Scars

Ice Cream for Text Dumps

Kristie crammed another spoonful of rocky road into her mouth, her eyes fixed on the flashing screen in front of her. Tears were dried where they fell down her cheeks. Stray strands of her hair where free from her sagging ponytail. The house was freezing, therefore she wore thick sweats and pullover sweater that demanded she roll up her sleeves to remotely even find her hands.

I may not have been the best at translating sob stories, but from what I could gather, Kristie's boyfriend, James, texted her and told her that he didn't think things were working out.' She was so angry and sad that she didn't even reply. She just called me.

I wasn't exactly the best when it came to giving advice, so I brought ice cream and a chick flick. It seemed to work in cliché movies and it seemed to work now as well. I even brought Ren along, even though it was very much past her bedtime.

It was very obvious Ren had no clue what was going on in the movie, but she seemed to find it funny when the hot guy came to clean the rich woman's pool. Each time Ren laughed, Kristie had to smile, which made me feel like it was a good idea to let Ren stay awake late, even though it meant I had to sacrifice tomorrow for a cranky child. I'll probably just drop her off with her father, so he can deal with her. It was times like this that I was glad he was around.

The credits started to roll down the screen. I looked over to find Kristie asleep on the arm of the chair, the tub of rocky road still tight in her grasp. Ren leaned on her, asleep as well. I tried to stand up quietly, but the couch groaned and jolted Kristie awake, shaking Ren awake as well. Ren's lower lip jutted out as if she were about to cry, but I quickly grabbed her before she could.

Kristie sat up groggily and said, "Hey, Brin, could you, uh, drive me to school tomorrow? My ride kind of dumped me."

I didn't hesitate before nodding. "Yeah no problem. I'll come pick you up before I drop Ren off."

***

I knocked twice before Nick opened the door. I smelled coffee already wafting through the doorway. He looked confused when he saw Kristie standing there. "Everything okay?" he asked, looking slightly concerned.

I gave him a look that clearly stated "not now." He understood and opened the door wider to let the three of us inside. Ren ran to him and he picked her up to give her a hug. Kristie and I walked past him to find that Nick had company. Leaning against the counter was none other than Cook himself, drinking coffee out of a chipped mug.

Kristie laughed loudly, "What is he doing here?"

Nick chuckled as well, "Free coffee." By the counter, Cook raised his mug for emphasis. Kristie shrugged and helped herself to the coffee pot. Nick came up beside me and whispered, "Is she okay?"

I turned to him and whispered back, "James text dumped her." Nick made a disapproving face.

Cook interrupted us and said, "Hey, Nick, so is this Ren?" gesturing to her as she went over to Kristie, begging to try the coffee she was pouring in her mug. Nick nodded. "You two look so much alike it's almost scary."

Nick tried to back me up. "Yeah but it's obvious she's Brin's baby. They act exactly the same and their laughs are practically the same." I couldn't help but grin slightly. He had a very good point. I tried to avoid the conversation, so I walked over to where Kristie was pouring creamer in her mug and poured myself a cup of coffee. I drank it black, even though it burned my throat slightly.

"I would have never pinned you as a dad," Cook said after a moment of silence, creating another long moment of silence. I pretended to be preoccupied with my coffee so I didn't have to see Nick's reaction. "Oh wow. I should probably get to school. Hey do you want me to drive you guys? I can drop you back off here after school. My dad canceled today's practice because of the snow."

I turned around, "You dad?"

Cook nodded, "My dad's the football coach." Well that explains a lot. "So do you guys want a ride?" I looked over at Kristie. She just shrugged. I looked back over at Cook and nodded. "Cool. Let's go then."

As I passed Nick on the way out, he said quietly, "Don't forget about Sunday." How could I?

//Hey ya'll. Sorry these last two chapters were really short. The last chapter got next to no reads which means some of you guys are skipping. If you lovely, wonderful people could read the last (short, I promise) chapter I would be very frackin happy.

Wow I'm almost at 30 parts on this story which is weird bc I never usually make it this far without getting utterly bored with it.

Okay so I get that these past bunch of chapters have been rly rly slow but I swear things will start speeding up REALLY soon. Without giving anything away, I'll tell ya'll that I haven't even reached my climax yet. So please please please just hang in there with me bc there's going to be messed of frackin shat coming up soon.

Much love for you lovely amazing people.