Chapter 249

Chapter 249
"Hey C, do you want to go get some ice cream?" I asked her, nerves already shooting through me. When she pulled back and nodded excitedly, a part of my heart smiled at the fact that I had turned her into an ice-cream-addict like myself. "Alright, just give me a sec," I replied, and helped her off of me as I stood up, walking to my room.

Already focusing on steadying my breathes, I slipped my shirt off and then slid another one on so that she thought that's why I came up here. But it wasn't. I closed the door and locked it to make sure I had the next few moments completely private.

My heart was already pounding and I couldn't help the deep grin that spread on my lips as I walked over to my bed, reached under my pillow, and pulled out the small box from under it that held my mother's ring.

She had put it in Layla's room when she left us, knowing in her heart that Layla would be back one day and wanted her to have it. But Layla wanted me to have it, and when I told her on my graduation night about my plans, she wouldn't stop squealing for an hour straight. I would've found it annoying if I hadn't been doing it internally myself.

She had also taken Carla out for manicures a few days ago, claiming that it was an absolute necessity for Carla nails to be looking fantastic in the pictures she would be taking of the ring and sending to everyone. She also told me that she would keep the ring safe until I needed it in her dresser so that Carla wouldn't find it in my room.

So ya, I guess I had a lot to thank Layla for with this situation, but I also had to thank my parents- since my moms ring wasn't ugly or dated or anything. It was actually the perfect ring somehow, and I probably would have picked one similar to it if I did have the money. Not that I would have, though- this ring was absolutely priceless.

I slipped it into my pocket and let out a final long breath before walking back out my door and down to where Carla was waiting for me. She handed me my keys and I took them with a smile, hoping that she didn't notice the subtle nervous shaking in my hands. Thankfully, she hadn't, and we listened to some of her music on the way there. She must have been enjoying what she thought was a comfortable silence, but I was completely dying of nerves on the inside. Like, it genuinely felt like all of my organs were suffocating.

After what felt like an eternity later, we finally parked, got our ice cream, and sat down at the booth we had sat at the first time we came here together- that day her laptop had been destroyed and I made a lame attempt at trying to comfort her.. but apparently it had worked.

And thank God for that, because as I looked at the gorgeous person sitting in front of me, I genuinely couldn't imagine life without her in it.

"Okay, what? Do I have something on my face?" she asked after a little while, and I tried to snap myself out of it, clearing my throat and eating a scoop of ice cream. But who was I kidding.. I wasn't going to be able to eat this ice cream while acting normally- and Carla was painfully good at reading me when I was acting off.

"No, you don't, um," I shook my head at myself and chuckled slightly, bringing my hands under the table as they began shaking a little bit. "I told you about where my family's thing with ice cream came from, right?" I was subconsciously relieved that we somehow had the place to ourselves. Maybe my parents had pulled some strings in heaven- or wherever they were.

"Yeah, your dad," she smiled softly, but when my eyes looked back up to meet hers, her brows scrunched together slightly at my serious expression.

"Carla, I," I started, already forgetting the script I had practiced and modified a ridiculous amount of times. I guess I would just have to drop it and speak from there heart- which I really had only ever done with her, so I hoped it was going to come out okay. "Ice cream is, well, food," I already cringed.

"Indeed it is," she chuckled, but I just swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to continue.

"Well um, okay I'm just gonna start the fk over," I nervously laughed, feeling my face heat up even more. I could tell she started to suspect something was definitely up as I went on.

"My dad used ice cream as a way to always make me feel better, but it was even more than that. It was a reminder that I wasn't alone, and that even though there was always going to be inevitable shit that hit the fan, there would always be just as much if not more ice cream to go around. And for a while I always thought it had just been the idea of getting ice cream that would make me feel better, but it wasn't till a while later that I realized that it was the way I would share that ice cream with someone I loved that made it such a special piece of my heart," I focused on keeping my breaths stable, but was somewhat failing as I was mainly focusing on trying to maintain eye contact with her. I swallowed again and continued, my face no doubt as red as it felt.