Cody

I'm tired, my leg is killing me, and the headache always snapping at my heels is catching up with me... but I'm happy.

I don't really get why seeing Allie trying to strangle Jasper with his crown is giving me so much joy, but it is. The girl jumped onto his back, shoved the crown down his head to hang around his neck and is now pulling on it while he thrashes around, trying to throw her off. It's like watching a disturbing bull ride.

Glitch is not enjoying the fun display of violence as much as I do. She's gone very quiet, holding onto my hand so tightly my fingers are starting to go numb. "Glitch, are you okay?" I ask, hearing her gasp in shock when Jasper bends over, catching his rider unawares - he's had his share of riding recalcitrant animals and learned from their examples - and she slides off into his waiting arms.

"Yes," Glitch giggles, clearly enjoying seeing her cousin lying docilely in her groom's arms, blinking up at him with admiration... or surprise... or she's just taking a break from trying to kill him to plot his demise. Glitch might have a romantic streak because she squeezes my hand, wraps her free arm around mine, leans her head against my bicep, and sighs dreamily. "Isn't that beautiful?"

I don't think she means the twins arguing about whose crown and cloak are the most impressive or what's left of the orchestra, hastily gathered on the stage, abusing our ears with some gut-awful coronation noises.

She is gazing at Jasper setting Allie on her feet and holding her hands in his to prevent her from hurting him. I think the girl is tired now or resigned to her fate, as she's looking up at him with narrowed eyes and pouty lips, but her fangs and claws are no longer visible.

Glitch is right; they look good together, and Jasper is a braver man than I because he is flashing his megawatt smile at Allie, making her cheeks flare up with more angry colour.

"So, food?" I prompt, turning Glitch away from the stage, and she happily skips beside me on our way to the many food stalls. Her abundance of energy ignites a spark in my body, sorely lacking it and I... don't skip with her, but I'm definitely grinning, making her giggle and twirl under my arm every few steps.

The girl's appetite is a lot bigger than mine. I used to eat everything that got thrown my way... and was edible, but I'm hardly ever really hungry since the accident. Done with our shopping spree, we make ourselves comfortable on either side of one of the raw-wood picnic tables with the benches attached to them, and spread our collection of food and sodas on the surface between us. I enjoy watching Glitch take bites and pieces of everything, groaning and humming in delight.

As with everything she does, she's eating with every fibre of her being, fully immersed in enjoying our spread. We bought baskets, bowls and platters of every available type of food at the festival and were given many samples for free. Four of Aunt Suzie's pies are on a plate, which she'd kindly heated for us.

I claim one of them, take a generous bite, savouring the gravy goodness and place the rest on my paper plate. I nearly choke on the mouthful when Jasper throws himself onto the bench beside Glitch, grabs a couple of our French fries from the shared basket and glares at me while he angrily bites into them.

"It was you, wasn't it?!" he grumbles, and Glitch slides a few inches away, giving him nervous looks even though he was barking at me, not at her. I don't think she likes having him in her space. I'm not sure why she is so afraid of him. He wouldn't do anything to her... at least the Jasper I knew wouldn't. Surely, he hasn't changed that much in the years we haven't been hanging out.

"No," Glitch says, taking a couple of fries, probably afraid she won't get any if Jasper has now joined our party. "It was Mrs Tucker."

"What?" Jasper scowls, turning his head to look at her, and when she smiles at him, I realise that it's not fear she's experiencing towards him; it's something much more complicated. It is puzzling me. I don't think I like it.

"She makes the fries every year because she is really good at it. There was almost a riot at the town meeting when she suggested someone else make them for this year's festival. Don't you remember?" she says innocently, making big puppy dog eyes at him.

Jasper slowly blinks at her, his frown deepening. Like me, he is trying to figure out if she's really misunderstanding him or just messing with him. Nervous under his intense eyes, she glances away and, catching her eye across the table, I cannot miss the sparkle in them.

She knows exactly what he meant!

"I'm talking about the egg-."

"Oh! Congratulations!" Glitch exclaims, offering Jasper her right hand, and when he reflexively takes it, she enthusiastically shakes it, beaming at him. "Well done! I would never have thought to look for it in that tree! You are so clever!"

Jasper just grunts, pressing his lips together in a tight line when she drops his hand, and after a couple of seconds, during which he dedicatedly glares at her, he gives up and resumes eating her feast.

