The bronze and green wireframe sign of Evergreen Park was the first sight I saw as I rounded the corner of West 7th and Main. It was an image I’d seen a hundred times over and one which brought a wave of nostalgia flooding back from the recesses of my consciousness. I used to gaze at the sign as Nic and I ran headlong into the park, screaming at the top of our lungs to greet the incredible sights that the Pentastros festival always hosted. The metallic ivy brought a source of comfort to me that rarely existed outside of the confines of the park. Just beyond those thin boundary lies waited two people - my best friends smiling as they watched my soaked visage scramble up towards them.
“There he is late as ever”, Mari said, an ever-present smirk grafted on her face, “Get lost in a tree again?”
“Sorry…to disappoint”, sarcasm practically dripped from my voice as I broke the oh so unfortunate news to her, “God I’m…out of shape”.
Five minutes of hunched breathing came and went before the blurry visages condensed into the still blurry faces of my friends.
“This should help, catch”, the one to the right of me said. Ryan, if the deeper voice was anything to go off of.
He raised his arm and sent a long cylindrical container flying into the air. I grabbed it, fumbling before managing to nest it securely in my arms.
The moment the icy chill of the bottle caressed my arm, I nearly tripped over myself to empty its content.
Rose n’ Thorn Spring Water - a staple of Pentastros marketing. Water taken from a private nature retreat owned by the heroine Rose, so pure that one bottle does the work of ten of any generic brand - or that’s what the bottle says at least.
That little bragging point didn’t matter much, I downed the bottle with all of the grace of a dog - spilling most of the pristine spring water down my neck and dyeing my jacket an even darker shade of blue.
By the time I was finished sucking the droplets of water out of the bottle, my vision had returned in its entirety.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve you”, I told Ryan.
“Me neither”, he said, staring at the puddle of ten dollar water pooling at my feet.
“Sorry”, I said, a raised hand rubbing the back of my neck.
“It’s fine, I should have expected that you’d do something dumb. What did you even do? Run here from your house”.
“Technically, no”.
“Technically?’
“I started running from the street next to my house”.
“Mari’s right, you’re an idiot”, he said.
“But I’m your idiot”.
“Whatever you say Water Boy”.
“What did you call me?!”
“Water Boy”.
“How dare you, sir-”.
“Okay you’ve had your fun”, Mari exclaimed, “Didn’t you run all the way over here because you wanted to see the rage rooms? Or would you two children rather keep arguing over spilt water”.
“I-”, I said stopping before turning towards Ryan, “She has a point, doesn’t she”.
“Yeah, she usually does”, Ryan agreed.
“Good”, Mari said, “Now let’s get going”.
“Okay, follow me”, Ryan said.
He took off, walking down one of the branching cobblestone pathways which lead from the entrance. We followed suit and the moment we got far enough from the main gate that I could only see its iron silhouette, a wave of nostalgia flooded into my mind. The celebration hadn’t changed at all in the past year - well that much wasn’t true. The parks layout was certainly different, they used different lights last year - the multicolored Christmas inspired globes had been replaced with LED lanterns, and the small decorations covering the park obviously weren’t identical, but the entertainment was crowded by scores of excited guests with energetic eyes darting between each selection, the smell of sweet and savory and greasy food intermingled creating a familial - if a little sickening aroma, and the sound of music and cheering people blaring through the park- making my heart jump to its thunderous beat. It reminded me of the first time Nic and I went to the Pentastros festival. The nostalgia of that first stand, the magic of that first day came flooding back, slamming into me like crashing waves sending unknown- undecipherable emotions bubbling to the surface.
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“-Hey Alex, you can hear me, right?”, Mari asked.
“Sorry”, I apologized, feeling reality slowly return to me, “Zoned out for a bit. It’s just really good to be back”.
“Aren’t you here every year though?”
“Yeah, but it’s only one day a year, it’s not like I get to be in this moment everyday”,
“That’s…fair, but you’re lagging, don’t fall behind, okay”.
“I thought you didn’t understand dumb stuff like this, Mari. What happened?”
“Oh make no mistake, I still don’t but the last thing I need is to look for you if you wander off”.
