✔︎Chocolate Ice Cream || Dustin Henderson

Chapter 16

"No," Lucas said, tossing his stick to the side.

"I did," Will chimed in. "I saw Katie."

"Well of course you were looking at Katie. When she's around, you're eyes are glued to her," Mike pointed out, smirking at the Byers boy.

"I'm actually surprised you didn't notice your wife, El," Lucas told Mike, who turned redder than a tomato.

"Solanum lycopersicum," I said out of habit.

"What?" Mike asked.

"Solanum lycopersicum," I replied. "It's the scientific name for a tomato. Molly told me."

"Of course Molly told you!" Will exclaimed. "You're the one talking to her whenever she's with us."

"Yeah dude, you got it bad," Lucas said, poking me with a stick.

"Like you're one to talk. Every time you see Max, you're drooling over her," Mike pointed out.

"I do not drool over Max," Lucas protested.

"Uh, yeah you do," I said.

"Guys! Stop arguing!" Will exclaimed. "We all know that Mike is practically dating El, I have a crush on Katie, Lucas likes Max, and Dustin is in love with Molly."

"Very true," Mike said, and we all nodded in agreement.

"Well where did they go?" Lucas asked as we went to get our bikes.

"They looked like they were biking towards school, so let's check there," Will said, and we biked over to our school.

When we got there, I could see the girls. Molly and El were swinging on the swings. Max was hanging upside down from the monkey bars, and Katie was going down the slide.

We quickly hid in the bushes, not wanting them to see us. Which was probably creepier than just going up to them, saying that we wanted to hang out, but we're socially awkward, so we hid in the bushes.

"Why are we doing this again?" Mike asked.

"I have no clue," Will replied.

"I have an idea. Why don't we go over and talk to them?" I suggested, taking Lucas's binoculars.

"Dude! That's crazy!" Mike said, taking the binoculars. "It was their big sleepover tonight. You don't interrupt that! That's a part of the girl code!"
"What is the girl code?" Will asked.

"It's this set of unspoken rules between girls. Nancy told me about it. For instance, you don't pull a girl's hair. That's like the number one rule. You also don't interrupt a girls night," Mike explained.

"Why did Nancy tell you that?" I asked really confused.

"I asked for advice about girls because," Mike trailed off.

"It was because of El, wasn't it?" Lucas said crossing his arms, smirking at Mike.

"No!" Mike said, a bit too loudly because Katie came bounding over to the bushes.

"Ladies!" she called. "I found some lost little puppies. Can we keep them?" The rest of the girls came running over, and they smirked when they saw us.

"Well, well, the stalkers are back, huh?" Max asked taking Lucas's binoculars, and tracing the patterns on it with her finger.

"Dusty," Molly whined, sitting down next to me. "You promised me you wouldn't stalk people anymore."

"I know Molls, I know," I replied leaning my head on her shoulder, wrapping my arm around her.

"Oh don't give me that," Molly said removing my arm from around her, and I felt like a stone had dropped into my stomach.

"What?" I asked nervously.

"I'm just joking with you Curly Fry," she said calling me the nickname that drove me wild.

"Oh," I replied, relief flooding my body.

"Well we've got to go back home," Molly said getting up and walking towards her friends.

"Molly wait!" I called after her. She turned around, confusion written all over her features.

"Wha-!" Molly started, but I cut her off by hugging her tightly.

"I just wanted a hug," I whispered, the loose strands from her braids tickled my nose.

"Oh," Molly said hugging me back.

"Thanks. I'd better head back, my mom wants me home," I told her, taking her hand and squeezing it before walking over to my bike.

"Bye Curly Fry!" she called as I biked away, and smiled. Why did this girl affect me so much?