That's All

Reintroductions

"Well, now that we aren't acting like enemies, I think I should reintroduce myself," Mikah exclaimed as he pulled away from our wonderful hug. I was a bit heartbroken that that perfect moment had to end, but the thought of actually getting along with this strange guy and starting a clean slate made up for it. "Go on then!" I giggled as he playfully brushed off his shirt and straightened his imaginary tie to get ready to 'meet' me. "Ehmm!" He cleared his throat for added emphasis, "Hello young lady, I don't think we've met, my name is Mikah Avery Phillips, what is yours?"

"Your middle name is Avery?!" trying to keep the snorting to a minimum almost seemed to result in the opposite. "IT'S A BOYS NAME!" He remarked incredulously as if he had explained this to several people in the past.

"If you say so! And my name is Lindsay, Lindsay with an A... And uh, I don't remember my last name.. Or if I have one." with that I lamely dropped the sentence, but just as soon as my voice died down, Mikah's picked up, now with a tinge of a (poorly fabricated) British accent of some sort.

"We he heeellll, Lindsay with an A" he chimed as he hooked his left arm with my right. "Since we are such new and congenially mates, I say we begin this glorious friendship with an adventure. An adventure I like to call, The Fall Festival!" He beamed as if I should be impressed by his 'amazing' British impersonation, and I, not wanted to hurt his feelings, obliged by smiling and laughing right along.

"So you're asking me to go to a carnival with you?" I implored again, just to make sure I had gotten the right idea out of all his jumbled speech.

"You wanna?" This time it wasn't with an accent, it was a genuine question asked by a little boy who was just learning how to talk to girls. The thought of it made me bubble up inside.

He's worried I won't want to go! I thought.

"It's really fun!" he described, counting the numerous things on his fingers."People go and dress up all dapper and whatnot and there's tons of different cultural foods and cotton candy and different tents and it smells like leaves and bonfires and if you don't have braces you can eat candy apples and the-"

"HEY!"

I responded to his endless spew of events with a index finger to his lips. He went cross eyed as he stared at my slight finger on his face.

"I'll come."

Behind my pointer I saw his eyes widen and fill with brightness at the prospect of the glorious night ahead of him, and his lips spread across his face so far that I couldn't keep my finger there without pressing his front teeth that were exposed.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?!" Like a kid on Christmas he dashed around the living room excitedly. "We'll need to change, I'll need to find my handsome outfit and you'll need to wear a handsome dress of some sort."

"Where am I gonna find a dress?"

"Well," he said, darting to his room, "I was saving this for- it was a present for- but that doesn't matter anymore," he exploded out from the door and landed right back by my side, eager to hand me something, "you have it." He gleamed as he handed me a sweet antique-looking cream and robin's egg blue dress, with a lacy collar and a distressed, vintage flow and glow to it. It was so simple and so beautiful at the same time, and seemed to me that I was made to wear it. The lump of gratitude in my throat kept me from saying all that I wanted to, but I croaked out a thank you, and Mikah was content, with a satisfied grin.

"I'm gonna go change, meet you out here in a couple minutes!!!"

And we both ran off to different corners of the house to prep for our adventurous night on the town.

Soon,

I in my newly received dress and Mikah in some sort of bow tie and suspenders getup, stepped out arm in arm into the quickly receding light.

Faster than a millisecond, we were headed out the door to Mikah's car, the chilled breeze and foreign surroundings immediately slapped me in the face, mentally and physically.

"It's cold!?" I barked, looking at Mikah, ready for answers.

"Okay, so now that we're going to be best friends I gotta confess my sins to you."

"What?!?!" But he didn't stop to explain, or stop walking for that matter, and it took a great deal of effort to keep up with his long strides.

"Yeah, I kinda told you a lie or two.. Or three. This isn't California-

"Ho ho hoh, yah think?!" I remarked, rather cross as I rubbed my biceps to fend off the goose bumps.

"Yeah, not California, its Pennsylvania and I'm not a model, although you probably guessed that already-

"You didn't tell me you-"

"And my name isn't Mikah,"

"WHAT?!"

"Just kidding that wasn't a lie my name actually is Mikah!

this boy..

"And ALSO," we finally found our way to his small blue Honda accord as he uttered the claims.

"what more could you possibly have fabricated?!"

Quick as whip, he spit out the finally fib,

"People don't actually dress up to this festival i just wanted to dress up and i didn't want to be alone and i didn't thing you'd mind wearing the dress and I'm sorry i just really like bow ties because bow ties are cool!!!!!"

And with a half-cocked smile, he ducked into the car and started the engine. I shook my head "What am I gonna do with you?" I implored of myself as I sat down and strapped in. "Well, all you gotta do right now is trust me and HANG ON!!!"

"What have I gotten myself into?"

And just like that, we were off.