Chapter Text
Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Collie's face hurts from smiling as he vaults out of the car.
They'd been directed around the parking lot, all while Collie sat glued to the window, watching the ferris wheel, the drop tower, the baby rollercoaster he'd despised as a toddler.
The South Dakota State Fair was Collie's favorite fucking thing in the world when he was younger, and it's not too far down the list now.
"Woah!" Art calls, as Collie starts towards the entrance. "Hold it a second." Art's digging around in the back of the car.
Even though Collie's literally vibrating with excitement, he settles for tapping his fingers against his belt and shifting impatiently.
"What'cha lookin' for?" Pete asks, tilting his head.
"The ticket money," Art says, "Ain't it cash in a bag somewhere?"
"Oh, Stebbins's got that," Hank dismisses, "Trust fund money, ya know?" Art pops back out of the car, almost knocking into Harkness.
"Not a trust fund." Billy objects.
"Oh, it's definitely a trust fund." Harkness says cheerfully.
Collie's suddenly struck with the realization that he hasn't paid for a damn thing on this trip. Not even his own gas station snacks—Billy had snatched them out of his hands before he'd gotten to the counter.
"Hey, I got the tickets." He tries. Most of the group looks at him like he's grown another head.
"Why wouldja do that?" Art asks. "It's your birthday trip."
"Yeah," Collie says, "But, shit, you all put together this whole trip for me, least I could do is pay for your damn tickets."
"Yeah," Pete says, "But we did this 'cause we kinda like you."
"Let us pay for your fuckin' tickets, Jesus fuckin' Christ." Hank says.
"Okay," Collie relents, "Thanks, really. I love you all."
"Aw, real fuckin' sweet Parker." Barkovitch teases.
"What now?" Ray asks. In the second since Collie'd looked away, Art was rooting around in the car again.
"Barkovitch's headphones, it's gon' be loud in there!"
"I don't need 'em!" Barkovitch says, even though Collie knew he probably would.
Art pops out and hands the headphones to a grumbling Barkovitch.
They get past the ticket booth and into the actual fair. And holy fuck had Collie missed this.
It's no secret that Collie doesn't do too well with change. His family had basically pushed him out of their house. If you don't get out of South Dakota now, you'll end up staying here forever, his older sister Lynn had told him, ironic, since she currently lived and worked within their city borders.
Staying in Sioux Falls didn't sound too bad to Collie, but Maine's own Bachman University had given him a full-ride scholarship, and Collie isn't ungrateful.
He doesn't regret it, not at all. He loves his friends, loves his classes, hell, loves his college, but God knows he's going straight back to South Dakota once he's done. Back to Lynn, Nadine and Hazel. Back to his mom.
Now, he's back, back in South Dakota, in a place full of so many people he can hardly breathe and he loves it.
"Jesus," Ray says, "It's crowded here."
"And loud." Barkovitch says, but he still looks excited. Collie gives him a pointed look.
Art digs his earplugs out of his pockets and pops them in, shooting Collie a thumbs up. Barkovitch begrudgingly puts his headphones on.
Ray reaches down and laces his fingers with Pete's. Pete cracks a smile and brings Ray's knuckles to his mouth to press a kiss to them.
Collie's thrilled that they've gotten their shit together, but he's a little disappointed it means he doesn't get to use his Plan B: shove them onto the Tunnel of Love and not let them off until they figure it out.
He's actually vibrating with excitement now, but he can't even try to make himself stop moving his hands or grinning like a madman.
The first thing they ride is the ferris wheel. It's a classic, obviously. The line moves pretty quickly, and eventually they crowd in. It's four to a cart, so Collie rides with Billy, Barkovitch and Harkness.
They get up almost to the top, and it's only then that Collie realizes that Billy hasn't looked anywhere but straight ahead.
"You alright?" He asks.
"Yep." Billy says unconvincingly. He's uncharacteristically tapping one of his feet.
"You ain't scared a' heights, are ya?" Barkovitch said. Collie watched the ground drop from below them, the cart rising far above the lights and people.
"No." Billy says. "Definitely not."
"You sure about that?" Harkness says, not taking his eyes off the window. "It's okay if you are! I'm scared of sharks!"
"You're scared of sharks?" Barkovitch says, with a decidedly offended tone. "Sharks are cool as hell!"
"They have so many teeth!" Harkness says, and shudders.
They're at the top for just a second, and Collie almost looses his breath. The fair is beautiful from up so high. He can spot parents and children, couples, teenagers shoving their faces with funnel cake. The lights sparkle and the crowds of people pulse with life, cheering and laughing and rushing around the stands.
It's the fucking best.
They regroup after the ferris wheel, with Collie immediately dragging them all to the bumper cars, the Himalaya, which is Nadine's favorite ride, and Collie's favorite ride—the MegaDrop.
Billy takes one look at the brightly colored, 135-foot tall tower and decides to sit this one out, electing to buy snacks instead.
