As A Friend

6: Splat

As it nears 8 o'clock, my phone rings and I look to see who it is. I roll my eyes so hard that I feel a headache coming on. I decline Dominic's call so he knows I'm purposefully ignoring him. He sends me a text a few minutes later but I don't even bother looking at it. Instead, I sit and wait for Elias to tell me he's outside. When I get the call, I rush outside and into his car.

"Nice ride," I compliment his Jeep. I don't know much about cars but it doesn't take a genius to tell that this car is a good one.

"Thanks," he replies quietly. "You look good."

"Thank you," I mumble awkwardly as I silence my phone, ignoring the 23 notifications. "You, too."

"So how was your day?" I offer him a smile.

"It was great. I finished a paper," I lie. Not about the paper but about today being great. "How was yours?"

"It started out bad but it's ending pretty nicely," he replies as he nervously looks at me from the corner of his eye. I catch it and offer him a big smile. And though it all feels forced, it feels good to get away from all the craziness back at school. The drive is pretty quiet and once we arrive at Splat, he looks at me. "We have to sit in the car and eat; I hope you don't mind." I shake my head.

"No, not at all." I need to not eat like a slob. I can't risk getting ice cream on his car. I would never forgive myself.

We get out of the car and approach the line. There are two people in front of us and I dig around in my bag for my wallet. "I got it," he dismisses and I furrow my eyebrows.

"Are you sure? I don't mind. And it won't influence the way I think about you at all," I respond, knowing that a majority of the time guys insist on paying because letting a woman pay for herself is emasculating. 

"It's a four dollar ice cream cone, I got it," he says with a smile. "I asked you here so I should pay. I think that's how it works."

I put my money away. "I guess you're right."

"So what do you want?" he questions as he gazes at the menu before us.

"Can I get one scoop of Oreo ice cream in a cone?" I request, earning a fervent nod.

He orders and pays and we receive our ice cream. As we get into the car, he hands me his. "Can you hold this so I can park somewhere else? There are only three spots and I don't want to be a jerk and take up one."

"Sure," I reply as I grab his cone. I stare at the peculiar orange and white combination.

"What is this?" I blurt as he backs up the car and drives to a neighboring lot, which is empty.

"Orange creamsicle, you can try it if you want." I hesitantly lick the ice cream.

"Oh..." I mutter, wrinkling my nose slightly. It's not what I expected.

"What do you mean, 'oh?' That is probably one of the greatest non-chocolate ice cream flavors around." I don't agree with that.

I snort and shake my head. "Vanilla, strawberry, coffee, butter pecan, strawberry cheesecake, red velvet, cake batter..."

"First of all, red velvet is basically chocolate," he scoffs and I shake my head.

"It's definitely not." They taste very different.

"Oh really?" I nod quickly and he laughs.

"What's red velvet's main ingredient?" I purse my lips and glare at him.

"Shut up," I reply with a smile and he grins at me.

"It's okay, it's one of my favorite flavors," he admits as he parks the car. He shifts his seat back, turns, and looks at me. He accepts his ice cream while I struggle to move my seat back, too.