Cold Scoops and Hot Messes

Cold Scoops and Hot Messes

*****

“UUGGHH!” Scarlet groaned as she rolled around in bed and tried to shut out the noise of her phone ringing. ‘Why is it ringing?’ she wondered. She knew she had turned it off last night. Or had she? Who could it be?

“LOGAN!” the name suddenly came to her mind and she jumped out of bed. But, the phone wasn’t ringing anymore. She wondered if it had all been just a dream. Wearing only yesterday’s band t-shirt and her panties, she started hunting for her phone through piles of clothes, sheets with lyrics, and other stuff till she found it, buried under yesterday’s clothes, plugged into the wall, and turned off.

“Aw shit,” she groaned again thinking she had dreamed about her phone ringing. With a frustrated sigh, she turned it on as she went to the bathroom. There was no sense in going back to sleep, the adrenaline rush had woken her up and there was no use in even trying to go back to sleep. ‘Might as well see what’s going on,’ she thought as she brushed her teeth and reflected on her overly short weekend vacation.

There was so much to unpack there. From the unexpected tragic love triangle between Logan, Sharon, and Charlie to the surprising revelation of Alice and the boat orgy. That one kept coming back to her. She knew she could be vocal, even a little loud in bed, but she had never screamed like that.

As she rinsed her mouth her phone finally powered up and started sounding off like a screeching cat symphony as the distinct ringtones and app rings fire off so fast they seemed to play over each other. Missed calls, dozens of text messages, scores of notifications from PULSE, and even a couple of e-mails that spoke volumes of desperation. “What the hell!?” Scarlet muttered in awe as her screen was flooded with notifications, all from one single person.

Now she knew she hadn’t been dreaming about the phone ringing. Her phone had been ringing, even turned off. There was only one person she knew who could do that to her phone.

Grace

****

Scarlet pulled into Millie’s parking lot and killed the engine. The old Honda Civic Coupe coughed once, then rattled itself into silence next to Grace’s shiny new Tesla. She waited for the rattle to a stop before getting out. The matte-black car was easy to recognize anywhere in town with the custom-made logo of her favorite band hand spray painted on the hood and its constant rattle whenever it had to idle at a street corner, it made it an unforgettable sight in Azure Rock.

Scarlet had gotten really worried when Grace didn’t answer her calls. Her only clue was that Grace’s phone was at Millie’s, which seemed odd. She should have been at her office or at least home. ‘Well, at least the Tesla is here,’ Scarlet mulled tiredly, she definitely hadn’t gotten enough sleep after last night's ride and wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit.

Walking in she took in the classical wood-paneled walls, dark brown leather booths, and stools all with bronze details that made Millie’s seem so out of place in today’s minimalist modern fad. It wasn’t her style but it did give off a comforting mood she could appreciate, even if the place insisted on giving off some subtle gangster movie vibes. She quickly spotted Grace’s slightly disheveled hair with surprisingly uneven makeup sitting across Bonnie with her usual twin braided hair and Bavarian uniform outfit squirreled away in the far corner and practically marched over, her chunky-sole boots sounding off with a deep thud while she waved her phone in her hand.

“What the heck Grace!” Scarlet hissed at her friend, “I get like a gazillion notifications on my phone and when I call you back, you ghost me!”

“I’m sorry Scar,” Grace pleaded with her friend as she nursed a cup of hot cocoa. She nervously glanced back and forth between Scarlet and Bonnie, “It’s just that…” she trailed off unsure of just how to tell her friend what had happened.

“What?” Scarlet insisted a bit miffed that she had come all the way out here to find her friend and Grace was clamming up.

“I…,” Grace started to say with an uneasy smile as she tilted her head to the side, “I… I...”

“She had sex,” Bonnie said with a subtle mischievous grin as she sipped from what looked like thick hot chocolate, “Twice.”

“BONNIE!” Grace almost screeched wide-eyed at her new friend with a hint of anger and embarrassment.

“Well, you were going to tell her anyway, right?” Bonnie offered raising her hands and gesturing toward Scarlet.

“Yeah, but…” I wanted to, to,” Grace stumbled, “to tell her on my own!”

Scarlet grinned almost like a maniac as she sat down next to Grace in the booth and put her arms around her friend “Hey! That’s great!”

“Yeah,” Grace grumbled as she stared down at her cocoa while she scuffed her sneakers against the wooden floor.

