𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 ; 𝓶𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝔂 𝓭𝓾𝓬𝓴𝓼

Carnival

Portman lead the small group to a carnival in downtown LA somewhere. We had to hop the bus to get there.

"Portman," Jesse looks at the carnival in the distance. "How are we gonna pay to get in?"

Portman grins. "Who said anything about paying?" He goes to the back and hops the enclosurement. We follow after him and look around.

"Let's go find some rides." Fulton begins to drag us to all different kinds of rides. Most of them me and Jesse were scared to ride on.

Like this one where we were held by a harness and flung into the air. We only went on that because they said we wouldn't.

Me and Jesse both threw up after. Portman called us wusses for throwing up. Or this other one where the ride stopped halfway on a loopty loop.

    Needless to say, I thought I was going to die. I felt bad for Jesse, I dug my nails into hid arm and screamed so loud in his ear.

    But Portman was a baby in the carousel. "Come on, Portman!" Jesse was trying to convince Dean to go on.

    "No, man!" Dean was arguing back.

    I laugh with Fulton. "Is big bad Dean Portman scared to go on a kiddy ride?" I joke with my best friend.

    "Hmm, I dunno." Fulton smirks. "Is big Dean Portman scared?"

    Jesse snickers and Portman gives a face at the carousel. "I'm not going on that."

    I grab him by the arm. "C'mon, big baby." I forcefully pull Portman onto the moveable platform. I sit him down on the bench. "Look this one doesn't go up and down."

    "Yo." He grabs my wrist when i turned to leave. "Sit down. I, uh, don't want to be alone." He whispers.

    I chuckle a bit. "You baby." I take a seat next to him. "Oh, Jesse I'm doing this one with Portman."

    "Oh." Jesse went monotone. "Yeah, I'll just go on this one." He went on a yellow horse and Fulton a pink one.

    The ride starts and Portman clutches the bench. He starts mumbling one of his rock songs. "Dean, it is not that scary to be holding the bench like that."

    "I'm not scared, babes." He didn't sound sure of himself. "I'm just-"

    "Not being a baby?"

    "Exactly." He says.

    The bench shakes from a little bump, Portman yelps, throws his feet onto the bench, and grabs onto me.

    "You're such a liar, Dean Portman." I look down at him. His eyes are closed while his mouth was slightly open and quivering. "Oh my God, Portman."

    I sling my arm over him and rub his shoulders. "Tell me when it's over, babes."

    "Yeah, sure thing." I look back to Fulton and Jess. I mouth 'baby' at them while gesturing to Portman.

    Fulton mouths back 'scaredy cat' and Jesse doesn't do anything. He just looks at Portman before drifting his eyes away.

    The ride continues and after every bump, Dean clung on tighter and tighter to me. "Yo, scaredy cat." I nudge Portman. "It's over."

    Portman opens his eyes and looks around. "You could move your arm now." I remove it and he stands up and goes with Fulton. "I was totally not scared."

    "Yeah, clinging onto Renny is totally not being scared." Jesse says. There was a slight hint of attitude in his voice as he spoke.

    Fulton swings his arm around both Portman and Jesse. "Before we leave lets, go on the ferris wheel. Grab Ice." I grab onto Jesse and Fulton takes us to the ferris wheel.

    "I want to sit with Renny on this." Jesse stands by me. Fulton nods and goes with Portman behind us.

    We stand in silence until we got onto the cart. "Enjoy the ride." The worker tells me and Jesse.

    "Thanks." Jesse responds to her before sliding in. I go right after her. She closes the cart door and the ride starts soon after.

    For the first minute me and Jess sits in silence. "Dude, why you so quiet?" I turn to Jesse.

    "Why did you go on the ride with Portman?" He tells me back. "The carousel was our thing."

    I give a slightly confused face. "Okay, first of all he was scared to do it and second of all the carousel is everyone's thing."

    "He could've went on with Fulton or myself." Jesse argues. "And the carousel is our thing. It's where we had our first kiss."

    I scoff at him. "Are you seriously jealous of Dean?"

    "I'm just saying that he didn't have to take you away."

    I scoff again and smack him on the arm. "Take me away? Jesse Tyler Hall, I am not a thing to be taken away!"

    "That's not what I meant!"

    I cross my arms. "No, Hall. That's exactly what you mean. You think I'm some kind of property."

    "Renny, I-"

    I snap my head round him. "Save it, Hall."

    The rest of the ride was awkward as hell. And the sitting on the bench waiting for Dean and Fulton were too.

    When they came off, they were laughing and joking with each other. "Portman's gonna hit the food stands then we'll get going." He looks at his watch I got him for his birthday a couple months ago. "It's gonna hit 1."

    "If it's one, why the hell is this carnival still open." I was in a mood now.

    Fulton felt the tension and pulled me aside, leaving Jesse by himself on the bench as Portman had already left for the food stands.

    "Ice, you good?" He coddles me with his arm.

    I take a breath before answering. "Hall said I was property and Portman was taking me away." I felt tears building up in my eyes. "He thinks I could be owned."

    "Why is he thinking Portman is taking you away." Fulton looks behind us. "You could hang with other guys."

    I wipe my eyes. "That's what I'm saying. His jealousy is too damn much. He's like this with Banksie and Guy. Like he thinks I could only be with him all the time!"

    My rant was cut short when Portman comes running to us, carrying cotton candy, popcorn buckets (which was flying everywhere), rock candy, and other such things.

    "Run!" He shouts at us. I stare for a moment before seeing two security guards running behind him.

    "Shit, run!" I make a dash for it and the others go after me. We run out the front entrance and down the street.

    We continue for a block or two before they stopped chasing us. "Damn, man." Jesse was panting and laughing.

    "Got us the stuff though." Portman shakes his arms and passes us some stuff he got from the stands.

    He gave me two cotton candies, a blue rock candy, and a smushed corn dog. "Thanks, but I don't like hot dogs." I give the corn dog to Fulton instead.

    "Noted." Portman says before we walk back to the rooms.

    We all had small talk the way there before going our separate ways (minus Portman and Fulton).

    When I got to my room, Connie and Julie were still up. They were barely getting in bed. "You guys up still?"

    "Your dad kept us doing sprints." Connie rolls over. "Then he made us do scrimmages til we passed out."

    Julie turns over. "Yeah, nothing bad."

    "Sounds awful."

    The three of us fell asleep dissing on my dad.