"What are you doing tonight?" I pressed the phone to my ear, scanning through my wardrobe to find something to wear tonight. I pulled out a khaki shirt and threw it on to my bed beside a pair of black jeans.

"Nothing. What do you have in mind?"

"There's a carnival downtown." I paused as I heard her let out a small squeal. "Do you want to go?"

"Yes!" She replied quickly. "Let me go ask my parents if I can go. One second!"

I listened as she ran downstairs to ask for permission. I turned my curlers on as I imagined what her home life might be like. Unfortunately I knew her sister but as for her parents I could only really imagine what they were like. She'd shown me a few pictures of them but that wasn't much to go on. I imagine her Mom being really warming and kind. As for her Dad I imagine Tori being a real daddy's girl and him being a total soft touch for his youngest daughter.

"They said yes! Oh can we get cotton candy? That's my favorite! Do you want to pick me up at six?"

I looked at the watch on my wrist. "Sure whatever. Make it half six. See you soon."

"Can't wait! I haven't been to a carnival in forever!" She beamed before I hung up.

I sat at my dresser and applied my make up to perfection; smoky eyes with winged eyeliner and to finish it off I had dyed my hair with fresh purple colored streaks.

"Are you going anywhere nice?" Mom stood in my doorway, her hands on the wooden door and a kind smile on her face.

"The carnival downtown. Is that okay?" I asked even though I was going to go whether she said yes or not.

"You always loved the carnival as a kid. Could never get you off the ghost train." She nodded. "You look beautiful."

I twirled around jokingly. "Thanks."

"Curfew is eleven remember?"

I pushed money and my phone into my pockets. "I know the rules."

"Doesn't mean you pay attention to them. I know your track record kid." She smirked at me as we headed down the stairs.

"It won't be late. The carnival closes at ten anyways." As I got to the front door I stopped to hug her quickly. "Promise."

Her face lit up as she let go of me. "Have fun."

…..

"Can you believe how busy it is? It's just a damn carnival." I sulked. We'd been driving around for half an hour trying to find a parking space within a mile of the carnival. The corny carnival music was now embedded in my mind and was playing on a continuous loop whether I could hear it or not and it was driving me nuts.

"Quick, over there!" Tori pointed to a small space a few feet in front of us.

"Thank god." I pulled in way quicker than I should have, stopping the car with a heavy break.

Tori, whose feet had been up on the dashboard painting her toenails jolted forward in her seat as I braked hard. She flashed me a quick scowl which I greeted with a sarcastic grin. "It's not that far either. We won't have to walk much."

It was early evening when we finally approached the carnival. It was full of life and everyone was laughing and smiling. The carnival was shining with all the bright lights gleaming and glinting in the evening sky. Every stall and ride was abuzz with excitement. There were queues around the main stalls, forming a snake shape so people could get past. The ground vibrated from the thumping of the rides, a myriad of sounds boom through the speakers; passers-by are sub-consciously moving away from speakers as if in a trance. The smell of all the different carnival foods mixed together to make a sickly sweet smell that stuck no matter where we were in the carnival. I hadn't been to the carnival since I was a kid and the whole atmosphere was bringing back memories I thought I had forgotten.

To the right of the carnival were the bumper cars; the sound of bangs when they hit each other and the screeching of the tyres echoing around the grounds. Walking further up, I could hear screams from the Ghost Train which was clearly being enjoyed by groups of teenage boys determined to frighten their petrified girlfriends. Something I knew I would be forcing Tori to do later on. Further on, the line for the helter-skelter was nearly out of the entrance booth as one by one a small girl or boy would come whizzing into view on the tatty, worn out rug that was then passed along to the next person in the line.

Over at the games section prizes were going once in a blue moon. Several people attempting to win anything they could on the classic carnival games. "Do you want to play a game?"

Tori nodded as she followed me to the shooting games. "They're all rigged though. You can never win any of them."

"Wanna bet?" I paid the guy on the game five dollars and picked the gun up, loaded it and shot it confidently right at the cans in front of me. Three wobbled and fell as two stayed firmly upright. "Two more and I win." I turned to her with a smug look on my face.

Tori smiled in approval. "Beginners luck. There's no way you'll knock anymore down. I heard they glue them to the stands so you can't hit them."

