“Yeah?” Felix said, garbled around the donut. “Holy shit! What?”
He made grabby hands for Jacob’s pockets. Jacob elbowed him away and pulled out two tickets, holding them out for Felix to see.
“General admission to…” Felix’s eyes widened when he saw the cutesy logo that varied from ride to ride. “TheFerris wheel? Jacob! You hate the Ferris wheel!”
“I know.”
“Even if you didn’t hate heights, that thing is one hundred percent a death trap?—”
“I know,” Jacob repeated, his tone sharpening as he stared behind Felix at the Ferris wheel. “If we go down, I’m making you break my fall.”
“All I’m hearing is that you’ll be on top of me,” Felix declared. He turned toward the Ferris wheel, his donut aloft in a fist-pump. “Let’sridethis baby!”
Five minutes later, Felix was decidedly less enthused.
He wasn’t a stickler for rules. Far from it. Butsomerules should probably be obeyed—like public safety laws.
“I think the rust is actually helping,” Felix lied, poking at the decaying metal that doubled as the seat barrier. “It’s holding it all together, man.”
Jacob said nothing. He was white-knuckling the seat barrier, staring at the aforementioned rust colonizing the metal. Someone had tried painting over it, but the paint had chipped away to reveal the orange underneath.
“Unclench,” Felix told him. “This is just the next step in a brand-new Jacob.”
“This is the next step in our horrible death,” Jacob replied. “My parents will sue.”
Felix sighed. Jacob’s parents needed to get a fucking grip. It was entirely their fault Jacob made himself miserable over this crap in the first place. Felix loved Jacob, but it was exhausting watching him worry about everything.
Although, Felix considered as he scratched a shard of rust off the screw that held the seat together, this was probably worth the worry. Not that he was going to tell Jacob that.
“We’ll be fine,” Felix said, slinging an arm over Jacob’s shoulder and jostling him. “Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
The Ferris wheel jerked into motion.
“Shit,” Jacob whispered.
“We’ll be fine,” Felix repeated.
Something creaked worryingly from the support struts. Jacob glared at Felix accusingly, as if it was all his fault.
Felix grinned, ignoring the worry in his gut. “All part of the experience!”
Jacob glared harder. But he was obviously losing motivation to be pissed off, because the next time their seat jolted, all the anger drained out of his face. He grabbed Felix’s sleeve, his jaw clenched.
“This is so stupid,” Jacob chanted. He squeezed his eyes closed. “Stupid, stupid. Why am I doing this?”
“We’re barely off the ground,” Felix said.
But Jacob didn’t open his eyes. He stayed like that, fist clenched in Felix’s shirt in a way that Felix couldn’t help but enjoy, even with Jacob freaking out. Jacob had such beautiful hands. Sometimes Felix thought his purpose in life was to annoy Jacob into touching him: getting into his space so Jacob would shove him away, making a joke so bad Jacob would smack him in the arm. During a study session last year, he’d annoyed Jacob until he grabbed him by the throat and threatened to tape his mouth shut, which was so hot Felix had to go back to his dorm and jerk off.
They climbed higher. Felix looked at the ground, his stomach twisting as it got further away. They were almost at the top of the wheel. They woulddefinitelydie if they fell from this height, no question about it.
Felix swallowed his discomfort and tapped Jacob’s leg. “Come on, man! Live in the moment!”
“I’m not living in the moment until this moment is over,” Jacob replied sternly.
“Your loss,” Felix said. “We’re almost at the top.”
Jacob grunted fearfully. Felix snickered, staring around at the new height. If he ignored the groaning noises coming fromthe metal, it was actually pretty great: he could see the whole fairground from here. He could see a hell of a lot more than that, actually. He squinted, trying to see the campus?—
