“Here’s some water.”

I snatched the bottle out of Gabriel’s hand and took a long drink, then glared darkly at him.

“Babe, please tell me what’s wrong.”

“I need to see that magician.”

“He’ll be back.”

Behind Gabriel, Eleanor and Claire exchanged worried glances, their fingers interlaced while they murmured to each other.

The crowd for the next show was already gathering, so I forced myself to my feet and marched toward the stage. Gabriel followed me, clutching weakly at my arm and insisting that I stop. I pushed forward to the backstage area despite him insisting that we weren’t allowed back there.

“Where is he?” I demanded of the jugglers about to go on stage.

“Who now?”

“The magician!”

He flinched, and I had to glance away.

“Please. I have to talk to him.”

The lead juggler said, “I’m sorry, but you can’t be back here. Steve’s gone, anyway. His next show isn’t until tonight.”

“What?”

“Sarah, please–”

“There was some kind of personal matter that he had to attend to,” the juggler said. “He didn’t say what it was, just that it was urgent and we needed to cover for him. Look, I have to go, but whatever business you have can wait until later, okay?”

I ground my teeth together and stormed off. What was I supposed to do now? There was no way that I could go through my whole day like this. Tears welled up in the corner of my eyes, but I did my best to ignore them.

“Sarah, stop,” Gabriel said, planting himself right in front of me. “What’s going on? Did that guy do something to you?”

My throat tightened. How was I supposed to tell him what was going on? He’d think I was crazy.

“I promise I’ll explain,” I whispered, “but I have to find her. She’s the only other person who knows…”

I pushed past him, ignoring his frustrated cry. He was right on my tail as I made my way closer to the entrance of the park. That useless fortune teller had said something about a great change. Maybe she was a fraud, but maybe she knew–

It was gone. The fortune teller tent was gone! There was an empty space in between stalls where it had been! I walked right into the center and looked around, desperate for any sign that it had ever been there.

“Sarah, tell me what is going on, please?”

“I…”

What was I supposed to do now? It was going to be an entire day before the magician returned and I could get some answers. He was going to reverse what he’d done to me, but I didn’t deserve to be stuck as a girl all day! Was I supposed to just sit around and mope? Could I even enjoy myself like this?

Gabriel was still staring at me with a look of concern I’d never seen before. If I insisted on moping about and just waiting, it was going to ruin his day as well. Could I put on a brave face for him?

“Sorry,” I said, walking over and folding my arms. “I guess I got a little… It’s not important. Can we just forget about this and pretend it didn’t happen… Gabe?”

His expression softened and he took one of my hands.

“I’m worried about you, babe. I’ve never seen you act like this.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.” Eleanor and Claire had found us, as well. “What does everyone want to do, now?”

“Actually, I was hoping that you and I could spend some time alone.”

My stomach bottomed out.

“N-No! I mean, we only have the day, right? We should hang out together and make the most of the time we have.”

“It’s fine, Sarah,” Eleanor said, leaning up against Claire. “There’s plenty of time for that. You two have fun.”

Claire nodded. “You should spend some time with your boyfriend. This is your special place, right?”

I glanced down, face burning, but nodded. Our once-in-a-year opportunity couldn’t go to waste. If I had to pretend to be my best friend’s girlfriend for him to be happy, then so be it. The man responsible would return eventually, and I’d have my chance to fix this.

“You two have fun,” Claire said, wrapping an arm around Eleanor’s waist and leading her away.

Gabriel gave my hand a small kiss, making me feel even warmer as my heart pounded in my chest. I was strong enough to get through this day. The only person who could ruin this experience for me was myself, and I didn’t have to let that happen. When all of this returned to normal, I would still have a fond memory of a day that didn’t quite go as planned.

“I’m still a little nauseous,” I admitted. “Can we sit down for a bit and let my stomach settle?”

“Absolutely. I’ll get you some more water.”

We returned to the stage from before so I could sit down in the back row of benches. Gabriel stepped away, and I wrapped my arms around my stomach and groaned. The jugglers on stage were doing a comedy routine as part of their act. Despite how awful I felt, they did get one or two chuckles out of me.

