In One Night

We’d been back at school for two weeks when - like every year before - the principal started handing out free student tickets to the State Fair. I, for one, didn’t much care either way about going to the fair. I didn’t really enjoy rides other than a nice Ferris wheel. I mostly went for the funnel cake and lemonade.

Which is exactly the reason why my best friend, Blaire, didn’t ask me to go with her and her brother to the fair that weekend. But, there was another reason I didn’t know about.

The day after the fair opened up, I swallowed my fear and went to find Rosa. I was dancing on a fine line already; Blaire had asked if I was going to the fair and if I wanted to carpool with her. I had to dodge the question entirely so as to not give away my intentions.

Blaire, Rosa and I had been best friends since the fifth grade. We bonded over anime and vampires and had stuck together ever since. And ever since Blaire first introduced me to her best friend I had been in love with her.

Rosa was incredibly nice and probably the first girl I ever had a real crush on.

She grew up to look a little like an anime girl, herself, which only made me like her more. More than once I had to slam my sketchbook shut so they wouldn’t catch me drawing what I thought she would look like naked. Teenaged boy brain is a real disease.

But when I asked Rosa if she wanted to go to the fair with me and my friends that night, she said she didn’t feel like it. That she would probably have to go the next day to hold purses for her sisters. I was disappointed, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.

I looked forward to the State Fair every year. My mom would take me and my little brother and spend half of the Christmas budget on tickets so we could ride every ride twice. I was going to invite Cal to come with us. We’d never been anywhere outside of school without Rosa. I was ready to step things up a bit. Maybe we could sit next to each other in the car and ride the Ferris wheel together. But he got sidetracked, like he does sometimes, and they ended up talking about other stuff.

I didn’t even bother asking Rosa. She didn’t really like going to the fair to ride rides. And she was probably going to go sometime that weekend with her sisters. Rosa’s older sister would take them along with whatever boyfriend she had at the time to do whatever they wanted. She’d told me that it mostly involved her having snacks and holding her sisters’ stuff while they went on the rides. It definitely wasn’t Rosa’s thing.

Saturday afternoon my sister got cash out of the ATM and filled her tank. Both of my sisters enjoyed thrill rides, but I had always been prone to every kind of illness there was. I once got motion sickness on a kiddie train ride. But they needed someone to hold their stuff while they rode and were willing to buy me whatever snack I wanted. It was a decent deal.

I expected to run into some people from school, but late in the night someone caught my arms outside of the superman ride.

“Hey,” Cal breathed with a tight laugh. There were two other guys with him that stopped to look me up and down.

“Hey, you having fun?” I asked.

“Yeah, we were about to go get some food. Where are your sisters?” He glanced back at the line and the ride.

“Riding something, I’m sure.” I neglected to mention that I was about to go get a drink. Blaire had dibs on Cal. She had liked him since she first laid eyes on him.

“Oh, cool.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You wanna come hang out with us for a bit?”

“Rose!”

My friends realized pretty quickly that I was looking around every corner trying to find someone. They teased me relentlessly about having a crush. I reassured them that once they saw her, they’d understand. Finally, right before I was about to give up, Ryan nodded to a girl with a lollipop in her mouth standing by herself. Rosa was waiting by a little ride, looking at her phone.

“You weren’t kidding.”

Mom had run into Rosa’s sisters while we were on the gyro ride and Mel, Rosa’s older sister, told us that she was around somewhere if I wanted to hang out with her. We all looked for her together, heading to the spot the sister’s had agreed to meet if they got separated. Through the crowd I was able to spot her standing there with Cal and two other guys.

“Rosa!”

Something in my chest started aching like crazy when I saw them together.

Before I knew it I’d called out her name. Rosa’s head snapped in our direction and she waved to us.

“Look who it is.” She said once we were close enough to hear. Cal waved at us meekly. His friends politely introduced themselves.

“We just ran into each other.” Cal explained without being asked to.

“Did you guys want to hang out a bit? I’m sure we could manage without you for a little while, B.” My mom winked embarrassingly. I sighed, but nodded. A similar conversation took place between Rosa and her sisters before we were left, just the teenagers.

“We were going to get something to eat. You guys wanna join?” One of the guys asked me and Rosa. I said yes after Rosa nodded.

The group moved slowly to the other side of the fair grounds where the food stalls were. I purposely walked between Cal’s friends so that neither of my friends would be hurt. When we got our food Blaire made a point of sitting beside Cal.

It had never bothered me that Blaire liked Cal. I only had a tiny crush on him when we were well and truly kids. Ever since I found out Blaire had actual feelings for him I’d backed off. That part never bothered me. The thing that did get under my skin was how my best friend believed that Cal was absolutely obsessed with her.

Blaire was incredible, but she was a little full of herself.

“You go to school with Cal?” His friend, TJ, asked me.

“Yeah, since he moved here in elementary school.”

“Are you into art and stuff, too?” The other friend, Ryan asked. He leaned across the table to talk directly to me. I shook my head with a straw in my mouth.

“Rosa’s a band nerd.” Blaire answered for me.

“What instrument do you play?” Ryan persisted, not giving any attention to anyone else at the table.

It was obvious what Ryan was doing. I rolled my eyes at least six times since we grouped up. And Blaire hadn’t left my side. For a minute while we were walking I thought she was trying to hold my hand. I panicked and shoved my hands in my pockets.

The guys hadn’t let up on Rosa even once. They were asking her questions one after another. I could tell that Blaire was a little peeved at the lack of attention. She exuded so much confidence that it was usual her guys were trying to chat up. I guess she’d never gone anywhere with Rosa before.

We talked and ate for almost an hour before Blaire started glancing back at the line to the Ferris wheel. Rosa took the hint.

“Should we go ride once before we leave?” Her voice was soft. She was probably anxious about who she would be going up with.

“Only if I get to sit next to you.” TJ winked at Rosa. Instead of blushing nervously, like she had been doing, she smirked.

“I don’t want anybody to be left out, though.” Blaire pointed out loudly.

I had no idea why Cal’s friends were all over Rosa, but it left more room for me and Cal to be beside each other. I was going to hold his hand before but I chickened out. Then I got Rosa to suggest going on the Ferris wheel, forgetting that we might end up in an awkward seating arrangement.

“I think it’ll be fine. I mostly want pictures, anyway.” Rosa offered. So we threw our trash away and went to get in line. The crowd had dispersed quite a bit so the line wasn’t as long as it had been during the day.

I turned around to offer some of my tickets to Rosa because I knew she didn’t have any, but the guy working the ride started talking to me and Cal. “How many?”

“Five.” Cal answered.

“Max to a car is four, sorry.”

“That’s fine.” I blurted, yet again, and took Cal’s arm. “We can go on first.”

“Yeah, that’s cool.” One of the other guys agreed.

It was a silent ride. Cal sat on the opposite side of the car to balance it. I tried to talk myself into moving to sit beside him while the ride wasn’t moving. When I finally did we clung to the sides for two minutes because it jostled so much.

I could hear Rosa and the Cal’s friends talking in the car just behind ours. I was trying to think of something to say when I heard a whistle. Both of us turned to look down.

Ryan had planted one on Rosa and TJ had wolf whistled at them.

“Dammit.” I heard Cal mutter under his breath. Was he mad he hadn’t worked up the courage to kiss me first?

I was embarrassed. As soon as he had the chance, Ryan took my chin and kissed me with TJ sitting right across from us. When I hear him whistle I knew Blaire and Cal would look back at us. Which was even more embarrassing. What flipped the switch was when TJ rose one eyebrow at me and asked, “Can I have a kiss, too?”