“What? Wait? What happened?” Scarlet said leaning in and hugging her, she was worried once again for her virginal friend’s love life, or lack of it.

Grace glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes before looking over at Bonnie, “He… he left.”

“He left?” Scarlet asked confused, and wondered what exactly had happened, “He left as in, he just got out of bed and went home or _he left _as in, he left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye?”

“He left as in he finished packing and ran off faster than the Flash!” Grace almost snapped, or she would have if she hadn’t felt so confused inside.

Scarlet raised a surprised eyebrow and looked over at Bonnie as if she could give her a better answer since it seemed like Grace wasn’t making much sense.

“Alex, her boss,” Bonnie explained, and then quickly went over the high points of Grace’s brief tryst with Alex over the weekend while Grace grimaced, but silently thanked Bonnie for sparing her the embarrassment of having to tell the story again.

“Damm, what a loser,” Scarlet whispered when Bonnie ended by mentioning how Alex finished loading the trolley in a rush and ran out of the office right after cumming inside Grace. “I’m really sorry Gracie,” she added soothingly.

“Yeah, well I guess I deserve it.” Grace mumbled, her eyes diving into her cocoa to not look at the disappointment she imagined her friends must feel for her.

“Why? You didn’t do anything wrong,” Scarlet insisted, “He’s the one missing out on you.”

“Well I must have done something wrong or else why did he run off,” Grace sighed exasperated and frustrated at not knowing what she did wrong.

“No you didn’t,” Bonnie insisted as she took Grace’s hand in hers and looked into her eyes, “The coward was already leaving when you got there.”

“Then why did he… you know… put his thingy in my bum?” Grace almost whined. Scarlet looked at her friend in surprise, she wondered what exactly had virgin friend had done over the weekend. It almost sounded as wild as her own.

“Grace honey, After you waved that fabulous butt god gave you in his face, what did you expect him to do!” Bonnie said softly, her eyes brimming with sympathy for her new friend, “Honey. You’re just too hot to say no to.”

“Always told’ya that,” Scarlet beamed and she playfully rocked Grace from side to side as the hacker blushed like a burning tomato, “Just didn’t know you were kinky too.”

The three girls giggle and laugh together and even Grace felt her lips smile with relief that she hadn’t done anything wrong.

As the tension seemed to ease and flow away from the table Bonnie’s mother approached them with a giant banana split ice cream for the three of them. “Looks like things are working out here,” Bonnie’s mother says with a smile as she puts the dessert in the middle of the table, “And you look like you could use a Mocha,” She said to Scarlet setting a hot cup of Mocha Coffee in front of her, “Made it a little stronger to wake you up a bit,” she whispered to her closely.

“OH, thanks!” Scarlet cooed and she took the steaming cup in her hands and never wondered how Bonnie’s mom knew it was her favorite.

“What a sight your three make,” the older woman smiled as she shook her head in disbelief, “Let me know if you need a refill,” she added before leaving them to continue gossiping. The three girls looked at each other and broke into another fit of giggles as they realized just how different each one of them looked, Bonnie with her braided hair, Bavarian waitress uniform, a long colorful white, red, and dark green dress with a scooped neckline and a bodice and almost pushed her breast out. Scarlet’s rock ‘n’ roll get-up, with her boots, ripped jeans, a band t-shirt with some colorful leather bracelets, and a suite of dangling earrings. And Grace, well Grace looked like the eternal preppy girl with an expensively tailored blouse, short skirt, long legs, and comfortable sneakers. Her hair and makeup might have been perfect after Bonnie’s earlier makeover but now it showed the stress she had gone through this morning.

“Thanks for coming so fast,” Grace said to Scarlet, “must run through every red light.”

“Oh, I was already here,” Scarlet brushed it off with a wave, “came back last night with Logan,”

“You came back with Logan!” Bonnie and Grace both said at the same time.

“Why would you come back with… with him!” Grace pouted. She hadn’t made it a secret that she had a low opinion of her playboy classmate.

“What happened?” Bonnie asked almost too eagerly. She just couldn’t help not getting the latest gossip to go around. “We saw him earlier today but he didn’t tell me what happened. What-happened-with-Sharon-did-he-pop-the-question-did-something-else-” started to ramble before she paused to catch her breath when she saw the way Scarlet was looking at her, an expression that practically screamed ‘WTF is wrong with her!’

