I'm a Fighter and He's the Hottie

Chapter 29: The Festival

Tristan and I walked into the entrance of the festival together; his arm was lying across my shoulders protectively. My eyes traveled through all the stands that held a variety of foods, each one of them included strawberries somehow. Some smelled and even sounded delicious like the Strawberry Angel Food Dessert, while others sounded just out of the ordinary like the Deep Fried Strawberries.

The aroma of strawberries was everywhere, and ironically enough strawberries were my favorite type of fruit. They were small, cute, and red. I smiled enthusiastically, feeling like a child again. Farther in the back I could see the carnival games, there were about several stands, and I was itching to go and check them out.

I shifted my eyes to look at Tristan, and was about to ask him if we could go to the games first, but stopped when I noticed him watching me. He had a real smile on his lips, not that usual smirk, but a real smile that made my heart beat accelerate. Instead of saying anything, I returned his smile and kept walking through the busy stands.

In the corner of my eye, there was a little girl around four or five nibbling on a chocolate covered strawberry. She had chocolate smudged all over her face, but the little girl just continued to eat away at her strawberry. I couldn’t help but giggle just a little, she was just too adorable.

“So, what do you want to do first?” Tristan asked, causing me to take my gaze off the little girl.

I thought about it for a moment. At first, I wanted to just go straight to the games, but now my stomach was telling me otherwise. “Do you want to get something to eat first?”

He nodded, “Sure.”

I frowned when I noticed there were hardly any stands that served an actual meal, most of them served desserts.

“How does spaghetti with strawberry sauce sound?” Tristan gestured to a booth that was on our far right side.

I thought about it for a moment. At first it sounded strange and unusual, but then I figured might as well try something new. At least it sounded better than the Deep Fried Strawberries.

“It sounds…edible.” I murmured, not exactly sure how to say it.

A chuckle came from Tristan as we made our way towards the stand. When we finally got to the stand, I was surprised how many people were in line. There were a little over a dozen people waiting in line for the spaghetti with strawberry sauce. Most of the people there were teenagers to young adults, but in the very front there was an old couple waiting for their meal patiently.

The line moved slowly, but finally it was our turn to order. Tristan got us two plates of spaghetti, while I stood behind him watching the staff work on our dishes. It only took about five minutes for our food to be ready, and then we searched for a spot to sit and eat.

Tristan nudged me with his elbow. “There’s a table to the far left, see it?”

“Yep,” I replied, locating it easily.

We walked to it and sat down across from each other. I placed my tray down on the table and eyed my plate suspiciously, and then I glanced up at Tristan. He was doing the same to his food. I giggled absentmindedly as I realized none of us really wanted to try the food.

“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked, looking up from his plate.

“Nothing,”

“So, do you like it?”

“I haven’t tried it yet. I’m waiting for you to try it first.”

“Hmm… how about we do it together?” he suggested, stabbing his fork into the plate of spaghetti.

I nodded, imitating him. “On three?”

“Okay.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!” We said simultaneously.

Then we both lifted our forks to our mouths and took in a mouthful of spaghetti. I was skeptical about the taste, but I noticed I was wrong. Surprisingly, it was good—no it was delicious. The sweet, yet tart flavor from the strawberries blended in unexpectedly well. It wasn’t as good as regular sauce, but it definitely not vomiting material.

Or at least I thought so.

“Yuck! That’s sick.” Tristan frowned, spitting out his mouthful into a napkin.

I stared at him in astonishment; it couldn’t have been that bad, could it?

“Really? I kinda like it.” I furrowed my eyebrows as I watched him and his cute expression.

“Mmhmm, I don’t know why you like it, but strawberries should never ever go with pasta,” he made a face that resembled disgust.

I couldn’t help but grin at his reaction. I’ve never seen his face like this. As I started to think about Tristan, I realized I don’t know much about him. He seems almost distant, even from me, his girlfriend. Girlfriend. The word still left me feeling awkward and strange.

“Do you just want to just play some games instead?” I asked, noticing how he wasn’t going to take another bite of his food anymore. I didn’t want to feel strange eating, especially something he doesn’t like, while he just watched me.

He didn’t reply right away, and I thought for a moment he didn’t hear me, but all of a sudden he said, “No, it’s okay. You can eat.”

“You sure? I really don’t want you staring at me while I’m eating.” I replied honestly, a little too honest maybe.

He replied with a grunt and a smirk hinted on his lips. “Why? Is my princess embarrassed?”

“Shhee—me? I’m never embarrassed.” I challenged, bringing my spaghetti covered fork to my mouth.

“Is that so?” His smirk grew and something about the way it looked was mischievous.

My stomach dropped to my toes when Tristan started to get out of his seat. What is he planning to do?

He answered my question by standing on top of the table and yelled. “Excuse me, can I get everybody’s attention. I have something very important to say.”

Almost as if on cue everybody that sat near our tables and people that were just passing by turned their attention towards us. I felt my cheeks burn slightly from the sudden attention, and I hoped nobody could tell.