"You should try those deep-fried dough thimbles with the tuna-mayo filling; they are really good," she tells him, pulling the small container towards him.

"Thanks," he mumbles, popping one in his mouth, his narrowed eyes straying to my face where I'm having a moment with my pie. I know that look he's giving me, and I know why I'm getting it. Tonight was not the first time in our lives that one of us knocked the other out of a tree or off a fence with a football.

I almost chuckle.

What can I say? I just grin at him, grab a bowl filled with pigs in a blanket – the variety where the sausages are wrapped in honeyed streaky bacon instead of pastry – and offer it to him. This guy has always been a sucker for food. I'm a bit irritated that Glitch apparently knows it too, because she is gradually offering every dish for him to try.

He doesn't pursue the egg issue; he is too happy about being fed by Glitch, and she, in turn, seems to be having a ball with him, sharing in her feast. He certainly makes a much better gorging partner than I do. I eat too, but without the sound effects and obvious signs of enjoyment, the two of them are unashamedly throwing around.

"Where's your wife?" I finally ask Japer, tired of seeing them cosily share snacks across the table from me, oohing and aahing about everything they stuff into their mouths. I don't miss the rise of one of his cocky eyebrows when he looks at me and the startled smile on Glitch's sweet face. She gives me a guilty look and now I feel like a dog.

She's just having fun!

"Trying to get our marriage annulled," Jasper shrugs, helping himself to one of my grandmother's sweet potato fritters. An unexpected pang of nostalgia shoots through my entire body, bringing a wave of nausea with it as I watch him eat it, licking his lips, a happy smile on his face. He always loved those fritters.

"I.." My voice sounds like it did when I was 13, and it couldn't decide which key it was supposed to operate in. I have to clear my throat a couple of times before I can try again. "I should go help clear up."

I don't want to leave Glitch, but I also don't want to stay here where Jasper sits, his presence filled with too many fond memories twisting like knives in my gut. I'm too damned vulnerable right now. I'm feeling almost mellow and happy, as if my life is not in the toilet. I need to face reality.

Since the first moment I saw Glitch here today, having a weird candlelighting ceremony with Jasper, it's been as if a part of my protective shield has been destroyed. I'm on a roller coaster that cannot lead anywhere good.

I shouldn't have taken her away from Jasper; they would've had more fun together than she's having with me. I cannot dance. I don't eat much. All I'm good at is skulking in shadows, fighting panic and the mother of headaches.

Besides, I'm not lying. Many stalls are starting to pack it in for the night, and my grandmother will need a hand, giving everybody else a hand. She didn't have her own stall; she merely provided items for those with stalls, but she would never leave while others worked hard.

She's always been that way, and since I've been feeling better, she's gone back to her old routines. The sooner we get it done, the sooner we'll be able to go home, where I can take pain tablets and pass out for the night. I'll tell Glitch to have Jasper take over for me as her festival partner, and that will be that.

I'm done with this stupid, seductive festival.

As always, I struggle to my feet, aware of Glitch and Jasper watching me, wishing that just this once, my knee would work with me and get me out of this painful hell faster... without faceplanting in my rush.

Finally standing, I look into Glitch's alarmed eyes, reflecting the glittering fairy lights that got puked all over the town square. Until a few minutes ago, I started to really like it; now, I just want to get away from it. I don't belong in this warm, happy world... it's not real!

My head is pounding. I'm not too far from puking my own version of fairy lights all over the place.

"Wally!" Glitch suddenly springs into action as if her play button was pressed, and she can finally react to seeing that I'm about to say goodbye to her. "Please don't divorce me!"

Was it written all over my face?

The girl has a strange way of reading my feelings very accurately. I watch her scramble off the bench and hurry around the table to stand before me, grabbing my hands in hers. Now I'm the one on pause, unable to extract my hands from hers or look away from her shimmering eyes.

"I'm sorry I kissed you," she says, her sweet face filled with anguish, and behind her, Jasper is choking on something, leaning over the table and grabbing my left-over soda to wash it down. "I won't do it again, I promise."

"Wow! I thought it was your knee that got injured; I didn't know you got whacked in the nuts too!" Jasper exclaims, and now I kinda want to whack him in his. "Glitch, I'm open to all the kissing you want to do."

Oh, great! I didn't know that this was going to get embarrassing!

