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"This is fucking stupid, James!"
It was the night of the city's national fair and festival, where over a dozen rides were set up, food trucks and booths were placed here and there, and visitors were allowed to attend the dance, disco, tournaments and races. James had wanted to go and insisted that Aleks join him, refusing to go alone, but the Russian wasn't interested. Still, James wouldn't let his friend stay home alone to do nothing when they could be having fun at the fair instead.
"Just get your ass down here. Fuck's sake." James yelled up the stairs at Aleks, buttoning up his tweed jacket.
"What am I supposed to wear?" Aleks yelled back, voice bouncing off the bare walls of the second floor, muffled from being in his room and not in the hallway.
"I don't know - you've got enough clothes, pick something."
"Fucking stupid. Fucking stupid! There's nothing here."
"You sound like a tween girl, Aleks. Don't make me come up there!"
"Come up here, see if I care!"
Though they were yelling, James felt pretty happy, smiling to himself. He chuckled as he ran his hand down his torso, smoothing down his jacket and setting off up the steps towards Aleks' room. He wasn't joking about his threat to go after him. Upon arriving in his room, James saw clothes all over Aleks' bed, closet door open and mumbling coming from within. He stepped closer towards the closet, peering inside. Aleks was sitting on the floor, sorting through clothes.
"What are you doing?" James asked.
"What's it look like I'm fuckin' doing?" Aleks replied, not bothering to look up.
"You have all these clothes thrown out, why can't you just pick something, or wear what you're already wearing? Ain't no harm in dressing casually. Here, wear this and uh... this."
With his words, James eyed all the clothes thrown on Aleks' bed and grabbed a red t-shirt and black skinny jeans, looking down towards Aleks. The other was staring at James, and threw what he was holding down on the floor. He sighed as James reached out a hand and took it, standing up and taking the clothes from James. Nothing needing to be said, James stepped back out of the room, shutting the door and waiting. He leaned against the wall, hearing Aleks repeatedly mumble and swear to himself again while he changed, the sound of clothes angrily being tossed around flooding out of his room. After a minute, he opened the door and stepped out, regaining his posture and looking at what James had on.
"A coat? So I'll be cold if I go out."
"Wear a coat."
"I don't have one, remember? It ripped and I had to get rid of it."
"Then wear one of mine."
James walked to his own room and went through his closet for a particular coat. Aleks reluctantly followed along, stopping on the threshold. He thought about what god-awful set of coats James had shoved to the back of his closet that he never wore anymore, afraid of being given something that'd make him look like an idiot in front of the crowd of people at the fair. Crossing his arms, he leaned against the doorframe, staring at James' back until he shut the door, coat in hand. It was black, leather, with a red design on the back. It'd match his clothes perfectly, which made Aleks wonder if this was somehow staged.
James handed the jacket to his friend, pat his shoulder twice and exited his room, moving towards the staircase. Aleks spun around, dumbfounded, watching James quickly disappear down the stairs back to the first floor. Sighing again, he decided to go with it and put the jacket on. Slipping his arms into the sleeves, he realized they were too long. The whole coat was too big, sitting loosely around his small frame, the bottom of it reaching halfway down his thighs, sleeves extending past his knuckles. Another small person could probably fit inside with Aleks if he zipped it up - not that James was overweight, just that he had a naturally bigger frame than Aleks, was taller, and preferred more loose clothing. No mirrors were in James' room and if he took any more time going back to his room and check his appearance in his own, James would have a fit, so he prepared himself and went down the steps, slowly. James looked up at the younger man as he made his way slowly down the stairs like some kind of princess. He couldn't help but smile, and upon noticing how big the coat was on Aleks, started to laugh. Not such a good idea.
"I told you this was fucking stupid!" Aleks yelled, rapidly pulling the coat back off but James stepped forwards and stopped him, pulling it back up over his shoulders and smoothing down the too-long sleeves around Aleks' skinny arms. He jutted out his lower lip, pouting, and James mocked his expression. Aleks turned away from him again to grab a beanie from the front foyer closet and blindly put it on his head, then moving towards the door. James laughed once more before leaving the house with Aleks, and setting off to the fair, the sun almost down.
