Oh, Pineapples.

28: Never too cold for ice-cream.

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"...and i don't want to want you, but in my dreams I seem to be more honest-and I must admit you've been in quite a few,"
- billie eilish, 'Halley's comet'

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"Where the hell were you?" Cassandra exclaimed.

"Out," I walked past her to make my way upstairs.

"Out, where? If you're gonna be leaving mud all over the house with your Docs you could at least give me an explanation," she shook her hands in the air dramatically.

"Well if you were gonna put some fucking anxiety pills in my coffee you could at least give me an explanation, but you know, here we are." I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Okay. I deserve that, I'm sorry, okay? At the time, I was dumb enough to think that was what was best for you,"

"Or what dad thought was best for me?" I shot back.

"Yeah, more or less. But still, it wasn't all him. I don't know, I think I was just scared that the memories-the PTSD... from what happened in Ridgewood would come back to you, or something along those lines. I had a one-on-one session with your therapist, Riley and she gave me a prescription for the pills, and well, I didn't think twice before telling your dad,"

"Cassandra, you could have at least told me, first."

"But Jasmine, let's be honest for a moment. When the whole...incident happened, you acted like you were fine-like everything was normal, and if you won't even admit to yourself that what Travis did to you was really messed up and left you with some scars then how were you gonna ever recover?"

"Recover? Cassandra, I'm fine, I don't-need," I let out a shaky breath, "...I'm fine..." I broke out into hysterical sobs.

"Oh, sweetheart. Come here," she hugged me and then let me bury my head in the crook of her neck as bawled my eyes out.

"Why am I so angry?" Most of my voice was swallowed by her polyester sweater.

"You're gonna be okay, baby." She stroked my hair slowly. I was finally letting it all out, and maybe I would be okay. Maybe it would be over soon.

"It's never too cold for ice cream, right?" Cassie said after a while, reminding me of the times I would get hurt when I was a kid and Cassie would say the exact same thing when I cried.

"Never ever," my laugh came out a bit more watery than I liked.

With that we both stood up and walked to the kitchen shortly before she took out two tubs of ice cream from the deep freezer along with two spoons from the cabinet.

"I'd missed this," she shoved a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "I almost thought you'd never talk to me, like ever."

"Don't push it. I'm still low-key mad," I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah okay we've already been through that," an unamused expression on her face.

"But still i can't help but feel as though you were crying about way more than just the pills. Is this about a boy? Do I have to beat someone up?" She pointed her spoon at me.

I laughed.

"Two. It's about two boys." I sighed.

"Huh." She sat upright. "You've been really social haven't you?" She said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at her "Bryson's mad at me," I start, realizing that a lot has happened over the three weeks.

"Why?"