Feelings and Dates... Kinda

“Soooo tell me, how are things going?” my bother asked.

“Fine,” I replied.

“Hm,” my brother nodded and went back to tuning his guitar.

“Well…” I hesitated.

“Hmm,” my brother hummed.

He stopped tuning the guitar but didn’t look up at me, and with the way the corner of his mouth lifted, I could tell he knew something I didn’t.

“There is… I mean… It’s just…” I couldn’t get the words together.

“I knew there was something or someone!” I heard and saw my brother’s girlfriend come inside the garage.

“Where did you come from?” I jumped.

“Heaven sweetheart, obviously,” she winked while flicking her hair back with her hand.

I laughed while she hugged me, my brother’s girlfriend is the best! She’s like the sister I never had and wished I did. I know if I ever wanted to talk to someone about something personal and I didn’t want to tell my brother I can always go to her, and I know she’ll keep my secret.

“More like Hell,” my brother mumbled.

I threw a cushion at him and got his face.

“Don’t be rude!” I told him.

“You both were put on this Earth to annoy the shit out of me, you guys know that right?” he asked us.

“And yet your pants are still clean,” his girlfriend fired back with a wink.

We both high-fived as my brother rolled his eyes with a chuckle.

“Oh, come on! You love us though,” I grinned.

“I love her, I’m just stuck with you,” he pulled his girlfriend to his side and kissed her.

“First of all, rude! Second of all, get a room!” I gagged.

“Oye!” my brother, smiling, threw back the cushion I had chucked at him.

“Anyways who’s the girl?” my brother asked.

“Or guy! We’ll support you no matter what,” his girlfriend quickly interjected.

“It’s not a guy,” I shook my head.

“Okay just making sure you know if it were, we would support you,” his girlfriend spoke seriously.

“He’s not into boys, this isn’t some BL love story,” my brother.

“Right,” I chuckled.

“But I’m not even sure it is a love story,” I groan and fall back on the beanbag chair.

“Walk us through it, Kyo,” his girlfriend comes and sits next to me on the ground with her legs crossed.

My brother then follows and sits across from me but on a chair.

“It’s Ichigo...” I start.

“I knew it,” his girlfriend cackled while clapping her hands.

“I told you! I told you the boy is smitten! The first girl to ever enter his life he’s bound to feel a little something-something,” she laughed.

I hesitated but continued, “No it’s okay, we’re friends, just friends. I want to keep it that way.”

I stood up to leave when I heard a firm.

“Freeze!”

I turned around slowly to see my brother standing as well.

“Back it up and park your butt back on the beanbag. You’re telling us everything from what you’re feeling to what you think,” he made clear.

I did as he said and sat back down. Taking a deep breath, I decided to keep my gaze down on my hands to avoid eye contact.

“It’s been a few months now since I met Ichigo, and we’re really good friends, so good that we even flirt sometimes,” I smile.

“But I can’t help feel these… feelings. It’s like they start in my stomach making it go up and down like I’m on a rollercoaster and sometimes I feel sick, but not in a bad way, in a sort of ‘I’m so excited I’m going to throw up’ way and I think she also feels the same because of the way she sometimes looks at me and talks to me like she’s caring, I don’t know maybe I’m imagining it,” I finish and look up.

My brother and his girlfriend are exchanging glances, and after a few minutes, one of them finally speaks.

“Ahh I’m so happy for you!” my brother’s girlfriend hugs me in a tight embrace, she squeezes my neck a little too hard though.

“Choking… not… breathing,” I gasp before my brother pries her off of me.

I mouthed a quick ‘thank you’ towards him while panting for air.

“So…” he started, running his hand down his face.

“So…?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he smiled.

“As I promised you when you were younger, I’m always here for you and your ‘Romeo and Juliet’ type of love story,” my brother winked making me smile.

“Wow, you are the best brother ever,” I laughed.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get used to it pipsqueak,” he laughed while ruffling my hair.

“So, what’s the plan?” he asked.

“I… don’t know” I slumped back.

“Take her on a date!” my brother’s girlfriend chirped.

My brother and I exchanged a glance before returning our gazes to her.

“A… date?” my brother raised his eyebrow.

“Yeah!” she clapped her hands.

