waiting for superman | book three

six

She says, "Yeah, he's still coming, just a little bit late"

After comforting Chloe for twenty minutes, Zach finally leaves.

Chloe sits on the window seat in her room, looking out to Josh's bedroom window. The windows that they always keep open so they can talk to each other effortlessly. Or at least that they used to keep open.

As she sits there, Zach's words sink in. Chloe was in denial. She didn't want to believe that she had actually broken the love of her life's heart, but she knows that she did. She had known that she did since the moment Cody let the cat out of the bag on Sunday night.

She had to make it right somehow. Josh is the only person she has ever loved and that has ever truly loved her back. She couldn't lose that.

Chloe pulls her white iPhone out of her back pocket and clicks on the text messaging icon. She opens the top conversation in her inbox, the one between her and Josh, and types a message that she quickly sends before she can change her mind.

JOSH,
CAN WE MEET AT THE BASKIN ROBBINS BY THE PARK? I NEED TO TALK TO YOU. MEET ME THERE IN HALF AN HOUR? PLEASE COME.
-CHLOE

She throws a red sweater on over her white spaghetti strap tank top and brushes her hair back into a neat high ponytail. She scurries down the flight of stairs and grabs her bike from the garage.

Chloe pedals quickly, wanting nothing more to arrive at the Baskin Robbins where it all started as quickly as possible. This very ice cream shop was where Chloe and Josh went after buying their outfits for Winter Formal in December. Eating the ice cream they purchased on the bench in the park across the street was when they shared their first kiss.

-

Chloe arrives at the ice cream shop five minutes early and sits down at a table I'm the back corner. She pulls out her phone and sees that Josh read the message twenty minutes ago, five minutes after she sent it. Hope flutters in her chest at the realization that he isn't ignoring her. He may actually show up.

After five minutes, the girl working the cash register asks Chloe if she can get her anything.

"No thank you. I'm waiting for my... friend," Chloe tells her, unsure of what to call Josh. She doesn't know if Josh is still her friend, let alone her boyfriend.

Five minutes later, the hope in Chloe's heart begins to diminish. He's only five minutes late. Maybe there was traffic on the way there?

Five minutes later, the girl from the cash register brings her over a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, on the house. The petite red haired worker sees what Chloe refuses to accept, the friend she is waiting for is not coming.

Five minutes later, all remnants of hope inside Chloe is gone. Yet she still refuses to leave the ice cream parlor.

"Hey," the cash register girl says, sliding into the chair across the table from Chloe.

"He's still coming. He's just just a little bit late," Chloe murmurs, more to herself than to the employee.

"You've been waiting for twenty minutes sweetie," she whispers.

"Th-thanks for the i-ice cream," Chloe stutters, trying to hold back the tears as she walks out the front doors of the Baskin Robbins, gets on her bike, and goes home.