Ice cream
sounded like a splendid idea, and
God, was it.
So, I caved,
so what?
I should be allowed to accept the things
my friend offers me.
Maybe my heart hurt from rejection,
but it was nothing shoveling
cold dairy into my gullet with
that same friend
can’t fix.

“So, I ****** up,”
I spoke up.
My shoulders tensed and my grip around my spoon would surely leave an imprint for a minute.
“While it most certainly is a big deal-
a huge deal-
it’ll get better,”
I swallowed.
Not mint chip,
but saliva that I hadn’t even realized accumulated.
“It will get better. Right?”
I looked to my friend for advice.
Sure, it tended to be
less than helpful,
but it was advice nonetheless.

“Well, I,”
He leaned against his forearms on the
countertop,
holding his own spoon in one hand and
bowl in the other.
“Yeah.”

“That sounds confident,”
I remarked, but I creased my eyebrows.
It would get better.
Right?

“Yes. Yeah. It will get better.”
He gave me a smile and leaned back up;
the stool legs whined as he shifted against the counter.

It was consolation,
kind of,
but it still was consolation.
I’d completely biffed on confessing my
undying love and had basically hit rock bottom.
And you know what they say:
“the next step above rock bottom is eating
ice cream
with your bros.”
I stared at the green clump of
ice cream
in my bowl.
Some chips were sludging out of it due to it melting.

“I do envy you,”
I tossed my words to him,
though my face was
still
aimed down and at the bowl.

“Why’s that?”

I chuckled and shook my head before
picking up a scoop of
ice cream.
“You don’t have to deal with rejection as
pathetic as mine,”
with that I bit the
ice cream
off my spoon, though avoided scraping my teeth against the metal.

I couldn’t help but notice how he avoided my observation the same way.

“Yeah,”
he chuckled after some time,
“I don’t.”

I raised an eyebrow.
Something felt off in my stomach, and it wasn’t the countless bowls of mint chocolate chip
ice cream
I had consumed.
“What?”
I plastered on a smile.
“Got some secret love life I don’t know about?
A little crush on a girl?”

He scoffed and punched my shoulder.
It didn’t hurt.
“Nahh,”
he rolled his eyes and ate a bite of his
ice cream.
He swallowed before continuing.
“That’s not for me,”
his voice lowered.
He must’ve noticed me staring because he shoved my bowl closer to me and looked away quicker than the speeds I drove at.
“Focus on your
ice cream.
You’ve practically eaten the whole tub of
mint chip anyways.”

I narrowed my eyes at the back of his head.
“Uhuh.”

Odd.