𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐀 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝

chapter 8- Ice cream dates and Thirdwheeling

kenzie's p.o.v

"John Let's sit on this bench for a while. My legs hurt from all that walking." Nadia whined, plonking herself onto a bench near the ice cream shop.
Her legs hurt from like 2 minutes of walking wow.

"Um..you sit with her, I'll go get us ice cream." I mumbled.
Johnny gave me a thumbs up before walking over to Nadia.

When he leaned down to kiss her
I turned away, walking steadily towards the ice cream store.

"Get me a strawberry with chopped nuts!" Nadia yelled after me. I knew Johnny's favorite flavor so he didnt need to tell me.

"Mackenzie! Long time no see. What can I get for you today?" Minkus, the owner of the store gave me a toothy grin.
He's known me, John and Lauren since we were kids.

"Hi Minkus how are you?" I smiled.

"I'm great, how are you?"

"Fine." My voice faltered a little.

"What can I get you?" He asked jauntily, adding, "a silly question though really cause you've had the same preference since you were, what? 9 years old?"

My smile widened.
"You know me. I'll have one scoop of cookie dough on a waffle cone, one strawberry with chopped nuts and 2 scoops of mint chocolate chip."

The mint chocolate chip was for Johnny. It's his favorite.

"Of course you can sweetie. I'm guessing Lauren and Johnny are here with you too?" He smiled, bustling around to get our ice creams.

"Actually it's just me, Johnny and his uh..his girlfriend." I mutter.

"Girlfriend?" Minkus looked like I had clubbed him over the head.

I smiled tightly, nodding.

His eyebrows had reached his hairline at this point.
"Wow who would've thought. I naturally assumed he was always smitten with y-"

I suddenly felt a pair of hands on my shoulder, making me jump.
I looked up to see Johnny.
He gave me a wink and then looked over at Minkus,"Hey old man."

Minkus chuckled.
"Well hello there pal! What's this I hear about you having a girlfriend?"

Johnny grinned,"Her name's Nadia. she's great."
I looked down at my toes .
"That's nice, have fun kids." Minkus said handing us our ice creams.

Just before we were about to leave Minkus stopped me.
He ushered me towards him and he leaned forwards,"You alright or you upset about this girlfriend of his?"

I blinked.
"Minkus it's not-It's not like that." I shuffled my feet, a dribble of melted ice cream dripping from the side of my cone onto my finger.

The look he gave me in response was one of humor mixed with concern.
"Okay, well you kids have fun then."

I gave him a half smile, turning around to see Johnny waiting for me with a curious expression on his face.
I ignored it as I walked back towards the bench.

"Here you go baby." John handed the ice cream to Nadia.
I waited for Johnny to sit down in the middle and then scooted
in next to him.

Johnny and Nadia were talking about something or the other.
Johnny kept trying to include me in the conversation but I was too busy focusing on my cookie dough ice cream.

Who needs a boyfriend?
I just need my cookie dough.

"Ooh! You have ice cream on your cheek." Nadia giggled and I turned to see her lick Johnny's cheek.
I almost choked on my ice cream as Johnny playfully smushed some of his mint chocolate chip on her nose making her a squeal.

to my utter disgust a moment later they ditched their ice creams and were too interested in making out with each other.

I jerked up all of a sudden and coughed loudly making them pull apart.

Johnny looked slightly sheepish while Nadia had a frown on her face.
"I'm still here you know." I point out.
"Oops! We got carried away. We can't get our hands off each other." Nadia giggled, caressing Johnny's cheek with her thumb.

"Okay maybe you could abstain from doing so for now?" I smiled sweetly.

Johnny didn't say anything while Nadia gave me a sour faced look.
"Well what do you expect? You are kind of thirdwheeling aren't you?"

I waited for Johnny to push her away or say something like,"This plan was originally for me and kenz to hang out."
But of course he didn't.

When he still didn't say anything, and just looked at me in that wide eyed manner, I realised it was my cue.

"Great. I'm leaving." I said picking up my bag and chucking my ice cream into the trash.

"Kenzie..you don't have to go." Johnny said slowly realising that I was mad.

"No it's fine I actually do. Maddie texted me and she needs me to come home." I kept my voice firm.

"Oh okay. I'll see you tomorrow then?" John said hopefully, while Nadia threaded her fingers through his hair.

I shrugged and then turned away, stalking back to my house.
the more I thought about how oblivious Johnny is and how obnoxious his girlfriend is, the more my pace quickened.
I know it wasn't his fault but for some reason I was still really upset.

By the time I reached home I came to a conclusion.
I couldn't ruin my friendship with Johnny because of this.

I just need to admit it to myself that I'm not the only girl who gets to make him happy anymore.

vote and comment pls!
love u lil beans❤️

~annie