicopter ride when my attention veered to the left. A girl with blond hair wearing a skydiving suit was having some people hook her on to some wires. She kept looking at her friends and giving them a thumbs up. Cameron finished his story, or at least I think he did, and walked over to that girl. He looked back at me with his mouth open, “Is she about to bungee jump?!” he exclaimed. Not even a minute later, the girl stepped onto a platform, and with the push of a button, the floor beneath her opened, and she fell. Over the span of five seconds, you could hear her scream get softer and softer, traveling one thousand feet away. My face was pale and my hands were cold.
   We rode an elevator up to the "thrill rides" at the top of the stratosphere. Cameron practically dragged me by the arm over to the ride Insanity. There are three thrill rides on top of the tower, and we were riding two of them. Insanity was literally right in front of me, also figuratively. The ride had four pairs of seats that twirled off the side of the tower, one thousand feet in the air. Cameron sipped his daiquiri happily and we waited together. I saw the ride spin the people on it that opened up at a downward angle, ensuring the only thing they saw was the city beneath them.
  My hands were cold, and wind at the top of the tower did not help. Their ride was over and the gate opened. Cameron handed me his drink and told me to "kill it." We set our stuff in the provided lockers and made our way onto the platform. Cameron sat in the seat closest to the edge, and I sat right next to him reluctantly.
"I hate you," I told him.
   All the seats were taken, and the ride began. We were moved off the edge and I grasped Cameron's hand. "Sorry, I hate you, but you owe me this."
   His eyes widened as the city was now beneath us and he looked at the machine about to twirl us to our deaths. "I think I saw a bolt fall," he laughed at me. The ride tilted us forward and spun us like a million miles an hour. My screams shrieked through the air air and in everyone's ears. My eyes were shut tight and I refused to open them. Cameron, despite my shrill screech right in his ears, laughed and laughed and I opened my eyes to look. The lights spun around me and everyone was yelling as loud as I was. The ride went on and we spun around and round forever. Insanity spun me around, but the beauty of the city and thrill of the ride took me on a journey. A thousand feet didn’t look so bad from up here.