“You’re never gonna let me live that down are you”.
“I’m never gonna let you live down a lot of things, now keep up”.
She started quickening her pace to Ryan and I in turn matched her. In a few minutes we glided through the party making note to snag our fair share of samples from offering stands.
I nearly choked on my second chocolate bonbon as I talked to Ryan, “What do you mean you’re not eating”.
“Sorry, dad’s putting me on a pretty strict diet”.
“Tell your dad he’s lame. This is the Pentastros festival, and with so many places giving away samples for free, it would be an insult not to eat your weight”.
“I just gained 10 pounds from hearing you say that”.
“Don’t be such a baby, you’ll work it off”, Mari said, you always do”.
“Yeah, after a lot of hard work and effort Mari. I can’t just compromise that because we’re at a festival”.
“Boo”, I quietly jeered, “You’re even less fun than Mari”.
Ryan smiled and gave me a half pat on the back, half shove while Mari rolled her eyes, “Love you too pal. Anyway we’ll be there in a few minutes so you might want to get ready for the wait times”.
He was right, the exhibits that weren’t based around live entertainment, like the bands they brought on to play or the occasional dance groups, always had the worst wait times of anything I’d experienced. Think of a mix between rollercoaster queues and DMV lines.
I was actually surprised that the food stands didn’t have mile long lines, but given that Antony’s - one of the most beloved pizzerias in the entire state, was giving away free food, the idea of people flocking there in droves made sense.
‘Uhh,’ even the thought of Antony’s was enough to make his stomach lurch, ‘I gotta get Nic back for that one’.
…
Five minutes of walking passed before we finally made it over to the tents. Golem was always one of the more underrated members of Pentastros, so I didn’t expect anything grandiose when it came to his section of the park. After all, he was a terrakinetic, you couldn’t do much with that outside of putting a bunch of rocks under a platform and having them shake a little bit. So, when I saw the actual section, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. During my first year, the city employed a couple of C-list terrakinesis to put on a show for everyone. They made statues out of rock and crystal, floated around overhead on the rock platforms, and gave us a power demonstration with some of their most creative techniques.
The drop from that to this was undoubtedly disappointing, but as we made our way into the monster of a line ahead, I banished the thoughts.
“Well, we’re going to be here for the next ten years”, Mari groaned.
“Try to have some patience, okay”, Ryan commented.
“I just don’t understand how you two can look at a rage room, and think that that’s a valid way to spend your time. You don’t get anything out of this. There’s nothing there”.
“Where did this come from”, I told her.
“It’s been on my mind ever since we came here”.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Last time I checked you’re just as much of a fan of this as we are”.
“I’m a fan of the festival, not this”, she stopped struggling for a word that would describe the setting before her, “this tribute to unhealthy coping mechanisms”.
Her eyes drooped and her brow furled as she looked back at me with a strange gesture written on her face. One I couldn’t decipher.
‘Why did she look like that?’ I thought, ‘Why was she so concerned, I’m fine’.
Irritation boiled just beneath my surface. I felt my face twitch, my blood grow warm with every growing second that I looked at her.
“I…What the hell do you mean by that? I’m not coping, I just want to have a little fun ”.
“Really, so you ran a mile just to have, what, ten minutes of fun?”
“Yes! I did”, I all but screamed, “Is there a problem with that”.
I wanted to yell more, to scream harder, and I was going to then I saw Ryan. Or more specifically I saw him tense up. It wasn’t anything too noticeable, but I’d been around him long enough to know the subtle signs. The slightly raised shoulders, the deep frown on his face, and most of all the metronomic cadence with which tapped his finger against the side of his thigh - growing faster the longer our conversation lasted.
‘Damnit’ I sighed, as I forced myself to calm down. I closed my eyes, took a single deep breath, and squeezed my left fist with my right arm, “I’m fine”.
Mari let out a short near inaudible sigh before she turned to face the line. Her voice was faint, but I could hear her clear as day, “Look if this has anything to do with what happened then you know there are better ways of-”.
“Hey Mari, trust I’m fine. I just wanna have a little fun, okay”.
“Are you sure?”, she questioned.
“Yeah”.
“...Okay”.