Bound

Chapter 12

-Bittersweet-

"Oh... Oh wow..." You gazed at the fair entrance. You never expected fairs to be this large. Compared to amusement and theme parks, you've always thought that fairs would be small since they're less popular. Or maybe this fair was just exceptionally big. You'd never know since you didn't care enough to find out.

"Hey Hey! Are you gonna gawk at the entrance the entire time?" Amy teased you from inside the waiting line. Her voice snapped you out of your bewildered state, and you rushed to catch up with the main group.

Once you joined back with the others, Amy continued to tease you while Aamon joined in. Much like the last time you all hung out, Volken seemed detached from the whole situation. You could only guess that he wasn't fond of these types of settings, so you decided not to push it, unaware of his eyes that would linger on you every once in a while.

The four of you finally made it past the ticket booth, looking at a map that was placed at the start of the park.

"Okay then..." Amy squinted at the map. "Since it's (Names)'s first time, we should do something easy." "Where's the fun in thaat~?" Aamon interjected."She's not a baby she can handle a few rough rides." You felt your brow twitch as they started to bicker. You sighed heavily, bearing a glance towards Volken, who seemed all too focused on whatever was in front of him. You wanted to reassure yourself that it was because of the environment, but something still felt ... off...to you.

As you were going to check on him, you were interrupted by Aamon's energetic voice. "It's decided then!" You look back over to see no evidence of the previous disagreement, and both Amy and Aamon were grinning gleefully at you.

"Alrighty! For the first half of this trip, we'll start off strong, with exciting and fast rides." Amy butted in. "And then, we'll eat and settle down with calmer attractions and rigged fair games. This way, there's less of a chance of getting sick or exhausted."

You simply shrugged your shoulders. Seemed like fun.

~~~

The first half of this trip was... exhilarating if you can call it that. It had been a while since you'd been on a ride like that. You thought you'd be fine going on the dropper ride they had, but apparently, over time, you'd grown a phobia of heights and almost had a heart attack on it. Other than that, you had a decent time.

You were now eating takoyaki with Aamon and Amy. Volken ran off somewhere a bit ago, but you had no clue where. You were all talking about some subject that wouldn't ever come up again when Amy suddenly stopped. You looked at her questionably. She jumped up and down excitedly and pointed over at a nearby booth. At the booth was a clearly viable pink octopus plush. "I'm gonna be a while. You know how rigged those booths are." She smiled at you. "Catch you later darling!" And with that, she ran off. "I could've sworn I got her to stop calling me that." You grumbled, flustered.

"What's more, she's trying to win an octopus, while eating a fried octopus." Aamon joked. You smiled, "Well then, let's find our own booths to test our luck." "Sounds like a plan."

The two of you played a couple of games before you stopped to get cotton candy. You made sure to get more than two, stuffing the treat in your mouth. "Oh look!" caught your attention. "Mrphh?" You looked over to what he was looking at. It was a booth with nerf guns and duck targets. "That looks fun, although it might not be for you considering your aim at the arcade." He smirked. You furrowed your brows and swallowed the treat in your mouth. "You're on!"

You were briskly walking to the booth when you stopped to look at a familiar looking face. "Kenneth?" The brunette turned towards you at the mention of his name. "Oh! (Name)!" He approached the two of you. "Never expected to run into you here, how's it going?" You asked. "Great actually, how's the tai-" "And who are you exactly?" You and Kenneth turned towards Aamon, who was wearing a carefree expression. His tone was filled with passive aggression.

"Ah my bad." You said. "Kenneth, this is Aamon, my coworker, and Aamon, this is Kenneth, a friend I met at the library." Kenneth held out his hand to shake, but Aamon just stared at it in silence. "..Okay then..." Kenneth retracted his hand awkwardly. "Let's get going (Name)." Aamon suggested.

Although, to his discomfort, you turned to Kenneth again. "Do you want to come too? The more the merrier." "Sure why not." Kenneth smiled softly. Aamon clicked his tongue, but it went unnoticed.

The three of you walked over to the booth and paid the vendor. "Get 500 points before the minute ends, and you'll win the grand prize!" The vendor practically yelled at you. Looking up, you could see the prize in question, a giant duck plush. Shoot enough ducks and get one of your own. Nice.

One look at the booth, and you could tell they had no intention of letting that plush go. The scores on the ducks ranged from ten to a hundred, but the hundred pointers were all the way in the back. Even then, they were cycling through a few fifty pointers, the second highest number in the ducks. You sighed, that duck plush was cute, but you'd have to settle for the smaller cheaper ones that cost less points.

Aamon offered to go first. He shot with great precision, racking up a total of 390 points. You were fairly impressed. "Where was that aim when we were in the arcade huh?" You flicked his forehead. "Aww come ooon, don't be mean!" Aamon said while rubbing his forehead. He picked out a donut plush with his points.

Then it was your turn. You figured going for the 100 pointers was a waste of time, so you opted for shooting as many as you could. In the end, you scored a total of 370 points. "Damn it!" You cursed under your breath. "Guess this just proves that I'm a better shooter than you." Aamon teased. "Like hell it does! I would've won with just a thirty pointer." He stuck his tongue at you. With your points, you got a small bumblebee keychain. "Not too bad..." You muttered tucking it in your pocket.

Kenneth was the last to go. He was surprisingly good, hitting all the 100 pointers totaling a whopping 520 points. "Geez, where'd you learn how to shoot like that?" You were totally taken aback. He smiled shyly. "I took up archery a few years ago." "That's some crazy precision. Maybe you could help me get better some time." Kenneth's ears turned a light shade of pink. "Sure I don't mind."

Aamon watched on silently, observing the expressions on your faces carefully. He was not very fond of Kenneth's response, to say the very least. The vendor handed Kenneth the duck. He looked at it for a second before handing it to you.

"Why are you giving this to me?" "It doesn't really go with my room, it's not like I have room for it anyway." You took it and chuckled a bit. "This is like some cliche love scene." Kenneth blushed profusely."E-Eeeh wha-" "Oh look, a fishing booth!" Aamon suddenly but in. "I love fishing, we should go." He had a strangely wide smile and a blank look in his eyes. You noticed this, but you thought he was being passive aggressive because he was competitive. "Sure why not." You said before stuffing the remainder of your cotton candy into your mouth to make room for the duck.

The three of you competed in several more booths and games. By the time you were tired, the sun was starting to set. You were looking for Amy, but you couldn't seem to find her anywhere, so you gave up. "How about we go on the ferris wheel to get a view of the sky?" Kenneth suggested. "Why not? Maybe we'll spot Amy's bright hair while we're up there." You joked.

You all got on the ferris wheel. You looked down the window as you ascended. "Oh hey, I can actually see Amy. We just passed her." "Really? I'll text her to know where we are then." Kenneth pulled out his phone. Aamon turned to look at you. "These last couple of hangouts have been pretty fun, wouldn't you say?" You stared out the window as you thought. "Yeah... gotta enjoy it while I can."

There was a short pause, the cart approaching the very top of the wheel. "What... do you mean by that?" Aamon had a slight tremble in his voice. You turned back to look at him. "Well, I can't go into that much detail." The sun settled over the horizon line, causing orange light to spill over. "The gist is, I'm not really safe here." You gazed down to fiddle with your fingers. The light shining from the sun made your eyes appear to be glowing a bright orange. "That's why I'm leaving. I've already turned in my notice and I'm leaving after three weeks." The cart came to a halt at the top of the wheel. The bright and beautiful sky seemed as though it was gazing on you all.

"Yₒᵤ'ᵣₑ...wₕₐₜ?"