pink skies // Vulgatto

•Four•

Light emitted from the tunnel as the ride started up again.
"Looks like they fixed it." Joe said. Sal didn't respond. After the silence, Joe looked up at Sal. His face was a deep crimson.
Sal met his gaze and finally said, "Y-Yeah."
They took one more slow turn and ended the ride, slowly coming back to the front with the rest of the people. Joe stepped off first, Sal exiting after him.
An employee walked up to them. "I'm incredibly sorry about the malfunction, guys." He said one of the screws on their car was loose, causing the other cars behind them to unhook from the first one, which they were in. "We stopped the ride to take care of it. Everyone was okay." The employee handed Joe a handful of ride tickets. "These are for you guys. Once again, my apologies."
"Thank you, sir." Joe nodded while Sal remained quiet.
They walked to their picnic table under the shade and picked up their stuff without saying a word to each other. It was too awkward, but they left the topic alone.
To lighten the mood a bit, Joe asked, "So, wanna ride another coaster?"
Sal nervously laughed and said, "No, I don't think so."
Joe looked around the fair. "That guy gave us tickets, I'd feel bad wasting 'em."
"So give 'em to a kid or something." Sal sighed.
"What about the Ferris wheel?" Joe pointed to the giant light-up rotating wheel in the distance.
"Joe, I told you, no more rides, okay? Let's just go." Sal stood up and grabbed his bag with his wallet, phone, and stuffed panda in it.
"Woah, wait-" Joe grabbed Sal's arm, but Sal jerked away and stormed off.
Joe cursed under his breath and ran up to Sal.
"Hey, you okay? What's the matter?" Joe asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I just need to use the bathroom." Sal kept walking towards the bathroom shack.
"Oh... well okay, you do that." Joe said, not wanting to annoy Sal anymore.
Sal opened the men's door and walked inside while Joe just sat at a bench nearby.
"I hope he's okay... Damn it, what happened on that ride?" Joe thought.
Inside the bathroom, Sal stood pacing around, hands on his head.
"Fuck, Sal. Get it together. He...he was only comforting you. Nothing happened." Sal mumbled to himself, his eyes getting wet. He walked up to the mirror and looked at himself.
His hand banged against the sink. "Nothing happened! Nothing! We weren't thinking-we were fucking stupid." Sal said angrily. He turned on the faucet and splashed water on his face, cooling him off. He ran his fingers through his thick hair. It reminded him of when Joe did it while they were stuck and how good it felt. He remembered being so close to Joe, so close he could feel his chest rising against him...
"No!" Sal snapped out of it and slammed on the sink again. His voice slightly cracked, but he held in his tears.
"It'll be okay, Sal. You can get through this. I know you can. It's just affection from a friend, it always feels nice." He looked at himself in the mirror, wiping his eye. "Yeah, yeah. It's fine."
After being in the bathroom for around 5 minutes, he decided to actually use the bathroom. Then, he walked back to the sink to wash his hands just as he heard a knock on the door.
"Shit, how long have I been in here? Someone must want in." Sal thought to himself and walked over to the door when from the other side of the door, he heard,
"Sal? Sal are ya there? You've been in there for a while..."
It was Joe! "Oh my god, he's been waiting for me all this time?"
"Y-yeah! I'm okay, I'm almost done!" Sal said, and turned on the sink to make it sound like he was actually doing something. He shut it off and walked up, slowly, to the door. When he opened it, Joe was standing there, a worried look on his face.
"Don't worry.. I'm fine." Sal huffed.
"Are you mad?" Joe questioned.
"No.." Sal said quietly. "Can we just not talk about this, please."
There were a few seconds of silence.
"So," Joe broke the silence. "Do you still want to leave?"
Sal's eyes shifted to Joe's hand, which was still carrying the handful of free tickets.
"I guess..." Sal hesitated. "I guess we could ride.. something else."