The Change Back Project

Chapter 3: Poison Doesn't Taste Well But Ice Cream Does

My life revolves around my family, friends, and school like any other teenager, so I'm not about to spill out that I'm out of the ordinary. It's normal to hang out with friends, feel lazy, go out on dates, go to school, do crazy shenanigans, or do sane stuff. It's also normal to fall in love.

People fall in love in different ways, some go extravagant and over the top, others like to keep it simple and old-fashioned. For example, when I started taking a liking on the same sex, I go for the rose-and-chocolates kind of way. As for my friend Josh, he goes a bit extra with all the preparations he makes. He once tried to court a girl by asking all of her classmates to go with his plan where they would each hand her a rose and a handwritten note coming from him, and then he would emerge as the last in line, holding a huge stuffed animal with a banner being held behind him spelling out "Will You Be My Girlfriend?"

I just don't think it's worth all the effort since, if she says yes, you'd have to plan a better one for the anniversary later on. Anyways, point aside, looking at Josh staring at you-know-who on his phone looking so lost, I can't help but think love can be poisonous.

Derick snaps him out of his trance. "You gonna eat that?" he said, pointing at the untouched fries on his plate. Always the fries. My poor potato babies. Looking at his unfinished food, he gave up and pushed it towards Derick who accepted it gratefully.

"Sometimes, I'd like to think that advancements in technology are the greatest miracles that ever happened, but choosing to mope at your phone than eating fast food blessings is unbelievable, even for me," Sasha said with a face twisted in mock disgust over Josh's loss of appetite.

I snatch his phone from his hand when he kept being unresponsive and proceeded to pass it to Derick for him to tuck it away from reach. Josh just sighed and slumped in his seat like a defeated child ready for the scolding. "First of all, bro, we know it's hard but could you please lighten the fuck up?"

He grumbled a response but sat a bit straighter only to smack his head on the table, successfully getting the attention we don't need. That was also enough to stop Derick from his eating and join in, "Dude, seriously, what the--" "On a lighter note," Sasha, being the mediator in all of this, interrupted him.

"Yeah, it's reasonable to mope after what happened with her but by now I think you should start moving on and stop stalking her online," she said, patting his head on the table. Finally, he turned his head for him to look at us from the table. He still has this look in his eyes, a mix of emotions between hurt, brokenness, and anger, to which was quickly masked by simple sadness.

Let me explain the predicament:
Josh fell in love with a girl. Being the cliché romance book that this is, he, being one of the leading players in our school, decided to fall for the beautiful b---- the popular chick, the fan-proclaimed "queen" of high school. Now, they DID fall for each other but somewhere between the lines, someone went at fault, and everything went downhill from there. It's vague for us too because they never let it out to anyone why they broke up. It's been three months since the break up, and guess what? Their story's not over yet. She eventually, apparently, got together with one of Josh's rival. Now this just goes to the present where that ass likes being a jerk and shoves it up to our friend's face that he got the girl, and that girl poses to be in the happiest relationship in the entire world.

So here we are, us three trying to lighten the mood and help our friend to move on, and Josh sulking about a love that's slowly killing him. Like a poison.

With a heavy sigh he said, "Yeah, thanks for the sympathy, and I know I should stop but..." "But what?" He looked at me for a moment and straightened in his seat, "Ah, never mind. It was always so complicated with her. Anyways, ice cream?"

"WE ALL SCREAM!" Derick shouted out, successfully finishing two entire meals on his own and getting enough sauce on his face. We laughed at his outburst and got up to go to the nearest ice cream place. Again, we let him go with all the secrecy.

It's a Saturday and the mall is buzzing with people, not as much as when they have a sale going on but enough to fill the restaurants. We walk in a bundle, not in a hurry, laughing our asses off to some jokes. As we neared our favorite stop, Derick suddenly went to a halt and ushered us away with a hurried look.

"Hey?? What's wrong, man? What is it?" I asked out loud, slightly irritated that we were delayed to another heavenly blessing.

Sasha tried to peek over Derick while Josh tried to pry off the seemingly death grip that Derick had on his arm, "What is it? Dude, let me go!"

"Oh for the love of..." Sasha grabbed Josh's other hand and my own, and proceeded to lead us to another ice cream shop. Finally getting that it was an urgent matter, Josh and I went along without further hesitance.

Once at a safe distance from the previous shop, Josh turned to the others and fired, "What the hell was that about?" Sasha and Derick exchanged looks before confronting us, "Well, why don't we get some ice cream first?"

Before Josh even tried to further interrogate, I went ahead and lined for the counter, leaving them to follow. I will not be deprived of ice cream.

After getting our orders, we sat at a booth inside the store. Sasha was the first to speak out, "Well, to explain what happened," she took a deep breath before releasing everything all in one blow, "Please don't go blank again in front of food but we saw your ex and that douche and we just wanted to avoid an encounter again so please enjoy the ice cream even if its not from our favorite place!"

We all kept quiet for a moment until Josh shrugged and proceeded to eat his ice cream. Sasha turned to look at me but I gave her the same reaction and got the same from Derick. Seeing that she didn't get a negative response, she took that as a cue to eat her own ice cream and shrugged it off as well.

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Sooo hey there, we got to know more about the gang now. I'm pretty excited to start with the *stuff* that will happen but right now I'm still trying to get back into writing, but I hope you guys like it so far!!

Who can you relate with the most? I wanna know what you guys think so far with it so comment away!

Thanks for reading! Keep going, see you in the next chapter! :))