What You're Not | ✔

35. The Fall Festival

It was the weekend which meant the Fall Festival was finally in town. A few days before, what had been an empty lot was now filled with people, rides, games and delicious smelling food. I was ready to experience all of it, unlike the two people next to me

Miles and Nikki frowned up at the Ferris wheel that towered over us. It was a change. Usually, I was the one backing out of things while the two of them just dived in.

"I don't trust it," Nikki said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Me either," Miles agreed. "How do we know it's secure? What if it collapses?"

I rolled my eyes as I let out a laugh. "I thought you said you came here every year to ride the rides?"

"Not the ones that are more than three feet off the ground," he clarified, his eyes glued to the ride like he was waiting for it to come crashing down.

"It'll be fun," I said to them. "Think of the amazing view." My arms spread out to the clear blue sky.

They both looked at me like I was crazy. My arms dropped in defeat. How come they weren't adventurous when I needed them to be?

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Nikki asked, suspiciously.

Miles grinned, pointing to himself and I smacked his arm.

She was right. I was unusually happy and it wasn't completely due to the fact that I got to make out with Miles.

It was because of my meeting with Victoria. She told me about a contest that she and Shanelle were working on. She didn't tell me much, just that I had to design an outfit that fit a summer theme and if my design was chosen I'd be featured by Beauteen.

All of the excitement had been building up in me for a few days, I finally had a place to unleash it without spilling the secret. However, Miles and Nikki were making it difficult to unleash my joy when they refused to go on the rides with me.

"I'm happy because I'm at the Fall Festival," I said, semi-honestly. "And I'm here with my favorite cousin and my --" The word 'boyfriend' nearly slipped out of my mouth and the back of my neck became inflamed as I tried to think of a way out of this. "--Miles."

Nikki didn't seem to catch my mistake, probably because she was too busy eyeing the candy apple station. Miles caught it though and he looked utterly amused by my slip up, causing the blush to spread to my cheeks.

"You two can ride on that death trap," Nikki said as she walked backwards towards the candy apples. "I'm going to grab a snack."

I started to protest, not wanting to be alone with Miles at the moment, but she was already lost in the crowd.

"Did you just call me yours?" he asked, a smile growing on his face as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black hoodie.

I was relieved that's all he thought it was. We'd only been seeing each other for two weeks. It was too early for titles. At least I thought it was. It's not like I was an expert or anything.

"I didn't know you were so possessive," he went on, a smirk on his lips. I rolled my eyes, taking his hand in mine and pulling him towards the line for the Ferris wheel. Someone was riding this with me. Thankfully he didn't protest. We stood in the line that was relatively short.

"You know what I've been thinking?" My brow raised, waiting for him to keep going. "You said you came to this festival when you were younger, right?" I nodded in agreement. "And so have I. That means we could've crossed paths long before you moved to Westbrook."

That was weird to think about. We could've been in the line next to each other as we we waited for popcorn, battled each other in one of those water squirting games or bumped into each other inside the mirror maze. I got goose bumps just thinking about it.