I cocked my studed eyebrow at her and shot two more shots, hitting both cans perfectly and knocking them over. They rattled around before falling and smacking against the floor.

Tori's mouth dropped open as the last can dropped. "What? How? It's literally impossible to win these games!" She managed in disbelief.

"I'm not just a pretty face, Tori." I smirked as a few people clapped at my victory.

"Congratulations Miss. Please pick a prize from above." The guy reluctantly said as he pointed to the teddy bears above him.

I scanned through the stuffed teddies my eyes landing on the perfect one. "I'll have that one please, right at the back."

I handed Tori the blue and white teddy bear straight away. "Here. I won it for you."

She scrunched her nose up as she read the teddy's t-shirt. "I hate everyone, but I hate you the least." Her eyes lit up as she chuckled. "This is very Jade West. Thank you though. I love it."

"I thought so." I turned around the face the carnival which was slowly becoming more and more packed with eager children and teenagers. "What ride do you want to go on first?"

"Something big!" She pushed the teddy into her backpack as she replied.

"Sounds good to me. How about the drop tower?"

She nodded her head as she took my hand and moved her way through the busy crowds to get to the ride.

"Where did you tell your parents you were going tonight then?" I shouted over the loud music.

"Here." She replied, holding her fingers in her ears as she shouted.

"With?" We were stood right by a speaker as we queued and I coul barely hear myself let alone Tori so I mimicked her and shouted back.

"With you!" She smiled and tapped my nose. "They know you're my friend."

My lips pulled into a cheeky smirk. "With benefits."

She elbowed me in the ribs as she giggled. "That's our secret." She pressed her finger to her nose as she tapped it a couple of times.

"Come on it's our go."

We got strapped in and immediately Tori gripped her hand onto mine. As we hurtled up into the sky above us I stopped to look at Tori as we got to the top of the ride. As usual she looked so beautiful. The bright lights from below reflected in her eyes as she looked around at the view. She pushed her hair behind her ear revealing her new silver hoop earrings I'd brought her earlier on. Just as she turned to face me with an excited smile on her face we dropped dramatically. Her smile remained as she screamed; her screams were almost as loud as the music surrounding us. We went up and dropped several more times before the ride ended. Even though the view at the top was incredible I couldn't take my eyes off Tori once.

"That was so fun." The smile on Tori's lips hadn't left even after we exited the ride. "You should have looked at the view though." She winked as her smile turned into a smirk.

I shrugged my shoulders casually. "Sorry for admiring my girlfriend."

"I can't believe we've only been together a few months. It feels like forever."

"Ugh, tell me about it." I teased.

She pushed at me. "Shut up." She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me into a warm hug. "I love you." She whispered quietly into my ear.

"Ditto." I kissed her cheek quickly before letting go of her. "Come on let's go on something else."

We made our way through the controlled chaos as we worked our way through the rides. We did as many rides as we could; from the tea cups to the biggest rollercoaster. We span as fast as we could on the tea cups, both of us had our hands positioned firmly on the center of the ride, pushing and pulling at it until we span so fast the world around us blurred into a mesh of bright colors and noisy sounds.

"Put your hands up!" I grabbed at Tori's arms as we hit the top of the old wooden rollercoaster, forcing her to raise her arms as we rode around the tracks. Both of us giggled wildly as Tori screamed with every drop and turn.

Tori felt brave as we span around on the Tilt-A-Whirl. Once again the world around us blurred and as we span faster and faster Tori lent in towards me and planted her lips on mine. She'd paused for a few seconds before moving in; she stared right at me with a seductive smirk on her face. Her tongue brushed across her top lip as her eyes moved from my eyes down to my lips and back up to meet my eyes again. It was a quick kiss, quick enough that only we knew it had happened yet it let out butterflies all over my stomach when her warm lips touched my own.

"I told you we could have fun without getting drunk or high." Tori smiled as we exited the ride.

"You sure seemed drunk to me on that ride."

She giggled innocently. "Drunk in love that's for sure."

I couldn't stop the massive eye roll at her as she spoke. "You're a loser." I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a side hug. "My loser though."

"What next?"

I stopped as we arrived at the Ferris wheel. "Isn't that your sister?" I pointed to a Latina girl a few people ahead of us and began looking between her and Tori to spot similarities.

