The days seemed to pass by in a blur, and none of the seniors were getting any younger. Soon May came, with Finals and ACTs. Farkle passed with flying colors, to nobody's surprise.
They had begun receiving acceptance letters from numerous colleges. Farkle, of course, was accepted into mostly Ivy League, but he had applied to NYU as well. They had accepted him: Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge, and Dartmouth.
But he didn't want to go Ivy League. It would just further him in his father's plan to take the family business over. That was not what Farkle had in mind for a successful career. In fact, it was the last thing he wanted to do.
Farkle's father had taken over his life, and was trying to live through him. Farkle was done. He did nothing that his father wanted anymore. He didn't have his mother around to stand up against Stuart Minkus anymore. She, being a smart woman, had left her husband when she realized that he was an abusive man. Unluckily for Farkle, she hadn't brought her only child with her.
If Farkle saw any opportunity for a successful future, he didn't show it. He finally decided on Dartmouth. It was close enough, his father was proud, and it was probably the least invigorating. After all, Farkle didn't want his father's money to go to waste.
Teachers became more lightened up as the ending days approached, and students began to act as though a great weight was lifted off of their backs. Which, in a way, there had been.
The carnival opened again, and Farkle found himself wandering there more often than ever. The vintage amusement park satisfied his curious personality, and drew him in. As days passed, they grew closer to the end of the year.
Eventually, it was the very last day of school, and the final bell rang, freeing the students from their educational responsibilities for the diminutive three months.
Farkle went to the carnival every night as soon as school was out, not purchasing tickets or playing the ridiculous arcade games that resided in booths across the park.
But he watched the crowds, the influx of excited children and reluctant parents flitting across his vision nearly every night. He watched them with intense curiosity.
As a child, his parents hadn't taken him anywhere. Most nights were spent either watching a Disney movie with his mother or listening to his parents argue loudly while trying desperately to fall asleep.
He should have seen it coming when they got the divorce a few days before his 9th birthday. He didn't understand, but he should have known. Their constant yelled arguments, their love slowly fading out through the cracks in the mortared walls.
And slowly, Farkle's love for his father disappeared. He knew he was supposed to love him, but he couldn't. His father was a complete monster. He had landed Farkle's mother in the hospital more than once, just before they had divorced.
And Farkle couldn't help but believe it was his fault.
OKAY SO I REALIZE THAT RIGHT NOW RILEY AND FARKLE'S BACKSTORIES SOUND VERY SIMILAR, BUT ITS FOR A PURPOSE.
HOPE YOU LIKED IT!
Alli<3
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Carousel | RIARKLE
Fanfiction"It's all fun and games 'till somebody falls in love." The only thing that Riley Matthews has ever known about relationships is that they all end. That's how it's always been, all around her. Her parents broke off their marriage after too many lat...
