"that's the one you want?" Patrick asked Pete as they sat down at the farthest outside table near the ice cream shop they just ordered from. Pete nodded with a genuine, happy smirk and sat down. he waited till Patrick took the first bite to begin eating his rocky road ice cream with sprinkles all over it. Patrick was more of the simple type when it came to ice cream — he simply had vanilla with no toppings.
"thank you." Pete thanked Patrick who was already looking into his eyes, which made Pete's face fluster with embarrassment.
"of course." Patrick continued eating his plain off-white ice cream and enjoyed it as he did so. only a slight regret passed through his mind but that's nothing to be talked about at the moment. this was their moment and date..how better could it be?
laughing broke out behind Pete. it was a pair of two redhead children running all over the place but before Patrick could warn Pete, the taller redhead tripped on Pete's chair; and as the kid tried to hold on he accidentally made Pete's ice cream fall to the ground, making it splatter all over his jeans. the child stood up as quickly as Pete did as well, and the kid ran away with his mom immediately apologizing towards Pete.
"I'm so sorry." The mom had said and Pete simply brushed her off with a wave signaling to leave him alone and she did, chasing after her kid.
"hey, hey. it's alright. i have a pair of sweats in the car if you want them." Patrick offered delicately.
"forget it. ill just go to the bathroom and fucki—ill just rub it off."
"Pete—" Patrick tried to make him stay back but Pete sighed deeply, and Patrick knew what that meant. He needed to be alone. "I'll wait for you here then." Patrick said in a soft, low pitched voice.
as Patrick waited for Pete to finish his leg shook with slight impatience, feeling he was taking too long to clean something that only smeared a small part of his lower thigh. he went against Pete's wishes and headed inside, to the bathroom, where he saw Pete vigorously rubbing the smear that was already gone and only continued to make it worse every second.
"Pete ! What're you doing?" his voice lowered as the sentence went on and gripped Pete's wrist, pushing it away from the area he's supposedly still trying to clear.
"fucking kid messed up my jeans !" Pete yelled and Patrick pinned him up against the wall, surprising himself with the action.
"hey ! calm down. its not the end of the fucking world. i have extra pants you can wear and you're only making that smear worse not better. calm the hell down, you hear me?" not even Patrick himself expected to get that angry but it was too late to take it back. he sighed and pulled Pete in, giving him a gentle genuine hug.
when he pulled back, still sighing a little, Patrick grabbed a dry towel and kneeled — slowly dying the still dripping spots Pete had created. it wasn't long before Patrick knew he couldn't fix it himself, only the sun could by drying it naturally. he tossed the now wet towel in the trash can and held Pete's hand, walking out the restroom — standing in front of the cashier. he ordered another ice cream for Pete without him asking for it and only waited a few seconds before he got it.
"thank you"
they sat in their car and Patrick held Pete's hand as he watched Pete's hesitant actions towards eating the ice cream slowly. he oddly found it adorable. Patrick shrugged and whispered, "lovely idiot"