"Jade, just because she's got brown hair and tanned skin does not mean-" She paused as the girl turned around and waved wildly at Tori. "Oh. Yeah, that's her." Her voice dropped.

"What's she doing here?" I hissed trying to ignore Trina.

"I don't know. She must have heard me say I was coming and asked her friends to go as well."

"I thought you said she didn't have any friends?"

"She doesn't." Tori whispered as her sister pushed her way through the crowd to reach us.

"Hey little sis! What are the odds we're both here right?" She wiggled her eyebrows up and down at us as she spoke.

"Why are you here, Trina?" Tori groaned at her big sister.

"I'm here on a date, Tori." She turned to point to a tall blonde guy who was holding her space in the queue with a fed up look on his face. "He's cute right."

"Right." Tori stifled a laugh as she clocked Trina's very bored date in front. "You totally heard me saying I was coming here though."

"So what? It's a big carnival I didn't know I'd bump into you did I?"

Tori screwed her lips up. "Hmm."

"Whatever. Who's this?" Trina turned and looked me up and down.

"My friend, Jade."

"Oh. Your friend…Jade." She winked at her little sister. "Well nice to meet you. See you at home Tor. Be a good girl." Trina pat her sister on the head and gave me a half arsed wave before pushing her way back through the queue to get on the ride.

"Your sister pains me and not in the good way." I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.

Tori was now chewing on her nails nervously. Her eyes followed her sister as she got on the ride; she watched until she was pretty much out of view at the top not saying a single word.

"What did she mean by 'your friend'." I waved my hand in front of Tori's face to get her out of her gaze. "Hello? Earth to Tori."

"Huh?" She blinked several times and turned her gaze back on to me. "Oh, nothing. She's weird."

"I know that. But even that was really weird for her. Are you sure she doesn't know about us?"

"She knows nothing." The fun smile that had been glued to Tori's face all evening had been completely wiped and left with a disgruntled look instead.

As we took our seats Tori still looked completely unnerved. The wheel rocked and swayed its way to the top stopping every few minutes to let more riders on and off.

"Are you alright?" As we neared the top Tori was still yet to crack a smile.

She slumped into her seat more. "Yeah." She answered pitifully.

"Yeah right. You're fooling no one, Vega." I paused and bit my bottom lip. "Are you worried because we saw your sister?"

She nodded shyly. "Bingo."

"Well don't be. I know I don't know your sister as well as you do but from what I do know she has a one track mind and that is herself. She is probably clueless."

Tori finally cracked a smile. "Sounds like you know her just as well as I do."

"Now stop being so damn miserable. It's bumming me out and I don't know about you but I'm having a pretty nice date with my girl."

Her smile completely lit up as I said the last few words. "Okay." She said bashfully.

"Go on, say something cheesy and gay about the view or about the date or about how my eyes sparkle under the stars." I placed my hands under my face and did my best cute pout as I bat my eyelashes at her.

"You took the words right out of my mouth! Just look at this view!" We'd stopped right at the top of the wheel. Our seats swayed back and forward as we took it all in. A very welcomed cool breeze had started up, blowing the seats and our hair gently. "And I guess your eyes do sparkle too." She took my hand with her own, stroking her thumb against the back of my hand. "I think I'll tell people about me and about us when I go back to school as well."

"Seriously?" My voice almost shook in surprise.

"Yes." She kissed my hand. "I'm serious about you and us and so I think I should just man up and tell people soon. School goes back in a few weeks and I guess that's a good time to do it. I mean we go to different schools as well so it's not like anyone will even know who you are either."

"Are you sure though?"

Tori nodded confidently. "I think so." She laughed away the nerves. "It can't go as bad as your coming out did."

"God that's true. Well if you're sure. You know I've always got your back."

The ride started up again, rocking us slowly back down to the ground. The picturesque view was gradually fading away as we moved towards to earth again.

"It will feel good not to have this big secret over me."

While we were still slightly out of view I took her face with my hands, kissing her with passion. "I'm proud of you." I whispered as our noses brushed together gently.

Her cheeks burned red. "Don't jinx it. I haven't even done it yet."

A/N - I'm English and have never been to an American carnival so if I got some of the rides or words or whatever wrong thats why haha!

Anyway hope you enjoy this update & I'll be sure to update again soon. Fave, comment & follow! :)