Terry drives us to the ice cream parlor named 31. The original name was Dreamsicle Highway, then they changed it to 31 Flavors, and since they only serve 12 flavors, they changed it to just 31. Most people called it that anyway before they took away “Flavors.” They could have changed it to 12 Flavors, but that’s the name of the wine shop down the street.
We take a booth and order the usual; banana split sundae with five cherries and no chocolate syrup. The chocolate gets all over, and they never give enough cherries. I let Terry tell me all about how Kevin started spiking his hair with eggs even though he knows she’s allergic. I find it both interesting and gross that someone can spike their hair with eggs.
“But enough about my terrible boyfriend trying to kill me. What’s going on with you and the Duck Man?”
I poke my last cherry around my bowl. “We broke up.”
She gasps and stands up on the booth seat. “Everyone, this girl broke up with her boyfriend of two days, today!”
I grab her dress and pull her back down. “Can you please stop?”
“Fine,” she sits back down. “I’m just saying that it’s not that big a deal. You and Duckie have been friends forever.”
“It’s a big deal to me!” I shove the beautiful red fruit into my mouth. “Besides, I have a plan.”
Terry sits back in her seat and takes a deep breath. “I need to mentally prepare myself.”
“No time,” I say taking a spoonful of ice cream. “What if, hypothetically, I befriend…Andie?”
Terry throws her spoon at the wall behind me. “No!”
“What the heck?”
I turn to see where the spoon went. It lodged right into the wall. Terry's got a good arm. Someone is going to get mad about that. I look around to make sure no one else saw. Everyone seems relatively clueless, so I continue.
“If I befriend her, maybe I can get her to talk to Duckie.”
“About what? She won’t.” She says crossing her arms in disgust.
I shrug. “If she can’t talk to him, then at least Duckie will stop hanging around her so much. It’s not like he wants to see me.”
“Hey there, ladies.”
We look up and see Duckie walking towards our booth. I groan and take another bite of my ice cream. How can I be so wrong all the time? Duckie stands at the end of the table debating where to sit. I finally move in so he can sit next to me. I notice he changed from what he wore yesterday and for a good part of today. He’s now wearing dark blue skinny jeans with plaid suspenders, a pinkish floral shirt and white dress shoes. Of course he’s also wearing his Elton John sunglasses.
“Thank you, malady,” he says tipping his invisible hat. “I have a question for you, Terry.”
Terry scoffs. “Oh, you’re serious? Okay, shoot.”
“Do you think that Caroline and I make a good couple?”
I take my bowl and shovel the ice cream onto Duckie’s head. He bites his lip and nods as if he knows he deserved it. Terry laughs like a hyena and tries to hide it. I stand up and hop over the booth to get out. I cannot believe he walked in here to ask that. The nerve! I make a B-line to the front door fuming about how much I want to turn around and slap him.
His footsteps are not far behind me. I keep walking out the door and towards my house. He catches up to me and starts laughing.
“That was classic. I’ll give you points for that, and extra points for jumping over the booth so gracefully.”
I try to ignore him.
“So,” he clears his throat. “Want to lick this off my face?”
I stop walking and face him. “Are you kidding me right now?”
He points his fingers at me and smiles his big goofy, lovable smile. “Gotchya to talk.”
I sigh and keep walking. “Why would you ask that?”
“Caroline, I know we are a good couple. I want to work for us. We are like the best power couple ever. Better than Madonna and Sean Penn.”
“You’re comparing yourself to Sean Penn?”
“I was thinking I’d be Madonna,” he says waiting for me to laugh.
I bite my cheek to stop the oncoming smile.
“The thing is though, I do love Andie. And I know that hurts you,” he grabs my hand gently to make me stop and face him again. “I don’t want to hurt you. Tell me what I can do.”
“Stop running off to see Andie.”
He shuffles his feet and tries to sound funny, “But, baby, she can’t be deprived of how great I am.”
I stare at him blankly waiting for him to try again.
“Okay, fine. From now on, I swear that I will only be running off to see you.”
“Promise?” I say holding out my pinkie.
“Aren’t we too old for this?” He sees that I’m serious. “Oh, okay then.”
He wraps his pinkie around mine. Finally, I allow myself to smile. He has vanilla ice cream melting down his face onto his shirt. I wipe my finger on his cheek and lick the ice cream off my finger. Duckie clears his throat and smiles nervously. He leans in to kiss me, but I back away.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he scolds himself. “Am I not supposed to kiss you right away?”
“Not when you are covered in deserts.”
He laughs at the joke forming in his head. “That’s odd because if you were covered in deserts, that’s exactly what I’d want to do with you.”
There it is.
YOU ARE READING
Falling In Love With The Duck
FanfictionWe all know the movie. Duckie gets turned down repeatedly by Andie. But what if he had a friend who he confided in who was absolutely in love with him like he loved Andie? Caroline knows how Duckie feels when Andie turns him down because he has do...
