Shine On

They finally arrived at a small ice cream parlor that was a few miles away from the city. Rupert opened Harper’s door for her and took her hand while she got out. Her hands felt tingly in his. She noticed Rupert checking for something over her shoulder. When she heard Melody’s door slam shut behind her, Rupert kissed her forehead lightly, then her nose. In return, she stuck her tongue out at him and wiggled her nose. He laughed softly before kissing her forehead again. Their fingers intertwined again as they made their way into the ice cream shop. He held the door opened for both girls. Melody practically sang a ‘thank you’ to him after she walked in. Every time Melody would attempt to flirt with Rupert, Harper would see him glance over at her as if to tell her he had no interest in Melody.

The three of them got their ice cream and sat in the back to have some privacy.

“Did you guys plan that or did it just happen?” Mel asked pointing at Harper and Rupert’s ice creams, which were both vanilla with chocolate sprinkles.

Harper hadn’t noticed until Mel mentioned the fact. The similarity was cute to her and made her smile to herself. “Uh...I guess it just happened like that.” She answered before taking a bite of her ice cream.

The rest of the time, they ate in silence. Once in a while, Mel or Harper would ask one another how their ice cream tasted. Harper wasn’t sure if the silence was because their ice cream was so good or they didn’t know what to say. When they finished, Rupert picked up their empty bowls and went to throw them away. Harper watched him as he walked away, butterflies were flying around in her stomach once again. She caught Melody watching him as well.

Harper had had enough. Her patience was wearing thin. “Okay, Mel, I don’t know what you’re doing, but you need to stop.” She tried to keep her voice at a whisper.

Melody blinked innocently. “Stop what?”

“This isn’t like all the other times we’ve been out with your guy friends.” As she thought of Melody’s constant habit to flirt with all of the male species, she got angrier. “This is...” She paused trying to think of the best word to describe what the situation was, but she couldn’t come up with one. She glanced over near the garbage cans, Rupert was no where in sight.

“It’s not like you guys are together.” She replied plainly.

Harper fumed with anger. She couldn’t think of a retort back. She was right, they weren’t together. Rupert was free to flirt with whomever he wanted to. But it felt like he was hers. She didn’t know if she could handle him liking someone else, especially Melody. Couldn’t Mel see how much she liked him? She folded her arms in front of her and bit her lip to stop herself from saying something she might regret later. Then she saw Rupert coming back from the bathrooms. A small amount of anger seemed to go away. He smirked at her and when she didn’t return the favor, he furrowed his eyebrows. When he got to the table, he looked from Melody, who was gawking at him with a grin on her face, to Harper, who still had her arms folded in front of her. He bent down and lifted Harper’s chin with his pointer finger. She stared at him gloomily. His hand moved from her chin to cheek, putting a strand of her hair behind her ear. He stuck his tongue out with a smirk before leaning in to place his lips upon hers. It was a soft and polite kiss, but it made all the difference in Harper’s mood. She smiled and he broke away from her, his hand still lingering on her cheek.

“There’s that smile I love.” He said loud enough for Harper and Melody to hear. Harper bit her lip, this time to stop herself from smiling too much.

Melody didn’t say a word the whole way home. Whenever Harper glanced to the backseat, Mel would be staring out the window with her arms folded in front of her this time. Harper figured she wasn’t a fan of being rejected seeing as it didn’t happen too often. Melody always ended up with the guy, whereas Harper never did. But Rupert was different from every other guy. Everything Melody was calling attention to, Harper knew he wasn’t interested in. She experienced a tingling feeling in her stomach when she thought of him being even remotely interested in her. She had a guy, a great guy, liking her and she didn’t even have to try as hard as Melody always seemed to.