high society !

the boys go to the fair, zee gets motion sickness (but it’s not from the ride.)

it was a few weeks since The Incident, and thankfully, things seemed to blow over eventually. the county fair was in town, and the boys couldn’t be more excited! mitch most of all! he’d been to the fair every year for as long as he could remember. he’d ridden every ride, played every game, and probably eaten twice his weight in fair food. there was no food he loved more than the stuff from the fair, no matter how disgusting it was. cotton candy and popcorn, and deep-fried everything. it almost sickening, but as gross as it was, he loved it. and he was absolutely thrilled to be going with a group of friends who were just as easily entertained and didn’t care much about the questionable safety of the county fair rides that creaked and groaned when anyone set foot in them.
the boys had made a plan to ride every ride and play every game they could. it was just a boys outing; several hours, just four guys being guys.
they decided to hit the walk-through fun house first, since the line was short. it was one of those circus themed metal contraptions with bright colors multiple floors.
the entrance was this spinning tunnel contraption. the boys laughed as they managed to step through it. it was a lot harder than it looked!
inside the fun house it was bright and colorful, and there were several rooms to explore; rooms with psychedelic designs on the walls. a room full of mirrors that changed the way you looked when you went through them.
it all made rex a little nervous. it was awfully high up, and he could feel the structure creaking and shaking beneath them. the colors hurt his eyes and all of the mirrors made him feel a little bit dizzy.  
“d-ray.” he whispered, gently tapping his arm.
“what’s up?”
“can we go sit down after this?”
d-ray nodded, putting a hand on rex’s shoulder.
something about the whole exchange was a little…off-putting to zee. he’d noticed how rex seemed to cling to d-ray lately. and d-ray was acting off too.
d-ray had always seemed so insensitive towards rex, and all of the sudden he was being nice? a little too nice, zee thought.
they finally approached the exit, which was a large slide, which, being total fools, they all decided to go down at once.
a fairground worker yelled at them for this, but they just laughed and ran off.
“hey, guys. rex’s feeling overwhelmed. we’re gonna go sit somewhere quiet.”
“okay!” zee grinned.
mitch and zee began to follow them off, but d-ray stopped them.
“just us rn, we’ll meet you in a little bit.”
the short boy’s mouth felt dry.
“guess it’s just us, man.” mitch joked.
zee chuckled nervously.
“yeah. guess so.”
mitch and zee walked around, deciding to go look for something to do.
they decided to ride a few of rides— a mini roller coaster, a spinning swing thing, and eventually, the sky tram.
however, zee really, really wished he hadn’t gotten on that sky tram.
a few cars in front of him, he was able to catch a glimpse of two figures. a shorter one with shoulder length brown hair, and a taller one was blonde. they were chatting, smiling, and laughing with one another, huddled close together, feet dangling.
“it’s d-ray! with rex!” he whispered angrily to mitch.
“they lied! they said they were going somewhere to sit down because rex was having one of his little panic attacks or something from the fun house!”
“maybe it’s not them!” mitch suggested.
he was pretty sure it was, but he had a feeling he knew what was going on here, so he didn’t say anything to zee.
“that’s true…i can’t tell for sure.” zee shrugged.
the ride let off a few minutes later, and the two boys wandered the fair a little more.
zee had eventually calmed down.
that was until they walked past one particular ride.
it was a water boat ride— more specifically a tunnel of love. the whole thing was pink, and the boats were shaped like swans. there was a tunnel over one half of the ride that released into the other half, which was uncovered.
right as mitch and zee walked by, one of the swan boats emerged from the tunnel, and sure enough, d-ray and rex were sitting inside it.
but not only were they sitting in it—
rex was wearing d-ray’s denim jacket. they were holding hands.
zee looked up at his friend, eyes getting a little bit watery,, and mitch pulled him aside to wait for their friends to exit the ride.
when they got off, mitch and zee met up with them again.
“what’s up, guys?” d-ray laughed. rex held his arm, saying nothing, but he had this big smile on his face, something that he rarely showed.
