I'm a Walking Travesty

I literally came to a screeching halt when I saw the show in front of me. I felt like the world stopped spinning for a while. I turned around and saw that the three other guys I came to the coffee shop with were looking at me strangely.

“You look like you just saw a ghost,” Jack said, placing an arm around my shoulders. He spun me around but I didn’t want to move.

“Can we, uh, skip the meet? I don’t feel comfortable,” I told them and they looked at each other before looking at the window.

Alex’s eyes connected with mine and told me that they understood what I was trying to relay to the rest of the guys. Jack and Rian kept asking me why though. “Tell you what, you guys can go inside and then ride home with Zack. I’ll take care of Mia,” he offered and I smiled at him.

“You sure, man?” Rian asked Alex but kept his eyes on the window. He was practically staring at the two sucking face through the window.

“Just tell Kayla something came up,” I told Jack and Rian. They nodded and went on their way after handing me the keys.

Once Alex and I were alone, we walked back to the car and Alex started the ignition. He told me that he wanted to drive so I gave him the keys without hesitation.

“How did you know?” I asked Alex as soon as we hit the road. It was weird how he caught on to what I was trying to say without me having to speak a word of it. I mean I always thought guys were slow. But then again maybe that’s a biased way to look at things.

“Zack told me about juggling two girls at the same time. It wasn’t that hard to put two and two together. I mean you literally stopped when you saw what they were doing a while back,” he said in the calmest tone. He licked his lips and glanced at me when I didn’t answer him.

I sighed internally as I tried to think about what else Zack told the guys. I mean I always thought I could trust him with everything. He used to be really good at keeping secrets. But now I wonder what happened to that mouth of his.

“Look, I know you’re upset and I wish I could take your mind off it but to do that, you’re gonna have to tell me where you wanna go,” he said with a smile as we slowed to a stop at the side of the road. I didn’t even notice that we were driving in circles until he pulled over.

“Well, I’ve never been here before…” I trailed off as I watched the other cars zoom past us. Sure, I was pretty upset but I wasn’t going to cry over it. My tears seemed useless at this point.

“Oh, then that means that I will serve as your tour guide for the day.” He winked at me before getting the car back on the road.

I smiled at Alex even though he wasn’t looking. The thought of him being here next to me made me feel much better. It made me realize that I don’t need Zack to make me feel appreciated. I didn’t need a boyfriend to make me smile. Friends can help me do that and I was able to prove that today.

Alex drove us to this really big mall somewhere far from where the house was. I had no fears though since I knew Alex wasn’t some psycho rapist who was bound to hurt me. I can’t believe I even thought about that.

“So I’m guessing a mall is our first stop. How exciting,” I said with a hint of sarcasm as I stepped right beside Alex who was walking to the entrance.

“Oh you haven’t seen anything yet,” he said, playing along. “Wait ‘til you see what kind of tourist spot this is. I mean people come here all the time.”

I rolled my eyes at him as I nudged him to the side. I was expecting him to nudge me back but he just kept his hands in his jean pockets. We walked in silence for a few minutes until we got inside the mall. A cold breeze met up with us at the door and it gave me goosebumps for about five whole seconds.

“So where are we headed?” I asked Alex as he stared at some girls in really skimpy outfits. No wonder he wanted to come here. He wanted to get his game on. But that’s fine with me. I mean the least I could do to pay him back for saving me today was be his wing-woman.

“We’re going to get ice cream.” I looked at Alex with an eyebrow raised but he just showed off his cheeky smile.

I rolled my eyes before he grabbed my hand and led the way. Somehow, I didn’t mind his hand in mine. Somehow, it felt right. It was as if we’ve known each other for so long that I didn’t think much about it. And besides, I don’t think he’d be interested in me. No one is.

After an escalator ride to the next floor, Alex dragged me and took a left turn and rushed inside an ice cream parlor. No one was inside so once we got inside, Alex started ordering his flavor of ice cream. I was just staring at the tubs of ice cream not really sure about what I might want.

“You’re turn,” Alex said after a few seconds.

I told the cashier that I wanted a scoop of chocolate peanut butter and vanilla ice cream in a cone. Right when I was about to grab my wallet from my bag, Alex stepped in and handed the guy the money that we needed for the ice cream. Nevertheless, I searched for my wallet inside my bag so I could pay him back.

“Mia, it’s fine. You don’t have to pay me for buying you ice cream,” Alex said, trying to take my hands out of my bag.

“Are you sure?” I asked and he nodded.

Once we got our ice cream, we sat by the table and started to exchange words. We were talking about ice cream flavors for a while but then the conversation soon ended. Next thing I knew, we were talking about how we both lost someone special in our lives.

“Tom took his own life away and I was devastated,” he said, licking the side of his cone. It only occurred to me now that we actually ordered the same thing but he had two scoops of chocolate peanut butter. “But at least I got some good songs out of it.”

“That must’ve been a hard time for you,” I said, grabbing a tissue from the side.

“It was but life moved on and so did I. It sort of served as a learning experience for me. It taught me that we could lose someone at any time so we’ve got to live life to the fullest every day, you know?” he said, getting some vanilla on tip of his nose.

I laughed as he tried to get it off. He wasn’t getting anywhere near it though. “Here, let me help you,” I said getting up from my seat and leaning over to wipe the tip of his nose.

When I sat back down, I noticed that Alex was getting flushed. I wanted to laugh at how cute he was but I held it inside. “Well, you probably know what happened to Eric already,” I said, licking the part where the two flavors mixed.

“I wouldn’t mind if you retold the story.”

I told him exactly what he knew. I don’t think Zack was the type to leave things out. I mean he’s proved to me that he could spill all my secrets plus the details so I wouldn’t be surprised that Alex had full coverage about what happened.

It took me quite a while to realize that a few tears had spilled from my eyes. I wiped them away quickly but they kept falling. I thought I was strong enough for this but apparently, I wasn’t.

Alex transferred to the seat beside me and placed his free arm around me. “It’s good to vent sometimes. You don’t have to hide the tears,” he said, tracing incoherent shapes on my bare arm.

I licked my lips and looked at him and smiled. I didn’t know what came over me but all of a sudden, I found myself moving closer to him. He kept his eyes on my lips as they crashed into his. And for the next few minutes, I was in pure bliss.