Mint Chocolate-Chip

She liked ice cream. She specifically liked chocolate-chip mint ice cream. The chocolate-chip mint ice cream that looked like vanilla with chocolate-chips in it. Yes, it was an oddly specific kind. White ice cream that tasted like mint with square chocolate chips in it. Honestly, she wasn't picky. That just happened to be her favorite and she knew not many stores carried chocolate-chip mint like that one. There was actually a specific brand that carried it.

It wasn't her favorite because of the flavor, though it was a good flavor. It was her favorite because it tricked a certain person every time he caught her eating it. And he hated mint.

Her brother's best friend was a boy named Jackson Overland. He was three years older than her and three years younger than her brother. Jamie and Jack had been best friends since he moved in next door when Jamie was eight. It began when Jack played a prank on Jamie. It was quite elaborate for a five year old, but it brought them both close to tears from their laughter and they had been attached at the hip ever since.

Jack's favorite ice cream flavor was chocolate-chip. He didn't like the mint. Which she always thought was weird, since he liked a lot of cold things. He liked winter, ice, ice cream, italian ice, polish water ice, snow cones, iced coffee, iced hot chocolate, just… anything cold in general. But he didn't like mint, which was something that felt naturally cold. Spearmint and wintermint gums were always spit out in favor of fruit-flavored (or root beer float flavored) gum. Toothpaste was tolerated. Mouthwash was purple.

He hated mint.

It was summer. Jamie and Jack were home from college. Jack had followed Jamie to college, even if they would only spend a year together. They were roommates and she only heard good stories about it. She was actually tempted to follow Jack to the same college so she could start with someone who was familiar with the campus and someone she knew and trusted. Her first year could be a lot of fun, even if it was Jack's last year. Also, she'd get a discount because her brother went there.

"Sophie, come on!" her brother's best friend urged as he linked arms with her, dragging her towards the door. "We're going swimming!"

"The sun burns!" She hissed, pulling against him. She really didn't mind swimming. It was just the going outside bit she wasn't fond of. She preferred to stay inside and draw or derp around on the internet.

"Well, if you went outside every so often, it wouldn't burn so much." Jack laughed. He, himself, had a nice, healthy color tinting his skin that grew almost deathly pale during the winter. Jack spent most of his time outside. His way of entertaining himself was going to the park and playing with the children there.

After some arguing and threatening to carry her outside himself, she reluctantly agreed. She got dressed as slowly as possible. Pretended she had trouble finding her other flip-flop. Searched for a clean towel. Tried to prolong it as long as possible before Jamie rolled his eyes and pushed her outside.

They didn't have to go far. The three of them liked to swim in the pond across the street. They've been told several times it was gross with pond scum and god knows what else, but they really didn't care. It didn't make them sick, so none of them worried.

Sophie slathered herself in sunblock. Her skin was fair and she had zero color because she had been outside all of twice this summer. And that was because Jamie and Jack dragged her out. Though, she would be lying if she said she didn't have fun.

Jack always knew how to have fun. He would always make Jamie and Sophie smile without even trying. He had games and stories and knew how to play. He was nineteen years old, but he still had a sense of child-like wonder. There was always something to explore or climb or learn about.

The three of them spent the afternoon at the pond. Nostalgia was brought up from time to time, like the time little Sophie got lost in the park forest. When they got older, the forest didn't seem to big. They understood how Jamie and Sophie's mother was able to find the girl so quickly when Jamie and Jack searched for so long.

Sophie always wondered why Jack wanted to include her. After all, he was Jamie's friend. Yes, after so many years of being friend, you'd expect to know the guy and be sort-of friends with him as well. But he always wanted to be Sophie's friend, too. Not just Jamie's. Even when girls had cooties, Sophie was an exception because she was Jamie's sister. But Sophie was younger than the boys. Then again, Jack was just as much younger to Jamie as Sophie was to Jack. And Jamie was okay with including her sometimes. More often when they got older. Sophie liked to think it was because of Jack that Jamie and her were as close as they were.

Several hours later, the three of them trudged back to the Bennett house. They had dried off almost completely about an hour prior. The sun hung low in the sky. Sophie was burned, even when she applied sunscreen three times. She sat at the table, poking the red on her shoulder, wrapped in a towel with a pout. Stupid boys. Dragging her out when she didn't want to be out.

As an apology, Jack was building them all sundaes. He worked at the local ice cream parlor for about three years before going to college and made the best sundaes ever. He still worked there during summer and winter breaks. Jack set a generous bowl in front of her with three cherries. That made her smile.

Jamie and Jack ate double chocolate-chip. Sophie had her favorite, which Jack had yet to grow wise to. She heard him debating whether to have chocolate-chip or double chocolate-chip and she did not correct him. Jerk. She wished he would have picked "chocolate-chip."

As they ate, a mind-numbing movie was playing as background noise on the kitchen television. Sophie watched the images contently until Jamie was called by their mother for assistance, leaving just her and Jack.

"Have you seen this movie?" Jack asked, following her gaze.

"I think a few times." she shrugged. "I don't think I've actually paid attention to it."

There was some comfortable silence between them until Jack asked about the latest doodle she posted on her blog. He complimented her, telling her the style was cute and reminded him of a show he and Jamie used to watch as kids. She smiled, offering to show him more works like it later.

"Yeah! I want to see them—oh!" Jack reached towards her unexpectedly. "You've got ice cream on your face." His palm cupped her chin as his thumb brushed over her lips, catching her by surprise. His thumb traced half of her upper lip, pressing down a little more to wipe the mess on the corner of her lips. As he pulled his hand away, his fingers smoothed over, catching anything left.

His hand was cool to the touch, probably from working with the ice cream. His fingers were calloused, but not too rough. His caress was gentle. He made her stiffen. She didn't feel uncomfortable. But the touch left behind something… different. Her cheeks began to pool heat and it was hard to swallow.

Oh god, what was that?

He brought his hand to his mouth to lick the ice cream and chocolate sauce from his skin when Sophie reached out to stop him. Too late. His pink tongue darted out to taste it mindlessly.

"… It's mint." Jack stated bluntly.

"Yeah."

Jack's golden-brown gaze met her own. His pink-tinged cheeks became even pinker as his eyes quickly shot back to his hand. He chewed his lip thoughtfully. Then… carefully, he tasted the mess on his hand again.

"… Guess mint isn't too bad."


The prompt was "ice cream" provided by teensophiebelieves on tumblr.

If you have a theme or a prompt for a one-shot or drabble, please leave a review or send me a PM. : )