Innocent

The Fair

I couldn't help but notice the striking personality traits that showed in both Benjamin and Endavi. Like how they were both smarter than me, and they both played video games. And sometimes, if I close my eyes, I can picture being in the company of the other. I didn't want to do that on the day of the Fair, my first instance of seeing Endavi outside of school. It would be a pinnacle moment in our friendship.

Which is why, I assumed, he gave me one, long-stemmed red rose when I met him outside the entrance. A gentle smile on his face, he extended his arm to me without saying a word. I smiled softly, warm blood flooding the skin under my round cheeks.

Benjamin never gave me flowers, I thought, and for one brief second, a horrible pang of guilt infiltrated my mind. Here I was, receiving flowers from an eligable bachelor, and he was stuck with his aunty in the Capitol City.

"Shall we enter?" He asked me, the sun catching his deep, chocolate eyes, giving him the most charming glint.

"We shall," I say with a small smile. And we did. Paid for the tickets, received the paper wristbands and made our way to the rides and stalls - and all without me able to look him dead in the eye. The rose he had given me was all I had to stabilise myself, it's sweet scent hovering just outside my nostrils.

"What first?" I asked him, unaware of his opinion on rides. I was hoping he wouldn't have a phobia of such fun, yet not too brave; those rides weren't always the safest. His pointed his long, boney finger at - of coarse - the Ferris wheel I had pictured for Benjamin and I. Not wanting to sound afraid, I nodded, joining the end of the line.

"Twenty questions?" He said rather abruptly, virtually unaudiable. But that's how Endavi acts - he talks and you listen, knowing he is most definitely right.

"Sure," I say, clutching at the paper around my wrist anxiously, and no, I don't know why I was anxious.

"So how come you don't have any plans for today?" A smirk caused his lips to curl up underneath his mass of beard.

"My plans had been subjected to an impromptu forced family outing. He's being punished already, so I won't give him a hard time about it," I said with a laugh, to which he joined. We reached the booth, showed the dissatisfied part-timer our wristbands, and were ushered to our metal compartment. We sat opposing each other, both to have an excuse to look at each other, and to avoid accidental contact.

"Can I ask about the beard? Or is it a rule in Fight Club?" Again, our contrasting chuckles synchronised, me being the alto to his baritone.

"It reminds my great grandmother of her father, who died a war hero. Also, it makes me look older." The ride jerks to a start, the mechanical joints aching and cracking under the constant pressure.

But none of the persistent clunking registered in my ears, as I was completely drawn to the view beyond my cracked window. To say 'I could see the world' would be cliché and unrealistic. To say 'I could see from the river to the bush land' would not do it justice. Everything seems to be tinged brown after decades in the Australian heat, yet when I reached the top, it was like looking at a faded photograph from the days of old. In my childlike eyes, nothing had ever or could ever look as picturesque. I couldn't restrain the grin that brought the corners of my lips to reach new heights, pushing my glasses further upwards on my face.

And as I started to form illustrated stories in my head from the clouds, I felt Endavi's gleaning eyes looking directly at me. I turn to him, still smiling, now with a hint of confusion in my features.

"What's that look for?" I asked him, and as his way of response, he gently brushed a lock of my short, dishwater-colour hair behind my ear, my smile replaced by a dazzled blush.

"You're beautiful," Endavi almost whispered, his hand now framing my stunned face.

Well, shit.

"So that's what that look is for," I say, a small giggle tacking onto the end of my sentence. His hand falls back to his side, yet his eyes never waver from my gaze. And as quickly it had begun, the ride came to a stop after one slow rotation. We stepped out, off and away from the ride without saying a word.

"That was fun," I said in all honesty, "where to next?"

"Sideshow alley. But if I win a teddy bear, I'm keeping it." And that was the end of the awkwardness. Endavi didn't push, didn't persist and didn't pressure, and it was then that I came to an important realisation.

It's also then that I saw Benjamin out of the corner of my eye, clad in grey shirt and shorts, standing with a middle-aged woman at an antique stall. He seemed completely at ease, as if nothing was wrong.

But something was and he knew it, the lying bastard. I marched right up to him, out of his line of sight, and tapped his shoulder. His confusion was apparent until he registered my face in his mind, and then, to my surprised, he flashed a genuine smile.

"Hey, Harls. What's up?" Benjamin said, without a hint of abnormality.

"I thought you said you were spending the weekend with your aunty," the accusation hung in the air without needing to be said. I was calling him out, and some dark part of me hoped he would trip up.

"Did you think this was my mistress?" He said with a dry laugh, gesturing to the older woman, who waved her wrinkled hand at us. There was strong family resemblance, and if it wasn't for the fact I knew his aunty lived in Canberra, I may have fallen for it.

"Doesn't your aunty live in the ACT?" I mumbled, noticing Benjamin's gaze falling to the rose I held at my side, his smile disappearing.

"This is my other aunty," he said, looking beyond me to Endavi, their stern looks matched each other, as if they had coordinated scowls. Their expressions went beyond simply jealousy, to the point of disgust - a warrior's stare.

Benjamin's aunty came and mumbled something to him, and they started to back away, his clear blue eyes switching focus between Endavi and I.

I knew he would text me later, and not mention today at all. How he hadn't specified which aunty it was. How when I commented on him migrating to Canberra for the weekend, he had said nothing. And how I knew that wasn't the first instance of him lying to me.

***

Endavi and I spent the rest of the day going on rides and testing our skill on the sideshow games - Endavi actually won a teddy bear and kept it as a trophy of his achievement. By about five in the afternoon, I was so tired my joints were aching for mercy, sweat rolling off me in buckets.

It had been one of the best days of my existence, and it had been enhanced by Endavi, and not by Benjamin.

As dad was driving me home, the sun on the brink of setting, I returned to my comparison of Benjamin and Endavi - except now, they could not be more different. Like comparing birds to bears. Chalk to cheese

Angels to demons.

(A/N)

Sorry this took so long. Too much free time can be a curse rather than a blessing. I've rediscovered my love for this world, and I want to finish Harley's story. For myself, for her, and for you