This Town

Chapter Four

And that's how the next nine years went for us. We remained the best of friends who spent more time with each other than anyone else. We went to school together. We played together. And every Autumn, right around my birthday, the fair would return and we'd go ride the rides and get our picture taken.

Of course, as friendships go, we had our ups and downs; our tiffs that would make us go hours or days or weeks without talking to each other. But eventually one of us would fold and come knocking on the other's door to make up and go catch fireflies, swing on the swing her dad had put up in a tree by the river, catch frogs, or simply run amok in the fields. At the end of the day, we always ended up back at our playground, spinning on the roundabout and staring at the stars.

We shared each other's dreams for getting out of this town and making something of ourselves. For her, it was even more important. She continued to get harassed by Conor and Rory and the gang they formed over the years. My brother finally grew a brain and escaped their influence. But they were still relentless in their bullying of her, which never seemed fair to me. Her dad became an upstanding citizen of the town and was known as a hard worker and respected. But just like my parents, he never seemed to be able to save up enough money to make his way out of the bad side of town. But, to be honest, I was fine with that because it kept her close to me.

One September, in 2009, just after my sixteenth birthday, the fair was being put up again. This was the one event in this town that Siobhan and I always looked forward to and it just got better with the years. After that first year, we had two photos made so that we would each have one to keep. We both made a collage on our bedroom walls to add to each year. It was really kind of cool to see how much we had grown up. We'd go every Saturday and our first ride was always the swings and the last thing we did was get our photo taken. That year, things changed.

I knocked on her door at the agreed upon time and she answered, but she looked different. She often wore dresses but rarely, if ever, had I seen her in makeup, "Whoa, girly, you got a hot date after this?" I half joked, hoping she didn't. She had always been beautiful to me, but puberty had hit her hard and good.

She laughed, "I do, actually," she said and my heart sank. "With this super adorable guy I've been best friends with for the last nine years." She winked at me as I let out a breath. "Geez, Niall, do you think I'd be doing anything but this with my favorite boy?"

"Nah, I guess not." I said as we left to go. "Just never seen you with makeup, is all."

"Oh, this? I just thought I'd try it out. Does it look good?"

"Yea, but I don't think you need it. You're beautiful without it. Always have been."

I could tell she blushed a little at that but so did I. We walked quietly to the fair, chatting about random things. Once there, we did what we always did - we raced to who could get to the swings first. She won. She always won. I blamed it on her having longer legs than me.

We got on the swings, she sat in front of me, like she always did. Before the ride began, she turned to face me, "Hey, Niall, remember the first time we came here, and I threw out my arms and screamed about how we were flying?"

"Of course I do." I said, smiling. One of the best moments of my life.

She reached for my hand which I took and she pulled me closer, whispering, "Let's fly tonight, you and me, out of this town."  I looked at her and the look in her eye told me she wasn't joking.

Before I could answer, the ride had started and she had let go. She turned back to me with a devilish smile as she threw her arms out to her side and laughed. I did the same, but mostly, I focused on her. Something had changed in that moment.

At the end of the night, we went to get our picture taken. Strangely, the same guy did it every year and every year he remembered us. And every year he crept us out. "Allo, you two. Back again?" He said, rather than asked.

"Of course. Two pictures, please?" Siobhan said as she handed him the money.

We dug through the prop box. This year I chose a rainbow clown wig and red nose, while she chose suspenders, a fake mustache, and flat cap, which I kinda liked. As we got into our pose, the guy asked us, "When are you two gonna get hitched?"

"Huh?" I said.

He laughed, "When are the two of ya getting married?"

"Uh, we're sixteen, dude, a little young."

"Yea, and we're best friends. We're not dating," Siobhan said.

"Ah, well, ya coulda fooled me all these years."

We just kind of looked at each other and then got into our pose for the pictures. After he handed them to us with his usual, "You're a pretty little girl," comment, we left and started to make our way back home.

We remained quiet for most of the walk back. I was lost in my thoughts, wondering why that guy mistook us for a couple. "What do ya think that was about?" I asked.

"Huh? What? Sorry, Niall, lost in thought," she responded.

"The guy back there, thinking we were a couple?"

"Oh, that guy is fucking psycho. He creeps me out every year."

"Yeah, me too. It was just odd though, wasn't it?"

"I guess. I mean, we do go together every year. I guess he just assumed we were."

"Yeah, I guess that's it." We were quiet for a few minutes. "Except we've never made it look like we were a couple. We don't kiss or do anything couple-y."

"True," she said, "Who knows."

"Wanna stay the night, Siobhan?" I asked as we got back to our street. We usually made it our big sleepover event.

"Of course. Let me grab some things from my house." She ran to her house as I went into mine.

I don't know why, but this thing kept bugging me. Did we look like a couple? I had asked a couple of girls out before but had always gotten odd looks. One had once said something similar about how she thought I was dating Siobhan. And Siobhan never seemed to have any boyfriends except plenty of boys fawned over her. Like I said, she was a pretty girl.