I licked the ice cream slowly, savoring the feeling of the cold vanilla on my tongue. I looked across from me to see Niall licking his fast. I put my hand on his arm and urged him to slow down.
“You’re right. I hate brain freeze.” I stuck out his tongue and slid it across the surface of the ice cream and I watched some of it drip down the cone and snapped my focus back onto Niall’s mouth. Perfect and clean, he licked his lips. “Don’t you?” He asked, catching my attention.
“Uh. Don’t know, I’ve never gotten it.”
“What? That’s impossible.” He looked shocked. He shuffled around and leaned in closer to me eagerly.
“No, ha ha. It’s true. Never had one.” He dipped his finger in his ice cream and swiped some onto my face. We laughed and I did the same to him and it became almost a little ice cream fight.
We wiped ourselves off with some napkins we got from the ice cream man and for some reason, he was still laughing as hard.
“You’ve got some still.” He pointed to his chin and I touched my face confused. I couldn’t pinpoint where it was so he wiped it off slowly. His hand lingered and our eyes met. I handed him another napkin.
“Uh thanks.” I whispered. I looked around the park and realized we were totally isolated off from anyone, probably because there were no paparazzi around. Smart thinking. “I should get back to the hotel, Abby and I were supposed to rehearse today.”
“Uh, yeah yeah.” Niall’s mood shifted in some way but I decided to leave it alone.
Niall dropped me off at the hotel without another word said. When I tried to say goodbye to him, I reached out for a hug and for a moment I thought he would too, but instead he pat me on the back and left.
I sulked down the hallway to rehearse with Abby. Before entering the room, I straightened my posture and painted a smile on my face. It’s time to put my heart and soul into this competition.