“Don’t worry,” Grace grinned at Scarlet, “She always gets like that when she’s nervous, you’ll get used to it.”

Scarlet looked back and forth for a moment, “Well! Spit it out!” Bonnie eagerly insisted, “What happened out there?!”

“Okay,” Scarlet said taking a sip from her Mocha, “Mmm this is really good!” She almost burst out laughing when she saw the look on Bonnie’s face as she struggled to keep her curiosity in check. “Okay! Okay! But you can’t tell anyone. Promise.”

“Promise!” Bonnie said instantly.

Scarlet leaned in and so did the other two blonde girls like eager conspirators, “Yes, Logan did ask Sharon to be his girlfriend-” Scarlet started to say.

“-Wait!” Grace interrupted her eyebrows raised in confusion, “I thought they were a couple?”

“No,” Bonnie explained, “They were only friends-with-benefits. But Logan has been trying to go steady with her for, like forever.”

“Oh,” Grace seemingly nodded in understanding as she remembered reading about that kind of relationships somewhere and still thinking it was weird. She had always wondered. ‘If you have sex and you get along why not call it dating?’

“Anyway,” Scarlet continued, “She said no that first night.”

“Because she was with Charlie,” Grace added.

“She was!? How did you know?” Bonnie asked Grace beating Scarlet to the same question.

“I saw them going at it in the back alley behind the ‘Siren's Song’, Grace said matter of factly, “You know,” she added glaring at Scarlet, “while you were on stage singing and rubbing yourself all over Logan like a cat in heat.”

Scarlet barely blushed even as she glared at Grace with a playful annoyance, “Spying on me?”

“I’m more interested in knowing why Grace was spying?” Bonnie cooed as she raised her eyebrows.

Grace sniffed with fake disdain and tried to sound as if she were above such gutter talk, “Heather hired me to check in on Logan. And don’t change the subject. If you knew Logan was serious with Sharon why were you trying to get him to cheat on her?”

“Mphff! I wasn’t and it’s called stage acting!” Scarlet huffed as she tried to continue.

“Wait, Sharon must have known Logan was going to pop the question again. Right?” Bonnie asked Scarlet.

“I guess,” she shrugged, “Yeah she must’ve. Everyone knew what the trip was all about.” Scarlet mussed.

“Poor Logan,” Bonnie said wistfully.

“Anyway, Logan popped the question that night but she said no. Logan was pretty down yesterday morning but he picked up a bit in the afternoon, I guess he still wanted to give it another try.”

“Why?” Grace asked, “If she said no and she’d said no before he should have factored in the possibility she would say no again.”

“I guess because he loved her,” Bonnie said feeling a little guilty thinking she might have inadvertently had a hand in that.

“Yeah, I think he did,” Scarlet whispered.

“So what happened?” Bonnie asked again. This was her favorite part, getting to hear all the juicy gossipy details fresh before anyone else added stuff to it.

Scarlet debated a moment about what to tell, and she decided to keep the boat trip details out for now. “We went around on a boat ride till it started raining. Well, so last night we had some music and were playing twisters inside 'cause it was raining,” Scarlet said, the other girls nodded as they followed along. “I got tired of dealing with Sharon and went outside,”

“Sharon being a bitch again?” Bonnie offered, almost sure of the answer.

“Yeah,” Scarlet huffed, “she kept getting catty with me, and then while we were playing the game, she kept trying to push me and Charlie together.”

“Why?” Grace asked, “I don’t get it?”

“SHH,” Bonnie whispered, “Just listen,”

“Anyway,” I went outside for some fresh air, and then Logan came out to apologize for Sharon's attitude. He said she can sometimes be a bit insecure and not let it get to me.” Scarlet continued, “We talked a bit and then we went back inside. Logan went looking for Sharon and guess what?” Scarlet said feeding them the gossip they all wanted to hear.

“Tell me! Tell me!” Bonnie practically squealed with anticipation.

“He saw Sharon with Charlie in his bedroom,” Scarlet whispered conspiratorially.

“NO!” Bonnie whispered, “She couldn’t be that brazen!”

“Mmm oh yes she was,” Scarlet nodded with a wicked grin. “He caught her cheating with Charlie.”

“Noooo!” Bonnie gasped as she covered her mouth with her hand, “You sure?”