Collie excitedly tells him his favorite food trucks and stalls and gets even more unreasonably excited when he sees Billy nod easily and take off towards the caramel apple truck he'd suggested.
They manage to get all seven of them onto the ride at one time. Collie's between Art and Barkovitch, and when they start to ascend, Art latches onto his forearm with long fingers.
"What the fuck!" Barkovitch squeaks, as they get off the ground and keep going and going. Collie feels anticipation grip him in the most fucking perfect way as the crowd gets smaller and smaller.
"Fuck me, fuck me," Barkovitch announces.
Collie turns his head to see Art saying a Hail Mary.
"Hey, hey," Hank says, sounding panicked, "Why's the top fuckin' mirrored?! I can't see when we fuckin' drop!"
"That's the point, jackass." Ray says.
"Gettin' real high!" Art says, voice skittering up an octave and a half.
The ground is indeed getting further away. Collie thinks he can see Billy in line at a food truck. Everything is always so much smaller than he thinks it is. He thinks he could see all the way to Sioux Falls if they got high enough.
Harkness is on the other side of the ride, but Collie can hear him laughing hysterically.
"I need my head examined." Pete announces. Then, the ride clicks and they're free falling.
"FUCK!" Barkovitch screams, voice high and thin.
Collie snaps his eyes closed at first, but forces them open against the wind to watch as the sky rushes by them.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Hank shouts in short bursts. Harkness is still cackling, and Pete, Art, and Ray are screaming their heads off.
It takes forever and also no time at all for the tower to catch them, snapping Collie's neck forward, and lower them gently to the ground.
"I'm ain't never doin' that again, holy fuckin' shit," Pete says, "Fuck,"
"Jee-zus Christ!" Hank says as they disembark, almost falling flat on his face, "What the fuck was that!"
"The drop tower," Collie answers positively, "Didja like it?"
"No!" Hank says at the same time Art and Barkovitch say "Yes!"
"You liked that?" Pete says.
Art nods enthusiastically. Barkovitch says, "Fuck yeah! That was sick as hell!"
The bored-looking, bespectacled ride attendant starts to shoo them out of the ride's area, so they bicker their way back to Billy, who's weighed down with caramel apples, corn dogs, loaded fries, and lemonade shake-ups.
Collie can't fathom how he's balancing all of it, so he hurries over to help, distributing what amounts to dinner to the rest of the Musketeers. They set up in a grassy area, surrounded by the lights of the fair. Collie's never been more grateful than he is in this exact fucking moment.
"Jesus!" Hank says, looking at his caramel apple with disdain, "This thing's gonna break my tooth!"
"Well, if you ain't gonna eat it, I'll gladly take it off your hands." Pete says. He's between Ray's legs, Ray's arms looped around his shoulders. He's feeding Ray fries. Collie wonders if the two of them dating is actually turning out any better than when they were just flirting.
"Naw, I'm gonna eat it!" Hank says defiantly, waving the apple around. "Gotta eat at least one. I feel like it's some kinda requirement."
Collie takes a sticky bite of his apple—caramel with peanut bits—and feels great. Art leans his head against Collie's shoulder and sips his lemonade.
"What are we doin' next?" Hank asks, halfway through his apple already. "Any other rides? I ain't goin' on one of those damn drop rides again!"
"No one asked you to, fuckface." Collie says, smiling. "We could go on the big swing,"
"Huh?" Ray says. His phone vibrates in his bag and he moves his arms from Pete to find it. Pete makes an exaggerated sad face and steals one of Ray's fries.
"That thing," Collie points at the flying-chair ride spinning in the distance. Wait, Billy's afraid of heights. "Or, maybe not."
Ray looks up from his phone, and moves to whisper something into Billy's ear. Billy nods.
"But only if you're good with it." Ray says seriously. "We can also just—"
"Naw," Billy says, "I got it."
"What do you 'got'?" Collie asks. They're already at the fair. There's nothing else to surprise him with. He takes another bite of his caramel apple.
"Funnel cake." Billy responds dryly. "Y'all go on the ride."
"Are you sure?" Art says nervously. "We don't want nobody left out."
"It's fine, I promise." Billy says. Deliberately, he forms two "OK" symbols with his hands before twisting both hands around, effectively drawing a circle.
"OH!" Hank says, and Art nods quickly, lifting his head from Collie's shoulder to do so.
"Funnel cake!" Art says. "Right!"
"What the fuck?" Collie asks.
"Don't worry 'bout it." Barkovitch says decisively. He's halfway through a second corn dog. "Eat your dinner."
Collie would hardly call a caramel apple and a lemonade shake-up dinner, but he's not complaining. He finishes the apple and unbraids his hair while Pete settles back into Ray's hold.
The swing chair ride was always Collie's little sister, Hazel's, favorite ride. It makes him slightly less enthusiastic in the line for it, remembering that she can't be there with him. The whole family comes down every year, his sisters and mother. He misses them more than anything the fair can provide.