“not a lot, man! rex’s calmed down.” d-ray grinned.
“i see that!” mitch laughed.
“me and zee were just headed for the dizzy dragons. you boys wanna go? or just d-ray? it might not be a good ride for rex.”
“hell yeah!!”
rex waited by the fence while zee, mitch, and d-ray got on.
“so…” began d-ray, grabbing hold of the wheel to make the dragon spin faster.
he began. zee felt his stomach jump to his throat. before d-ray had even finished.
“me and rex. well. i think we’re… y’know.”
“good for you!” mitch chirped, but zee didn’t know what to say.
“i wasn’t quite sure about it at first. y’know? after prom night?”
“do NOT remind me.” mitch groaned. “i washed my sheets twice after that.”
“prom night?!” zee’s eyes widened. “did i miss something?”
d-ray laughed.
“oh, you missed a lot.”
“…like what?” asked zee, who was looking a little pale and a little upset.
“well. rex lost his virginity, for one.”
d-ray seemed to light up a little as he spoke. the look on his face just made zee even more upset. between the spinning of the dragon and the situation, he felt horribly sick.
“he’s actually really sweet.” d-ray mused, smiling his crooked smile.
“he’s shy but when he likes you a lot it’s adorable. and he gives amazing hugs. and god, he has these eyes—“
“hey, d-ray, you might wanna stop spinning that thing.” mitch suggested, gesturing to the third friend. zee was pressed against the wall of the dragon, as pale as a ghost.
when the ride stopped, he staggered to the nearby restroom, and went inside.
“shit.” mitch sighed.
“you guys go wander around or something, im gonna go check up on zee.”
after rex and d had left, hand in hand, mitch entered the grimy public bathroom, which was empty apart from the big stall, where zee sat on the floor, now unproductively retching.
“can you let me in?” mitch asked.
“no.” a sniffle.
“please? i wanna talk to you.”
zee struggled to his feet, flushed the toilet with a grimace, and hesitantly opened the door.
immediately, mitch noticed his eyes were puffy and glistening, and his cheeks were red, as if he’d been crying.
swallowing back another heave, zee sat back down, resting his cheek on the toilet seat.
“hey man, tell me what’s up.”
“i’m fine, mitch. just got sick from the ride.”
“bullshit, zee, you’re obviously upset about something.”
the brunette huffed. “i’m not! just leave me alone!”
“zee, man. is this about rex and d-ray?”
immediately zee broke down in tears.
mitch knelt down beside him, pulling the sobbing boy into a tight hug.
“do you wanna talk about it?” he asked in a hushed tone.
he managed to stop crying for a moment.
“you promise not to tell the others?” he choked out, voice shaky.
“promise.”
“mitch” his chest heaved, followed by a couple of other words that he seemed to swallow, unable to get out.
“what was that?”
“mitch, i’m gay!” zee began to lean towards the toilet, thinking he was about to be sick again, when mitch pulled him into a tight hug.
“oh. that’s okay, man.”
“everyone always tells me that but for all my life i’ve been told it’s not. i feel dirty. and i don’t know who i am, and who i want to be. i’m so confused, mitch, i just want to be normal—“
“you’re fine, you’re fine.” the blonde comforted him.
“i know it’s hard. especially with your background. but even if the whole world’s against you, you’ve got me, and you’ve got rex, and d-ray, and—“ he paused, realizing that more tears had sprung to zee’s eyes.
“thanks mitch.” he sighed, but didn’t look up, and he stayed seated, knees tucked up to his chest.
mitch leaned in to give zee a hug, when zee suddenly turned to him and began to wail again.
“i fuckking hate him, mitch!” he sobbed, burying half of his face into the blonde man’s shirt.
“all this time! i thought he was straight!”
“what do you mean?”
“d-ray! all this time, i thought i didn’t have a chance because he was straight! but apparently he’s not and i find this out because now he’s in love with rex! and somehow that makes it worse.”
“oh, zee.”
“i want to go home now. i don’t think i can be around them for a while, man.”