The ice cream shop was cool and the smell of sugar and chocolate wafted through the air. It had been so long since Jericho had had the extra cash to spend on things that were not strictly necessary.
"What can I get for you?" The teenager behind the counter looked horribly bored, a cap with the store's logo sitting lopsided on his messy hair.
AJ ordered and paid for them both. Jericho protested -- or pretended to protest anyway, in an effort to be polite -- but AJ just waved him off and handed the guy some cash.
Once they had their manly cups of chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and sprinkles, they sat down at the long counter facing the window.
The conversation bounced around from laughing at strangely-dressed people walking by to learning weird ballet terms from AJ -- how the fuck was a flic-flac an actual thing? -- to discussing the varying types of pigeons in the city.
It was not until they had scooped the last partially-melted chocolaty goodness out of the bottom of their cups that the conversation turned serious.
"You got a girlfriend, Jericho?" AJ asked out of the blue, hands laced casually behind his neck.
Blushing at the memory of his failed attempt with Vienna, Jericho shook his head. "Nah. You?"
"Me? No." AJ gave a light chuckle and stared out the window for a moment before continuing, "Yeah, I haven't been in a relationship in a while."
Jericho, unsure if AJ wanted to continue talking about it, asked hesitantly, "Why -- why not?"
Without taking off his eyes off the pedestrians walking by -- they were pretty interesting to watch -- AJ said in a flat monotone that Jericho couldn't tell if it was supposed to a joke or not, "My last girlfriend was a psychopath."
From what Jericho knew of AJ so far, especially judging from the whole Spider-Man conversation earlier, he assumed AJ must be kidding, so Jericho said, "Ah. Clingy?"
Chuckling darkly, AJ simply murmured, "You could say that." And without any further explanation, he got up and headed for the door, Jericho following after him like a confused puppy. Just when he thought he knew the guy...
YOU ARE READING
Dancing Through Bullets
ActionAll pasts are hard to hide from though it's harder to do so when they're chasing after you. Jericho is running from his past. AJ is a dancer who will get sucked into that past when they unexpectedly meet. When Jericho first steps foot in the studi...
