Their Little Beauty (MxMxM+GF)

Chapter Forty-Two: Carnival Fun and A Bitchy Bitch

Briar was excited, looking out of the car window and gaping in wonder as vehicles passed by, the lights brightening up the dark like fireworks of mundane colours.

"So pretty" he mumbled, breath steaming up the window.

"What is?" Jesse asked, taking their arm out of the seatbelt to lean over and talk over the radio playing odd country music. They sang a lot about love, but the words were sad or angry, which was confusing since the melody was quite cheerful.

"Lights" he whispered, pointing at each one before they disappeared behind them.

"Hmhm, they sure are. But guess what".

"What?".

"Where we're going, there's going to be so many other pretty, bright lights your little head might explode!".

"My head go pop? That many lights?!" Briar questioned excitedly. Jesse nodded.

"Whoa..." the Little sighed in awe.

Wonder how many lights it takes to make my head go bang. So cool...

Perhaps he should have thought more about the fact that having one's head explode was usually not very healthy- doctors definitely didn't recommend it- but as it was, Briar could only fantasize over what kind of place they were going to.

A light shop? That seemed most obvious to him, and somehow even something so simple as walking around looking at lamps made him vibrate with anticipation.

Other than Quinny's garden, which he loved, Little Briar had never been outside before. 

The bad man would have never let that happen and even when the Little had been on his own, it seemed so frightening to go outside. People could have been mean to him, maybe even meaner than Harlow. And that kept him locked away, first inside the apartment then inside Briar himself.

Tearing his eyes away from the window, they instead fell to Vonie, driving the car and singing quietly along to the music. Little Briar hadn't taken to him all that much, feeling intimidated by him whenever they were alone, but that all changed earlier that afternoon. When the scary man with pretty eyes convinced Quinny to take him outside.

"Come on love, he should get to experience the stuff he wasn't allowed to before. And we all know there's no way in hell his parent's let him go to a carnival and mess around like a child should. Please, for him? I'll make sure nothing bad happens".

A vague memory of going once before had appeared in Briar's small mind, one where he was bigger than he was now but still cute with a tiny body. Maybe around seven or eight years old? In that memory a man held his hand as they walked around a place filled with other kids and loud noises, and he wanted to desperately join them.

Only the hand on his had tightened painfully until he stopped tugging, shamed by the disapproval aimed his way by familiar dark brown eyes. His hand became freezing, numb and uncomfortable. The trip hadn't been as much fun as he'd hoped, rather it had made him sad, so he pretended to have fun instead. That made the rough hand feel warm again.

But now Vonie was giving him a second chance! Briar would be good, he would do what he was told and stay by their sides at all times, not following the other children.

He would do anything to see those bright lights again.

***

Devon looked around when he got out of the car, quickly surveying how many people he could see. Thankfully there were quite a lot, which Quinn seemed nervous about but that was because he hadn't thought about it like blue-eyed man had.