Time before 12

Despite the dramatic outburst, we still had 3 hours before it was 12, and we obviously didn't want to just sit around on our phones waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive.

"Come on, grab my hand. The people love that." King said as we stepped out into a crowd of people. Some of them, I noticed, saw us and took out their phone.

"It's only 9, what are we supposed to do until 12?" I asked, dodging multiple strangers and waving hi to a little girl looking at me.

"People also love when I make out-"

"Ew! You probably have gingivitis! How many girls have you kissed?" I asked, tempted to shake his hand off of mine.

"On the lips? None. On the cheek? Plenty." He tugged his hand, pulling me closer to his side.

"I'm still calling gingivitis," I mumbled as he intertwined our fingers.

"What are you doing?" I asked, looking down at what he'd created.

"We aren't Kindergarteners. We don't have to hold hands like that." He reasoned.

"True," I said.

"Alright, other than making out, what should we do?" He asked.

"Build-A-Bear workshop," I pointed out excitedly.

"Really?" He asked, shock evident in his voice.

"Yea, I can't stay away from fluffy, adorable things," I said, dragging King in with me.

"I should see if they could turn me into a bear." I heard King mutter. I rolled my eyes. I wonder what happened between when we arrived and now to bring out this playful King. Whatever it was, I'd give anything to make it stay. I liked this King far better.

"Oh, my, sweet momma baby Jesus!" I stared at a hedgehog with the sign 'exclusive' hung beside it.

"Your who-"

"Shut your crap whole, I want it." I pointed at the hedgehog and a staff member came up to me.

And that's the day I told King to shut his crap whole, hugged him breathless, and got a new furry friend.

"God, I've never been jealous of a stuffed animal before," King mumbled, gripping the hand he still had tighter.

"His name is Remmy," I said, pushing Remmy over to one side of me to protect him from King.

"His name is Enemy," King grunted.

"Look, Em, don't you want to go jewelry shopping? I can hold Enemy-"

"Oh, lord, look at that carousel." I stopped in my tracks and had to take a breath. I know I'm too old for it, but dang, it looked mesmerizing.

"You wanna go?" King asked and I nodded.

"Only if I get to ride behind you," King said.

"Yea, you can ride behind me all you want," I said, feeling like I'd squeeze the stuffing out of Remmy any second now.

"Great, come on." He led us to an ATM that he took money from using his black credit card. Then he led me to the slot thingy that produced coins for the ride.

"How'd you know to do all that?" I asked as we got in line. It seemed like every child and their mom was skipping school today because of how long it was.

"Girls liked it a lot when I was 8, I memorized the steps to get on." King shrugged and the line of customers shrank and we were able to get in.

I picked a pretty purple unicorn and got myself situated, and once I did, I felt it move, I thought the ride was starting but when I felt a pair of arms hugging my stomach, I knew better.

"King?!" I turned slightly to see his face and that long afro.

"Hm?" He asked.

"What are you doing?!" I whisper-shouted.

"Riding behind you." He said, as if him pressed against me on a carnival ride was something normal.

"I didn't mean like this." I sighed, and I thought I was being childish.

"Chill, the press will eat this up. Mom and dad will love you." He said.

"And how would you know, do the same thing with Clara?" I snapped, by accident, of course.

"Jealous, aren't we? No, she and I went on a date at a nice restaurant. We didn't touch much, but since it was still an official date, the public loved it." King said as the ride slowly came to life.

The many things on the carousel bounced up and down, slowly and delightfully.

"Was there someone back at home, before you came here that you liked?" King asked me in an almost whisper.

'Aiden' I felt my eyes grow wide and my heart clench.

"Yes, his name was Aiden," I said. It was really starting to hit me how much I missed home now, and it'd only been a day.

"Was he your…?" King obviously didn't want to say it but I knew what he meant.

"No, he was just a crush. But- oh hold on." I felt my phone buzz and I picked it out of my pocket.

[Girl, Aiden is in a daze today. Seems so distant, I think he might've had a crush on you! We told you!] One of my friends texted me.

"Omg," I whispered.

"What happened?" King sounded concerned.

"Lia said Aiden seems distant today!" I read it again to make sure I read it right.

"Oh…...kay?" He said.

"Nothing, she just sent me a really cute dog pic with it." I lied, hoping he wouldn't want to see the picture.

"Oh, okay." He sounded like he was less confused now.

The ride started to slow down and I put my phone up.

"That was nice," I said, hopping down.

"Where'd you put our stuff?" I asked, walking to the exit.

"He has it." King pointed to a guy standing by the trash can.

"King! You can't have random people holding our stuff!" I said rushing over to the man.

"It's cool, he's my underdressed bodyguard. Didn't you notice him following us around?" He asked, grabbing our stuff back.

"No," I admitted, looking him over. He did seem pretty buff.

"Well, come on. It's 11:45 now, we gotta get to Chick-Fil-A or Kayla will have us cremated." He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along.

We made it to Chick-Fil-A at 11:58 but everyone else was already there.

"There they are!" Olli said, pointing to us.

"Yea, my bad, we lost track of time," King said, letting go of my hand.

"Whatever, let's go, I'm starving," Nia said, clutching her stomach as if something was actually hurting her.

"Alright, everyone wants nuggets, right?" Kayla asked to receive her incoherent positive answers.

"How much do we get though?" She asked, we were still in line so we had some time to think.

"Everybody wants 15 nuggets, right? Why don't we get 4 30 pieces and split them? 30*4=120/8=15." I said. Everybody looked at me like I started speaking German.

"Omg, Em's a genius! King you gotta keep her!" Kayla said.

"I'm not making her leave, I'm not making her stay," King said.