GUN IN MY HAND

CHAPTER 57: VANILLA OR CHOCOLATE?

I wanna dedicate this chapter to my friend @PragathiSuresh to thank her for her support on all my stories, and particularly this one. I mean she's read all the chapters until here in about one day once she's finished her exams! 😳🤩 I know it's a lot because my chapters tend to be long 😅 Anyway, thank you so much 😘✨ and congrats on your exams 🥳 Also, I hope you're doing better 💕

'Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shootin' stars

I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now'

*DOROTHY'S POV*

"It's an impossible choice. How do you want me to decide? You, what do you advise me?" A sigh heavy with dilemma and expectation echoed in the room. "Chocolate or vanilla?"

"Um, people's favorite is generally chocolate." Loretta, the waitress, offered me and the ten people behind a sorry smile before turning back to Mrs. Jenkins.

Today, Nellie and Rachel weren't there, so she was alone to handle the diner, and what usually should have gone smoothly at this time of the afternoon had turned into a traffic jam of thirsty people thanks to Mrs. Jenkins and her legendary indecisiveness.

Though, personally, I didn't mind. It gave me a distraction, and the old woman had sensible arguments.

"Yes, but I also love vanilla. Not everyone can appreciate it. It's more subtle but as sweet..."

I watched the old woman's orange sun hat move with the movements of her head, imagining the pout adding to her wrinkled face as I absent-mindedly fiddled with the item in my left hand before I did the same with my right hand.

"At the same time, chocolate is a safe bet. The taste wraps around your tastebuds like home..."

More sighs echoed from behind me, and I was sure even Loretta let out one discreetly as Mrs. Jenkins continued,

"While vanilla is more refreshing. Maybe it's better for the weather today, but what if it's too fresh?

What about tomorrow? In a year? Forever? Once I've chosen, there's no turning back. What if I regret it? What if it leaves everyone unhappy– Okay, I might have been extrapolating.

It wasn't Mrs. Jenkins's words anymore, and it turned out the old woman's dilemma wasn't distracting me from my own, on the contrary.

Vanilla or chocolate, Blade or Spencer... it was all the same impossible choice.

"Dorothy, what do I serve you?" Loretta's smile appeared in front of me, no trace of Mrs. Jenkins, whose back I'd been staring at for the past 20 minutes.

She must have made her choice, and now, it was my turn as the waitress blinked at me, her hands already grabbing a glass to fill with what?

My gaze darted to the two signs above the counter: a chocolate bar and a vanilla pod. "Sorry, I'm not thirsty anymore."

A wave of sickness was even climbing up my throat as a result of my insides being torn apart, and the flickers of my eyes were worsening the dizziness. So I quickly escaped the line and the room filled with Spencer's memories to breathe in some fresh air.

Yet it was as suffocating outside, and not only because of the beating sun, as the too-fresh flashbacks of Blade and I on that parking lot hit me.

I loved the sparks of adrenaline coming with the sour smoke that his lips had teased me with as much as I adored the tickles from Spencer and I's fits of laughter... the shades of chocolate melting in Spencer's brown eyes when he gazed at me, and the hint of vanilla drowning in the wood and tobacco of Blade's scent.