Daddy Didn't Love Me // Lawlorff

Twenty

Kian sat there in the back of the booth, staring nonchalantly into the dead eyes of the giant teddy bear prize as children flourished toward me, waving dollar bills in the wind. One by one, I accepted the charges and gave them their baseballs, their job to knock down the stationary pins which incidentally were stabilized perfectly by my management to fall only once in a long while. 

Kian smirked seeing one by other devastated knowing they couldn't bring home the big prize, laughing to himself as the parents threatened to sue me and my workplace. I defended myself as best as I could until the point came that a large sunburnt man chomping away on a soft pretzel practically pulled my heart out of my chest. Kian stood up defensively and walked toward, cocking his eyebrows and clenching his jaw. I held a hand back to stop him, the boardwalk couldn't afford another lawsuit after a sweaty six year old broke his arm on the carousel by galavanting from horse to horse. Kian by association was an employee, officially, since my boss Jenna dubbed him that seeing the puppy dog of a boy was always on my trail. 

"Fuck off," Kian growled through his teeth, and I stood back as if my boyfriend had just transformed into some sort of tiger, prowling around and marking his territory. The sunburnt man ran as fast as his chubby legs could take him, completely dropping his precious fat filled pretzel, spheres of salt sporadically placing themselves on the pavement. Kian stood back and laughed. 

He grabbed my shoulder and smiled. "Thanks," I muttered. He was practically my own personal bulldog, the overprotectiveness of which was so overwhelming that I wanted to drown myself with it. I loved having him by my side, even if people assumed I'm too weak to fight my own battles. Kian loved me and he showed it well. 

He kissed my temple and looked me deep in the eyes. I loved everything about his eyes, as dark as they were, they still seemed lively and full of color to me. His eyelashes were superb, stretching out for what seemed like miles, creating shadows on his cheeks whenever the sun hit him in the right angle. 

Lately his eyes have been improving. For a brief amount of time, after the hospital incident, after all of the sadness he kept locked inside came pouring out, they were dull. The beautiful eyes I came to adore became different in every aspect, no light reflected off of them and they were dead set, dark circles permanently drawn under his eyes, everything about him looked dead and cold. Sometimes, it was quite hard to find the brightness and stars I had always found in them, the constellations rare but once you found them, you are the happiest person on the planet. 

We were hastily interrupted by Jenna, whose ever changing hairstyles never failed to amaze and baffle anyone who saw them. This time, she was sporting a full on green hairstyle, some type of mermaid bullshit she'd looked up on pinterest or something like that. 

"Ahem," she coughed, her signature voice stinging my ears as I turned to look at her. She wasn't too fond of Kian anyway, seeing as he was a "distraction" to my devoted work, and obviously since he had just scared away a customer, she was probably pissed. 

Kian sat back on the perch at the back end of the booth, and I stepped forward to face Jenna. 

"Sam.. I just received another complaint that your bulldog scared away a customer." She nodded at Kian who awkwardly looked at the ground to avoid eye contact. 

"I'm sorry..." I started to apologize. 

Kian jumped upward. 

"No, fuck that. You don't have to apologize for anything babe." 

He took the spot in front of me facing Jenna eye to eye. 

"Sam did nothing wrong. A man threatened him, and maybe I am a bulldog in the sense that I'm gonna stand up for my boyfriend, but I mean look at him, he's adorable, he couldn't scare away a pug. No offense, by the way," he looked at me speaking the last words. 

I nodded showing that no offense was taken, I thought it was particularly cute of him to think of me that way and instead blushed upon hearing the words. 

"So, I told the guy straight up, to fuck off, and he ran. He ran away like a little scared schoolgirl, it was hilarious...anyway, he fucked with my man, and no one fucks with Sam but me, if ya know what I mean." 

He winked at me and I brought my palm up to my face, covering my eyes from Jenna's eminent reaction to all this. 

She sighed presumptiously. "Your romantic life is none of my business, obviously I don't wanna know about this shit, so I'm gonna let you off with a warning. Sam, keep a leash on your dog please." 

Kian laughed as she ran off to aid two children quarreling over a cotton candy stick by the circus tent. 

"Keep a leash on your dog," he mocked. 

"Funny because she's the bitch here," I laughed back. 

He smiled at me. "I like it here. Before I met you, I never went to the boardwalk. I thought it was too cliche, you know, the boy tries his luck at a gaming booth and wins her the big teddy bear prize. I never once thought that I'd fall in love with the boy who hands out the teddy bears. And now that I'm here, I wouldn't change that for the world." 

He leant down and kissed me softly. An alarm rang on my phone. "Shift's over. Ferris wheel for sunset?" 

He nodded and smirked. I handed the booth keys over to Matt, a kid who also happened to work at the booth when my shifts ended. 

Kian clapped like a child in line awaiting his ride around the ferris wheel. The Clearwater Cliffs boardwalk was considerably popular, but somehow upon a string of luck, we got to the front of the line within minutes. 

The man working the line was my new friend named Jack, a dimpled kid who flirted with girls all day long. "Have fun, Pottorff. Lawley." he laughed as he closed the gate behind us. 

Kids groaned at the sight of us being the only ones allowed on, as if it were a special privilege, which it incidentally was. 

Kian grabbed my hand as the safety belt was lowered on us, and Jack pushed the button to let us go upward. The sky was beautiful at that moment, just peering toward a sunset, shades of pink and orange painting the sky. He pulled my head upon his shoulder and my heart fluttered within my chest. 

We got to the top and Jack stopped it, I looked down and he yelled, "Trust me!" 

Just then, the sun hit the waves and the view was marvelous. The beach where Kian and I had my first kiss was plainly in view and I smiled. Kian kissed my forehead as we saw the sunbeams dance across the waves and held my hand tighter. 

"I love you," he whispered. 

I nearly cried I was so happy. "I love you too."