Ice cream parlour.

Awkward meetings.


I wake up at 11, unfortunately I'm very uncomfortable, I had many dreams in which Frank was in many many positions. Whilst naked. So I think you understand what I mean by uncomfortable. I think of everything to get it to go away, Mikey in a bikini. Grandma in a bikini. Everyone I know who's unattractive in a bikini. Eventually it works, eventually it goes away. I groan, looking at my phone, there's a message from Frank on there.

From Frank: Still alright to meet at 2?

God he's persistent.

To Frank: Yes, still cool, see you there.

I put my phone down after setting an alarm for about half one, when I'll have to leave. I get dressed and sit down to draw. I still haven't had a chance to design Franks tattoo yet.
I tap my pencil on my sketchbook unsure what to do at first. I start moving my pencil to try and get inspiration, I draw sharp lines which kind of turn into a mouth sort of shape, I draw a couple of lines in the same style.
Then it hits me, a Jack-O-Lantern, to me they are the perfect symbol for Halloween, and so fun to make. Everyone has them outside their houses in our neighbourhood, even those who don't properly celebrate Halloween, they still make their Jack-O-Lanterns and hand out candy to the adorable children and the not so adorable teenagers that go around trick or treating.
So I get my pencil moving, it takes me up until I need to leave to finish, my alarm goes off, and I turn it off. I stare at the drawing, it's perfect, well I think it is, I just hope Frank thinks so too.

I open the door to the ice cream place and look around, Frank isn't here yet. I go to the counter and the usual girl is here. "Uhm Hayley right?" I say to get her attention as she seems rather engrossed in her phone.
"Oh shit, crap, I mean shoot, sorry. We don't tend to get many customers of a Sunday."
I chuckle at her slip up. "Hey it's fine, uhm, Frank's joining me, can you make his usual?"
She smiles, kind of like a smile when someone knows a secret, but isn't going to share it no matter what you do to try and make her. "Sure, coming right up, I'll bring it over to you." I pay and make my way over to Franks usual table.
It takes about the same time for Hayley to make the ice cream as it does for Frank to show up. They approach the table at the same time, Frank sits down as Hayley places the ice cream in front of his seat. They give each other a quick smile and she scurries off as another customer enters the building.
We sit in silence for a few minutes as Frank picks at his ice cream.
"Uh, thanks for getting this for me." He says still looking down, but with a small smile on his face.
"It's no problem." I say looking around, I remember the sketch in my pocket, should I give it to him now, it might break the awkwardness of the moment. "Erm, I finished the design."
"The design?" He looked confused.
"For your tattoo." I reach into my pocket and pull it out. "If you want me to try something else then I will, but I thought this represented Halloween perfectly." I say as I push the drawing over to him.
He studies it for a few minutes, which makes me nervous, really nervous. I sit there looking at my hands just waiting for him to say something. Eventually he does. “Oh my God. Man this is fucking perfect!” He leaps out of his chair and lunges at me, throwing his arms around my neck and pulling me close. I flail a little not expecting this to be his reaction. He pulled back slightly. “Sorry, I get over excited.” He says, not letting go of my neck, and looking right into my eyes.
“It’s fine, seriously.” I say, my voice cracking a little from the closeness. I wish he wouldn’t be so close, it’s going to make it even harder for me to laugh it off when he says about him being drunk, I know I was meant to get in there first but right now I cant speak.
He keeps looking into my eyes, but shakes his head as if he realised what he was doing. Probably thought he was leading me on again, which I’d like to point out, if I didn’t know better he would be. He sits back down, his smell still seems to surround me, not making me able to speak still.
But then his words knock some sense into me. “So uh, about last night, like when I kissed you..”
“Look I get it, you were drunk, you seriously don’t have to worry about it.” I say forcing a smile on my face.
“But-”
“No buts, we’ll just forget it happened yeah? I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”
Frank looked hurt. Probably because he worked out this whole speech and I just went and stopped him saying it. “Yeah I guess. Neither do I.” He mumbled. “Look uh I have to go.” He rushes out, not giving me another glance.
Hayley walk over to me. “Where did he go?”
“I have no idea, he just got all weird and said he had to go.”
She makes a sound and walks back over to the counter. I get up and walk out, making my way back home. Before I can get far I hear a sound coming down an alleyway not fair from the ice cream parlour. I walk down to see if there’s any one there. I see a small figure curled up in a ball by the wall crying. As I get closer I realise, this isn’t just any one, this is Frank.
“Frank what’s wrong?”
His head shoots up, and he quickly wipes the tears from his eyes. “Uh nothing. I’m fine.”
“Well clearly your not.”
“Why do you even care? Just leave me alone!” He shouts anger filling his voice as he barges past me rushing down the road.
By the time I got over my shock he was long gone.

I see a screwed up piece of paper on the floor and pick it up. It’s the design I did for him. Why would he throw it on the ground?
What the fuck did I do?

Notes

Wow another update already? I hear you say. Well, My other half is at work and my babies asleep so I had some time. I'll hopefully be able to update again in the next week

Enjoy
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Most importantly. Keep Running.