UNDECIDED {On Hold😅}

CHAPTER 22 {CARNIVAL 2}

Tessa

Kevin reels the car up to an empty parking spot, he turns off the car and announces that we have arrived at our destination then we all climb out of the car.
I looked around and realized that we are at a carnival.
I loved carnivals! So many fun activities, the food the games, the prices...I love it all. The last time I was at a carnival was when Evan was alive. I still miss him every day.
"Are you alright?" Jane asks
"Yeah I am fine, let's go have some fun."
"Right, so where do we begin?" she asks
"Bumper cars." Josh says
"Roller coasters" Ezio retorts
"VR's" Josh replies
"Whack-a-mouse." Brad pipes out of nowhere.
"What!?" we all chorus in shock and amusement.
"What? I still love that game it is a legend." He says defensively.
"Explains what you were playing in the car." Ezio mocks while smirking.
"Hey! Everyone has their obsessions and I like to keep mine personal." He says defensively and we all burst into laughter.
"Alright bumper cars first." Kev says and we all head to the bumper cars arcade.
"Y'all are gonna need partners." The arcade man instructs. "Two per each car."
"Do you want to stay with me?" josh asks
"Uh...maybe another time." I tell him quietly.
"Why not?" he asks with a confused and hurt expression
"Cause she's riding with me." Ezio says coming up behind me.
"No I'm-" I start but Ezio drags me away to a green bumper car and sits down forcing me to plop down beside him.
"Why did you do that?" I ask angrily.
"Well you were in a difficult situation, so I was trying to... I don't know help you out.
"I..." I start but I'm interrupted again.
"I know how difficult Josh can be, it was the least I could do." he says with a little smirk.
"Why would you want to help me out?"
"Well you did teach me how to sleep properly." He says smiling
I let out a little giggle "Well the lesson was definitely needed." He rolls his eyes in a 'whatever' way.
Suddenly a bumper car hits our and we skid away till we hit the wall of the ring.
"You guys keep on chatting we are never gonna play." Kev yells. "Oh he's done it now." Ezio mutters then looks at me "Alright then lets show them what we ate made of." He tells me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
• • •
After the bumper cars we go through the roller coasters I sit beside Ez again, this time I went willingly because Ezio makes the rides even more interesting. And also in this ride I'm not the only one screaming. Apparently Ez can go even higher than I can. Yea we had a competition just for that. We get down and see that we were all starving. We decide to get cotton candy, milk shakes and popcorns.
Immediately we leave the candy floss stall, we hear a girl scream Brad's name and Brad is as shocked as we are until he sees the girl that called him.
"Hey B." the girl says this time she is at a closer distance. She is slightly taller than I am. She has jet black hair and is actually very pretty.
"Oh my God Niki? Brad asks as he hugs her
"Yup in the flesh" she says and chuckles
"Long tome no see." He says releasing her
"Wow," I whisper to Ezio who is right beside me. "I never knew he had other friends."
"Oh he does and this doesn't really surprise us anymore, we just go with the flow." Ez whispers in reply.
"You remember my friend May." She says gesturing to the red haired girl beside her. Brad kisses her hand in a flirty gesture. The girl I suppose is called Niki rolls her eyes at. "You haven't stopped your flirting habits."
"Nah." he says then she looks past him and notices us for the first time.
"Aren't you gonna introduce us to your friends Brad?" she asks him
"Yea, this is Kevin, Emjane, Josh, Ezio and Tessa." He says while pointing at each of us. "Guys meet my friend Nichole Jordan and her best friend May Shelly."
"Hey." we chorus.
"Hi." She replies, but May just smiles and waves. "Wow B, you never told me you have so much friends." Niki says to him.
"Same here." Kev says while holding Jane around her waist.
"Oh c'mon, it's not my fault my dad takes me to those boring business functions." He replies gloomily and which causes Niki to laugh at him.
"Niki! Niki! Niki!" a little boy that looked around six chants as he runs over to Nichole.
"Yes Cody?" she answers as she bends down to his level.
"Look Niki I won a gold fish." He says excitedly while he shoved the fish in a plastic bag to her face.
"Great job little man." she tells him then stands up to face us while holding him to her front. "Hey guys meet my little brother Cody." She says and Cody goes to all the guys fist bumping them and gave Jane and I kisses on the back of our hands.
"He's a charmer." Jane says
"And adorable." I add.
"And handsome" he says brandishing his complete set of milk teeth.
"He would make a cute boyfriend." Jane says while Kev snorts and mutters something under his breath.
"What's a boyfriend?" Cody asks innocently.
"Oops, TMI." Nichole mutters.
"What's TMI Niki?
"Hey Cody why don't you go look for mom." She tells him while she pushes him back into the crowd.
"But mom's at home. We snuck out, remember?" he replied.
Nichole face palms herself. "You need more lying lessons." She says.
"Ooh." Cody says with understanding then wanders off through the crowd screaming for his mom that is back at home.
"I need to go look for him before he gets lost. Call me." She tells Brad.
"Wait, I don't have your number." Brad says. She rolls her eyes and takes out a marker from the back pocket of her jeans and scribbles her number on his palm.
"See May I told you a marker would come in handy." She tells her best friend while May rolls her eyes at her but remains silent. I'm starting to think she's mute. When Nichole is done she and May leave after bidding good bye.
"That was interesting." Josh says breaking the silence that had come upon us as the girls left.
"I want a teddy, Kev." Jane says pouting at an exhausted looking Kevin.
"Do you want one Tess?" josh asks. I'm not really a fan of teddy bears but let's see how this goes.
