"Lia stop pushing me!" Justin said as he ran after Lia who giggled and ran off into the parking lot, away form the group. Alex, Lia, Asha, and I met up with Justin, Amelia, Maddy, and Kyle at the carnival parking lot with Matt and Damien meeting up a little later.

"Stop running around and acting like children," Maddy scolded as we all climbed out of our cars. Throughout our ride it remained silent except for Alex's and Lia's occasional bickering with each other but neither Asha and I said much of a word to each other except for hello.

"Let us live," Justin stuck his tongue out at Maddy as he turned around to stop chasing Lia.

"Oh my gosh I haven't been to a carnival in so long, I used to love it when my parents took me here," Asha said excitedly as she clapped her hands together and looked around in awe at all of the different rides and booth games.

"I got a sweet tooth for cotton candy," Alex said as we all walked together to catch up to Lia and Justin.

"Carnivals are such magical places, it makes time seem unreal and limitless," Amelia said as she twirled around in a circle, her dress spinning along with her as Justin looked over at her and smiled with admiration in his eyes. It was obvious that Justin was developing a bit of a forbidden crush on Amelia.

We all paid the admission fee and we all walked through the carnival, admiring all of the rides and all of the street foods that they had to offer.

"I wanna get on this ride that spins you around! Who wants to go with me?!" Lia asked excitedly as she pointed to the ride in front of us.

"ME!" Alex, Maddy, Justin and Kyle all shouted at the same time as they all ran forward to become first in line.

I knew it would be like this, Lia would run off with her friends, too busy having fun to worry about me but I wasn't upset about it, it gave me more time to think and it gave me more time to think about the thoughts swirling in my head.

"Not much of a carnival fan Matthew?" Amelia asked as she hopped next to Matt and looked at him with a curious expression.

I was always fond of the way Amelia was able to just be herself around anyone and everyone, it was almost like she didn't have a care in the world and she was able to approach anyone she wanted to and simply have a conversation with them.

"Not particularly, I'll get on the Ferris Wheel or something small but not rides like that," Matt pointed to the ride that all the others were currently waiting for.

"Clarity you seem to be lost in thought," Asha said as she walked next to me and smiled, this was the first time in the entire trip that Asha said much to anyone but then again she was more known as the quiet one of the group.

"Oh, um just thinking about some stuff on my mind," I said as I scratched the back of my neck.

I noticed a bench on the other side where we were able to still view the others get on the ride and I pointed towards it.

"Should we sit down?" I asked awkwardly.

"Oh yes I wouldn't mind at all," She said happily. Her curly hair was now up in a messy top knot, away form her face and showing off just how beautiful and slender her features truly were.

It mad eye question why Lia would ever choose someone like me instead of Asha and before I knew it I felt clouds of jealousy and insecurity swirling in my mind.

"It's been a while since we've all been together like this, makes me happy to see all my friends having fun, especially Lia," She smiled as she looked over at her friends, there was a twinkle in her eyes.

I looked away, not being able to cover the disappointment in my face. I just couldn't understand why she cared for Lia so much and worst of all, if she wanted to she could easily take her away from me in the blink of an eye because they had that kind of history.

"Clarity are you bisexual?" Asha asked after a moment of silence.

"Uh, I'm honestly not sure. For the longest I swore I only liked guys but now I don't really know," I said as I fiddled with my fingers, completely thrown off at such a personal question.

"That's okay, sexuality can be a confusing thing and a broad spectrum, it's whatever you're comfortable with," She smiled.

"What about you? Aren't you lesbian?" I asked awkwardly.

"No not at all, if I had to put a label on it then I guess I would be considered pansexual but I'm not a big fan of putting myself into boxes," She said looking up at the sky.

I looked at her with a puzzled expression, I had never heard that phrase before and the definition I was thinking of couldn't possibly be the true definition.

"What does that mean? That doesn't have something to do with pans does it?" I asked stupidly.

She chuckled slightly as we both watched everyone gather onto the ride, Lia excitedly sitting in between Alex and Maddy, her legs bouncing up and down as the ride instructors began securing everyone inside.

