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"I just like flannel"

"You and the entire hipster populace of Seattle," I say Jack smirks, and follows me to the car We drive in utter silence, but a not-weird silence, until the carnival tents and the tip of a neon-highlighted roller coaster coot the tickets," I say as I pull into the parking lot and we get out "So you get the honorable privilege of buying me all the food I want"

"All the food you want? Woh equivalent of a third-world country’s monthly intake"

"Does that make me fat or evil?"

"Both," He offers, and takes the ticket book I hand him He pauses under the archway into the carnival, the late-dusk sun hts on the ferris wheel and roller coaster and pharaoh boat beckon, the s with the dry, crisp smell of autumn leaves

"The last time I came to one of these ith Sophia," He finally says My heart turns into a ton of lead and lands like a weight on a cartoon character’s head, except the character’s head is o," I say quickly "We don’t have to do this I didn’t ers encircle rip, like Kieran’s It’s loose I could rip away if I wanted to, but I don’t want to

"I want to," Jack says, voice soft but steely as he o to this, with you"

I es, but I reue out and skip under the arch, leading the way

"Don’t say I didn’t warn you"

I , and a slurpee My tongue is blue and it hurts with all the pure sugary goodness of an exploding Peeps factory, and Jack says I’ll die and I tell hihs at o on the pharaoh and he looks like he’s going to shit hiet I put my ar out from our abdomens, and he swears brilliantly and throws his arh I don’t even need it because I already have the big black one over hts!" I breathlessly exclaie of a nearby trashcan

"I areen around the cheeks "I have a perfectly valid wariness of being suspended fifty feet above the ground in a wildly swinging pendulu it sympathetically "The only ould’ve died is if the center axel went loose Or if we all weighed four hundred pounds"

I pick up a cotton candy froru, you’ll be at four hundred in no tihtily and bite off a chunk of floss Jack’s smirk returns, and he leans in so close toslows around us, the lights blinking in half-time and people’s voices low and distorted, but he takes a bite of the floss and pulls aith it and time catches up I decide to punish hiroan, but follows dutifully

After he’s stopped al into yet another trash can, I take pity on hi, water balloon tossing, shooting ranges, this place has it all Jack strides after me

"Hey, slon," he says

"Your request has been carefully considered by the board of Me, and denied"