Strawberry Ice Cream [steddie]

Vanilla

Saturday, June 29

Steve expertly sets a single scoop of chocolate ice cream on a cone, then hands it to the girl waiting at the counter in front of him. A very pretty girl, might he add, which happens to be what he's looking for this summer.

Okay, maybe he's been trying to get a date since Nancy started dating Johnathan. But this girl doesn't know that.

"Alrighty, one scoop of chocolate. That's a buck twenty-five," Steve says. "Anything else?"

The girl reaches into her purse to retrieve the money, which she then hands him. Her friend standing next to her licks her ice cream, looking at him like she already knows his game. Which maybe she does, Steve doesn't know what girls tell each other when he's not around.

He's gotta be part of the gossip still, right?

"Ooh, Purdue!" Steve says, commenting on the school's shirt the girl is wearing. "Fancy."

"Yeah, I'm excited," she says, smiling.

"Yeah, you know, I considered it. Purdue," Steve continues, trying for conversation. "Then I was like, you know what? I really think I need some real-life experience, you know, before I hit college, see what it feels like."

The girls exchange a look, the friend smirking again. She obviously thinks Steve's an idiot, but he doesn't give up. No, he just keeps on talking. 

"Kinda like, uh, I don't know, see what it's like to earn a working man's wage—uh, hold on sorry." Perfect, now the register is malfunctioning. Or is that his own brain? Either way, the girls are definitely trying not to laugh and this is not going anywhere good.

"I think that's like really important," he says, finally working through the problem. It's all about the quick recovery.

"Yeah, totally," the girl says.

"Yeah, anyways, this was like, so fun," Steve laughs, sounding more nervous then he meant. "We should kinda like, you know, I don't know maybe hang out this weekend or—" aaand he's accidentally dropping her change on the counter. Great. "Oh, sorry about that," he says. "I dunno, maybe next weekend or..."

"Yeah, I'm busy," the girl says, giving him a smile that's more pitying than friendly.

"Oh, that's cool. I'm working here, next weekend, so,"

"Stop talking."

"The following weekend's better for me," he finishes, very much still talking.

"No, I'm sorry, I can't," the girl says, and god it's like he's the biggest idiot in the world. She and her friend start walking away, giggling and whispering about something. Most likely him.

He should not say anything else, but obviously he will. Because apparently every ounce of charm he's ever had left his body when he and Nancy broke up. "I— this is my first day here..." he sighs. The girls are gone.

Behind him, he hears the sliding window to the back room open and Robin's voice saying, "And another one bites the dust!"

Steve sighs and turns around to face her and her stupid whiteboard tally.

"You are oh-for-six, Popeye," she says, adding a sixth tally to the 'You Suck' column on the right. Meanwhile the 'You Rule' column on the left is painfully blank.

"Yeah, yeah I can count," Steve says.

"You know that means you suck," Robin says.

"Yup, I can read, too."

Robin feigns shock. "Since when?"

Steve ignores this, determined to prove that horrible interaction somehow wasn't his fault. "It's this stupid hat. I am telling you, it is totally blowing my best feature."