Antidote

Chapter 45

"How about some ice cream?" Tristan asks, pulling back slightly. The familiar childhood chant runs through my head: I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. I giggle involuntarily. "Sure." Tristan takes my hand and we walk away from the building and towards the nearby ice cream parlor.

We enter through the front door, tinkling the little bell above it. "Ah, welcome, welcome!" calls a friendly Mom-type woman from behind the counter. "What can I get you?" I giggle in spite of myself. The woman is wearing a ridiculous dress with teddy bears all over it.

She sends me a charming smile and I smile back. She looks to be about middle-aged, with her dull brown hair pulled back in a neat bun and her brown eyes sparkling over her reading glasses. "My name is June, and I'm here at your service," she says, bowing slightly from the waist. I giggle slightly and she smiles at me.

"So, what would you all like?" June asks, leaning her weight onto her hands, which are perched on the counter top. "I want a strawberry cone," Tristan says from behind me. "And I want a hot fudge sundae," I say. "All right-y," June says and rings up our orders. "That'll be five dollars and ninety-five cents." Tristan hands over six and tells her, "Keep the change." She beams at him and says, "Thank you!" before rushing off to the kitchen to get our ice cream.

As she's behind the counter, the overhead bell tinkles and another customer crosses the threshold into the parlor. My breath catches in my throat at the sight of Chad.

Almost immediately, I feel Tristan's arm tighten around my waist. I frown at his obvious jealousy. Chad walks to the bar, taking a seat right next to me. By now my boyfriend's fingers are pressing into my back with excessive force. I look over at him and give him a pointed look, and he relaxes his grip.

Chad clears his throat and says, "I just came to tell you both that I've enlisted in the army. I'm leaving for training at base camp in two days."

I look over at him, startled. Tristan eases his arm off of my waist, and I frown at the cold spot that attacks my back. I sigh, taking in all of Chad's appearance, noting everything, knowing that this might be the last time I'll ever see him.

I feel my eyes glaze over as I take in his curly brown hair, hair I ran my fingers through countless times during that summer. I peer into his eyes, eyes I got lost in every time I looked. And his rough, callused hands that petted my hips and my hair many times when I was fifteen.

Awkwardly, Chad clears his throat, and I realize I've been looking at him for a while now. "Um...," I mumble, struggling to think of something supportive to say.

Finally, coming up empty, I ask, "Does Hannah know yet?" "No," he replies. "When she finds out, she's probably going to go crying to her girlfriend's house." I nod. I know that that's exactly what she'll do.

"So," Chad says, rising to leave. "I guess I'll see you guys later." My impulses want to hold him like I'll never see him again, and I glance nervously over at Tristan, who's watching this scene with a cautious, reserved look on his face.

Chad catches my face with his palms and strokes my cheek. Tristan sucks in a pained breath, and I shoot him a look that says, Let us have our moment.

Chad looks into my eyes and I stare back. He says, with a thick voice, "This is goodbye." And I know he means more than the end of the visit, so I reach my arms around his neck, pulling him down on the stool with me and hugging him like there's no tomorrow.

When I peer over Chad's shoulder at Tristan, there's a thoughtful look on his face. To my surprise, he doesn't look pained and he doesn't seem angry. I embrace Chad for a few moments longer before I pull back to a sitting position.

He releases me and steps back. For a second he looks at me, then switches his gaze to Tristan. Tristan stares into Chad's eyes and something passes between them, a mutual connection that I'm not aware of. Seconds later, it's over and Chad pulls his eyes from Tristan's. He gives me a wave, and then exits out the door.

Turning to Tristan, with sincerity in my tone, I say, "Thank you." "For what?" he asks, creasing his brow in confusion. "For letting us have that goodbye," I say. "And for standing by my side."

He lets out a long, slow breath, and says, "Alex, I'll always stand by your side. I can't bear to see you without that little ray of sunshine that provides your happiness, but you deserve a partner who won't give up and desert them when darkness snuffs out your sun."

Impassioned by his speech, I slide over on the stool until I'm practically on top of him. I press my lips to his hungrily, and he responds back with just as much ferocity. Desire burns through my veins like fire, lighting my heart with passion. My mind goes fuzzy as he moves his hands down my back to grip their target destination. I fight back a moan as he moves even closer, pressing my body to his and gripping my hips tightly.

Every pore of my body is on fire as he kisses me. Heat radiates off of us in waves, and suddenly the cool ice cream parlor feels like a sweltering oven. My hands move to grab fistfuls of his hair. I twirl it around my fingers, lacing it in and out of my palms, messing it up to the perfect imperfection I've come to love so much.

Before long, his hands are roaming, and I feel my hoodie beginning to slide off of my body. It takes every ounce of my willpower to lift my hands and put them against Tristan's chest, creating a little space between us.

"Why'd you stop?" Tristan asks, panting heavily as if he's run a marathon. "Well, first of all because I'm not really ready to do that yet, and second of all because I'd like to give some consideration to June by not having sex in her ice cream shop."

"Fair enough," he concedes as June sets our ice cream bowls down in front of us. Tristan picks up his spoon with one hand and picks up mine with the other. I smile down at our entwined fingers, marveling at how much our hands fit together.

Then I smile up at Tristan, content to spend the rest of my life sitting here and holding his hand.