"Hey! Come over here for a second!"
Jenna walks through the door, joining Henry and I in my bedroom. Natalia has singing lessons today and can't come until later. Her parents only pay for it because they think it'll look good on her college resumes, but the shitty reasoning is good enough for Nat.
She's not here yet, but since it's a Friday, we're all going to do a sleepover. Plus, today's detention supervisor let us out early because I'm pretty sure she had a date she wanted to get ready for.
"Jenna! Jenna, watch the light, dude," I warn my friend as she runs over to belly flop onto my bed.
She is too late to listen to my warning and trips over the lamp that was precariously laying on the floor. She falls to the ground along with the lamp and curses. Luckily, it hasn't broken and is now simply casting strange shadows around the room.
"Sorry," she says. "Why was the light there, anyway?"
I point over at Henry, who is laying on the ground, facedown a short distance away.
"Melissa called. She's coming next Wednesday. He's suffering a mental breakdown."
Jenna raises her eyebrows. "Right."
"She's visiting! What do I fucking do?" Henry shrieks.
He's excited. I can tell.
"That's great," Jenna laughs. "It'll be cool to have her here again. Wait, how long is she staying?"
My eyes widen and I look at her. "Shit, don't ask-"
Henry lets out a loud whine. "Only three days!" He complains. "How come, whenever she comes back, it's only for three or four days?" His voice sounds so sad and tired.
I want to hug him, but he's lying on the ground, so I pet his back with my foot comfortingly. Jenna follows my example.
Henry peeks up at us, rolling away quickly. "What the fuck, guys? That's gross. I don't know where your feet have been."
I stick out my tongue and he sits up, rubbing his face. His expression becomes serious. "I'm so happy she's coming," he tells us, but his expression is still sad. "I just hate that every single time she leaves, it's harder to deal with."
I say, "Yeah. That's gotta be so tough for both of you..."
I turn to look at Jenna, who's sitting next to me on the bed, for help. She makes eye contact with me, then tells Henry in a calm and sympathetic voice very unlike her usual one, "It'll work out. I know it might be hard right now, but things will get better."
I sigh, thinking of what Jenna is saying. It must be hard for her, too, to say such things while at the same time being in love with one of her best friends and thinking it's hopeless.
There's nothing I can do but wish for both of my friends to be able to work through these problems, and I really hope I'll be able to help them.
A knock comes from the door. Jeremy opens it, revealing a small girl with dark hair. Natalia is standing beside him.
He faces me. "I found another one loitering outside. I figured I'd bring her in. All good?"
Natalia laughs and comes inside.
"Hi," I say, giving her a wave. "Thanks for showing up."
"Wouldn't miss it."
Jenna tackles her in a hug. "Hey, Nat!"
Despite Jenna's huge crush, she's actually able to act fairly normal and friendly around Natalia, although somewhat obvious. I'm impressed.
"How was singing?" Henry asks from the floor.
She looks over at him. "Get up."
He gets up.
"I'm bored," I tell them. "What do you wanna do?"
Henry throws himself down onto our legs. All three of us girls grunt in annoyance and slight pain.
"Henry, please-"
"Heavy piece of-"
"Kill you-"
"How 'bout that?" Henry asks, pointing to my video game stack.
We all look at each other and start to grin.
"Tournament!" I yell at the same time as all three of my best friends.
***
Chris is waiting for me outside when I emerge from my house in the middle of the afternoon.
"Happy groundhog day!" I tell him as we head down the street, away from my house.
He stops walking for a second, looking at me like I'm crazy. "Is it groundhog day?"
I nod. "Yup. The most underrated holiday of the year. Also, my favorite holiday of the year."
"Um, okay."
We keep walking.
Our town got a couple inches of snow last night, so it's frigid outside. We probably have a few hours until it starts to melt with the dirt, turning into that gross sludge stuff, so we're going to a winter fair that the town we live in hosts every February. According to school gossip (courtesy of Jenna - duh), there's a roller coaster this year. Somehow, I doubt it, since the fair is only up for a week or so, but maybe it's true.
