The carnival is held at the ski resort on the mountain side of Kingston. I get a glimpse of downtown as we drive through, and it's cute, in a small New England town sort of way, with all of the storefronts lining one main road--which is predictably called Main Street. There's not much to it, but it screams quaint and charming.
"We'll have to take you on the ten-minute tour of downtown Kingston sometime," Ashton says from beside me.
"I think I just saw it in the thirty seconds it took to drive through."
"They have this old movie theatre that only shows two movies. You can tell they tried to update the seating, but like twenty years ago." She leans in closer so only I can hear,
"Is Grant meeting us there?"
My smile is the only answer she needs.
And it makes its encore appearance when we find him waiting for us at the ticket booth with Squirrel and Stefan.
"I hope you don't mind that I bought your tickets," he says handing me a strand of paper tickets while everyone else gets in line to purchase their own.
"Thank you," I say, taking them from him and folding them up to slip into the front pocket of my cut-offs. "I'll be sure to win you the biggest stuffed something I can find."
He reaches for my hand just has Kaely squeals, running straight toward me from across the carnival, then proceeds to attack me with a mauling hug
"Um, I just saw you two hours ago at the club," I say, smothered by her thick bushel of hair.
"This is going to be so fun!" she exclaims.
Grant and I don't get a moment alone together the entire time we're at the carnival. Which ends up being completely okay because it probably would've been awkward to separate from the group. It was meant to be all of us, together. And I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I've never laughed so hard in my entire life--watching Squirrel and Kaely squirt water into clowns' mouths like they were Olympic competitors; hearing Lance scream like he might pee his pants on the twisting ride that turns upside down; or trying to make a chain, holding each other's hands on the swing ride, and failing.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Kaely says after we trip off the Tilt-a-Whirl.
"I warned you not to eat that fried dough before we got on," Ashton says, holding Kaely by the arm to help her balance.
Lily giggles. "Your nose still has powdered sugar on it."
Kaely sticks out her tongue to try to lick it off.
I make a fist and rub it, which makes her sneeze ... all over my hand.
"Omigod, that was so gross!" I shake my hand that's now sprayed with saliva.
"Sorry," she says, crinkling her nose. Ashton, of course, thinks it's hilarious. It's disgusting.
"There's hand sanitizer outside the porta-potties," Lily informs me sympathetically. We walk over together so I can kill all of Kaely's germs covering my skin.
"Where are the guys?" Ashton asks.
"They were supposed to be at the cage, spinny ride thing," Kaely says. And as odd as her description is, I know exactly which one she's talking about. We start in that direction and I can see Grant standing next to Stefan, waiting for the other guys to unload. He's kind of hard to miss. The giggling trio of girls standing about five feet away from him think so too.
I nudge Ashton and she leans down to listen. "Please don't tell me I act like that around Grant."
She inspects the girls and makes a pained expression. "Oh no. You're awkward but not PG-awkward."
"Uh, thanks ... I think."
"PG, as in parental guidance. We call them that because they have parents who give them curfews, and chores, and check-in to make sure they're alive after ten o'clock at night. They're sheltered. They have no idea how to act around hot guys. They wouldn't even know what to do with themselves at a club."
"I've never been to a club," I admit.
"But you have a fake ID and get into bars," Ashton argues.
"True."