We walk into the cafe that holds onto so many of our most cherished memories. I smile as the shop owner comes scurrying up with our usual, smiling at both of us warmly before she scuttles back into the kitchen. We've been coming here since we were 5, my mom brought us here, and ever since we'd come back every other week, or whenever things got rough. When his brother died, we came here every day up until a week after the funeral. When we found out about my dad's cancer, I came every day for a month, and same with losing the baby. When we'd have a fit we'd come here and sit here arguing, and drinking as many cups of hot chocolate as needed until we both cooled down enough and our argument finished. Ever since that first day we had the exact same order; a cup of hot cocoa with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top, with 1 chocolate chip cookie, and 1 double chocolate chip cookie on the side. Mrs. Joy, the shop owner, is 5'2, plump, but in an elderly way, with curly greying brown hair, and rosy cheeks, and warm baby blue eyes, and Mrs. Joys has heard everything. Mine and Blake's first argument brought us here, and she helped us sort it out. All the bad, heart breaking reasons we'd come here, she'd give us cookies on the house, for every date, we'd stop by and she'd give us a cup of cocoa on the house. Mrs. Joys, is just the sweetest, most grandmotherly old lady out there, considering neither of us knew our grandparents.
She comes back out with her apron dusted in flour, smiling fondly at us, "Another fight dear?"
Just one look at our faces and she knows the answer, she tsks us before going back behind the counter and pulling out a pink cookie box, "I had a feeling you two would be coming by this week, and so I put this aside for just the occasion." She chuckles lightly to herself before coming back over to our table and placing the box between us, lifting the lid to face us eye to eye with the most delicious looking cookies. "Well go ahead, their makeup cookies, so eat them while you talk over this silly fight over yours." She urges smiling at us before picking up a cookie and taking a seat at a table a few down from ours, flipping through a magazine, smiling to herself.
We sit in silence for a few heartbeats before he sighs, "I shouldn't have said anything. I know it's hard on you, on us, and it's putting us both on edge, and we fight, more so than before, I just can't help but feel like there's something I can do, and by pushing you to the edge, you'll do it."
"What do you want me to do Blake? I don't have a fairy god mother, I don't go to Hogwarts, I don't have some secret power, I'm not a flipping god! I can't just change what is, I can try, but it doesn't always work the way you or I want it to. And clearly, it's not."
Mrs. Joys chuckles softly from her seat, and we snap our heads in her direction, but she just brings the magazine farther up in the air so we can't see her face, and continues flipping.
"I'm sorry alright? I can't stand seeing you hurting like this, and with your dad in the hospital, and your mom always like that, you’re always hurt, and I don't like it. Plus when we fight, it doesn't help a bit, and I know that, and I'm trying, I'm trying so damn hard to not fight with you, but it's impossible! We just get on each other's nerves so easily!" He says frustrated.
"I don't expect you to be perfect, and I know you and I are nowhere near perfect, and there's no use in trying to be perfect, but I want our relationship, you and I, to be just that, about you and I. When we're together as a couple, we're supposed to do what couples do, go on dates and make each other forget the shit that's going on. When you and I aren't together as a couple, like when you come home with me, or I go home with you, we're best friends again, and we talk about all this bull, we talk about our emotions, and we act like we're brother and sister, just like we did up until the day you asked me out. That's what you and I are supposed to be like. Best friends BEFORE boyfriend and girlfriend. That's what I want. I don't know about you, but I miss kicking your ass in COD. I miss seeing who can eat the most slices of pizza, and going up to the lake in the summer. I miss having you as my best friend."
