Chapter Ten #2
Before Parker can confirm or deny whether the ride in question goes upside down, Isaac returns, carrying a huge cup of fries.
He draws to a slow stop in front of the bench, his eyes flickering between Zach and Parker.
Zach’s nose stings at the sharp smell of the vinegar.
He remembers Isaac’s earlier outburst over Parker, and his stomach starts to twist up in knots.
Is this about to be a problem? His emergency Ativan is in his backpack, which he left in the back of Isaac’s car.
Zach looks down at his hands, picking at one of the edges of his wristband.
“Hey,” Parker says, looking up at Isaac and brushing the hair out of his face.
“Hey…” Isaac replies, dragging out the exhale on the H. “Parker.”
“Isaac, right?” Parker asks. He starts jiggling both his knees. “We have Physics together.”
“I have literally never seen you in Physics,” Isaac answers.
“Yeah,” Parker agrees. They stare at each other for a long moment. Zach does his best not to freak out.
“Well…” Isaac sits on the opposite side of Zach and holds out the fries over his lap. “Want some?”
Parker and Isaac share the fries while Zach holds the cup for them.
He doesn’t like vinegar fries, but he’s not really all that hungry anyway.
He’s too focused on Isaac and Parker and whether this whole thing is about to explode in his face.
Isaac’s earlier jealousy seems to have abated, maybe because once you actually sit down and talk to Parker, it’s easy to see that he’s just…
a boy. He’s intense and sometimes Zach is terrified of him, but as he watches him suck vinegar off his thumb, Zach is very aware that Parker is just a boy.
When they’re done with the fries, they toss the sticky, empty cup into a nearby garbage can and start walking through the fairgrounds.
This time, Parker leads the way, with his long legs and intimidating height.
Isaac gets kind of jumpy and eager as he talks and Zach wonders if he thinks Parker is cool, or something.
“This one,” Parker says, wheeling to a stop in front of the Zipper, which does, in fact, go upside down. The cages rattle loudly as the ride whips the riders head over heels.
“I’ll throw up,” Zach says. He’s starting to get dizzy just looking at it.
“I’ll go,” Isaac offers. Zach stands by the exit, resting his hands on the fence as he watches them get loaded onto the ride.
When the ride starts, Zach looks around.
The fairgrounds are busy, packed with families and couples and friends.
And Zach realizes that tonight, he’s part of that.
He’s here with his… friends? Isaac is arguably his friend—at least, most of the time—but Zach doesn’t really know what Parker is.
Parker may be his friend. They haven’t clarified that part yet.
Asking would be embarrassing, so he puts it out of his mind.
“Hi, Zach.”
Zach looks around, surprised at the sound of anyone calling his name.
Bea Unigwe is standing at his elbow. He hasn’t really talked to Bea since the day she helped him up in the cafeteria.
They’ve been in a few classes together every year since first grade.
He doesn’t know much about her, other than that she’s a powerhouse for the student theater every year.
She has her thick, coily hair pulled back slick off her face, pinned into a dark, elaborate star-burst at the back of her head.
“Hi, Bea,” Zach says, raising his brows.
Bea smiles, leaning against the fence next to him. “I saw you hanging out with Parker,” she says, glancing up at the ride. “I’m here with my cousins, but they’re all a few years older so they went into the beer tent.”
“Oh,” Zach says, turning toward her a little more. “Um, yeah. I’m here with Isaac. Parker kind of tagged along.” He’s not sure why he’s downplaying hanging out with Parker. Bea doesn’t seem like the type to judge him.
“The way Paige tells it, Parker doesn’t really have many friends. I just mean… He’s always so…” Bea pauses, like she’s trying to find a kind word. “Solitary. I think it’s nice that you’re hanging out with him.”
“It’s not, like, charity or anything,” Zach says. He frowns, not wanting Bea to get the wrong impression. “He’s kind of cool.”
“We were paired up for a group project our freshman year in social studies,” Bea says, tapping her long fingers against the fence. “I don’t remember him participating.”
That sounds like Parker. “He’s… I think he’s got a lot on his mind,” Zach says, trying to be generous.
“Anyway,” Bea keeps going. “I still think it’s nice. People don’t really give him a chance.”
Zach nods. “Um, yeah, he… he’s not as scary as everyone thinks.”
“I don’t think he’s scary,” Bea says, lifting her chin.
The ride churns to a stop and Isaac and Parker stumble off. Isaac is laughing loudly and Parker’s hair is all mussed up. Zach watches as he pushes it back out of his face, tucking it behind his ears.
