Friends With Benefits | Becstin short story au

04

We walked around in silence for a few minutes.

"Something wrong?" He asked. "Or as my grandmother used to say, 'a penny for your thoughts'."

"I don't know. I'm still worried about Sarah and Luke." I explained.

“You should stop worrying, it’s not a good look on you.” He said, I scoffed.

“I can’t just not worry about my friend, Austin. And what do you mean ‘it’s not a good look on me’?” I asked as I massaged away the crease in my forehead.

"Look, I'm sure Sarah and Luke will be just fine. We're at the fair, we should at least have some fun!" He exclaimed. I sighed in defeat. Austin was right, I needed to stop worrying about Sarah, if Luke did something, Sarah would be strong enough to take care of herself.

"Alright. Where to first?" I asked, scanning the fair grounds. Austin looked at the paper in his hands. It was a map of the boardwalk, highlighting the rides in red, the games were yellow, while the bathrooms were a dark green.

“Try your luck, young man.” A nearby game operator grabbed Austin’s attention. Austin looked at me quickly and smirked, I shrugged.

We approached the booth and I saw tons of stuffed animals pinned up around the game. I smiled as I saw a huge stuffed bear sitting in the corner. The game operator looked at the bear and back at me.

“Gonna’ win the lovely lady a prize?” He smiled at Austin. In any other situation I would be totally freaked out by this guy.

“You bet I am.” Austin said unphased.

“The object of the game is to knock down the pins. Knock down all five, you win one of the larger prizes, four, medium size prizes. You get the gist.” Austin handed the guy his money and the games operator placed three baseballs on the ledge in front of him.

“Good luck.” I whispered in his ear, I witnessed goosebumps rise in the back of his neck. Austin gulped and threw the first ball. The pins didn’t tip or wobble. He blew out a large breath of air before he threw the next one. Still, the pins held no avail.

“Austin, it’s okay if you don’t win one. We can always go on some rides afterwards.” I suggested. There was a glint of something in his eyes as he looked at me. He clutched the final ball in his hand and threw it. Expecting him to fail, I was about to drag him along to the rides, but the bell rang loudly indicating that all the pins fell.

“You have no faith in me.” He smiles, I looked at my feet, smiling slightly.

“Which one does the lovely lady want?” The game operator asked.

“I’m pretty sure she had her eyes on the large bear in the corner.” Austin said. I nodded quickly.

“Here you go, beautiful.” The man said, I smiled awkwardly and turned to Austin.

“That guy was so weird.” Austin hissed at me, I laughed softly and nodded in agreement as we walked away from the booth.

“How about...this one!” I asked excitedly pointing at one of the red highlighted rides on the map.

“Nononono.” Austin replied quickly.

“What? Why?” I pout.

“Because that’s a ferris wheel.” He said bluntly.

“And…?” I asked.

“And that’s really cliché for a couple.” He said, but he sucked in a quick breath in the realization of his words, I chose to ignore it.