I rushed after her, with Rose at my side, swearing at me in Spanish and holding her stomach. I couldn’t stop laughing. Faith had done amazing. They both had. This was so much fun.
Outside the exit, I found Faith gasping.
“This idea . . .” she inhaled deeply, “was stupid.” She placed her hands on her knees. “I think I peed my pants. I need to sit down, and someone needs to get me chocolate.”
Rose gagged. “If I smell more sugar tonight, I’ll throw up.”
“No, seriously, guys,” Faith said, leaning over. “I need to sit down. Now.” She pointed to some hay bales lining the outskirts of the fair. We crossed behind her. She plopped down and put her head between her knees. I sat beside her, bumping her with my shoulder.
“You did amazing. Wasn’t that exciting?”
“No! It was torture.” Faith’s hands were shaking.
“Torture? Come on, it was an adventure.”
Faith leaned back, looking at the stars and taking deep, slow breaths. “I’m not looking for adventure, Marissa. I’m not like you.”
My stomach tightened. Maybe I had pushed her too hard.
“Mar talks big about going on adventures.” Rose stayed standing and eyed the hay bale, unsure if she should sit and risk getting her pants dirty. “Not that she knows yet.”
I felt a stab in my chest. Were we going to talk about my lack of chasing my dreams again? “Look if this is about London?—”
“It’s not.” Rose’s glare softened. “Promise.” She looked around the fair. “I’m referring to the fact that it’s your turn for a challenge tonight.”
“Right. Challenge. Fair.” I sighed and looked around thegrounds. It was full of kids in costumes and the smell of chocolate and pumpkins.
I had always planned to visit London. I had been saving for years, saying I would go. But I never did.
London was where my parents went on their honeymoon. I loved the pictures of Mom with her bright smile and Dad’s stupid goofy grin in the jean jacket I now wore. It seemed like a fairytale. A different life, a simpler one. We were all going to go for a summer after I graduated high school. I applied for my passport for my seventeenth birthday, received it, but still no stamps. It never felt like the right time. Besides, I had been talking about it for so long, what if it wasn’t what I expected? What if it didn’t fix me? I tugged on my undershirt, making sure it covered my scars.
Plus, I needed to help take care of Nan now. It couldn’t have been easy to raise a teenager in her seventies. I owed it to my parents and to Nan.
Faith leaned next to me, her fire gone. “It’ll happen Marissa. I know it. Let’s put it out in the universe that you are going to London this next year. I believe it will work out. Fate.”
I chuckled. “Sure, Faith, put in that order for me.”
Fate. Only someone as pure as Faith would believe in Fate.
“Enough with all that Fate garbage.” Rose put her hands on her hips. “It’s your challenge now, Mar.”
I looked around the festival and tried to imagine the worst potential challenge my friends could come up with. After what I had put them through, this adventure was likely to bite me in the backside, and soon.
Rose stood up on a nearby hay bale and leaned to the left, taking in her surroundings. She grinned, showing her perfect white teeth like a wolf that targeted its prey.
“Found it,” she added in a singsong voice, gesturing to the crowd of women behind food truck vendors in the middle of the fairgrounds. They were cheering at something, and they ranged from their twenties to their eighties.
My stomach dropped, and I felt a spike of adrenaline. “What is it?”
Faith jumped up on the hay bale next to Rose, peering around the trucks, and giggled. “Yes, this is perfect!”
“Wait, what?” I tried to imagine the worst thing I could. Maybe pig wrestling or kissing a cow? What if it was a talent show or singing karaoke?
I scrambled up next to them, and stood on my tippy toes, and leaned as far as I could to peer around the food trucks. My breath caught in my throat.
Nope. This was so much worse. I would happily kiss a cow, and that’s saying something.
Men were lined up on a low platform trailer with numbers pinned to their chests. The butcher paper sign along the bottom read "Blind Date Raffle—Save the Animal Shelter" in bright red lettering.
