Overlooked(2)(99)

I’m tired of standing out in the rain, and am going to swing by Emily’s booth to dry off under the awning.

But first I’m getting her a funnel cake. I even paid for it, and am loading it up with chocolate, toffee sauce and whip cream.

I make my way down the midway. A couple of chicks in shirts soaked from the rain and clinging to their tits are coming the other direction. They’re bleached blondes, and the taller one has tits so big that half the men she walks past crane their heads for another look.

They see my yellow carnival t-shirt, and bee-line towards me. These girls know they can come to a carny for a mind-blowing fuck no local boy is capable of giving them.

Last year, I’d have had both of them at once in my room. This year, all I can think of is avoiding them.

“Hey, sexy man,” big tits says.

I ignore them and keep on walking.

“At least let us feel them muscles,” one of them shouts after I’m past them.

“We’ll give you a dollar if you show us them abs of yours,” the other shouts.

I used to pocket a pretty penny from local girls wanting to see my body. This year I’ve been turning it all down, which Razor’s been loving. He’s raking in all my turnaways, and is planning to buy a PlayStation from all the extra money.

Not breaking my stride, I ignore them and arrive at Emily’s booth. She’s standing there, somehow managing to make the yellow carnival t-shirt sexy.

“Hey, sexy,” I say, sitting on the counter. “I brought you something.”

Emily comes over to me, and leans in for a kiss.

“God, that smells good,” Emily says, breathing in the funnel cake.

“Don’t suppose you brought me one of them,” Cess says, tossing a softball in her hand.

“Next time,” I say.

“You said that last time,” Cess says.

“How’s it going, you selling any?” I ask Emily.

“She’s a natural. Ain’t you, Goldie?” Cess says.

“Not surprised. That pretty face could get a man to do anything,” I say.

“It worked on you,” Emily says and laughs.

She takes a big bite of the funnel cake, her eyes close as the flavor fills her mouth. That’s the look I’m used to seeing in our trailer, not from a bite of food.

A big, blond dude slaps five dollars on the counter. He’s with a buddy, a guy only slightly shorter who’s wearing a polo shirt. They look like the kind of people I’d expect Emily would be related to.

Cess snaps up the money and holds out three balls to him.

“I want them from her,” he says, nodding to Emily.

My attention is drawn from Emily’s pretty face to the idiot trying to win an impossible game.

“She’s busy, you gotta take them from me,” Cess says.

“I said, I want them from her,” he says.

The dude’s face coats in a smug smile as he stares at Cess. The back of my neck prickles. This guy had better drop it, if he knows what’s good for him.

“Your choice, you take my balls, or you forfeit your money,” Cess says.

“Oh, I think that pretty girl wants to give me the balls.”

It pisses me off, but I know how common fuckers like these guys are. I take another bite of funnel cake and wait to see how Emily handles the situation.

“Now careful boys, you wouldn’t want my boyfriend here to pulverize your pretty-boy faces now, would you?” Emily says.

“He’s your boyfriend? Sweetheart, you can do a lot better than him. Let me show you all the things a real man can do.” He pauses and stares at me. “Not some scumbag like him.”

Enough. I slip off the counter and ball my fist, intending to knock the mother-fucker down with a right hook.

“This is nothing, we get at least one of him an hour,” Emily says, a worried look in her eyes.

“Don’t mean he doesn’t need his head kicking in.”

A crowd has gathered round the booth. Everything inside of me is telling me to beat the guy into next Tuesday, but I decide it’ll be more fun to humiliate him in front of the town. He’ll be the laughing stock for years to come.

“Tell you what, I’ll give you six balls, no charge. If you get one in, good things will happen.”

“Good things like what?” he says.

“Good things like I won’t break your faces,” I say, and take another bite of the funnel cake.

“And I’ll give you the balls you paid for,” Emily says, laughing. She knows it’s impossible for them to win. Emily walks back to the baskets, getting the balls. But I know the real thing she’s doing is making sure the angles on the baskets are set to impossible.

“I don’t know, Steel, that’s giving them pretty good odds. He looks like he knows how to throw a ball, ain’t no way you’ll win that one,” Cess says, winking at me.