Letting Love In

Chapter 9, Part 4

I HAVEN'T SEEN Rian all day. I don't know where she is, but I know she's at school. He parents would never allow her to miss a day of school. If she's dying of a sickness with absolutely no cure besides her staying at home, she'll probably just die, because her parents would never allow her to take a day. So she's at school. She's just hiding. Probably from me.

I was with Jonny and the others, around the table outside, and almost every group of friends are having the same conversation right now; St. Patrick's Annual Fair Day. I'm not exactly into it, nor do I care about it, but this year, everyone seems to care. Everyone wants to go. Everyone thinks it'll be so much fun, including my friends.

Esther, Squirrel and Jonny are going on and on and on about what they plan to do and how they plan to cheat the stalls to win more. Honestly, their plans all sounded like they were about to fail horribly, but I didn't say anything. I ate fries.

"...You should take us all," Esther was saying, "You're the only one with a car so it makes sense. Besides, I don't want to walk. And I highly doubt they'd want to walk either." She nodded her head to Jonny and I. He blinked across at me before saying, "I'm okay with walking."

"No you aren't." I said quickly, finally adding to this conversation. "Because I'm not. I'm not cool with walking. Jesus Christ." I shook my head at all of them. I hate walking. I hate physical activity. I hate it. So no, I am not walking about a mile away from my house just for some stupid fair that I'm not even interested in.

"Fine, whatever." Squirrel shrugged his shoulders carelessly, as though Esther was just arguing for absolutely no reason. "Where's Rian, by the way?" Squirrel asked us and looked around. I looked around as well before Jonny spoke up. "Last I saw her she was in English with me."

"Why isn't she here?" Esther

"I think she's ignoring me." I told them. They all stared at me but neither of them said anything. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds and both Squirrel and Esther looked at me then to Jonny. What the hell are they thinking? Whatever it is, I think its right.

"How are you guys? Like... How are you guys?" Esther asked.

"We're fine, Esther."

"You need to venture out, you know that," Squirrel laughed. He looked at Esther and did some kind of dumb telepathic thing and she began to laugh as well. "You only date inside our group of friends." Squirrel continues to laugh. I rolled my eyes. Why are they both so idiot?

"Okay, okay, laugh it up." I sighed. Jonny began to chuckle as well and I stared at him, then remember the joke isn't on us, its just me. They all suck. And just like that, the conversation of Rian's whereabouts was lost in the wind.

"Dude, this is so creepy." I said to Jonny as I stared down at the stuffed toy in my hands. It was by far the ugliest stuffed toy I have ever seen. If was round, like a ball, with an ugly animal's face and two very large blue eyes, and on top the thing was a pair of droopy ears. Very ugly and depressing.

I threw it across to Jonny. "There. You have it."

"I don't want it." He chuckled and stared down at the ugly little thing. I won it at one of those stalls, and I hate it. I was planning on winning something huge, like a stuffed tiger. It was large and would look amazing in my room, but I sucked at the game and so I got a consolidation prize.

The music was mostly just a hum about the place, and all there was to hear was the victory shouts of villagers, or the stalls' music or every now and again a baby crying. Jonny and I left after I spent about thirty bucks at just one stall trying to get the damn giant tiger. Well we didn't leave.