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It smelled like popcorn and funnel cakes, it was loud, there were so many lights it hurt his eyes. Neil almost wanted to leave but at the same time he had never gotten to experience a fair before and Andrew hadn’t fought Neil when he brought up the idea to him, which Nicky said was a miracle since fairs were usually too much for him, Neil could see why, but he didn’t want to waste this chance.
There were so many things he didn’t even know where to start, he looked to Andrew for direction, who, upon the stare looked vaguely intrigued and annoyed at the same time all while keeping a completely blank face. It truly was amazing, Neil thought, that he could pull something like that off. Having so much emotion while also seeming to have none. It was like a secret art form.
Andrew turned his head and slowly panned around scanning for something. His head stopped at something Neil couldn’t see and he began to walk, Neil followed. It was a shooting game. You shoot water at a target and if you get the bullseye it will fill a balloon with water and you were supposed to keep doing that until the balloon got heavy enough to make the target fall over. Honestly it was stupid and impractical which bothered Neil a bit, but then is that not what fairs were meant to be? Stupid and impractical.
Neil sighed and walked up beside Andrew who was handing the guy behind the worn bright red counter a few dollars.
“How does this work?” Neil asked, looking at the gun as if it were a particularly hard math problem.
“You grab the handle, put your finger on the trigger, aim, and fire.” Andrew sounded slightly amused, whether at Neil or himself, however, Neil couldn’t tell.
“Wow, thanks Andrew.” Neil said sarcastically.
Andrew only hummed as he grabbed hold of the over sized water gun in front of him. Neil watched him for long enough to see his first shot, Andrew missed, so Neil concluded that he wouldn’t embarrass himself too badly. Neil wasn’t good with guns, a lesson he learned when Lola had decided she was bored and wanted to try something new.
As expected Neil missed almost every shot. Andrew did too but he did considerably better than Neil had.
“You choose now,” Andrew gestured to the whole park and Neil felt overwhelmed all over again.
“Umm…” Neil’s eyes finally fell on the giant ferris wheel in the middle of the park. He thought for a moment before he spoke, he hadn’t forgotten Andrew's fear of heights, but Andrew also spent a fair amount of time on the roof and he’d been on a plane before which was most definitely higher than this. He looked at Andrew, who was looking at him with an expression Neil couldn’t read, then he let his eyes wander back to the ferris wheel, and decided it was worth a try. “What about that?” He said, nodded slightly in its direction.
Andrew looked from Neil to the wheel, clenched his jaw and simply replied, “I hate you.” Before starting off towards it.
Neil stood for a moment staring at Andrew and wondering how he managed to pull that one off so easy. Andrew stopped at a food truck while he waited for Neil to catch up and exchanged money for two colorful plastic bags. It wasn’t until Neil did end up catching up that he noticed the bags weren’t colorful at all. They were thin and clear, it was the sweet cotton inside that was so pigmented.
“These,” Neil picked up a piece of the cotton candy and put it in his mouth. “Are most definitely not Kevin approved.”
“Fuck Kevin.” Andrew pulled a large chunk and shoved it into his mouth.
Neil laughed. Andrew looked at him with the slightest hint of amusement. Then they continued their progress to the ferris wheel.
“Two tickets each, please.” The usher looked thoroughly exhausted.
Neil and Andrew each handed him two of many of their tickets and he let them on. Neil hopped on and made room for Andrew on the bench. Andrew took only a second longer than Neil had to hop on. Andrew held his hands in his lap with the cotton candy bag in between them, Neil could tell by the way the bag crinkled that he was squeezing his hands, granted from where Neil was it didn’t look like he was squeezing very hard. The wheel began to move and they made their way up. Andrew’s control was truly amazing. The only signs that Neil could see that pointed to the fact that Andrew was afraid was his breaths picked up ever so slightly, Andrew had even managed to release his grip although now he was fidgeting with his fingers.
Neil put a hand to his back and Andrew lifted his eyes from his feet to Neil's eyes.
“It's okay, drew. We’ll be down soon.”
Andrew huffed at that, “And?”
Neil looked at Andrew amused and, Neil guessed out of spite, Andrew stopped looking at both his feet and Neil altogether and was now staring directly outside of the ferris wheel. He was doing fine just looking at the view, it was a pretty one, until they got to the top and Neil saw the second Andrew regretted looking down. His mask slipped for only a second but Neil saw. Andrew then trained his eyes on his cotton candy and ate it the rest of the ride.
They stayed off the rides after that, mostly playing games and eating the different treats the fair offered.
They went home with two strawberry funnel cakes, a half empty plate of cake pops, about thirty stuffed prizes from the games, and the lovely thought of Kevin's reaction to all the snacks and his reaction when they told him the rest of the things they ate.
All in all, Neil thought this date went pretty well.