The shriek of riders and the whir of machinery filled the air. Blinking lights, spinning rides, cotton candy, flashing signs, and a sea of laughing faces.
Julian stood in the middle of the chaos, the smell of popcorn filling his senses the moment he walked through the entrance.
His eyes darted from one ride to another in a daze; the screams and screeches from young girls and children made his ears ring.
"What is this place?" He spotted a look of horror.
Alex's laugh rang melodiously through the hustle and bustle of the place. She walked backwards while facing him and stretched her arms wide. "What? You haven't been to an amusement park before?"
"I don't know," Julian muttered, "But I highly doubt it. This is what you meant by exciting?" His brows were slightly drawn as he scanned the park, his eyes flitting from a rollercoaster speeding overhead to a child dragging a balloon twice himself. In the distance, he could swear he saw someone's puke falling from the sky. "It's... a lot."
He huffed as she dragged him along. In her hands were a bunch of tickets for the so-called rides.
"When I asked to go out, this was not what I meant." He said warily.
"Are you scared?" Alex wiggled her brows, to which he rolled her eyes. "Come on. It will be fun."
Before he could protest, she grabbed his wrist and tugged him toward a spinning ride that looked like a deathtrap. He tried to resist, but she was already handing over the tickets.
"Is this safe?" Jullian asked, cross checking his strap multiple times to ensure he wouldn't fly off the damn machine.
"Well, no one has fallen from it… yet," Alex answered.
"What do you mean, yet?"
Alex shrugged as the rollercoaster started. She enjoyed his panicked face as they started to speed up. Very soon, everyone on the ride was screaming. Alex particularly raised her hands into the air, hair fluttering in the wind as she yelled in excitement.
It had been a long time since she unwinded like this. It was refreshing.
Ten minutes and a screaming, twisting blur later, Julian stumbled off the ride with his hair windswept and his dignity half gone. While Alex came down giddy and smiling.
She laughed. "You look like you saw God."
"I think I saw death," he muttered, running a hand through his hair to salvage his appearance. "That was terrible."
"You're gonna get used to it."
Alex reassured him as she dragged him to another ride.
Even as he groaned, Julian caught himself genuinely smiling. This place evoked a strange feeling from him. It was like rediscovering a part of himself he didn't know he had lost.
With time, Julian got used to it and even started enjoying himself. They wandered around the park, trying sweet slushies and baked snacks. Alex won a stuffed dinosaur at a rigged game booth after accusing the attendant of cheating.
And Julian realised he was very good at shooting guns and arrows as he won stuffed bunnies for the kids around. He became everyone's favorite very fast.
As they walked around the park, they bickered over who walked the fastest, who had a better taste in snacks, which surprisingly Julian won after naming a bunch of expensive shit that tasted good.
And then, they walked past a photo booth.
Julian suggested. "Let's take a picture." he nudged her toward the booth.
Alex turned to him, brow raised in question.
"I want to have something of you," he said, voice quieter now. "In case I get my memories back and leave."
Alex glanced at the booth, and a flicker of sadness crossed her face, but it vanished just as fast. She scoffed lightly, masking it behind a smirk. "Okay. Since you want to be all sappy about it."
Julian rolled his eyes, but the corners of his mouth twitched as he followed her inside.
The booth was small and cramped, with barely enough space to fit two adults. Their knees bumped as they sat, and when Alex reached for the screen, her arm brushed against his chest.
She paused long enough to notice how close he was. How steady his eyes were on her.
He didn't move.
Neither did she.
The tension between them, that they've been ignoring, crackled.
"Are you going to press it?" He asked in a low voice.
She blinked. "Right. Yeah."
The screen lit up: Photo in 3... 2... 1...
They both jerked back to reality, posing just in time for the first flash.
The next few pictures were chaos. Alex laughing, Julian pretending to look bored, both of them bumping their heads into one frame. In the last photo, without thinking, she leaned her head on his shoulder.
The flash went off before either of them could pull away.
When the pictures printed, she stared at them in her hand, a small smile forming.
"We look nice."
"We do." Julian agreed, gazing at her softly.
He took the photo strip, neatly tearing it in half and handing her one side. The other half he folded and tucked into the pocket of his trousers.
"You can look at them when you miss me." He added, the corner of his mouth curling smugly.
Alex rolled her eyes, but tucked the photos carefully into her bag. "Let's go."
As they stepped out of the booth and rejoined the crowd, Alex pointed toward a creepy building at the far end of the park. "I want to go to the haunted house next."
Julian raised a brow, lips twitching. "Trying to find an excuse to cling to me, aren't you?"
"You wish." Alex scoffed as they approached the haunted house.