"Sure." I say with a little smile and Josh returns my smile then we go over to a shooting game stall. How to play is the you have to shoot your prize, nothing challenging about that...well except the fact that the target move a little too quickly for a shooter to acquire the target.
Kev wins Jane a purple and black teddy bear and she shrieks and hugged it close to her then she rewards Kev with a kiss on his left cheek and Kevin just stares at her with a warm smile.
Josh wins me a bright pink teddy, and pink is not really my color. Ezio lets out a snort and shakes his head then he goes to the stall and pays then collects a ball and shoots for a black and grey teddy near. It had 'I love you' inscribed on the heart the teddy bear held.
My eyes instantly lit up, because one those are my favorite colors and two is the cutest teddy I have seen, like ever. I didn't even notice it till now. I look up at him smile in appreciation as I collect it then he leans down to whisper to my hearing.
"I know you don't like anything except black or grey." He says then gives me a warm smile, then reaches out to collect the red teddy from me and hands it back to Josh, but I stop him. I don't want to look rude.
"I would keep it." I explain as he gives me a questioning look.
"Why?" he asks
"Because I want to." I tell him flatly.
"Alright how about we go to the Ferris wheel." Kev says trying to change the topic and break the tension.
"Fine." We murmur then we go over to join the queue. When we finally get on board, it's just I and Ez again. We sit in silence for a moment before Ezio breaks the silence.
"I'm sorry." He says, but that just fuels my anger.
"What is your problem, huh?" I ask angrily which takes him by surprise. "One moment you apologize and become sober the next you... you're just something else. You have your moments of being cool and nice but anytime I'm next to Josh...it's like you're going haywire. I want to know why? And I want the truth." I say sternly.
"Alright... you want the truth?" he asks raising his brows at me. I give him a 'duh' expression. He exhales and closes his eyes for a moment before he inhales and speaks. "It's because I like you."
"What?" I blurt surprised.
"I do, I swear." He says and exhales leaning back into the chair. "I always have and I will always like you Tessa."
"Are you sure this isn't an infatuation." I ask desperately trying to not get my hopes up.
"No...its' not, trust me I thought so too." He tells me while covering his eyes with the back of his palm his head dangles from the edge of the seat.
"You thought so?" I ask trying to get annoyed by his words.
"Yea, I wasn't used to this kind of feeling. I'm still not used to it." He tells me honestly which shocks me. "You make me feel something new Tess, for the first time I feel something for another person that is not related to me." I open my mouth to say something but he beats me to it. "I know you still think I'm a player, but I've changing and I'm doing this for you." he says and takes my hands into his. "And I would never let anyone come close to you to hurt you."
My heart melts on his words as he renders me speechless I want to believe him but there is this iota of doubt in the corner of my head that doesn't let me fully believe him.
"You have rendered me speechless." I say exhaling.
He lets out a low chuckle. "And there I was trying to figure out how to tell you I actually have a crush on you." he says with a tiny smile as he comes up close to me, our faces merely an inch apart. I feel frozen like I couldn't move any part of my body and entranced by those sea blue orbs
Suddenly my phone rings I breaking me out of the trance he slowly lick his lips as he pulls away breaking me out of my trance then I remembered I needed to pick up my phone. I fish it out and look at the screen, guess who called? I put the phone close to my ears.
"Hope I wasn't interrupting anything." Aunt Dina says, I swear I can hear her smirking right now.
"Nope." I say trying to sound cheerful and not sexually frustrated. This isn't the first time this is happening, anytime we want to kiss something just has to come up and interrupt us. "Hey Dina how about I call you later."
She laughs then replies. "Sure thing sweetie." Then she hangs up.
"Who was that?" Ezio asks when I didn't say anything as I peered at my screen.
"My aunt Dina." I reply I reply putting my phone back into my pocket.
"Do you like her? I mean, does she treat you right?" he asks carefully.
"Yea but she can be really annoying sometimes. Basically she's like the mom I never had." I smile then I look at him. "Or will ever have."
He gives me a reassuring smile and tightens his grip on my hand which reminds me that I still had my hand in his. I didn't even notice it felt so natural. The Ferris wheel begins to slow down, people begin to hop off but we sit still until it gets to our turn then we hop off too.
"You two look like you had fun." Jane says smirking at our still interlaced hands, I quickly remove mine and blush furiously.
"Let's just go home, I'm really tired." I say trying to change the topic.
"Sure you are." Jane says still smirking. "Alright everyone that's all for today. Let's wrap it up." She turns and grabs Kev by the arm. I look to my side and see Brad hugging Niki then places a kiss on right cheek and mutter something to her then he jigs to catch up with us.
We all hop into car but this time our seating arrangement is having a slight change. This time Brad sits next to Josh at the middle back seat while I and Ezio sit side by side.
Few moments later I feel a light nudge on my rib. I don't even remember falling asleep. I open my eyes and look up at Ezio who is peering down at me with humor in his eyes. Crap I fell asleep on him. I quickly moved away from him.
"We're home." He tells me.
"Right, thanks." I say then I climb off the car. I quickly head to the room I can feel Ezio trail silently behind me. Immediately I enter the room I climb on the bed without changing. That's how tired I am.
I hug the black and white teddy, only because it's really soft and maybe because of who gave it to me. But hey I'm appreciating it, aren't I?