“That was crazy,” Isaac says, pushing through the exit turnstile. “Oh. Hi, Bea.”
“Hey,” Bea says. “My cousins are in the beer tent.”
“Can they get us beer?” Parker asks, leaning one elbow on Isaac’s shoulder as he gets his feet back under him. Bea wrinkles her nose disapprovingly. Parker makes an exaggerated What? sort of face.
“You can hang out with us,” Zach offers quietly, because it seems like Bea wants to ask but won’t.
He knows how that feels. There’s been a million times throughout his short seventeen years that he wished someone would invite him without him having to ask.
The soft look that illuminates Bea’s face is worth it.
“Yeah, we need adult supervision,” Isaac says and Bea smiles.
Zach doesn’t want to ride any of the rides, but when they get to the Tilt-A-Whirl, he’s immediately outnumbered.
Even Bea wants to get on. It doesn’t go upside down but Zach’s not sure if being swung around in tilting circles is much better.
His hands are shaking as he climbs up the steps onto the platform.
Each bucket seats three, but Parker stops Isaac before he can climb in with them.
“You go with Bea,” Parker says, shoving Isaac away but not in, like, a mean way. In a way that Zach has seen other boys do—that rowdy, playful kind of shoving that Zach has never been particularly fond of. “So she doesn’t have to ride by herself.”
Zach grips the metal bar across his lap as Parker climbs into the seat beside him. The bucket swings a little as their weight settles and Zach’s stomach swoops through his toes. “I don’t like this,” he wheezes.
“It’s fun,” Parker assures. He’s not holding onto the bar.
“Are you going to go flying out?” Zach squeaks.
“I dunno,” Parker says, laughing loudly as the ride lurches to life. He lifts his hands up in the air as their seats swing freely. Zach yells, reaching across the space between them to grab at Parker’s arms.
“Stop, stop that—”
The ride doesn’t really go all that fast but Zach squeezes his eyes shut for the majority of it anyway.
Their bucket swings back and forth over the platform, which rises and falls in a series of hills.
Sometimes they go spinning in entire circles.
Beside him, Parker whoops and yells and a few feet away Zach can hear Bea shrieking with laughter.
The whole thing lasts maybe three minutes, but it feels like a full hour before the ride comes to a slow, clunky stop.
Their bucket keeps swinging a little as they climb out and Zach almost face-plants right onto the metal platform.
Parker grabs him by the arm, yanking him upright just in time.
When Zach gets back onto solid ground, he’s a little dizzy but the adrenaline rush feels kind of good.
Maybe it’s because Bea and Isaac are laughing and grinning from ear to ear, or because Parker looks pleased, or maybe because tonight he’ll get to tell his mom that he really, genuinely had a good time at the carnival.
Tonight, he’s not thinking about how to keep Parker alive.
Zach allows himself to be bullied onto more rides.
The Ferris wheel is far too tall for his liking but he sits next to Bea in the large bucket seat, with Parker and Isaac across from them.
Parker and Isaac break off to get in line for one of the pendulum rides that swings all the way upside down.
Bea and Zach opt for the carousel while they wait.
Well, Bea opts for it and Zach doesn’t want to make her go alone, so he climbs onto one of the stiff, wooden horses next to all of the moms holding their toddlers.
When the four of them meet up again, Zach follows Parker and Isaac to the Scrambler, which looks even worse than the Tilt-A-Whirl.
They’re split up into two seats on the same arm of the ride and when it starts up, the force pushes Zach all the way into Parker’s side.
He squeezes his eyes shut but with each dizzying spin, he can hear everyone’s screaming laughter.
Zach stumbles off the ride and clings to the outside fence as he struggles to get his vision to stop spinning. Beside him, Bea bends over with her hands on her knees, groaning and laughing in equal measures. Parker and Isaac don’t seem phased at all.
“I want ice cream,” Parker says. This derails their beeline for the next ride, which Zach is thankful for. He’s starting to get nauseous from all the spinning. They check each of the food vendors, but none of them are selling ice cream.
“What kind of carnival is this?” Isaac gripes.
“There’s a Baskin-Robbins up the road,” Bea says.
Zach is carefully encouraging, mostly keen to avoid more rides. “Baskin-Robbins sounds fun,” he says.
They make their way back through the fairgrounds, Parker once more leading the charge.
The sun has started to sink below the horizon, making the sky glow orange and the shadows grow long.
Zach has a moment of weird clarity, almost like he’s looking at himself from the outside: He is at a carnival with friends, and they are going to get ice cream.