Sixteen and Twenty-one

Chapter Six

So Fang and I started our afternoon in the arcade room with the twenty tokens that they give us. We both ended up spend another five dollars each on tokens after we ran out of the ones they gave us. It’s not our fault that we wanted a big prize. I got a stuffed monkey while Fang got a mini basketball. We walked out to the car to put the stuff away before going back in and head over to the batting cage for Fang, and a little bit me. I play softball but it’s not my favorite sport. Fang took his turn first and had no problem with the fast pitches the machine was throwing out at him. He was really good at the batting cages. I might have been on the softball team, but that doesn’t mean I was very good at it. When it came to my turn I missed the three pitches it threw at me.

“I thought you were on your softball team? Are you sure you know how to bat?” Fang yelled from his spot so he could be herd over the loud machine.

“Yeah, just out of practice it seems.” I shouted back at him. This was slightly embarrassing. Striking out in front of a guy you are spending the whole summer with when you are supposed to be the star of your home team. This was not a very good concept. After my shameful display at the batting cage that ended up with Fang helping me get back into the swing of things we went to go play a round of mini golf. Fang picked the red ball since it was one of his other favorite colors and I picked the green ball. I did much better at the golfing than I did at the batting cages. That could be because ever since I was little my dad would take us kids mini golfing every chance he got, which was about every weekend back then. Back before he decided his job should be his first priority and not his kids.

We were at the last whole where you try to get a hole-in-one for a coupon. This is also the hole that takes your ball away from you so you have to pay to play another round of mini golf.

“How about we skip this hole and go play another round on a different course?” I asked Fang.

“That’s not right. That’s wrong. You have to pay to play again. I’m not going to cheat the system because it’ll come back and bite us in the ass.” Fang said back to me.

“Well when you put it that way let’s just finish this up and go ride the mini roller-coaster.” I told him.

Fang ended up getting the coupon thing and I promised him we could come back here sometime later that summer to use it before he went back to school. There weren’t many other rides to choose from other than the mini roller-coaster. There were only seven other rides. That was including the rock wall, kiddie ride, and the go-karts. The best thing is the mini roller-coaster.

We ended up riding the mini roller-coaster several times before we decided to leave. We ended up going to the mall. Fang found some stores that he liked and I found some that I liked. Right now we were in Hot Topic looking at the little buttons they have for you to put on your book bags. I found a black one with red lettering that read ‘cool story bro’ and Fang found one that had a picture of a T-Rex trying to clap on it. By the head of the dinosaur it said “If your happy clap your… ohh”. They were cute but not worth the two dollars that the store wants you to pay for them.

“Hey Fang have you ever shop lifted before?” I asked eyeing the buttons.

“No.” He quizzically looked at me.

“Well you’re going to now.” I told him as I stuffed my button into my pocket.

“Max what are you doing? We can’t do this. This is wrong.” Fang complained grabbing my arm as I turned to make my way to the exit.

“Fang just live a little will you. I do this all the time, you’re not going to get caught. Just walk around the sensors. Nobody will notice.” I explained to him. He looked doubtful but dropped his hold on my arm nonetheless.

Just like I told him we exited the store with the buttons without a hitch. We waited until we rounded the corner to go down a different part of the mall before we pulled the buttons out and put them on. Fang clipped his onto his shirt while I clipped mine onto the hat that I was wearing. It was a rugby hat for some stupid school that I didn’t even go to nor did I know anybody from there. This fact confused Fang. I guess in big cities they don’t go thrift shopping and buy random cheap things just because it’s fun. Maybe it’s a small town thing that we non city slickers do. Some of the things that people buy though should be burnt and not worn. I have seen a pair of shorts on this guy once that I just wanted to rip off and through on a burning flame they were so bad.

"So where to next?" Fang asked looking around at his suroundings.

"Well you might have guessed there really isn't much left to do.That's what happens when you live in the middle of nowhere... oh look Build A Bear!" I told him and then made my way over to the store. I might have a small weakness for this store. Hey I'm a little kid at heart so deal with it! I had noticed that Fang had caught up with me as I was looking at all the deflated animals waiting to be filled with fluff.

"What are we doing in here? You don't seem like the type to like this store." Fang looked at me puzzled.

"You don't know me very well buddy" I laughed at him. My friends would have known that a trip to Build A Bear was inevitable on a mall trip. "Now help me pick one out." It took a few minutes before Fang even acted like he heard what I said.

"You should go wait outside. I want to surprise you." He told me. I was a bit confused but agreed and went and sat on one of the benches outside of the store. Even though I agreed to sit out here and wait I maid sure I picked one of the white plastic benches that was pointed towards the store to sit in so I could watch and see what Fang was doing.

I watched as Fang picked some unsurprisingly black animal from one of the tubs. It looked kind of like a bear, how original. Building a bear at Build a Bear. Fang then took the bear over to the stuffer machines and the person there started talking to him. He seemed a bit uncomfortable but that was no surprise either since from the short amount of time that I have known Fang I have gathered he is not much for talking around strangers. I started laughing when the person made Fang do all the weir stuff like hold the little heart on you bicep so it would be strong. I knew he was at the wish part when she made him kiss the heart, what did surprise me was that he looked up at me right after he kissed it. What was that for? I shook it off and watched on as he continued with the process of making the bear. He went through all of the steps, even the air bath which I couldn’t but to laugh at. Seeing Fang give a stuffed animal an air bath was a hilarious site to see.

It was a few minutes later when Fang came out of the store with the bear in a box and the birth certificate in his hand. I stood up from the bench waiting for him but I didn’t have to wait long before he was right in front of me shoving the birth certificate into my hands.

“Here.” He said handing over the box too. I looked down at the paper to see that Fang had got me a ‘midnight bear’ named… Fang.

“Fang? You named my bear Fang?” I asked lifting an eyebrow at him.

“I bought it so why wouldn’t I name it after me?” He quizzed me but there seemed something different in his voice. There was some emotion there that I just couldn’t put my finger on. “Besides you’ll need something to remember me, your new best friend, by when I leave at the end of the summer.” Fang continued.

“So you’re my new best friend now. Getting a bit cocky now are we?” I asked nudging him and then started walking so we weren’t just standing there while people walked around us. I don’t know what it is but something has changed about Fang recently and I kind of like it. It feels like he is letting go and I’m seeing a different side of him, the real side of him.