"I'd love to," I assured her, checking my watch. I had to work on my art assignment later that afternoon, "I have to go. I promise to come back."
"Me too, aunty Sakala. You make the best ice cream in all of Paris." Fabian complimented, and she smiled. soon after, we were on our way.
"Is that a carousel?" I asked, taking notice of the fair that was happening across the street, "Fabian, we have to go!"
"I thought you said you had a project to work on?" Fabian asked, but I pulled his hand and begun walking towards the fair,
“I need inspiration too!” I insisted with a playful grin,
"You need a break from anything artsy anyways." He laughed.
We paid the man standing by the Carousel, who we assumed was in charge of everything, and Fabian helped me onto the Pretty plastic pink horse. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, with sharp engravings and a paint job that looked like it would never fade. The second the carousel started moving, I lifted my hands up in the air and tilted my head back to feel the fall breeze. It had been a long time since I felt this… well... free.
Fabian was on the blue horse in front of me, looking back at me with this dazed look in his eyes. We laughed and laughed until we felt like we couldn't bear to do so anymore. Then, just as the sun begun to set in the sky, we finally begun our walk back to campus.
"I'd hoped that'd make you feel better. You've been in a mood all day." Fabian teased, nudging me with his elbow, "What's that about anyway?"
"Do you want an honest answer or a simple one?" I offered, recalling everything that happened.
"We can't build a friendship on simple answers, now can we?" He encouraged me, and I decided it was best to just be honest with him,
"River is um...complicated," I murmured, and Fabian rolled his pretty brown eyes,
"Tell me something I don't know, care to clarify?" He asked, and I did just that,
"I feel like there's this huge wall between us like he's telling me everything and yet nothing at the same time. He's impossible to read." I sighed, confiding in him,
"Are you guys friends now?" Fabian asked as we turn onto the next street,
"I don't know what we are, Fabes. When I'm with River, I feel like I don't know anything." I fumed,
“What?” He gasped dramatically, “He has no place making the smartest girl in the world feel like she doesn’t know anything.”
“Come on, Fabes, don’t make me laugh. I’m being serious,” I warned with a weak smile, shoving his shoulder.
"He wasn't always like that, you know?" Fabian recalled, a reminiscent look in his eyes,
"So I'm told..." I dismissed, “But why did I have to get the polluted River?”
“Polluted?” Fabian laughed, hunching over,
“Yeah, everyone else got to know the clean version!”
"I know it's frustrating, Armani, believe me, but we made a pact as friends not to talk about Jace and to be honest with you, I'm starting to think it's doing more harm than good." He confessed with a scoff,
"Then talk to me, Fabes. You can trust me. If River and I are ever going to move forward, I have to know what happened." I insisted, for the first time ever, Iinsistedon nothing but the truth.
"You can't tell the others I told you. They won't like that, okay?" He cautioned, and I nodded in agreement.
"Jace Monet was, in my opinion, the last of the genuinely good, the last of people with good hearts and intentions, and because of that, everyone was drawn to him. He was so easy to know and talk to. Everyone swore he was like their best friend after one conversation. Not to mention he was a great artist— fantastic even, the only one until you who could challenge River." Fabian explained, “Artistically that is.”
“But he was only you guys’ best friend, right?” I asked,
“Yeah, we definitely like to think of it that way, but with Jace, you could never know.” He perplexed,
"Tell me about his relationship with River," I suggested, getting straight to the point, and he nodded in agreement.
"From what I know, River and he had been best friends since they were kids, family friends. They grew up together and were inseparable since, when we met them, they were always in sync. I don't know; I can't quite find the words to describe it in English, but they held our group together. They were the balance." Fabian spoke, looking up at the sky, then paused. “Have you ever stacked up a pile of cards?”
