Is he waiting on the other side? Or closer to the entrance? Or did he realize what a freak show I am and leave?
Prying the red velvet open, my eyes fling up his height, settling on the black and white clown face waiting for me, and juvenile giddiness sifts up my chest.
His attention starts to slip down to my outfit change, but he swiftly cuts back up to my eyes, cracking a slow grin that shows his front teeth. “Why did your eyes light up when you saw me waiting for you? Did you think I’d leave you?”
“Oh, what? No. No way,” I shrug irreverently, and scoot around him.
His cologne stretches through the air. It’s fresh and sweet, with a light spice that spreads through my lungs and spins my head like helium.
I promise I’ve never felt like this toward him. Or let him have this effect on me. It’s all hitting me today after what Ora said and it’s trying to trick me into being okay with the chains tying me to this place.
I catch myself looking back at him following me, and the prowl in his eyes while keeping a few feet between us twists every fiber in my body, luring my mind back to those salacious thoughts that free me.
“Bunny, Bunny, Bunny! How are you, honey?” Gwen sings, her southern drawl lassoing my focus away from the sinful entanglement I’m beginning to be wound in.
The colorful lights from games strobe off her hair that’s as ivory as her skin, which gets smashed right to my face as she hooks her arms around my shoulders and slams our bodies together.
“Mm-mm-mm! Tutti Frutti, you make me juicy!” she shimmies, her nails scraping down my spine.
An awkward laugh flames my face, giving her a tense hug back.
“Babe,” Duse sighs, weaseling her hand between us and shooting her eyes to mine. “Sorry, Bun. Found her sipping on tequila. You know how she gets with that stuff.”
“It’s okay,” I giggle, slipping away from Gwen’s relaxing noose. “We should probably get her home before Carl sees.”
“Yeah,” Duse huffs, her brown lip gloss glistening with her wary scan as she pulls Gwen close to her. “I haven’t seen him since this afternoon. Which is odd. He’s always watching us.”
Now that I think of it… I haven’t seen him either.
He usually makes his presence known mid performance to try and mess me up. But he’s not here right now. I don’t have a lingering sting of him. So, I force him out of my head and set my eyes straight.
Duse is drastically taller than Gwen. It’s candy on the soul to see her cage her arms around her, as her protector. And even though she’s frustrated about her slipping liquor, the adoration in her eyes when she looks at her and pulls her along sparks hope that this isn’t the end of the line for me.
They found love in an arsenic place.
I follow behind them, tucking my hands in my back pockets and looking around at the smiles that come here for enjoyment and selfies.
“Juicy,” Razor taunts, casting a devilish smirk down at me from my side.
The laugh rushing out of me has my head shaking. I almost fall back down the rabbit hole of scanning the thrill seekers to feed the envy within me. But I catch it. And I look back up at him still looking at me. And I attach myself to the present moment.
“How was your night?” I ask him, trying to deter my mind from going to the evil place.
He smiles, loading his hands into the front pockets of his cargo pants. “Do you want me to lie? Or do you want me to be honest?”
I frown. “Why would you lie?”
Shrugging, he takes in our surroundings, like he’s using vigilance to consider what he’s about to say. “Because sometimes things are better left unsaid.” He looks down at me, his all-black attire doused in the orange lights of the Ferris wheel. “Don’t you agree?”
I can’t really argue and declare honesty as the best policy. I’m constantly lying to everyone and hiding how I really feel or what actually happened.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I reply quietly.
“I got me… a… bunny!”
Before I can snap my head over my shoulder to Xene’s unhinged behavior, his arms are coming around my waist and I’m getting lifted off my feet.
No matter how often they treat me like a little kid, putting me on display in the air while singingCherry Pieout of sync will always blister me with embarrassment and make me lock up in a ball and cover my face.
