rocky road || muke

two

on saturday, michael taught me basically everything i needed to know about to work in baskin robbins. how to use and clean the soft serve machine, how to perfectly scoop ice cream, how to completely fill up cones, how many toppings to put regularly, what boxes to go in to find those toppings when they got low, how to most effectively clean ice cream off the floor when kids spilled it everywhere... the list went on and on, and i was almost positive i forgot half of what he told me.

somehow, michael was able to make all of it fun.

(that could be the reason i forgot a lot of the directions...)

at the end of saturday, i didn't really want to go home. i wished that i could hang out with michael all night.

by "hang out" i mean "hang out". like, talk and stuff.

i was usually really awkward in conversations, but he was really easy to talk to. he really listened when i talked, which was surprisingly a rare trait that people have.

luckily, my best friend was one of those people with that trait. but he was also a good talker. he could talk for days, which i was okay with, since i didn't have much to say anyways. but even with what little i did have to say, he would always listen.

"how was your first day of work?" calum asked as we sat down at a little table in the shade that we always hung out on during lunch or whenever we had extra time.

"it was amazing. it was just training most of the time and i'm still gonna get paid for the hours as if i actually worked." i said, and calum smiled.

"are you saying that you didn't actually work? what were you doing then?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "was your trainer a girl or something? you do seem pretty happy today.."

"calum, no." i groaned, causing him to laugh. "my trainer was a guy. he's the manager.. he's pretty cool. he has like, dyed red hair and tattoos and piercings."

"michael?" calum questioned, squinting.

"yeah, how do you know him?" i asked while opening a bag of chips.

"oh my god, you idiot. he goes here!"

"really? are you sure?"

"yes. remember that guy who we were walking behind like a week ago and you told me you liked his hair? it was purple?"

"that was him?" i was genuinely confused and surprised that i didn't really recognize him. calum nodded as i frowned. maybe he was familiar now that i thought about it... "how do you have such good memory..." i mumbled.

"he's a year above us." he shrugged.

calum and i had been best friends since year eight and now we were in year eleven. three years might not sound like that long of a frienship but it felt like we knew each other since birth.

"look!" he snapped me out of my nostalgia.

calum slouched over the table and held up a finger, lowkey pointing to a group of people near the cafeteria. it was full of familiar people, but of course, one stood out the most. i immediately spotted his fire red hair. and then he immediately spotted me. he looked back at the guy with glasses and curly dirty blond hair who he was talking to and patted him on his muscly arm before starting to walk our way.

"told you." calum chirped upon seeing my worried expression.

"hey, luke." michael called.

how did he walk over here so fast??

"michael, hey!" i said, turning my head to look at him. he stepped his black skinny jean covered leg over the small bench attached to our table.

don't get me wrong, michael was great to talk to. he was hilarious and comforting, but for some reason, the school setting kind of ruined everything. i felt extremely awkward.