He hasn't told them he's skipping four days of classes to go to the state fair, but he'll have to call them whenever they get to the next hotel room.
"Alright?" Art asks, shaking him out of his thoughts.
"I'm great, really." Collie says, running his fingers through his hair. "Just thinking of my family, you know? I miss 'em."
Art, who has a terrible poker face, is immediately shoved out of the way by Pete, who also has a terrible poker face.
He says, "That fuckin' sucks, I'm sorry man." But Collie can see something twinkling in his eyes.
"I think everybody gets homesick." Barkovitch says, nodding. They move forward in the line.
"This one doesn't drop ya, does it?" Hank asks, eyeing the ride suspiciously.
"No." Collie says. "Unfortunately."
"How would that work?" Ray says, squinting. "Like, the physics of that."
Collie looks towards Art, who shakes his head. "I ain't thinkin' about nothin' physics while I'm outta school."
"He's a stars man, he doesn't know shit about swings." Hank says definitively.
"He's gonna go to spa-ayce," Barkovtich says, sweeping an arm in the general direction of the slowly darkening sky.
They get onto the ride, shuffled on by a skinny, pale guy in the biggest boots Collie's ever seen.
It's only one person per chair, which makes a few of the other Musketeers nervous, but Collie's pretty confident they'll all make it out alive.
Collie sets the bar over his lap and holds onto the chains, swinging his legs back and forth as the ride begins to spin and rise.
"Hey! Didn't a kid fall off a one of these?" Hank shouts.
"Don't worry about it!" Collie shouts back. The ride has started to speed up, and the wind through his hair makes him almost giddy.
"Why are we sideways!?" Ray yells as the chairs begin to tip towards the center.
"Centrifugal force!" Shouts Art, from behind him.
"Very helpful, thank you Art," Ray shouts sarcastically.
It's a wonder they can hear each other. A girl with very long blonde hair is glaring at Collie from a chair in front of him, so he figures they might be ruining her swing-chair ride experience.
"Wheeee!" Harkness whoops. Collie starts laughing, and for a second he forgets how much he misses his sister, but when the ride starts slowing down, the ache in his chest returns ever so slightly.
"All good compadre?" Pete asks, as they dismount and shuffle towards the exit. "You ain't gonna throw up, are you?"
"I'm okay," Collie says, "Just homesick. I still miss my family, I guess."
Pete's got the twinkle in his eye again, but this time Collie can see Art's huge grin and the smirk that Barkovitch tries and fails to hide.
"What the fuck are you all planning now?" Collie says.
"Nothin'." Hank says. "Don't worry about it."
Ray's tapping away at his phone again. He says, "How do we feel about funnel cake?"
"Fuck yeah!" Collie says, forgetting that they'd apparently sent Billy to get that earlier. Harkness nods vigorously.
The Musketeers charge cheerfully towards the part of the fair with the best funnel cake, in Collie's (correct) opinion. As they weave through the crowd, Barkovitch keeps giggling maniacally, which is slightly terrifying. Art continues to beam, Harkness and Ray almost run through the crowd, and Pete keeps smirking, dragged along as Ray dodges around a group of teenage girls.
"Okay, okay," Harkness says, when they get there. "Collie, you sit down—"
"Huh?" Collie says, caught off guard by Harkness's frenziness.
"Just do it!" Barkovitch says, practically shoving Collie down onto a nearby bench. Collie goes willingly—Barkovitch couldn't actually move him if he tried.
They're tucked away beside the funnel cake stand, but Collie notices not a single one of them has made any move to actually buy any funnel cake. Instead, they're all kind of perched around the bench—Art and Hank on the bench with him, Harkness, Pete and Ray sitting on a raised bit of concrete, Barkovitch leaning against a wall.
Art looks over his shoulder, smiles even larger, and says, "Okay, now close your eyes."
"What the hell is going on?" Collie complains, even as he closes his eyes.
No one answers him, but soon enough he hears voices. They're singing.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Co-llie—"
His eyes fly open before they can finish their song and—holy fucking shit—they're here.
Billy's holding a funnel cake with one shitty candle in it, and he's with Collie's sisters, Hazel and Lynn and Nadine, and his mother, all smiling and singing and holy shit.
Collie can't even form words, so he just launches himself at his mom, wrapping his arms around her and breathing in her citrus perfume.
His sisters shout his name and latch onto him as well—a real family hug. As his mother and Lynn begin fussing over him and Hazel and Nadine rush over to meet what Hazel calls his "Bach-friends", a pun she'd been endlessly proud of, Collie takes everything in.
His family, his sisters and mother—and his chosen family, Billy, Art, Pete, Ray, Harkness, Barkovitch and Hank, all chattering with his little sisters, who flit excitedly from person to person. Collie realizes he hasn't stopped smiling.
In this moment, among the flashing lights and chattering patrons of the state fair and surrounded by everyone he loves, Collie Parker is really and truly happy.