Page 46 of Busted Dreams

“As long as I don’t have to see any other dicks, I’m fine,” I said, trying to ingest some humor back into the conversation. Rhys laughed. Thatcher scowled.

I couldn’t help wondering if my future dreams with Astrid now included these two dipshits.

Wednesday after school, I had a lot of prospective people to spend it with. Thatcher had asked for a movie night. Something we’d never been able to do. Beck wanted to hang out and make a video for our next upload, and if we didn’t do it soon, we were going to lose the momentum we’d gained. Still, days later, we were getting tons of likes, shares, and comments.

But before I could do any of that, I needed to spend time with one person I’d neglected more than anyone else lately.

Ryan. My best platonic friend.

“What do you want, Ass?” He smacked his gum as he looked at the drive thru menu.

We were at Frost Top, a cutesy little diner on the edge of town, closest to the mountains. A spinning mug of root beer adorned the top of the little place. There wasn’t a dine-in area, only a window to order from, or a drive through. Nothing fancy, but Ryan assured me they had the best shakes.

“Root beer float?”

He spun around. “Is that a question? How do I know what you want?”

“I want a root beer float,” I said with firm conviction. “Is that better?”

Nodding, he turned back to the speaker. “Much thanks. Okay, we’re ready.” A crackling came from the speaker before a guy greeted us.

After ordering and getting our delicious desserts, we parked at the back where we could still people watch. Ryan liked to say I was rubbing off on him. Maybe that was true, but who didn’t like to watch people? They were fascinating, and you never knew what you were going to see.

“So, how’s Pat?”

He waved a hand as he took a giant lick off of his orange Dreamsicle swirl cone. How he didn’t get at least a drop on his chin, I’d never know.

“Girl, he’s old news. We broke up like two days ago.”

“What?” I screeched. “You give me such a hard time about giving you the details of my love life, and I wasn’t your first call? We could have cried into our Oreos together.” Oh, this root beer float was good. It must have been some kind of homemade root beer. It definitely wasn’t the same kind you bought in two liters down the soda aisle at the grocery store.

“Please, like you sit around eating Oreos. I’d have a better chance of getting you to take pictures of me while I cried,” he scoffed.

I involuntarily gasped. For a second, I wondered if he knew I’d done that for Jonah. But no, he couldn’t, and I know the guys wouldn’t gossip like lonely seventh grade girls. Not about each other. To each other? I could see that as a possibility.

“For your information, I love golden Oreos. But I could have done a photoshoot too. You might have even gotten some great shots out of it. Something you could blow up and put on your bedroom wall.”

He looked me dead in the eye and said, “Damn, you’re right. I could have used a reminder that boys ain’t shit. Next time, Ass, you’re going to be on my first call list. No wallowing for me unless you have a front and center seat to my patheticness.”

I frowned. This wasn’t like him at all. Ryan was always the strong one, building me up and beating self-confidence into me with his designer shoes. You could say he was my number one hype man.

“Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?” I set my drink down and faced him.

He rolled his eyes and took another lick. “I’m right here. You’ve just never seen me after a breakup. It isn’t pretty. I’ll be like this for at least two more days. Don’t worry, after that, I’ll be the fabulous, snarky friend you know and love.”

“Okay, good…” I said, but like always, I’d run out of things to say. There had to be a self-help book likeComfort for Dummiesout there right? He deserved a friend right now who actually knew how to be a good friend. Even after all his “training,” I was struggling. Sometimes I wondered if after my upbringing, there would always be something inside that was just a tiny bit off-center.

“But it’s your turn. Dish, girl. Make me feel like men are worth a second chance.” Half of his cone was gone in three licks.

I would not make bad jokes, I would not make bad jokes.

“Um…I went on a date,” I said, then immediately shoved the straw in my mouth.

“What? And you didn’t tell me?” Yes, he looked cheated, even though he hadn’t shared his breakup with me. In my limited experience, even I knew that was hypocritical.

“There’s been a lot going on, and I don’t really see you in school that much anymore.”

“I know. I’ve been avoiding Pat this week, so I’ve been ducking out of every class early so I didn’t have to see him. Back to this date, was it the hockey player we all love to drool over?”

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