Down For The Count

Ice Cream Dates @ (3) AM: Part Two

Paisley: Plz stop calling me that

Lin-Diesel: :-)) no

Paisley: ur nose smiley looks like a pervert

Lin-Diesel: :-(

I put my phone to the side and slowly got up as not to disturb Alex or...Violet who was draped all over and very difficult to remove. I quickly packed some of my stuff back into my bag, and right as I was finishing up, Lin texted me.

Lin-Diesel: I'm outside :-))))

I decided to send Alex a text that she would end up seeing when she woke up, partly because I couldn't find anything to write on, but mostly because Alex is not a morning person and she would be pissed if I woke her up.

Paisley: Lin picked me up early, I'll see you around :)

I walked outside to see Lin in his car, smiling widely when he saw me and waving. I rolled my eyes, hopping into the car.

"Hey Skipper!" Lin smiled, pulling out of the driveway. I groaned, resting my head against the window.

"Stop calling me that, it's dumb." I mumbled, noticing Lin frown.

"Someone's grumpy." He laughed, reaching to turn on the radio, but I quickly smacked his hands away from turning on any more Kelly Clarkson CD's. "Hey."

"It's almost 3 AM, Lin, can we just sit in silence?" I snapped. Lin didn't say anything, and I immediately felt bad because he was so happy and I just brought him down about ten notches.

I closed my eyes to just relax, because honestly I felt...annnnnnnd the car stopped. Jeez, New York traffic is even terrible at 3 AM, huh?

But when Lin started rolling down his window, that's when I knew something was up.

"Lin, what..." I trailed off when I noticed that we were in the drive thru at that stupid ice cream parlor. "Oh my god! I thought we were going home!"

"I want ice cream and Lord knows you need some too." Lin said, mumbling that last part and causing me to scowl. I'm not being uptight on purpose I just...I just want to go home and sleep.

Lin ordered our two ice creams, handing mine to me. I honestly didn't even want to eat any, I had no appetite whatsoever. And I was absolutely pissed when Lin pulled into the lot near the Hudson because I just want to be home.

"So..." Lin said as he stopped the car. "What's going on?"

"Nothing's 'going on'." I mocked him, rolling my eyes. And honestly I have no room to talk. When Lin and Vanessa find out about everything...forget about the ice cream dates and movie nights. They're not even gonna want to look at me. I've heard nightmares about care homes and I'm not too eager to sort those rumors out myself.

"Really? Because your attitude begs to differ." Lin said. I scowled, looking out on the water and just...thinking about everything. Maybe foster parents are nice too? I guess it all depends on who you get stuck with. Maybe with the bad parents like Dustin, who beat you and hate you and put you down and tell you-

"Paisley." Lin said firmly this time, snapping me out of my thoughts. I refused to look at him, and I refused to eat my ice cream. It's actually kinda fun watching it melt and...and I'm so stupid, and a waste of money. "What's wrong, Skipper?"