r u m r a i s i n
p-o-t-r
"Stella told me that Gary tried to call you earlier this week," Kevin said. He was stabbed at his ice cream with his spoon, too stressed to think about eating it.
Macy grimaced at the bleak tone of his voice. "His name was Greg, Kevin. And yes, he called." She blew out a frustrated breath and leaned on her friend's shoulder. "I don't care what he says—if he wanted to test my loyalty to my friends, he should have asked me if I'd take a bullet for you or something."
"Wait, what?"
For the first time in a long time, Kevin was the first to set down his cup of rum raisin Haagen Dazs. He turned to give Macy an incredulous stare. "Okay, I know I said I wouldn't ask questions when I came over last week, but how, exactly, did you two break up?"
The girl shifted a little in her seat on the couch, looking guilty. And she had every reason to, if truth be told, for it was something that she should have told him the moment she figured it out.
"Well, um," she began. After a moment of indecision, she stuck her spoon in her mouth to buy her some time as she let the tartness of the raisin flavoring and the warmth of the rum blend on her tongue. This, of course, only resulted in her cup being taken away by a very stern-looking Kevin Lucas. She bit into a half-frozen raisin and reluctantly handed over the spoon. "He gave me an ultimatum, Kev."
"An ultimatum?"
"You know, where they give you a choice between two things that you really don't—" she began, only half joking.
"I know what one is, Mace," the man cut her off, rolling his eyes before fixing her with a rare agitated look. That glare sent chills down her spine; Kevin rarely got angry, but he was a little scary when he did. "Details. Now."
"Hetoldmetochoosebetweenhimandyou!" she blurted at length, unable to take the heat of his stare any longer.
"…what?" The oldest Lucas blinked heavily. "Do you want to try that again?"
Macy's hands fisted tightly in her lap, something she did when she was nervous. "He told me to choose between him and you," she said quietly, ignoring Kevin's sharp intake of breath. "And I told him that it wasn't much of a choice, because the answer was so obvious."
The boy's heart was pounding wildly now. "And you… chose me."
She nodded, blushing scarlet.
"But… why?"
"First, any one stupid enough to give that ultimatum isn't going to be chosen," Macy said. "And second… well, there was no question. The only reason I ever went out with Greg or Tosh or Rick or any of them was because I was trying to forget about you."
Kevin was stunned and silent, leaving room for her to continue.
"I wouldn't use them on purpose, of course; I just thought that they were nice and that it might do me some good to think about a guy other than a JONAS," she said in a rush. "But I was thinking about you all the time as Kevin, not Kevin of JONAS. And I didn't really realize it until Greg asked me to choose."
"And you chose me." Kevin breathed again, a faint smile beginning to grow on his face.
And she nodded. Again. "I should have told you last week when I caught you looking at me like that—"
"Wait, you saw?" He leaned away from her, red with embarrassment, but she quickly grabbed his hands.
"Yes! I—I wasn't sure if it was sympathy or…" she trailed off. "I wanted to know if you would come even if there wasn't a crisis. Even if there wasn't ice cream."
"Of course!" he said, reaching up to touch her cheek. His eyes were soft again, reflecting the expression she'd seen the week before. The smile was back and it was infectious, because she was grinning, too. "I would never eat another cup of rum raisin ice cream if it meant—"
"Me, too," she said, cutting him off.
And while his smile was warmer than any she'd ever known, his kiss was sweeter than any ice cream.
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fin
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Urg. I'm not happy with this at all. I felt the need to elaborate on the Simple and Sweet drabble from Quick—Write!, but this is kind of… bleh.
I'll probably be replacing this with a new, beta'd and edited version soon; I just wanted to post it while I had the chance.
Tell me what you think?
Much love!
Beth
EDIT: I still need to throw this at a beta, but I made a few edits. It should look a little better now… :D