Hacking The Relationship Code

Chapter 24: Snow Tubing

It was Michigan University's last official working day before winter break. Exams are scheduled in two weeks after which we got to go home for Christmas. My half days at work began from today as well. There's a Christmas fair at the campus today which has always been a highlight at MSU. Like every year, the campus has been embellished to resemble a winter wonderland. It's quite an orthodox theme if you ask me but putting up new stalls every year is a fix in itself. The idea behind the fair is to come up with new kinds of games and activities to entertain people. Even the goodies and the confectionaries are crafted with superlative creativity.

The people in-charge of organizing the Christmas fair have surely put in a lot of thought and execution in making it worthwhile and the most talked about event before the break.

It was snowing lightly on a cold December morning. The snow had formed an icy cold sheet over the trees. Short Christmas trees were tactfully placed on the borders to provide a bell-shaped area in between. A gigantic Christmas tree with ample of colorful lights adorned the center of the entire setting. A rotating star was embraced the top of the tree which reflected the colors of the lights underneath.

There were figurines of different winter animals scattered around blazed with exquisite décor and captions for people to pose and click pictures with. A reindeer chariot figurine encircled the lit Christmas tree which was the main attraction of the fair. The booths were distributed categorically around the boundaries of the bell. Big booths which were supposed to become attractions for the crowd and milk money for the fair were situated in the center surrounding the tree while the smaller booths made up the borders. The big booths belonged to ice-skating, ice-hockey and snow tubes while the smaller ones belonged to eatables, bands and gaming. All in all, the scene was LIT.

As soon as our first lecture ended, we landed at the campus to attend the initiation ceremony of the fair. Adrian and I hadn't gotten a minute alone to talk to each other. I was late to class in the morning and we weren't able to grab adjacent seats. Right after the class, we were escorted to the fair by our friends which scratched off our plan to meet at the amphitheatre.

Adrian ran into his team mates on the way and got detained with them. The rest of us decided to explore the fair together. Mia was resting at home which left with only the four of us. Since we were one of the early birds to attend the fair, the organizers were giving out really cool hats and glasses to spread the Christmas mirth. We were given quirky merchandise to put on and flaunt away at the fair. I had gotten the Harry Potter Sorting hat which make me look like Hermione Granger's doppelganger. Only if I had curly hair that is. Cole got Pinocchio's nose whereas Leslie got some weird shit tattooed on her face.

We were already done with playing ice-hockey and skating when Adrian finally decided to grace us with his presence. I didn't mind the delay since space was all I had been yearning for a few days. He walked down to where we were all standing and stood beside Andy. Among the big booths, we were only left with snow tubing after which we were scheduled to hog from the lunching booths. Snow tubing was a couple activity. One of the riders was supposed to sit between the legs of the other rider since they didn't provide twin tubes. It went without saying that Cole and Leslie and Adrian and I would be spinning in together.

For the first time in the day, Adrian met his eyes with me. For some season I had a feeling that something was off with him and it concerned me. He didn't even smile at me like he usually did. His message sounded quite urgent yesterday. I had no idea what was bothering him but we were going to talk about it after the fair anyway. I had to tell him about how yesterday's incident and how I felt about it too.

Cole and Leslie sat themselves in their ring grinning at each other like love-struck teenagers. Leslie sat between his legs and he tightened his grip on her. Leslie smiled at him and planted a kiss on his cheek. They were really cute when they weren't poking fun at each other. Cole tickled Leslie at her waist making her squirm in his body with an embarrassing squeal. People who saw that burst out laughing at the two wacky lovers before them.