His train of thought was thankfully stopped by a hand on his shoulder, Sparkling's hand to be exact, who wore a worried expression, looking deep into his eyes. He was slightly blurred tho.. 'when did i start crying..?'. He felt Sparkling's thumb wiping the tears on his cheek, asking softly if he was feeling alright.
The florist looked around, somehow he had forgotten they were still at the bar, his eyes landing on Mint Choco, who was still looking at him expectantly. He wanted him to answer so he could go home and leave already
Herb put on the best smile he could muster and said as casually as possible "I'm okay, don't worry. Heh, Cocoa must be worried about you though... See you next week, Mint?"
Mint Choco looked like he wanted to say something, but instead just closed his mouth and nodded to them. He quickly bid them goodbye, saying that he needed to go back to Cocoa, before getting up and leaving the three alone.
The bartender fiddled with the paper still in his hands. He knew Herb's smile was fake, he could tell he was trying hard to not let his emotions show, how his voice sounded...
Only after making sure Mint was away and out of earshot, Herb released a shaky breath he didn't know he was holding. His shoulder dropped, fiddling with his fingers subconsciously. He didn't notice when his smile started to waver nor the tears slowly falling.
Sparkling frowned at him. It broke his heart to see the usual bubbly gardener hurt because of a friend- no, she wasn't his friend anymore. She wasn't their friend anymore.
He pulled Herb to a hug, holding him gently as the other shakily hugged back, holding him tighter as he felt Herb silently crying on his chest. He could care less if the letter was on the floor, or that his back would hurt later. The only thing he cared about right now was the person he was hugging, right now he needed confort.
Vampire also wanted to go and comfort his friend, but didn't want to interrupt their hug, so he sat besides the two and patted Herb's back, sometimes rubbing circles to try and calm him.
Mint looked like he wanted to say something
He was probably going to say he wasn't gonna come next week
Or not coming at all after that
What did I do wrong?
Was I selfish?
Was I too annoying?
Were they scared of me because of my mom?
...I don't deserve their friendship
I don't think i deserve their kindness
Maybe they're just faking it to make me feel better
Maybe they talk bad things about me behind my back
Thjey'd had good reasons to..
They stayed like that for a while until he stopped shaking and his crying had died down. Then he mumbled, barely audible and muffled by sparkling's shoulders. "I'm a horrible friend..."
Sparkling gently pulled away from the hug to look him in the eyes. "What?"
"I-It's.. I'm stupid.. This is s-stupid, crying about it, I'm just.. Stupid"
Vampire looked at him confused. "Uh, why do you think it's stupid..?"
Herb just looked down at his lap, fiddling with his fingers again. He didn't know how to answer. It was just... dumb. He shouldn' cry because of a letter, he shouldn't break down because of a friendship, that was a dumb reason to cry about, to feel sad, it wasn't worth his tears. He knows that. He knew..so why was he crying about it?
Why did he care so much about things like this?
Suddenly Vamp threw one arm around his shoulder, bringing him to a side-hug- "Okay, you know what? I think Cocoa is the stupid one, not you! Imma be honest, i never really got along with her to begin with, always thought she was kind of a spoiled brat type-" Sparkling chuckled at that comment, Vampire continuing anyways "- no but seriously! Aside from us, she only hung out with Mint Choco, Cheesecake and oher rich cookies! She had that vibe--" Sparkling laughed again, replying "Ok, fair enough on that."
Herb felt some of the tension leave his mind, enough for him to relax in his friend's company. Enough to crack a small smile at them trying to cheer him up by saying crap about Cocoa. And some part of his mind wanted to join it. So he muttered jokingly "You think my mom would soak Cocoa if she knew about this?". Ok, maybe half-joking, considering Sea Fairy could be a bit protective- but it was good enough to make the two cookies laugh.
They spent the next hour or so talking about putting sea water on her hot cocoa, which led to them thinking about various other ways to mess with her, even though Herb wouldn't want to confront or see her anymore, it was still fun thinking of random things that would annoy her. Vampire also tried to somehow convince both of them to drink wine with him, but they ended up drinking their own drinks.