with love, always, michael clifford

cupcake.

hello everyone! my name is lavender, or lav, and you read my stories! however, i'd like to pause for a moment.

in the U.S, joe biden has set up a project that is being released in march of this year that could very well make climate change irreversible. it could ruin our planet, the only one we've got. i encourage you to sign the petition against the willow project.

(Google Willow Project Petition) and you'll find it!

say no to the willow project.

thank you, and enjoy this chapter!

( Asteria Clifford
June 5th, 9:23 AM )

"You got the hang of it, now?" I asked Henry, who nodded proudly at his work on the shaved ice machine. My arms leaned up against the counter facing the customers who happily ate their shaved ice.

"Very." He smiled proudly. "How am I doing?"

I pursued my lips. "Exceptionally." I said, "But it's only 9 in the morning."

Henry glanced up at the clock and exhaled, "It feels like it's been 5 hours." He complained.

I patted his back and smiled, "You'll be okay"

"I sure hope so."

We went on the next couple hours of doing normal shaved ice employee things. Henry complained about how bad his back hurt, and I silently complained about my hand pain. You'd think being a shaved ice employee came with no pain, but you'd be very wrong.

Henry wiped his sweaty forehead and leaned against the wall as I downed a blue raspberry plus cherry shaved ice. He grinned, "Have you ever tried coconut and cherry?"

I scrunched my nose and looked up at him with shaved ice in my mouth, "What?"

"Coconut and Cherry." He repeated.

"That sounds awful," I said but paused for a moment, "No offense."

"I take a lot of offense from that, Asteria." He gasped and put a hand to his chest. "Here, I'm gonna make one and you're gonna try."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

Henry continued to pour flavors into the shaved ice, one flavor on one side and the other on one side happily. His grin on his face made me almost happy.

He extended the bowl toward my face. "Try."

I set down my half-melted bowl of blue raspberry and cherry and took the newly made coconut and cherry from him. I took a spoonful and put it in my mouth.

After one moment of the taste hitting my tastebuds, I shrugged. "It's not bad. But it's not my number one choice,"

Henry took it back and nodded. "I get that. At least you tried it, right?"

I looked up at him for a moment and swallowed. "Yeah."

Henry and I worked for the rest of the night until it was 8 pm. It was getting dark and the moon was just slightly above the ocean, which made me decide to head down to the beach the second it hit 8:30.

"So," Henry said, throwing a rag over his shoulder and his blonde hair falling right in front of his face. "How'd I do, cupcake?"

I snorted. "Cupcake?"

"Answer my question."

I shrugged. "You did good. But I will be waiting to make my decision, you know." Henry raised an eyebrow. "Our establishment is a wonderful, hard-working shop that gives families wonderful, tasteful evenings. If you work here, you need a full background check!"

"Background check?"

"Yep." I firmly nodded. Henry rolled his eyes and went into the back locker room. I took a glance around the shop, then at the beach across the way. I began to chew the inside of my cheek.

"Hey Henry?" I called out.

"Yes, Cupcake?" He shouted back.

I rolled my eyes dramatically. "Do you wanna head to the beach with me?"

Henry peeked from behind the locker room and looked straight at me. "You're serious?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's a gorgeous night. Maybe I can give you a ride home, too?"

Henry's lips played a small smirk on them. "Sure."

Sure enough, we packed up the shop and cleaned up until the clock hit 8:30 and ran across the street to the beach where the moon was above the sky now. Henry smiled and said, "I've never been to the beach here yet."

My mouth fell open. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not." He chuckled.

We walked down closer to the waves. "You moved to Hawaii and you haven't been to the beach yet?"

He shook his head and I shook mine too. "Insane. I've been going to the beach since forever. My mom was a pro-surfer and grew up near the coast of Australia."

"That's cool," Henry nodded, sitting down in the sand. "I go to the beach all the time back home."

"In the UK?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No, I go to a boarding school in New Zealand and there are a decent amount of beaches there." Henry said, his eyes fixated on the ocean. "I never go home home."

I chewed my lip and nodded. He seemed a bit upset about his home home, so I didn't pry. By an hour later, we had spoken about everything. A refresher from our lives.

We got back up to my car and I drove him home easily. He lived not far, and told me he just walked to work most of the time— which I rolled my eyes at and told him I'd drive him.

"Thanks for the ride, Cupcake." Henry smirked.

"Yeah, yeah." I smiled. "Bye Henry."

Later, I was finally home. My dad had lectured me about being out so late, and I just said I was at work and went upstairs. I had been staring at the contact information for Henry, debating on whether to text him.

In the end I chose what I was going to say.

Henry (cute british guy.) 
You start at 2 pm on wednesday, cupcake.