The Shy and the Popular

Chapter 10

I love it. 

The smells, the colours, the sounds. I love it all. The candy floss, the prize booths, the Ferris wheel. I love it all. Yes, Carter brought me to the one an only place where I can truly let go, be myself and be happy. I haven't been here for exactly 365 days (I come every year, it's just so unmissable). Ladies and Gentlemen, we are at the yearly town fair!

Now let me tell you something. This fair lasts two whole days. Vi, Penny and I attend every year for both of these days. This equates to two whole days of unlimited fun, frolicking and fooling around for the trio. This sudden realisation sent a creep of guilt through me as I turn to Carter.

'I come with Vi and Pen every year. They're not here this year. I feel bad. I know you thought of this as a fake date or whatever just between the two of us but my friends will be unhappy. I can't do this to them. Trust me, I'd love to spend the time with you, but it just isn't fair that I get to have fun and they, they sit and mope around doing, oh I don't know, homework...' I ramble on, ashamed to look Carter in the eye.

'Stop,' he orders with an amused voice. 'God, you're so cute while rambling, Clumsy. Didn't think I had it all sorted?'

I raise my head for the first time to look him in the eyes (well, he's still about a head taller but oh well). 'What?'

'Vi and Penny are currently waltzing off on their own little rendezvous with Luke and Jesse respectively. Besides, we're all coming together tomorrow too, I just want today to be special for us as a... fake  date,' he smiles, sighing slightly as he emphasizes fake. This leaves me totally and utterly bamboozled.

He holds out his hand, waiting for me to take it. I grin and grab it, dashing to the bumping cars. This ride is great, as it is not torturous, yet incredibly fun. I pick the navy, shiny car as I watch Carter opt for the pink car covered in sparkles and unicorns. I stifle a laughter as Carter makes pouty faces towards the car. The jazz music starts and the fun begins...

Carter holds me tightly, trying to keep on a serious face but failing completely, as I stagger out of my blue car. That ride was...less harmless than I had anticipated. 'It's not funny!' I protest as Carter breaks out. Okay, I got bumped by Carter at least 20 times. Considering, that was a 10 minute ride, that's twice a minute. And on top of that, the last little "bump" caused me to fly out of my car, only to be saved by those security men.

'It is.'

I simply glare at Carter.

'Lily.'

'Lily!'

'Lils.'

'Lil' lily' - What even?!

'Clumsy?'

I stomp twice and turn to look at him, deepening my glare. He smirks back. 'Aww, she responds to the nickname I picked for her! How sweet!'

My eyes narrow further. 'You have anything to say?' I growl in a low voice. Oh my, I could pass off as a wolf. Almost.

'Hey come on, sorry for totally beating your ass at that. But I'll win you a stuffed toy to make up for it,' he says with a cheeky smile.

Who can resist that?

***

'I told you I'd win you something,' he grins as I hold up my newly won baby elephant. Toy, of course. Carter had managed to shoot all the balloons in a row, in such a manner that even impressed the booth owner. And he's a professional. He also picked out the baby ele, which was sweet as he knew exactly what I had wanted. I'm surprised he didn't go for one of those toy guns or whatever.

'She's called Ele,' I declare, creative, I know.

Carter just chuckles.

I open my mouth to say something but my stomach does the job, as it rumbles very loudly and embarrassingly. Just when I am about to cower in shame, Carter's stomach follows mine and makes a similar sound.

'Let's eat!' We exclaim mutually.

He grabs my hand to drag me to the nearby corn-on-the-cob stall, but I don't miss the sudden tingles that travel up my arm from my fingers. I almost jerk my hand back.

'Hey Mika! Two corns please!' He orders casually to the stall owner, presumably named 'Mika' sue to the large 'Mika's Corn-on-the-cobs' sign on the front of the stall.

'I'm not Mika,' the stall guy replies. Oh. 'I happen to be his friend and am managing the stall just for tonight.' Awkward.

'Oh, we're sorry, we didn't realise...' I mumble off, accepting the juicy looking corn snack from the vendor and grabbing Carter's hand.

The tingles were felt again. Nothing but a simple spark of electricity flowing from the tip of my fingers, up my arm.

'Hey Clumsy?' Carter nudges me. I turn around to face him, breaking me from my admiration of the view of the fair. It looks beautiful, with little fairy-lights strewn across the whole park, lighting up the night sky and the cheerful fair music coming from the carousel sparked many moods.

'M-hm?' I mumble, savouring the taste of the corn. Ooh this tastes heavenly!

'There's something in your eye...' he frowns and leans over closer to me to inspect my eye. I frown as I try blinking.

'Oh nothing, it was just a twinkle, my bad.' Carter smirks as my frown deepens.

'Yeah maybe you should get glasses,' I retort.

'And here I thought you were up for some corny pick-up lines,' he grins, emphasizing his pun by waving his corn on the cob in front of me. Seeing that it was still uneaten, I lean forward and lick it, smiling mischievously.

Carter stares at me in shock, before shrugging and getting ready to take a bite. I mock gasp in surprise. I have serious hygiene issues.

'Stop!' I yell. 'I hope you know that it's got my saliva on it! You can't eat it!'.

'Well then Clumsy, I'm glad it's your saliva,' he chuckles before taking a bite of my salivated corn.

***

The fair was over and currently I am sitting in Carter's car, outside my house, wishing this night wasn't over so soon. I sigh, getting ready to get off when Carter stops me. He grabs my hand and as crazy as it may seem, that jolt of electricity comes again. I gasp slightly, but I don't think he hears me. I hope he didn't.

'I uh- I had fun tonight Superman.'

'Me too, although I really wanted to try that Ferris Wheel.'He grumbles like a 5 year old. I roll my eyes.

'It's not open yet! They were getting it ready for tomorrow, the big fireworks display,' I explain to the pouting boy.

'Still...'he trails off lowering his gaze to my lips. 'I wanted to try this...'

He leans in closer until there is a very small gap between us. My eyes flutter shut on instinct. Will he do what I think he is going to do? Will he ...kiss me? 

My nerves get the best of me as I think. 

This kiss will take away my VL status! It will be my first kiss. As much as I want this, I'm scared.

Just as his lips brush over mine, I cough awkwardly, causing him to pull back with eyes wide. And as if I could make this any more awkward, I unlock the car door, leap out and run towards my home, not sparing a single backward glance.

Ooh, so that was close. So close, yet so far. What would you guys do in this situation, huh? :D