Page 15 of So Long, Honey

“So innocent,” he mumbled, shooing me out, sliding across the bench and following behind. “Driver-side door doesn’topen from the inside,” he laughed and jumped down onto the pavement beside me.

He walked a few steps before realizing I wasn’t following and stuck his hand out to me, “stay close,” he said, wiggling his fingers at me. Something I noticed he did often, and as childish as it felt at first, it always made me feel comfortable enough to take his hand.

Just as expected, the football field was packed. The rides and booths created narrow paths through the grass that hundreds of bodies funneled through.

“I didn’t even know the town had this many people,” I yelled over the sound of a horn blasting from one of the nearby games.

“Aren’t you the school treasurer?” He looked over his shoulder at me as we weaved through a crowd of people.

“Yeah, but…” I shrugged. The fact that he knew that made the butterflies in my stomach go wild.

“Pretty sure this fair brings in more revenue than all the other school events,” Ryan tugged me out of the way of a girl juggling a bottle of pop and a bear twice her size. “You really have never come?”

“It’s not my thing,” I said. It’s bad enough to feel invisible in the high school hallways, but there was a new level of transparency. It was like I didn’t exist. But with my fingers intertwined with Ryan’s, and his eyes locked in on mine. I wasn’t invisible. Not tonight.

“Popcorn, corn dog, or snow cone?” He asked.

I looked around at my options and sighed. I was usually allowed popcorn, and snow cones were sugary. “Corn dog,” I said, not realizing it was out loud, but a determined smile spread across his face.

“One corn dog coming up,” he shifted his grip and darted through the crowds with me on his tail until we came to a line of carts that wafted with an overwhelming fried dough smell. Heordered one, paid the kid working the booth, and held it out for me.

“What, no mustard?” I looked down at it, and Ryan barked a boisterous laugh that made people stare as the heat rose up my neck. He turned back to the kid and asked for assistance before returning with the corn dog in better shape. “Thank you,” I said quietly, taking a bite of the warm dough.

Ryan stared at me as I sunk my teeth into it, his fingers tapping the napkin wrapped around the tail end of it as I chewed. “So?” He asked.

“It’s delicious,” I licked my lips as he took a bite for himself and groaned with happiness.

“I would have preferred a snow cone,” he laughed and offered me more.

My eyes drifted to the space just behind him, where a group of girls watched my every move with horrible snarls on their pretty faces. My fingers twitched at my sides with nerves as Ryan blissfully enjoyed the corn dog, utterly unaware that we were being observed.

“Ignore them,” he said with a mouth full of hotdog, “they all share one brain.”

Maybe not so unaware.

“It’s a very cruel brain they share to gossip,” I added, my eyes still nervously trained on them.

“They’re just jealous, Starlight,” he mumbled. He gave me the last bite of the corn dog and chucked the garbage. I focused on the girls when he came up behind me and rested his hand on my hip.

My entire body tensed under this grasp as his chin found home on my shoulder, “you picked the snack. I picked the ride.”

“Ryan, I don’t like heights,” I reminded him.

“Have I let you down so far?” He asked, his breath fanning on my cheek as I shook my head no.

“Good, Ferris wheel it is.”

FIELD

Iwanted to dig my heels into the soft grass as Ryan shimmied us through the crowd toward the lineup for the massive turning wheel. My hands were trembling by the time we came to a stop behind a few others in the line.

“I don’t think I can,” I exhaled a shaky breath and stared up at the ride.

“I know you can.” Ryan shrugged like it was as simple as that, as if I wasn’t turned inside out with fear over sitting on the rickety, swaying buckets. “Rae,” he said, snapping me from my terrified trance. “Take my hand,” he said, and I listened without protest as he led us up onto the unbalanced steel structure and into a two-person bucket that rocked as we said down.

I shut my eyes tightly and dug my fingers into the top of his hand as the bar came down across us, and the ride jolted to life. Ryan sat quietly beside me, not saying a word as the breeze rustled our hair and bit our cheeks.

“Open your eyes,” he said to me, but I just shook my head. I was too scared to open my eyes and see how high we had climbed. “I’m right here. Nothing bad will happen.”