When Gabriel returned, he sat down beside me and passed me a water bottle.

“Thank you.”

My stomach refused to settle. Gabriel was sitting a lot closer to me than he usually did. Even though I found myself chuckling (and even openly laughing at one point) at the routine, he still looked grim and worried. This was a side to him I’d never had directed at me before and it had my insides in knots.

“—and he said ‘lasagna!’” the juggler cried.

I doubled over in laughter. There was no helping it; these guys were just plain funny. When I came up for air, Gabriel was still studying me intently but with a soft expression I wasn’t familiar with. He rubbed my arm and I gave my best approximation of a smile.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah, I think I am. Thank you.”

“Glad to hear it.”

He pushed a stray hair behind my ear and I had to bite my lip. Actually, I didn’t think I hated being on the receiving end of Gabriel’s affections. It was a lot more intimate than I was used to. Guys weren’t really allowed to treat each other like this. Would he, if we lived in a more affectionate world?

When Gabriel placed his hand on mine, a tingle ran through my chest. It was so strange. I didn’t want this to stop happening.

That was wrong, though . He thought I was his girlfriend when I was actually Eleanor’s boyfriend. I had to put distance between him and me until things went back to normal. It would be the right thing to do by Eleanor, the right thing to do by Claire, and especially the right thing to do by Gabriel.

Alright, I needed to move my hand. It was the only correct thing to do in that situation.

I couldn’t do it.

“Do you want to check out our favorite place after this?” Gabriel whispered.

A smile emerged before I could contain myself. It was tradition that we go on the old mill ride every year. I looked forward to that more than the trip itself. There was nothing more I wanted to do than head over there right away. Toward the end of the ride, when it got all dark, we’d probably lean close together, and he’d turn to face me and—

“Not yet,” I said, not looking at him.

I couldn’t betray my friends like that, especially not Eleanor.

“Is it your stomach?”

“...Yeah. I think it needs a bit more time to settle before we do that. Maybe later this evening.”

When the jugglers were done, we stood and wandered for a bit. People all around us were dressed up in casual clothes, Renaissance costumes, or strange nerdy cosplay. The paths through the park were windy and circuitous to begin with, and getting through the crowds meant circling around large groups of people. It was taking a while to get anywhere.

We came up to the old shooting gallery that we used to hang out at all the time. Did this version of me–Sarah–have the same history with Gabe… Gabriel… that I remembered? If who was dating whom had changed, everything was up in the air. For all I knew, I had younger siblings at home now that my parents’ firstborn wasn’t the son they wanted!

“The line for the shooting gallery isn’t very long,” Gabriel said. “Have you ever shot a gun before?”

My heart sank, and I shrugged.

“It’s not that hard. You wanna check it out?”

“...Yeah.” I was in the mood to shoot something.

Inside, an attendant passed me a BB-gun. I took my place in front of the target, and to my surprise, Gabriel walked right up behind me and placed his hands on my arms. My demand for an explanation came out as a stammered mess as my face turned hot pink.

“Okay, so hold your arms like this,” he instructed, moving them himself. “You want to hold the gun up close to your shoulder so you can lean your head and aim down the barrel.”

He was right behind me, practically whispering into my ear. I knew how to fire a gun! I was a very masculine young man! The right thing to do would have been to sneer and push Gabriel away before showing him how it was done.

Instead, I let him fix my posture, chewing on my tongue and turning away so he couldn’t see how flustered I’d become.

I fired off a few test BBs and Gabriel clapped his hands together, telling me, “That’s how you do it!” I couldn’t help but smile to myself while he picked up his own BB rifle and took a spot next to me. He flashed me a stupid grin that I couldn’t help but return.

Gabriel tipped an imaginary hat and said in a terrible Western accent, “Miss Sarah Narang, how about we show these rustlers who they’re messing with?”

I couldn’t stifle a giggle as I replied in an equally bad Southern Bell impression, “Why, Mister Jones, I thought you’d never ask. But I can’t imagine a girl like me keeping up with an experienced cowboy like yourself.”

“Just do your best, darlin’.”

