Only a Story

So it was the night of the carnival. Me, Tarah, Tracer, and Seth were all standing outside the carnival. Scout had bailed on us I guess, and we were waiting on Max because he'd texted Tarah saying he'd be a few minutes late.

It was wonderful here, the smell of all sorts of foods, and the screaming of kids on the octopus ride. I loved the carnival, I couldn't wait to go get a sno cone later. You see, Seth and his litle sister (she was in sixth grade) both had a little business they'd put together with money from showing, and a little help from their parents. They had an actual air-conditioned sno cone stand out by the highway that went right through town, and they even had a little booth set up at the carnival. Some high school girl was working it for them.

But not before long, Max showed up in a car with who I assumed was his little brother, Elliyott, and his sister Sisco. When she first got out she shot me a look and said something to Max, they were a few feet away, so none of us heard what. All I can say is that he seemed to get pretty ticked off, he walked over to us, leaving a poor little confused Elliyott to follow him over here after having to stand and think for a minute.

"Hey," he said, smiling though I could tell he was still miffed.

"What's up," I replied with the rest of the group saying things along the same lines, except for Tracer, who just looked at him, then held out his hand and said, "Nice seeing you again Jennelle."

I sighed gratefully as Max took his hand and shook it, replying, "You too, Tracer."

"So," I said waiting in anticipation, "What should we do first?"

"I want to go on that!" Elliyott yelled while pointing at the octopus ride. I don't know if it was just me or if Max seemed a little less enthusiastic than he had first been upon arriving.

Tarah looked at Elliyott like I knew she would, those little sparkle in her eyes, like he's soooooo cute! "I'll go with you," she said enthusiastically.

He grabbed her hand and they both went off running toward the ride. Anyone who didn't know them would assume they were brother and sister, dashing off to the next ride.

I smiled at them, knowing I would almost never be able to interact with little kids like that. Though she really only liked little boys, because she was an only child, and had always yearned for a brother. Especially a little one.

Before we knew it me and Max were the only ones left, don't ask me where Seth and Tracer went, I honestly have no idea, it was probably to do something stupid. Playing arcade games came to mind.

"So Max," I said feeling a little awkward, "What do you want to do?"

"Well," he said, "I'm not feeling very well so can we postpone the rides?"

"Sure," I said shrugging my shoulders. "I know!"

"What?" he asked, seeming amused at my evil grin.

"Haunted house!"

He just laughed and said, "Okay, where to?"

I grabbed his wrist and we both started to run in the direction opposite of all the rides. In a little bit (the carnival really wasn't that big) we got over to the place. It was a large tent that was decorated with all sorts of weird-looking masks and fake blood.

"Oh we are so doing this," I grinned evilly.

We went inside and looked around. Around the first turn it went completely dark except for a small slit in the tent that let in a bit of light from the full moon. At the end of the hall was a chair. There was a limp figure in it, slumped down. We both knew it was obviously a lame little thing they had put in there, but I was still a little apprehensive. We both walked toward it slowly until we were right in front of it. I was slightly behind Max, I know I was the one who wanted to do it so bad, and now I was freaking out, but that was the funnest part.
When we were about to pass it and go on into the next turn, well, the head started to come up, that was my best explanation for it, the blank lifeless eyes staring back at us, it wouldn't have been nearly as creepy, except there was a shrill scream coming from further into the tent.

I am sad to say I jumped very high at that. Max put his hand on my shoulder, and I could honestly say, we were both a little scared now. The next turn led us into a large clearing where I promptly ran into a large spiderweb, it stuck to me and would not come off, I was already apprehensive enough, when an large and seemingly real spider dropped in front of my face. I shrieked a little bit and jumped back, when a laughing Max dangled it in front of my face leading me to discover that it was made of rubber. After my pride returned we both managed to continue on.

Eventually, the tricks seemed to deteriorate, or we had just been through so many things we couldn't get surprised anymore, we hadn't been in there for that long, but we had been through a lot of "horrors". When we both saw the light of the opening we ran toward it. Freedom at last. But suddenly, a fake skeleton fell down on top of us. I wasn't expecting that. I looked over at Max, and he looked like he had been about to pee himself.

I was about to start laughing and mocking him (I'm great with guys, I know) when I realized our hands were interlocked, if it had happened after that very first scream, or during our more recent, "skeleton scare" it had happened nonetheless.

My face immediately seemed to burst into flame as I unhooked my hand from his. When Max realized the source of my discomfort he blushed a little bit and we just stood there, outside the tent.

"You know what?" he said, "Let's go find the others."

"Yeah," I replied, grateful he had broken the awkward silence.

We both headed off to find Tarah and Elliyott, who were hanging around the sno cone stand, while eating tiger's blood ice confections in little styrfoam cups.

"Oh my gosh!" I yelled upon arriving, "I want one! I've been waiting for one of those all night."

Tarah grinned and stepped aside for me to order one. Seth's mom had shown me the awesomest one when I first went to the stand a while ago. I ordered a small root beer float, mmm, that was all I could say as I munched on it. Tarah, Max, and Elliyott just laughed at me.

"Hey, I love these things," I said defending myself, while starting to redden a little bit.

The rest of the night was pretty normal, we had fun, were able to trick Max into going on the ferris wheel (he was apparently afraid of heights, poor him, I laughed so hard), and eventually found Tracer and Seth. I don't really care/want to know what they were doing in our abscence.

All in all, it was wonderful.