candy lovers | aspir | ✓

22 | pop rocks

For the day-dreamers,

"Never let it be said that to dream is a waste of your time; for dreams are our realities in waiting. In dreams we plant the seeds of our future."

- Unknown.

_________

CH 22

"One cookie dough ice cream please," I tell Ramos as I hand him over the money.

"Oh, not your usual Nerdy Bum ice-cream?" He teases, as he scoops the ice cream into the paper cup.

"Well, actually speaking this is your most popular flavor, right?" I take the cup from him and say, "I just want to see how good it is."

I return to the table that my friends are seated on. It's been a long time since we've all come to Wacky Jacky's so we decided to come here today. All of us, including Alex.

"So then, this other guy, Damion, he passes the ball over to me, but I didn't even notice. And then suddenly I look down and I see the ball at my feet and I panic. I blindly kick it and somehow it ended up being a goal!" He explains his first ever training at Appleton High.

"Sounds more like luck, than talent," Ian says in his taciturn manner.

Chase grins widely, reveling in the feeling of someone else's feeling of dislike towards Alex.

"It isn't luck, my head just wasn't in the game at that time." He laughs a little to show us that what Ian said hasn't really affected him.

Chase opens his mouth to reply, however, a loud, ear-splitting scream makes us all sit up straight.

"What the hell..." My eyes widen in fear and we all turn our heads around trying to search for the source of the noise.

However, Ian reacts first. "Phoebe..." He mutters as he roughly pushes himself against the table. He stands up and races down in to the kitchen.

Leanna looks at Ian's retreating figure, a sly smile curving onto her face. "Well who would have thought?" she muses.

I quickly walk into the kitchen, and swing open the metal door, only to gasp in surprise.

Ian is kneeling down on the floor, with Phoebe in his hands. She's a crying, sniveling mess, and he keeps rubbing back her hair, softly whispering, "it's alright... It's okay." He's either oblivious to our presence, or he chose to ignore it.

My heart clenches together as I take in the sight before me. Layla pushes herself in, and she's about to launch into a string of questions. I can see by the way her shoulders heave up, but before she can begin, I place a hand on her forearm. "Shh..."

She opens her mouth in order to protest, but quickly shuts it close after a second.

"Did you know about this?" I whisper to Chase.

"I kind of suspected it..." He says, tapping his chin in thought. "After all, they do say opposites attract, right?"

"Yeah, but I didn't think this much of a scale would count."

"Should we leave them?" Brian whispers. "It looks like they need some privacy."

"I think we should," Layla agrees as she looks at them, one last time. "Phoebe's in good hands."

"But why did she scream?" I ask curiously as we all step out.

"I saw what happened," Ramos interjects. "I was just going to get some more paper cups from the kitchen when I saw her drop something to the floor. She quickly bent to pick it up, only to see that it was broken. Shattered."