"I... that's not..." Shit! I have no idea what to say to her! I'm not trying to hurt her here... but apparently, that is exactly what I'm doing. "For me, that kiss was the highlight of tonight," I finally tell her, smiling a lopsided smile since most of my face is not working. "I'm just not up to all the activities and stuff that goes with the festival. I'm sorry... You deserve to have fun."

"I'm having the best time ever!" Glitch assures me. Gathering my hands together at her chin and bending her neck, she gently kisses my fingertips, sending happy sparks through my entire body. "At least I was until now. Weren't you?"

I know she's just trying to be nice. She is an extremely kind and selfless person. Still, gazing into her wide eyes and seeing her hopeful smile, the gossamer threads of a magical web are once again weaving themselves around my heart, making sweet promises of joy, love, and all the things that are buried for good out of my reach.

"I was," I croak, swallowing against the ball of anxiety and regret forming in my throat.

"I cannot be all that active either, Wally," she tells me, nervously biting her lip and lowering her eyes self-consciously. "I... I was injured too... I get headaches, and I faint. Nobody thinks that's fun to have around."

"That's not true, Glitch!" Jasper exclaims. "Everybody thinks you're fun to have around."

That was not what she'd said, but I can't fault Jasper for trying. For once, he is not looking cocky and obnoxious; he isn't even eating any of our food anymore, only partially, because there's not much left.

"He's right," I mutter, smiling a full smile now. "You are fun to be around, and I doubt that anybody will feel put out by you not keeping up and needing frequent breaks."

"Could say that to you too," she grins, her eyes happily meeting mine again, and I wonder if the little minx tried to trap me into saying that. "But it's nice not to have to worry about spoiling the fun for other people. You and I have fun at the same pace. Won't you please stay my husband for the whole festival?"

There's literally nothing in this world that I want more than that right now. I feel alive when Glitch is around. All the dark, haunting horrors fade away, and I become just a 19-year-old boy who longs to live.

"Besides, I need you around to save me from my wife," Jasper chimes in. "I don't think they do annulments." I turn to follow the direction his pained expression is aimed in to see Allie sitting on the counter of a dessert stall, angrily eating an ice cream cone, the creamy substance dripping all over her fingers.

I find the image of a pretty girl in a delicate dress and a wedding vale angrily licking chunks out of an ice cream spiral almost obscene.

"Codester, you must be exhausted! Are you about ready to go home, Liefie?" Gramma suddenly asks near my shoulder, and startled, I let go of Glitch's hands and turn to look at my grandmother instead. She is smiling up at me contentedly, but I can tell she is really tired. She hasn't had much of a break these last couple of weeks. "Or would you like to catch a ride with-."

"No, I'm not going to catch a ride home now," I state earnestly. "I want to help you and go home with you."

"Oh!" she smiles, reaching up to give my cheek an affectionate pat. "Bless you, Bun, but I'm exhausted, and at least 50 people have ordered me to go home and take a break. I'm going to obey the masses. I have to be up bright and early tomorrow."

"Oh, you want to leave now?"

"Yes, I thought you might want to stay with your friends a bit longer," she says, smiling at Glitch and Jasper. "And catch a ride home with someone else."

"No, I'm tired too," I assure her. Even if I weren't, there's no way I'd let her tackle the long way home all alone in the dark when she is this exhausted. I might not be able to drive yet, but I can keep her company. "What about Uncle Paul?"

"He's going to his place," she says, frowning as if I asked something weird. "Right after helping get things settled for the night."

"Oh, I should stay and help..."

"Nah," Jasper says, rising from the table, and I'm not surprised to see that he has emptied all the food containers and is gathering them in his arms. "There are enough people to help, including me. See you, Cody. Thanks for dinner, Glitch," he grins, and to my surprise, she responds by giving his nearest arm a quick hug, nearly causing him to lose his cargo.

"You're welcome," she whispers, turning to look at me again when he jogs off. I don't like the expression on her face. She seems lost and lonely somehow. I'm about to offer her a ride home, when I notice her uncle and aunt rounding up her cousins. It seems they're done with their part for tonight and will be heading home too.

"Here," I say, closing the distance between us, taking my phone from my jacket pocket and handing it to her. She tries to take off my jacket, but I stop her, pulling it back into place over her shoulders. "I'll get it from you tomorrow. Put your number in there and call yourself so we can have a way to find each other again."

It is pretty late, but I'm sure a rooster is crowing somewhere because the sun just rose with Glitch's bright smile.

~~~