Of Strawberries and Gum

Prompt: Blind Date

Prompt from @NikkiMoller

I took my order of Double Chocolaty Chip Crème Frappe from the counter and occupied the first empty seat I spotted. It was a seat beside the window, perfect spot so I can be on the lookout for my mysterious date.

After my nasty break up with Ash I was gloomy for two weeks. I locked myself up in my room and spent the days writing depressing love songs. It was pathetic I know, but Ash and I have been together for three years. Ok so it might have been an unhealthy relationship but what did it matter. I liked Ash a lot, we were similar in so many ways; I trusted him, I knew he wouldn't lie to me or betray me. Both Ash and I grew up in the slums, that was how we met. We were both poor, we couldn't afford what we wanted so we stole. Soon we were notorious, everyone in our poor neighborhood knew about us. We became rebellious; we were always suspended from school for one thing or the other. We were the bad boys, we formed a gang; every night we'd run through the rich part of our town and stole what we could manage. We started exploring our bodies at fourteen; I guess that's when we officially started dating.

But then after entering high school I met Simone. She changed me and helped me with my trust issues; she noticed my musical talents and hooked me up with a great music teacher, she made me realize my wrong doings and she showed me the right way. And while I was improving my song writing skills, Ash was getting himself in more trouble. As the years continued I slowly started to drift away from Ash, I noticed how Ash was a bad influence on me but he was my best friend and my boyfriend. I didn't want to break it off. Ash must have realized it too; while he wanted to drop out of school and join some street gang I was seriously thinking of my future. At 16 I walked in on Ash having sex with a girl in my room.

After my melodramatic behavior I went around sleeping with as many people as I could, I wanted to forget Ash and his horrible betrayal. I built a name for myself in school, Marshall Lee the playboy. It was really easy to forget the pain with alcohol and sex. This went on for a whole year, until my good friend Fiona found me wasted one morning in my room. She was pissed off and demanded I changed my lifestyle immediately. That was tough; she watched me like a hawk and nagged at me when I skipped class. She scared away most of my sex friends (fought the rest in a wrestling match) and disposed of all the alcohol I had. I was mad at her and we bickered about it a lot. That is until one day she came up with a weird theory. Out of the blue she diagnosed me with broken heart and said that the only cure is love. After that she'd tried to convince me to go on this blind date for days, the only reason I agreed to it at the end is because she promised to stop lecturing my life style if the date didn't go well.

And that's why I was here; sitting at Starbucks waiting for my so called date whose identity I still don't know. That bitch Fiona didn't bother to tell me anything about him...or her. I don't even know their fucking gender! I let out a heavy sigh and looked around the café again; they were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago. Talk about tardiness. I took a sip from my frappe just as the main door opened and a weirdo walked in. His hair was bright pink, you'd think he's a punk but one look at his clothes you know he's a nerd. He stood in queue dressed in preppy clothes that looked expensive, a pink messenger bag rested around his shoulders while his hands were busy carrying stacks of books that looked heavy.

When it was his turn the guy took two steps towards the register before tripping on thin air and falling splat on his face. All his books and papers were sent flying from his hands, they were now scattered across the floor. I chuckled lightly at the scene; they guy stood up in embarrassment and kept on apologizing as he picked up his stuff from the floor before finally making his order.

Clumsy dweeb, I laughed to myself

As the nerd waited for his drink he started looking around the café as if searching for someone when suddenly his eyes fell on me. He stared at me with his thick rimmed glasses, I stared back challenging him.

What the hell did this guy want?

Our eye contact was only broken when the barista called out his name. It sounded like Gumbum. The nerd picked his drink up with great difficulty and started walking towards me. Oh hell no!

It didn't take rocket science to figure this out, that clumsy dweeb, sorry excuse for a nerd was my fucking date!

"Hello." He said when he reached my table; he set his drink and stack of books and papers on my table before sitting down. "You're Marshall Lee aren't you? I'm Gumball, you heard about me from Fiona right? I'm your date." He added shyly

You've got to be kidding me!

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