--
With James' reckless driving, they'd made it to the fair in no time at all, the idiot having sped all the way down the road to the party-place. Most of the parking spaces were taken up, but one was found just in time, earning them a honk from another person who wanted to park there. James ignored them and parked the vehicle, getting out and excitedly running to the passenger side, opening the door for Aleks. James didn't like rollercoasters, but simple, ground-level rides were okay, and a joy - especially with his best friend to join him. He wanted to grab his wrist and run with him but thought better of it, hopping a bit in place instead. Aleks lazily exited the vehicle, frowning at James as they headed towards the crowd and affairs. Aleks wasn't impressed at all with this.
Being surrounded immediately with hundreds of people, Aleks had begun to feel self-conscious, fidgeting with his beanie and pulling up the sleeves of the borrowed jacket and failing to keep them in place, the sleeves falling back down to cover his hands no matter what he did. He decided he'd cross his arms instead and try to stand taller, hoping it might provide some relief from the oversized thing. He walked closely beside James, not wanting to lose him - that'd just be a nightmare. The two made their way into the centre part of the place to get tickets and decide what to do.
"So what first, Aleks?" James asked, the smile still on his face, shining brightly in his moment of happiness.
"Um, I dunno. You pick."
"Oh. Okay, well what about..." James looked around, though he knew very well he couldn't see around anybody. The best he could see is lights from the tops of rides and food booths. He spotted a flashing sign that read The Polar Express, a large mural of polar bears and people falling into broken ice displayed beneath it. He grabbed Aleks' long sleeves and pulled him through the crowd, not bothering to excuse himself while he pushed past people. He stood in line, letting go of Aleks and turning to look at him.
"This? Seriously?" Aleks questioned, still frowning.
"What, do you wanna do something else? You told me to pick, so I picked this. Come on, Aleks, don't be so moody. We'll have fun!"
"Yeah. I'm sure we will."
"No sarcasm, Aleksandr. We will have fun."
And with that, Aleks shut up and waited with the taller man. After a few minutes of listening to the overly loud music, ear-drum-bursting horn and people screaming for no reason, they made their way through the line and it was their turn to ride. Each handed the ticketmaster two small blue tickets per person and stepped up onto the circular metal platform, choosing a seat quickly. Neither knew what to expect on this ride, but they noticed that the bigger and stronger looking people were sitting on the lefthand sides of the seats and decided to follow along. James got in first, followed by Aleks, and pulled the metal bar down over their laps, locking it in place.
"I'm fuckin' scared." James said, half-joking, laughing and looking at Aleks. They waited, talking about unimportant things before the man in the booth yelled out to all those in the ride, and they all cheered. Immediately, the ride took off, quickly going in circles and Aleks found it surprisingly difficult to stay where he was as the ride spun, picking up speed in seconds. He slid into James, cursing loudly, feeling his hands go raw as he gripped the metal bar in his lap, trying to pull himself back to his side of the seat and failing miserably. He felt embarrassed, but James was still laughing and cheering, clearly having no problem with this. It was contagious, the laughter. Aleks found himself beginning to smile and couldn't hold back his own laughter as the horn was sounded and he slid further into James as the ride sped up to wild speeds. His long sleeves weren't helping matters as he tried to push them back and grab the bar again fast enough before he fell into his friend. It was quite the sight, but nothing uncommon with this crazy ride. Just when they thought their turn was ending, it all reversed and they started going backwards, Aleks almost losing his hat. He had no choice but to let go of the bar and hold it down with one hand, and then, just as the direction of the ride was reversed, so was the boys' positions. Aleks slid back into his seat and James followed suit.
"Oh my God, sorry!" he yelled over the music and cheering, cackling.
"It's alright, man!" Aleks yelled back, smiling widely. James was right. This was pretty fun.
When the ride finally slowed to a halt, they struggled to walk right, bumping into each other as they left and moved out of the way to decide on a second ride.
"Are you okay?" James asked, having realized how much and how hard his body was hitting Aleks when the ride went backwards.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't know that would happen and kept trying to pull myself back into place, and then it all switched."
"Yeah, tables were turned, huh? What now?"
"...How about that?"
Aleks pointed over to a taller ride, a vertical oval that spun the seats as the ride itself moved in circles. More circles. James agreed and they made their way to this 'Zipper' attraction. Neither knew what to expect with this either. Little did they know how careful they had to be on this fucker.
The line was ridiculously long for this ride, but soon enough it was their turn for this one and they hopped up into the seats, the big metal grated 'door' of sorts being shut loudly once they were in their seats. There was a bar over head to grab on, but neither thought of it. As the ride began to move, James suddenly felt like this was an extremely bad idea. It tilted backwards and forwards multiple times as it lifted from the ground before it began to spin altogether and he hit his head off the grate, Aleks copying him accidentally.
