「f r i e s w i t h t h a t?」kris stew au

15

When they go to the event, it was hailing, and on of the smaller tents blew over. But still, the show goes on.

Kristen had her ticket in hand and ran to the largest ten on the field with Jesse, trying to not get soaked, as Ryan unfortunately did, seconds after stepping out of the car and tripping into a giant puddle. Jake helped him up and among a dozen other late comers chased the light exhausted from the tent lights into the canvas. Even though they got in just in time for the main act to start, they had completely lost their younger counter parts in the tall blond crowd of excited middle class families. So they grabbed two seats by the end of the second row after getting their ticket stamped.
Mean while, Jesse and Kristen had already found seats near the very front. It was very loud, being near the epicenter of about two hundred people, with small children laughing and crying and loud talking as everyone tried to chat over each other. After a while, Kristen realised some fat lumberjack kid had spilled soda down by he back of her seat, but it was too late to get up for the port a potties as the show had started.

-

Kristen was outside. After about forty minutes in she couldn't stand the repetitive routines that she knew she seen before, and it was not like she could understand anything at all. On the other hand, Jesse just enjoyed the show and it even seems like he could understand some of the phrases the acts were calling out. It had stopped raining, the sky was really calm and Kriste looked up at it. She was in her long puffy outdoor jacket, all warm and cosy except for her face, naked unless you count the the micro metre thick layers under f foundations. Her coat was dark and camouflaged, so she was surprised when she heard someone call out to her.
She turned around but couldn't see the figure. She could hear light crunches on the wet grass and just faintly make out the breaths made by them.  Kristen squinted her eyes, and as the figure got closer, she saw it was a guy in a large cashmere jacket. A fit guy as well.

Kristen waited for him to reach her, she saw that he had wildly curly hair and a great face. He arrived under the stream of light emitted from the tent.
They looked at each other. Kristen wasn't sure what to do now, as she had never been in a situation where a hot guy approaches her outside a Swedish circus very late at night.

By now, her coat had dried and no longer smelt of soda, but there was a stain patch on the backside of her coat. Although you couldn't see it in the dark, everything comes out in the light. So Kristen took care to not show her back to the stranger, as the stain probably looks like the result of on overloaded pad or, you know diarrhea.

"Hey," he said. Kristen smiled at him.
"American?" The guy asked.
"Yeah," Kristen said. "LA. What about you?"
The guy smiled, showing a row of really white teeth. "I'm not American." He looked Kristen up before continuing. "I'm Harry," he held out his hand, Kristen shook it. "I'm actually English."
Kristen could hear the accent now.
"Hey, jus wanted to see if you weren't Swedish or something. That would've been weird, me trying to chat up a bird that doesn't even understand what I mean by 'dumping my tea in your arbour.'"
"So you're trying to chat me up?" Kristen smiled.
"No, I just walked over here to tell you a joke about the Boston Arbour tea dumping."

Kristen didn't get that joke.

"Alright, Harry." Kristen eyed him down this time. "I'm Kristen by the way."
"Nice to met you." He smirked.
They stood staring at each other's eyes for a moment, and in that Kristen felt strange, like she was in a weird fan fiction written by an eleven year old girl. She stood back. Harry looked up at her, and soon it turned from a slightly flirtatious atmosphere to an awkward one.
"Gee, so what's a young, free American doing outside a Swedish circus?" Harry asked, a little sarcastically.
"Hmm, well, I'm here with my best friend visiting his family, and his family decided to come here. It wouldn't have been my first choice of an evening activity, but here I am." Kristen's eyes glanced over her watch. She had been out here for half an hour. She wonders how the show is, if Jesse is enjoying it.

"So what are you doing here then? A young, charming Brit doesn't seem to be the target audience for Sven the sword swallower."
"I'm actually with my best friend too, well, three of them. We're camping in the  forest."
"That sounds cool, which forest?"
"Umm, I think the one by the Stockholm highway - you know?" Harry asked, hopefully.
"Actually, I do - I'm staying at a cabin in that forest, the north district, by waterfall."
"Cool." They stood in silence. Kristen felt a little drizzle starting to fall.
"Hey," Harry said, "the reason I came out here isn't just to chat to American girls who live in cabins. I actually lost something. Quite important really."
"What did you lose?" Kristen asked.
"I think I lost my phone, can you call it up for me?"
Kristen laughed. "Smooth!"
"But, ugh, seriously, I actually did lose it. It would really help if you could. I know I must've dropped it out here somewhere."

So Harry gave Kristen his number, and the two wandered around the circus tent, calling again and again and looking through bushes and wet grass. Under the weak light from between large tent's fabric and Kristen's phone torch, they finally found Harry's iPhone, which was under a plastic bin that tumbled over in the rain.

And then they parted ways.