Finding Friends

Chapter 4: Ice Cream, Dances, and Peanut Butter

The rest of the week passed without incident. No more confrontations with Ryan, no more conversations with him on the bus. Our relationship had ended without a goodbye. Well, I guess with the theory of entropy, everything ends. Oh well. It's Friday! I shouldn't be worrying about a friendship with a guy I just met. Classes were over for the day, and since it was Friday, it was ice cream day. Surprisingly, Kaylee wasn't paying today. Rose missed a day, and apparently that does a lot to your point collection. We arrived at the ice cream store, and it was a fill your own cup place, so I went and filled my cup up with cookies and cream plus peanut butter.

"What are you getting Rose?" I asked.

"I'm going to try what you always get. See if it's actually good or not. I really need to find out."

"It is! Ugh you ignorant people need to open your mind." I turned my head to the entrance and saw Ryan come in. I swear, why does that kid show up everywhere I am? It's like he's got a GPS sensor on me or something. He wasn't followed by a bunch of his guy friends though. He was followed by a girl I recognized from school, Sharon. Was it supposed to be a date? Woah, watch it Romeo, you've picked up a Juliet pretty quickly. He walked over to the ice cream dispensers.

"Hey. Elisa. Move."

"Hey. Ryan. No."

"Excuse me? I just wanted to get some cookies and cream."

"Oh yeah. Sorry. I'll move." I walked over and paid for my ice cream. I made my way to the table and started talking with them.

"God, he's so annoying." I said.

"You're the one who's talking to him. If he wasn't here with another girl, I'd think that he had a crush on you." Lydia said.

"He doesn't have a crush on her. Just has interest, which doesn't restrict him from dating other people." Rose said with bitterness.

"What happened? Something's wrong, Rose." Lydia asked.

"John and I broke up because I caught him making out with another girl on Tuesday morning." Rose spat out.

"WHAT!?" was the collective response from the table. We looked at each other not knowing what to do. None of us had gone through a breakup before. Sharon looked over, and saw that Rose looked sad about something.

"I heard you don't have a date to the dance, Rose?" She said, obviously hearing what had happened seconds ago.

"No, I don't, Sharon. But that's okay. I'm good." Rose's voice cracked on the last word. She ran off to the bathroom.

"Maybe John will take Kate!" Sharon yelled after her. Kate was the girl he was making out with, I'm pretty sure. Kaylee ran after Rose while Lydia and I stayed to put out the fire.

"You two might be able to get a guy too. There's a lot of nerds out there. Ryan, come on, let's get away from these freaks." Ryan gave us a look of apology and followed Sharon out into the parking lot.

~

"He should've at least told her to shut up!" Kaylee yelled. We were at Lydia's house for a sleepover and were talking about the incident earlier. Rose had gone home, apparently the whole Sharon thing was too much.

"Yeah, I know. But let's move on. We've been talking about this for more than 45 minutes now." I said

"Okay, so there's apparently a dance coming up. I'm excited. We'll have to get makeup, dresses, shoes...."

"Kaylee, we don't even know when it is or the dress code. For all we know it could be a pool party with music in the summer. Or there doesn't have to be one at all. Sharon could've just been messing with Rose." Lydia deduced

"But Sharon is on student council." I said.

"Oooh, been doing some research on your crush's girl?" Kaylee teased.

"No, I just remembered that from the beginning of the year. And he's not my crush!"

"But what was your point in saying she was in student council?" Lydia asked.

"Well, they're the ones who plan the dances. If she was talking about it, it's probably legit."

"Here, I'll look and see if it's on the school website yet." Lydia said. She checked and her face lit up with excitement.

"Apparently it's going to be in two weeks, on a Friday night. From 6:00-9:30. I'm so excited! We'll have to get dress, shoes, hair products...." Kaylee rolled her eyes at this statement, and went to get popcorn.