“Okay, what sort of date?” I asked.

“Ice cream,” my brother snapped his fingers.

I thought for a while, “Okay.”

I flipped my phone out of my pocket and texted Ichigo.

“Heyyy Ichigo”

A few seconds later, she was online and I could see she was typing.

“Heyyy Kyo

What’s up?”

“Want to go get ice cream?”

I could see she was typing, she was typing for quite a while, so she was either indecisive with her reply or she was typing a whole essay to my very simple question. This went on for a few more seconds before I finally got a message.

“Okay

Where do you want to meet up?”

“Great!

How about the ice cream shop near our school?”

“Perfect! *smiley*

See you there in about an hour?”

“Sure” *smiley*

I put my phone away and looked at both my brother and his girlfriend who were probably holding their breaths.

“Well? Get on with it, boy, don’t leave us in suspense!” my brother yelled.

“We’re meeting in an hour,” I winked and walked out.

I could hear my brother and his girlfriend both cheering and whistling as I walked back to the house. I didn’t want it to be awkward so I decided to go with something simple, but before that, I had a quick shower.

I got dressed in a red and black checkered shirt and black jeans, I wore some trainers and styled my hair in a ‘comb over’ before grabbing my keys and going out, I texted my driver before I got ready though, so he was waiting for me when I left the house.

“Someone’s looking nice,” he winked while looking at me through the rear-view mirror.

“Thank you,” I smiled.

The rest of the drive was quiet, when I got to the ice cream shop, Ichigo was already there. She wore a black dress that reached her knees and her red hair was up in a ponytail. As usual, she had mascara on her lashes and gloss on her lips.

“Ooh someone’s looking handsome,” she winked.

“Thank you,” I smiled, but that comment made heat rise to my cheeks.

“And you’re looking gorgeous as always,” I smiled.

She blushed and tucked a stray hair behind her ear, “Thank you.”

“Shall we order?” I asked.

Ichigo nodded and we got to the counter.

“Hi, what can I get you?” the lady behind the glass asked us.

“Can I get a strawberry ice cream,” I smiled.

“Sure, and the young lady?” she turned to Ichigo.

“I think I’ll have the Vanilla, thank you,” Ichigo smiled politely.

I scoffed and she give me a weird look.

I paid for our ice creams after arguing for a few seconds with Ichigo, and we sat down to eat.

“I’ll pay you back,” Ichigo told me when we sat.

“Don’t you dare!” I narrowed my eyes playfully making her giggle.

“By the way how come you got Vanilla?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I like Vanilla, why?” she asked.

“Well… because you’re not Vanilla,” I shrugged.

“Oh, trust me. I am Vanilla,” she chuckled.

“Really? That book said otherwise,” I winked.

“Kyooooo!” Ichigo whined hiding her face with her free hand making me laugh.

“I’m kidding,” I smiled.

We went back to eating our ice creams in comfortable silence.

“By the way, how is the book coming along?” I asked.

Ichigo narrowed her eyes at me, “It’s fine.”

“Good, good. Can I read it?” I asked.

“Absolutely not,” she shook her head.

“Well, what I read before was pretty good, for a Vanilla girl of course,” I smirked.

“Thank you, I’ve written other things as well. But I don’t like showing them to anyone,” she shook her head.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because I never feel like it’s ever finished,” she looked down.

“You know that’s just another way of saying ‘I’m a chicken’” I leaned in.

Ichigo smiled cheekily, before swiping her ice cream across my face, she laughed making me chuckle.

“What was that for?” I laughed.

“I’m not a chicken,” she told me.

I licked my ice cream before replying, “And I’m not a gentleman.”

I shoved my ice cream in her face, soon we were both in a food fight and swiping our ice cream across each other’s faces until the cones broke in our hands. By the time we were finished, we burst out laughing at the mess we made and went to clean up, but before we did, we took a bunch of selfies.

“Okay, see you in school tomorrow,” Ichigo waved, smiling when we got outside.

“See you,” I smiled back.

I stood at the entrance, hands stuffed in my pockets, watching the girl enter her car and drive off. I did the same but in the opposite direction.

“No matter what anyone says, that was pretty special,” I whispered to myself as I smiled at the picture on my phone of the two of us covered in ice cream.