"Fuck!" both yelled in sync, holding their foreheads. It certainly did hurt and was making their vision blurry as they hit their heads against the back of the metal seats next, upside down. They'd be flopping all over the place if it hadn't been for the tight-fitting seatbelt and metal bar across their laps again. James' feet were pressed firmly against the metal floor of the closed in seat, holding the grate instead of the overhead bar while Aleks held the bar in his lap again, trying to hold his head against the back of the seat but that only resulted in him hitting his head twice as hard when the seat twisted and bounced him forwards and backwards. He was getting hurt more than James, but James was more emotionally unstable.
"Aleks, I fucking want off this thing!" he said, voice shaky. He was going into a panic attack, one-time claustrophobia kicking in. "Aleks!"
"I know, I know, I know, just calm down. Hold on to something." Aleks responded, though James' yelling sounded a bit far away. He must have hit his head pretty damn hard, and the pain was settling in fast now, pulsating. He wanted off, too. Now.
Half realizing and half not realizing what he was doing, James responded to Aleks' suggestion by grabbing what was closest to him, and that happened to be Aleks' hand that was gripping the bar. He was squeezing so tight that it forced Aleks to let go of the bar, and the two just decided to ignore what was actually happening and continue tightly holding hands until the violent spinning came to an end. The door was lifted before they could let go of each other, but that wasn't a bad thing. They each needed each other's balance to get off the damned thing. Like a few others, they walked like they were drunk when they were standing up again, trying to quickly escape from the beast of a ride that put James into a panic attack and gave them each killer headaches in seconds.
Finally getting out of the area of the Zipper and sweating their asses off from stress and pain, they walked each other over to a bench and sat down. Aleks unzipped his jacket and James unbuttoned his own and they both pulled them off, letting the cold November air hit their bare arms like Winter-borne mosquitoes poking into their flesh. They rested there for what seemed like hours, regaining their strength and trying to steady themselves out to stand up and cope normally again without falling or feeling the sharp pains of a headache hitting them from within.
"That was wild." James said after awhile.
"You think? I fucking hit my head a dozen times on that thing." Aleks replied, looking at the elder.
"Yeah, me too. I started fuckin' panicking in there, man."
"I noticed - you calmed down pretty quick, though."
"Yeah," James said, getting back to his normal self as he chuckled for the millionth time that day. "I held your hand and I felt okay."
"Good thing that wasn't filmed. We'd have people losing their minds over this shit with our ship 'n all."
"Oh yeah, we have a ship! Jaleks, was it?"
"Nah, man, it was, uh... NovaHD."
"NovaHD." James repeatedly softly, staring at the ground, briefly lost in thought. "Nice. So do you wanna go on something else or what?"
"Fuck that." Aleks smiled. "Head hurts too much. I say we leave."
"Aw, already?"
James sounded like a little kid, voice rising into a higher octave as he gave Aleks puppy eyes. Meanwhile, Aleks tried to ignore him and pulled the oversized leather jacket back onto his body, wrapping it tightly around him and hugging himself. James copied him and put his own coat back on, leaving it unbuttoned and stood up with Aleks.
"Let's at least get something to eat and maybe watch a show or shit before we go."
"But it's cold..." Aleks sounded like the kid now, complaining about the shivers up his spine while he'd pout and hope that he got his way.
"Let me hold your hand again, then. Mine are hot, so they'll warm you up a bit." James said, reaching for Aleks' hand again, which was tucked tightly beneath his arm.
"You're not holding my fuckin' hand, James! Get off!"
Aleks' frustration and resiliance didn't hold up long, however, as people noticed them and Aleks stopped fighting, letting James grab his arm. He pulled Aleks' sleeve up to his wrist and grabbed his hand. Sure enough, the heat radiated from it and shot through Aleks' hand and up his arm, heatwaves comforting him. It was weird, and it may have been his headache and lost train of thought talking, but he decided it was better to be warm and a little uncomfortable with stares than freeze to death and walk alone in a confusing crowded place.
The two held hands, walking closely in an attempt to hide it. Aleks' sleeves came in handy now, covering their hands while they walked. To anybody who wasn't directly in front of them, they'd just think they were walking real close. The sleeve hid their hand-holding shenanigans and as they made their way to a food booth for something hot to eat or drink while they watched a derby race, Aleks smiled alongside James. The coat was alright, and this trip to the fair with his friend wasn't so bad after all. It pays to be grateful.