He winked at me and I nearly broke down into a giggle fit before turning to face the target. We fired off BB after BB, making awful cowboy quips every so often. This was… so much more fun than I was used to having with him.

“I swear to you, Miss Narang, when this business is good and done we’ll settle down together on a homestead of our own and raise a few kids.”

“Shut up.” I snickered. “Don’t talk about kids.”

“My apologies, little lady.”

He was being super affectionate, and it was getting to me, but I still wanted to do right by Eleanor. I couldn’t betray her for my best friend even if he was a boy! The fact that nobody would remember this was no excuse.

But it was a lot of fun.

I mean, as long as we didn’t kiss, I wasn’t really betraying my girlfriend, right?

She knows that jokes aren’t the same thing as being serious.

“Mister Jones,” I said, faking a small cough, “If I survive this illness, promise me you’ll take me to see the Pacific so I may scatter my mother’s ashes like I promised.”

“I swear to you, my dear. No harm will come to you while I still breathe.”

“Even in death, you would be my guardian angel.”

“Death would be in for one Hell of a rodeo if he thinks he can take me from you, Miss Narang.”

We were almost doubled over from laughter when our time ran out. I wanted to do it again, and the line was short enough that the attendant allowed it. Gabriel, however, stepped away.

“I’ll just watch from the side,” he told me.

I found myself blushing yet again. My legs were trembling a little, my mouth dry. Never before had I been treated like… like the girl in a relationship, and yet I hadn’t been able to stop grinning since I decided to roll with it.

Focused as I was on racking up a high score, I didn’t see Gabriel leave the shooting gallery. I stepped outside and scanned around, spotting him waving to me as he approached. In his hand was a small plush dragon.

“I know you’re not super into this nerd stuff but I thought it would be weird not getting you a gift.”

“I…” He pushed the stuffed animal into my arms. “T-Thank you?”

My heart was hammering against my ribs. What was wrong with me? I shouldn’t be having such a strong reaction over something so innocuous.

We started walking, or Gabriel did and I followed while staring down at the stuffed dragon. It seemed to have no answers for me. I was so preoccupied that the sound of hooting and hollering didn’t register at first.

“Aww, look at that. They’re so cute it’s gross.”

I bristled and looked up at the gang of high school boys we were about to pass. They were clinging to a bench and, from their distant gazes and listless movements, they’d smuggled in some beer of their own or had a supplier on the inside. I recognized a couple of the jerks from school but not by name.

“Why don’t you kiss, huh?” one of them asked, making smooching noises while the others roared with laughter.

“Cute toy. Didn’t know you were into children, Gabriel.”

My fingers wrapped tightly around the dragon as a fire erupted in my chest. Snarling, I made to confront them. To my surprise, Gabriel stepped in front of me and started cussing them out. I stopped, stunned.

He finished with, “I know a couple of you would get a lot of shit at home if a cop brought you home drunk. So how about you knock it off before I call security?”

A couple of the boys sneered, but they turned away and left us be.

“Sorry about that,” Gabriel said, taking my hand and walking away.

I glanced back over my shoulder at the boys, but they didn’t watch us go. I chewed on my tongue. I wasn’t really a girl, but a girl should be able to defend herself and not rely on a man to help her, right? But the thought of Gabriel rushing to my rescue… it made my heart flutter. A stranger doing it would be creepy, but Gabriel wasn’t a stranger.

It was kind of nice not having to be the strong partner for once.

Boy or girl, I could never admit that to anybody.

“Are you alright?” Gabriel asked. “You’re quiet. I’m sorry that happened.”

“No, it’s fine, really. They’re not the first jerks I’ve had to deal with. Still, thank you for standing up to them.”

He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, saying, “Of course. I’ve got your back.”

I was going to have a sunburn if he kept making me this warm.

We kept walking for a bit after that, Gabriel focusing on the third party shops set up everywhere. I didn’t really even notice them. All I could think about was Gabriel’s hand hanging loosely near mine.

My shirt was clinging to my back from sweat. My breathing was shallow. I gulped and wrapped my fingers around his.

It was only temporary.