"That's funny, I hear that a lot but no it has nothing to do with pans although I love a good sauce pan. I just love love. Regardless of the gender, identity, looks or even what's inside their pants. I become attracted to people's personalities and their souls, not necessarily their looks," She explained.

That was a term I truthfully never heard of, I always thought you either liked guys or you liked girls, I never took into consideration that there were other in-between.

"That's why I liked Lia, despite her slightly rough exterior she has such a kind and genuine heart who just craves recognition and love that she had never gotten when she was a child," She explained.

"Alex said that you have a clingy problem," I blurted out inappropriately.

"Did he say that now? Hmm I guess it could be perceived like that. I was clinging to the idea of helping Lia and being her temporary fix as I was for her and helping her flourish into the person she was truly meant to be...but she's too much for me," Her last statement surprised me.

I was always scared that Asha would be the one to steal Lia away from me because she was everything that I wasn't but she felt as though Lia was too much for her all this time.

"What do you mean by that?" I questioned her, now intrigued for her answer.

"Lia needs to do some healing on her own, she craves the affection and attention that she never got as a child, that need has turned into a craving for sexual desire blowing through different girls throughout high school but never being able to satisfy herself," She analyzed.

"Wow you should be a therapist or psychologist Asha! That was a very deep analysis.

"Oh thank you! My father is a professional psychologist so I picked up a thing or two from him," She said as her smile beamed at me.

"I want to go to school to help people, I never want to be the reason for someone's problems again," I said quietly.

"It's inevitable to be someone's problem, how you handle the situation is entirely different," Amelia plopped down next to us as Matt sat on the other side of her, waiting for everyone else to get off the ride.

"Just remember that Lia has never been alone," Asha whispered into my ear causing me to lightly shiver.

"What do you mean? She's always been alone? Her mother-" Asha shook her head as she tapped her finger to her temple.

"Lia has always felt unloveable because her mother made her feel unloveable so she clung to whomever made her feel loved, her father abused her whenever he was drunk but tried to make up for it when he was sober so she dismissed it, she clung to me, she clung to Maddy at one point, she clung to whatever girl who could help temporarily fill the void and most of all she has been clinging to you. The idea of being alone to her is frightening," We both looked up and noticed everyone walking back towards us, Alex, Lia and Maddy laughing, Kyle playfully shoving Justin who was clutching his stomach.

"Just give me a few minutes and I'll be better I promise," Justin said as he took a deep breath.

Lia quickly glanced over at Asha and I, slightly confused as to why we were sitting so close to each other.

"Did ya miss me?" Lia said as she plopped down on my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"You weren't even gone that long, besides Asha was keeping me company," I said and her eyes immediately widened.

"Never thought I would hear those words come out of your mouth," She muttered and then smiled.

"Come on and stop being gay in front of us so we can go play some games," Maddy whined and Alex agreed with her.

We spent the rest of the day hopping from game to game trying to win little prizes for each other. Lia had eventually won me a stuffed panda bear in the ring toss game, Matt and Justin have been constantly winning prizes for Amelia until her arms couldn't carry anymore.

"Do both Matt and Justin like Amelia?" I asked Asha as we walked side by side towards our next destination.

"Justin has a bit of a crush on her but Amelia and Matt are actually good friends, he was the reason why her and Damien ended up together and now he just feels really bad and he's trying to make up for it all," Asha shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh wow I never knew that," I said.

"I wanna play the shooting clown balloon game!" Lia shouted as she pointed to the game booth next to us.

We all rushed over into a spot until we were all seated and waited for the person in charge to start the game. Surprisingly I was the one to win out of all of us which made me a little happy, at least I was winning at something.

I scanned the prizes and ended up picking the pink dolphin as my prize. We all began walking through the carnival as the night sky began to fall upon us as the group continued to scan for more rides to get on.

"Asha I think you should have this," I said shyly as I handed her the pink dolphin while looking away.