I grabbed the hem of Tristan’s shirt and demanded, “Get down.”

He responded with a grin, but he didn’t move an inch. “Thanks. So, what I wanted to say was that this girl down here,” he paused to gesture towards me, “she’s my girlfriend.”

My cheeks heated up some more when everyone’s gazes shifted towards me. I lowered my head, trying to hide my embarrassment. I couldn’t believe that he’s doing this! My cheeks flamed and my hands were sweating profusely. What was he going to say? Was he really doing this just so he could prove a point? If he was, then I he’s definitely proving it.

“Her name is Madison Storms and we go to high school together. We’re both juniors, and we’ve been going out for about three months now.” He took a breath, and shot a cheeky grin towards me. “She’s been angry with me for several days now for something stupid I did to her. She says she forgives me, but I know that what I did was stupid, and I was wrong for taking advantage of my princess.”

He was doing this just so he could apologize to me? I was torn between feeling giddy and embarrassed, so I ended up feeling somewhere in the middle.

“So,” Tristan continued, pulling something out of his pocket, “I was all of you guys to be the witness of what’s happening right here, right now.”

In his hand was a delicate silver chain, it glistened against the multi-colored lights around us that were just starting to turn on, and a small, silver heart hung loosely on the chain. Written in small, but very noticeable letters, was princess.

“Madison Storms, will you forgive this major jerk?” Tristan asked, finally jumping off the table and onto the floor, next to me.

I didn’t know why I couldn’t say anything, but nothing came out of my mouth. There was a lump in my throat and it filled my mouth. I’m pretty sure it was shock from staring at the necklace in Tristan’s hands. Or maybe it was the shock from Tristan apologizing to me in front of dozens of strangers.

“Say yes!” A feminine voice shouted abruptly from the crowd.

“Yeah, do it!” Another voice agreed.

“C’mon, this is as close as I’m ever getting to romance!” A male’s voice pleaded.

Something about the last comment snapped me out of my surprise, and a smile made its way to my mouth.

“I forgive you, jerk.”

The crowd around us erupted with “awes” and “woots”. My face burned even brighter as more and more people started to file in around us and then join in with the applause. As this all happened, Tristan sneaked his way behind me, and pulled the necklace around me. I lifted up my sleek, black hair and let Tristan clip in around my neck. It really was beautiful, and even better, my boyfriend gave it to me.

It didn’t take long for the crowd to diminish after Tristan placed the necklace around me. I was relieved that everything turned out the way it did. I did get embarrassed and Tristan had made his point, but I was just so happy. I smiled so much that my cheeks were starting to ache, but I couldn’t tell at that moment. Tristan tugged me along with him to the ticket booth were we could purchase some tickets for some of the rides.

“Ferris wheel?” Tristan inquired, as we walked away from the ticket booth.

I glanced at him, and my heart skipped a beat. “M’kay.”

The Ferris wheel towered over a hundred feet tall and each carriage on the gigantic wheel was multi-colored, ranging from red and blue and white to black. I’ve loved Ferris wheels since I was a little girl, strangely enough, I used to be afraid of heights, but once Jake, practically begged on his knees for me to come with him. Once we got inside the carriage, I took it surprisingly well, but for Jake he was pleading for the carriage to stop moving. Now, he’s the one that’s afraid of giant wheels.

We waited in line, which not too long, and then when it was our turn to enter the carriage, Tristan made a big gesture to it and said, in a smooth, suave voice, “Ladies, first.”

I rolled my eyes at his dramatic motion and walked past him, plopping down into the seat. A few moments later, Tristan sat next to me. The operator shut the bar in front of us, and then he pulled the lever, causing us to lift up a spot. Then, the guy put the next couple into the carriage.

“Do you like it?” Tristan asked, suddenly bringing my attention to Tristan, instead of the operator.

My hand gripped the necklace reflexively, and a small smile made its way to my lips.

“Yeah, I do.” I replied honestly, grinning at him.

He returned my smiled before saying, “I was planning to give it to you on here, but you asked for some embarrassment during dinner.”

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help the smile that came onto my lips. I still couldn’t believe that he could easily bring all that attention to us. For the most part, I didn’t like public attention, it was kind of scary.

“Weren’t you scared talking in front of so many people?”

“More or less. Your expression made it worthwhile, though,” he smirked, and placed his arm around my shoulder.

We went up another level, and I gripped lightly onto the bar.

“Whatever,” I muttered, a blush coming across my face.

We sat side by side, quietly for the next few minutes, and the ride started rotating fully. The silence wasn’t awkward, mostly because I put most of my attention to the scenery. The cool breeze, brushed my hair back. It was cold enough that I could feel my cheek turning slightly pink, but it was nice. It was just the type of weather that I called perfect.

And it was perfect; I was here on my date with Tristan.

Tristan, was the guy—the jerk—that had somehow won my heart over. Now, there was only a couple of things that were keeping us apart.

The main one being: his parents.