Sirens and Sprinkles

Filling the Hole

Dave entered Dippin' Doughnuts like an explorer venturing into an unknown cave. Dreamsicle orange assaulted his eyes from every corner, with the exception of a single magenta table that was half-buried under icing stained napkins. The cashier seemed oblivious to her garish surroundings as she flicked her equally blinding highlighter-colored nails across her phone.

The display case offered classics like chocolate glazed and jelly-filled, but not a single more adventurous flavor beckoned to Dave from behind the glass. "I'll take three chocolate glazed doughnuts and a small bag of Dunkers, please."

Icy blue eyes slid away from the screen. "Do you mean doughnut holes?"

"Yeah, doughnut holes," he said as his shoulders sagged. There were no fantastic fillings here, only holes that could never fill the hole in his heart.

Paying for the doughnuts was a soulless exchange. The cashier didn't even tell him to enjoy them or to have a nice day before returning her attention to her phone.

###

"Well, they at least look okay," Roger said. His smile didn't quite reach his eyes as he itched his unusually face paint-free cheek. "Thanks for getting these."

"Don't thank me yet," Dave said. "If their doughnuts are as bad as their service, it'll be a miracle if we don't find hairs in them."

They chuckled uneasily while not so subtly checking their doughnuts for stray follicles. On silent agreement, they all bit into their doughnuts at once.

After a moment of silent chewing, Walt shrugged. "Meh. It's fine. A bit heavy and definitely not the freshest one I've ever had, but it's fine."

"There's no such thing as a bad doughnut," Roger said, "but I think this one is definitely just okay. Typical Dipshit Doughnuts."

Dave tuned out their conversation about exactly how disappointingly average Dippin' Doughnuts has always been as he texted Dylan. Missing u

They responded right away. Right back at you! Hope things aren't too crazy over there.

Nobody got arrested, but we did have to resort to buying from Dippin' Doughnuts. He glanced up as Polka barked at the doughnut hole Walt was offering her. She wouldn't even sniff it, much less do her usual dance for it. Even Polka is upset

Hope we can still hang out sometime. You up to watch a movie or something?

Dave's fingers flew across the phone. Heck yeah! Wanna come to the barbeque we're having at the end of the month? Been meaning to invite you and the others

As long as Walt isn't seasoning everything lol! I can't believe he ate so many of those spiced doughnuts...

"Texting Dylan again?" Roger asked with a knowing smirk.

Dave fumbled with his phone, accidentally sending off a string of random emojis.

"You aren't trying to get them to give us actual good doughnuts, are you?" Walt leaned over his shoulder. "I don't need us to get in even more trouble."

"Nah, just chatting and letting them know about the barbeque."

"Chatting, huh?" Roger wiggled his eyebrows. The grin that had been missing for the past week briefly returned to his face. "Sure, buddy. Sure."

"That's all it is, I swear!" Heat rushed to Dave's face as he flicked through the many texts they'd exchanged over the past several weeks.

"Then why are so few of these actually about doughnuts? I don't think which Hogwarts house they'd belong to or what their favorite Disney movie is has anything to do with our orders."

Dave cast a pleading look at Walt. "Don't look at me, I know as much about romance as quantum physics."

Roger chuckled. "Yup, you're our ace in the hole alright. With muscles like yours, you could sweep anyone off their feet if you wanted to, and I don't just mean that literally!"

Their blissful return to normalcy was interrupted by a wailing alarm and flashing red lights. They piled into the fire truck so quickly Dave almost sat on Roger's hand.

"Probably just another burnt bagel," Roger said as he yanked his hand to safety. "Or maybe some idiot microwaved a spoon again. That poor bowl didn't deserve to explode like that..."

Dave's phone buzzed again and again. His eyes widened as he read Dylan's increasingly frantic texts. "Guys, it's Delightful Doughnuts!"