Chimerical

Ice Cream Sundae

"Standing there, staring at the long shelves crammed with books, I felt myself relax and was suddenly at peace." -Helene Hanff

✽ ❃ ❋

Her ice cream sundae of a day has already been so horrible, starting with her mother nitpicking at every one of Joy's flaws. Then, she messaged her friends in need of help and comforting words, though none of them replied due to perhaps being too busy and could care less about her plight. The cherry on top was her public meltdown in the grocery store.

It has all been too much for her. The whole week, school has been stressing her, her friends don't seem to care about her, and she just couldn't take it. To cry in itself is embarrassing, but to have everyone staring at you while you're sobbing in the cereal aisle is just beyond mortifying. She prided herself on being strong and easily able to move past her feelings, but the reality is her feelings always end up caving in on her and leaves her feeling rattled.

Joy couldn't just stand there crying, so she ran back to her car and managed to compose myself using her stash of tissues and pictures of cute kittens. Somehow, she managed to calm herself down to be able to drive to the nearby library.

Joy walked through the door, inhaling the smell of books and lavender air freshener. Seeing all those books reassured her ever since she was a child and needed a place to find comfort. It was a small happiness knowing that the books and their words ate always by her side, even when the rest of the world wasn't.

She was just ready to head to her favorite polka-dotted armchair in the corner, only to find it taken by a young girl. No, no, no. Her day has already been so terrible, must her favorite chair be taken too? Joy simply sighed and resolved to look around for a new book or two to buy, for she needed to get out of her reading slump.

She scavenged through the YA fiction aisle and was about to grab the latest Raven Boys novel, when she noticed the armchair has been emptied. Her eyes widened and she hastened to the seat, with her book in hand.

Right before she found reach it, a shape dashed in front of her and sat in the seat. Her eyes blinked and she saw before her a beautiful specimen of a man with pretty hair and smooth skin, otherwise known as Kevin. But that's not the point, she must get her chair back.

"Excuse me, I believe this is my chair."

He simply raises his eyebrows and shrugged. "Well," he said slowly, " I believe your name isn't written on this chair, so it's free for anyone to use, including me."

Her face became more furrowed as she glowered at the smirking man, "Excuse you, if you must know, this is my favorite spot in the whole library and it's my favorite place to sit down, so please can you move?"

He simply winked at her and replied, " Well, you could sit in my lap, if you like. It's nearly as cozy as the chair."

She simply rolled her eyes and resigned to finding another spot to relax. It was simply not worth her time arguing over a chair especially with that imbecile. Joy settled down in her chair and opened up her book, her eyes needy for the sight of comforting words.

Then all of sudden, her book got snatched out of her hands and she found herself staring into Kevin's dark chocolatey eyes.

"Surely, you can't possibly find this book more interesting than talking to me," he said haughtily, "I'm far more worthy of your admiration."

Joy simply snatched her book back and gathered her stuff up. She stood up from her chair and walked off to the counter to check out her books.

Kevin ran after her, bag in tow, asking," Joy? What happened? Did I say something wrong?"

Joy just walked off and just wanted to get back to her car and drive home, where she could drink a comforting cup of hot cocoa and watch her favorite shows in peace.

Kevin ran after her and touched her shoulder, asking "Joy, are you okay?"

Joy turned around to face him with tears filling her eyes.

"No, I'm not! But you wouldn't know that, you idiot, what with you gallivanting all around with your friends and acting so damn stubborn and so unobservant of those around you. All I wanted was to come to the library to get some peace and you had to show up and be your annoying self and gosh, just leave me alone!"

Kevin just stood still and watched her with a surprised look on her face, unsure of what to do or say. Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him.

Joy struggled against him, not wanting to give into her weakness of how she simply just wanted to sink into Kevin's hug. Instead, he just held her tighter and patted her forehead.

"I'm sorry for not being there for you and bothering you. I'm an arse, aren't I? You're probably just muttering all those insults you had stored up for me, I'm sure."

Joy gave a small smile as Kevin released her from the hug.

"Gosh, it's like you know when I'm pissed off at you and just have all these charms to prevent my wrath."

Kevin winked at her and replied, "What can I say? I'm quite the charmer, you know. Say, you want to get some ice cream? I know you're desperate for some, along with my kisses."

Joy rolled her eyes and said," Shut up you idiot, you're the one desperate for kisses. Besides, I'm the one with the car while you're left going by the train. So, if anything, I should be inviting you for ice cream. But, whatever, those are just technicalities and I'm just blabbering on.."

"It's cute when you blabber on," he says as he steps into her car, " so shall we, mademoiselle?"

As they drive to the ice cream shop, Kevin tries multiple pick-up lines on her while Joy fends each one of them off with a comeback. Granted, this was not how she expected to spend the rest of her day, but it was still a pretty sweet ending to what seemed like a horrible ice cream sundae of a day.

:::
dedicated to artis illumining for being so so so sweet and for being so precious and lovely and telling such lovely stories