I still don't know what the deal is with Chris and I. I mean, we talk, a lot, and we hang out pretty often, though usually just in class. Whenever it's not at school, we tend to freeze up or get oddly formal. I mean, we go on "dates", but we've never really done anything super coupley. Are we a couple again? I don't know.
"Why is your favorite holiday Groundhog Day?"
I think about it. "Real answer or fake answer?"
He laughs, and his breath is visible in the cold air. "Fake. Why not?"
"Okay." I think for a second. "I like it because it's so unique and weird. And no one ever talks about it. It's underrated and I think that's what makes it beautiful."
"Bullshit. Give me the real answer."
I snort a laugh. "The movie, obviously."
"What movie?"
I look at him like he's crazy.
First Star Wars, now this?
"I'll show it to you sometime," I promise as we approach the fair gates. It's so cool how my house is, like five minutes away from here.
"That's what she said," Chris supplies unhelpfully, and I roll my eyes at him.
Once we purchase tickets from the salesman who looks like the kid from Home Alone nowadays, we make our way through the gate and into the campground that the Fair has rented out.
"Whoa," I breathe.
The February air is cold but the strings of lights that decorate booths and rides make it feel cosy and fun. It reminds me of those European Christmas markets you sometimes see in postcards. There isn't a roller coaster, but there are a lot of smaller rides, mostly for the little kids. Game booths decorate the scene, and the people running them call out for players.
There are a lot of people here, so we have to maneuver among a sea that seems to be swimming in the opposite direction in order to get to where we want to go.
Which, right now, is definitely the apple cider kiosk.
"We'll take two," Chris tells the guy at the counter, handing him two ones and receiving two paper cups in return.
I take one in my ungloved hand, scorching my fingertips. The cider is piping hot and has a lot of cinnamon, just the way I like it. It burns my throat as it goes down, but I don't mind.
Soon, there's a fairly large pile of paper cups stacked up on the beer table we're standing at as we keep getting more cider.
"Hey! Audrey, look."
I look up at where Chris is pointing to the ferris wheel. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asks.
You wanna go up there and throw snowballs at innocent people? Me too!
When I don't answer, he says, "Let's go see the view from the top."
This feels like something characters in a cheesy rom-com would do, but he takes my hand in his warm, gloved one and pulls me after him.
I chug down the last few drops of cider, toss the cups into the trash bin, and let him bring me to the Ferris Wheel.
"Not one of those girls who are scared of heights, are you?" He asks me as he requests two tickets from the lady managing the ride.
I shake my head. "Nah. You should see Henry, though. When he gets up high, he's fucking terrified."
The woman gives me a sharp glare at my language and we quickly move away and into the short line.
We're almost at the front of the Ferris wheel line. The teenager collects our tickets and tells us to hop on as the next car passes the yellow line.
I jump on, my hand stinging slightly as I grab onto the freezing metal. The bench is hard and uncomfortable. Chris climbs in after me.
"Will you my girlfriend? Again, I mean. Not that we weren't together, it's just-"
"I know what you mean. Things have been weird."
"Yeah," he says, looking relieved. "So, what do you think?"
I look out as we rise up into the air slowly, thinking.
Do I have it in me to say yes? I don't know how this is supposed to work. What if we get it wrong again? And... Chris? Is he the best I can do?
But he's Chris, so I say, "Okay."
"Okay." He nods, looking pleased.
After the Ferris Wheel stops and we hop off, we decide to get some food since it's almost dinner.
I order a panini at the little cafe booth area, but I know that it won't fill me up so I also get French fries. And also a really yummy-looking thingy of churros. And, of course, a Vanilla Coke since they didn't have any Dr. Pepper.
"You're gonna put me in debt with how much food you're getting," Chris says, laughing.
I'm pretty sure he's joking, so I laugh. It comes out kind of nervously, though. Even though it seems like he's just messing around, it kind of stings. I don't know. Maybe I'm just overreacting.