Isaac POV*
We arrived at the festival a little later than we intended to. mostly because Ava insisted Lukas wear something different than he had chosen. In the end, he borrowed some of Callum's clothes. Ava assured him it was okay, but I'm not so sure it is. but I had to admit, he looked a lot better with some nicer clothes.
It had already started to get darker, which only made the festival stand out more. Hundreds of lights from various lanterns and candles lit up the sky, it looked amazing. I know this happens every year but I've never actually been this late at night. I was too young to stay up so late, and after my mother passed away and I got older, I didn't feel like going. I didn't want to leave my dad alone at home. But those days were over, and I was excited to go.
"Wow, Aubrey would've loved this." Lukas smiled brightly as he stared at the lights. Aubrey couldn't join us because she had "patrol" as she called it. I wasn't sure what she would be on patrol for, though.
We entered the festival and made our way through the many paths, and lines with all kinds of stands. There were games, snacks, and most of all fun, but mostly useless things to buy.
We wandered around until Ava stopped us and pulled us towards one of the stands. "Guys, come here, I wanna try this." She said excitedly. We stopped in front of one of the many games.
It was a game involving knocking over some tin can towers with a ball. Ava looked at it with wide eyes as she excitedly asked for four balls. The man behind the game gave them to her before stepping back. "Let me show you how it's done." She said smugly. She then threw all the balls at the cans. Only knocking over one tower. "Yeah, wow." I laughed.
She sighed defeated, before turning back to me. "Well then, if you can do better, be my guest." She laughed, gesturing towards the game. I looked over as the man set the cans back in their place. "I don't know, I didn't bring that much money." Which was the truth, but I also didn't feel like playing this game.
"That's fine, I'll pay for half, you just have to throw them." She smirked. You let out a sigh before agreeing. "Here you go," the man smiled as he handed me the balls next. I took a breath before throwing it, and of course, I missed all three towers completely.
"Well, that gonna be money wasted," I predicted, being sure I wasn't going to hit anything else. I could hear Ava sigh from behind me. I was about to throw the next ball when Lukas stopped me. "Can I try?" He asked, looking slightly excited.
"Sure," I put the ball back on the counter and stepped aside. Lukas stood there for a second before throwing the balls, fully concentrated. He managed to knock down all three of them, not leaving a single can upright. He looked almost surprised himself. "Wow, how many times did you play this game!?-" Ava yelled, not believing what had just happened. I stood next to him amazed.
"I- this is the first time-" he defended. We heard laughing and turned back to the man. "Well, that's a first" he smiled. "Well then, here you go." He reached under the counter, pulling out a small stuffed wolf. I handed it to Lukas.
"Oh- thanks." He said awkwardly. The man smiled and turned around again to put the towers back. "Congratulations." I smiled as I turned towards him again. He smiled back, holding the wolf up to me. "Here," he said firmly as he handed it over. "What? No, it's yours!." I defended, trying to give it back. "No it's fine, it was your money, besides, what would I do with it anyway." He smiled. I stood there silently, not knowing what to say, as my heart beat a bit faster. "I-"
"Hey, no fair- it was half of my money too." Ava interrupted. Lukas looks at her surprised. "I'm sorry- do you want me to try again-" he asked. Ava looked at me, as I stared at her confused. She let out a sigh before turning away. "No it's fine- let's just look around a bit more" She started walking away, and Lukas followed soon after. I stood there for a little as I tried to get my thoughts back together. I smiled at the stuffed wolf before putting it in my bag and following the others.
We walked around the festival for a while, stopping now and then to play a game or order some food. In the end, I won a few games, of course, Lukas crushed all the games he tried. Is he for real about never playing any of these?
Ava got some prizes too, but she mostly spent the money on food. Towards the end of the festival, we had all found a spot somewhere nearby, somewhere high up with a full view of the festival; Ava's idea. We sat with the last of our candy and other food as we waited for the festival to end.
"I'm so tired-" Ava yawned, sitting down on the grass next to us. "Yeah, that's because you kept running all over the place." I laughed. She wanted to defend herself but stopped when she realized she couldn't. I let out a laugh, earning a small push from her.
She looked at me and then at Lukas, whispering in my ear, "Now it's time for the finale" She smirked and sat up, I looked at her confused. "Well-" she stretched. "I'm going to go find a bathroom quickly before we go." She said before walking off.
That is when I realized what she meant. I turned to Lukas awkwardly as I got nervous again, he was staring up at the sky, lost in his world. He didn't realize me staring at him. "S-so did you have fun?" I asked, breaking his daydreaming. "Huh?- oh, yeah, it was a lot of fun." He smiled, turning towards me. "I've never been to anything like this before...." he smiled sadly. "Really?- why not?" I asked curiously.
He let out a small sigh. "It's a long story," he said back. I took this as my cue to stop thinking about it. "Did you have fun?" He asked back. "Yeah- I did. A lot." I said the last part more to myself. "That's good then" he leaned back onto his hands as he turned to look at me. "We should do this more often." He smiled. I let out an awkward laugh. I faced away from him, pulling my bag closer to my chest. This is it. Tell him.
"L-Lukas?" I said, my voice shaky. He was still staring at me. "There's... something I want to tell you." I mustered up all the confidence I could find and turned to look at him. "I like y-"
But just before I could finish my sentence, the sky in front of us lit up with a big bang. Fireworks. We both turned towards it. It kept going up and exploding in all different colors. It wasn't anything special, but it was amazing anyway.
Lukas shot up, standing up surprised. I looked at him confused. I could see by his expression that this must've been new to him. I smiled as I turned back towards the fireworks, waiting for them to be over...
After about half an hour it was finally done. Slowly the festival started to clear out as people left to go home. Lukas was still standing there. I got up as well. "Hey? You okay?" I put my hand on his shoulder. "Yeah- I'm fine." He sighed, turning to me again. We looked at each other for a bit until Ava returned.
"Did you guys see that?!" She yelled enthusiastically. "I didn't know they had that prepared." She kept going. "They don't usually do this then?" Lukas asked her. "Oh- No! Do you know how difficult it is to make those!" She explained. I watched them as they kept talking about how much they liked fireworks. Lukas only learned what it was. Before it got too late we all went back home.