"Shouldn't you be giving this to Lia and not me?" She asked surprised as she was hesitant to take the gift.

"I feel bad about how I've treated you in the past and all those bad thoughts I had about you, you're actually a really cool and wise person who just cares about Lia," I said as I anxiously shook the stuffed toy in front of her.

She carefully grabbed it as a giant crept onto her face as she took in the dolphin and held it close to her heart.

"Clarity are we friends?" She asked as her eyes looked glossy, almost as if she were going to cry.

"I guess we can call each other friends now," I smiled, slightly blushing at the fact that I was never really good at making friends so this was awkward for me.

"Let me see your phone so I can put my number into your phone! Just because we are all graduating doesn't mean we can't still try and be friends!" She said excitedly.

We exchanged phones, plugging each others numbers into the phones and giggling amongst ourselves until Lia slowed down and began walking right beside us.

"You guys are awfully chummy today, do you want cotton candy?" She asked me as she eyed the both of us.

"Yes I want blue," I said. We all reached a cotton candy stall where we all ordered cotton candy and happily bouncing around. Soon enough Damien tall figure eventually found us and joined the group, occasionally eyeing Amelia and Justin but never saying anything to her.

"Damien it's like I never see you now lately," Maddy huffed as she nudged him in the shoulder.

"I know, my parents made me get a job and it honestly fucking sucks," Damien whined.

"Why did your parents make you get a job? Don't they have a lot of money?" Lia asked.

"This is their way of teaching me responsibilities and making my own money instead of depending on them," Damien shrugged his shoulders as he grabbed a chunk of Lia's cotton candy.

"Wow, you suck for that," Lia grumbled as she snatched her cotton candy away and turned back to look at us.

"Clarity I want to get on the Ferris wheel with you," Lia said.

"Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh," Everyone said loudly and simultaneously as I blushed and Lia laughed out loud.

"You guys are so annoying, what would I do without you?" Lia laughed.

She looked over at Asha and noticed her holding the stuffed pink dolphin in her hand.

"I can hold Clarity's dolphin so you don't have to," Lia said to Asha as she outstretched her hand.

"That's not mine anymore, I gave it to Asha," I nodded, causing Lia to squint at me in confusion.

"Why?" Her voice laced with annoyance.

"To apologize for all those years of misunderstanding her and signifying the start of our friendship," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Clarity that's so beautiful! What a beautiful blossoming friendship!" Amelia smiled as she stood by Justin, Damien glancing over at her and smiling slightly.

Lia studied me for a moment, as if unsure of what to say before grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the group.

"We'll be back!" Lia yelled back at the group before focusing her attention towards the giant Ferris wheel in front of us.

"I thought you wanted to get on it later?" I questioned her while trying to keep up with her.

"I want to talk to you about something now," Was all she said as we walked up to the entrance as Lia held up two fingers signaling there was only two of us.

We waited in silence as the Ferris wheel rotated around and we waited patiently to hop onto the ride. Finally we were allowed to step into an empty cart as he secured the door and we slowly ascended.

"I thought you hated Asha?" Lia finally asked me as we slowly began to go up.

"Well we talked and she's actually really cool like you said, she really cares about you and I don't want to hate any of your close friends," I explained.

"You know we slept together right?" She asked.

It was my turn to look at her in confusion because I didn't understand why she was bringing that up.

"You've slept with a lot of people Lia, why does that matter?" I said.

Her eyes widened as she opened her mouth and then closed it, unsure what to say about that but it was the honest truth.

"Clarity we're going off to college and honestly the way our relationship has turned...I don't want to lose you," She said, skipping over our previous conversation.

"You are aware that our colleges are four hours away right?" I stated.

"Yeah I know that's fine. I can drive to see you as much as possible, I can always call you whenever I'm free, it could work," She said slightly desperately.

I wasn't used to this side of Lia, the clingy and desperate version of Lia I never paid attention to like Asha was telling me, she would always shut me out but this was a different side she was exposing to me, almost like she was scared of something...scared to lose me.

"Clarity...I want you to officially be my girlfriend,"