“Well duh! Yeah, I’m sure!” Scarlet said slightly miffed that that Bonnie would ask, “She was standing there with Charlie pounding her from behind!” Scarlet’s voice softened as she remembered the pained look on Logan’s face, “I think the worst was hearing her tell Charlie not to tease her, that he knew how she liked it.” Scarlet paused for a moment letting that sink in, “I think that hurt him more than anything, realizing that his girlfriend and his best friend had been going behind his back.”

“What did Logan do?” Bonnie almost begged to know.

“He just stood there for a moment and then he turned around and left,” Scarlet said with a twinge of sadness. She told them how he had quietly packed his stuff and went to his car without saying a word. She told them how she had rushed to put some stuff in her bag and left with him, leaving most of it for her friends, Alice and Duncan, to bring back for her. She told them of the long almost silent ride back home. The way Logan stoically hid his pain as if his heart wasn’t broken and bleeding inside. “You know, like the song says, quietly bear this pain with pride.”

“Aww,” Bonnie almost swooned when she heard it.

"But why would she do that?" Grace asked, genuinely puzzled. "If Logan loves her, and she's with him, why would she want to be with his best friend too? That doesn't make any logical sense."

Bonnie shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her chocolate sundae turning to soup. "Grace, honey, relationships aren't exactly... logical. People do complicated things for weird reasons."

"But cheating isn't complicated—it's just cruel," Grace insisted. "And everyone says Logan's the player, so shouldn't Sharon be the one worried about him cheating? Why are you two taking his side?"

The mention of Logan's reputation made Bonnie's guilt spike. She'd been wrestling with this for weeks, ever since she'd confessed to Logan about her role in spreading those stories. Now, sitting here listening to Grace unknowingly repeat the very rumors she'd helped create.

“Cause it’s not the same.” Scarlet tried to explain.

“Yeah, but why is it bad if Sharon cheats on Logan but not when Logan cheated on her?” Grace insisted with a frown, “Seems like a double standard if you ask me.”

"Actually," Bonnie said carefully, "maybe Logan's reputation isn't as accurate as people think."

Grace raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Everyone knows he's been with half the girls in school."

"Everyone 'knows' a lot of things that aren't true," Scarlet said.

Bonnie's face flushed. "I... I need to tell you guys something. About Logan. About those stories." She took a shaky breath. "I write for the TattleRock. You know, the gossip column."

“What?” the other two girls asked, confusion written all over their faces.

“Yeah,” Bonnie stuttered, “I’m… I’m Total BS.”

“You are?” Scarlet said with some awe. Everyone always wondered who Total BS was. They all thought it was a misdirection, a hint that what was written should not be taken seriously. “You’re Total BS?”

“Yeah,” I thought it was a clever play on words, you know, Total BS, as Total BullShit and it also stands for Total Bonnie Schmidt,” Bonnie said pointing to herself with a slight blush as she confess her secret identity to her new friends.

“That’s pretty low.” Grace glared at her disapprovingly.

“Yeah,” Scarlet agreed.

“I know, but I didn’t what else to do,” Bonnie tried to explain.

“Right,” Grace stared at her disapprovingly. Right now she was dreading what was going to happen. What if Bonnie had already leaked what she had told her? Grace started planning what she would have to do to take it all down.

"You made Logan a target," Scarlet said, her voice dangerously quiet.

“I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted to protect my friends," Bonnie said quickly. The other girls looked at her as if she were just trying to excuse her actions. "Remember how Dylan was bullying Chloe and Zack?” The other girls nodded as they remembered how cruel he had been to them, especially with Chloe, “Well I wanted to help them and I didn’t know what to do. Then all those messages started popping up in the girl’s bathroom, you know, something about how Dylan was… small and Logan was, well you know...”

“Yeah, I know,” Scarlet giggled as she remembered. “Keep going,” she quickly added when Grace glared at her.

“Well, I thought that, if I could redirect his attention to someone who else, someone who could handle it and really stand up to Dylan and beat the crap out of him." Bonnie almost trailed off apologetically, “I just wanted to get Dylan to stop bullying Chloe.”

Grace was looking at Bonnie with awe. “You really did that?” Bonnie silently nodded, fearful that they would get mad at her. “You, you weaponized gossip!” she whispered, amazed at what her friend had been able to pull off..

“Logan is going to kill you when he finds out,” Scarlet warned her.

“He knows,” Bonnie said digging into ice cream without much enthusiasm, “I told him this morning. I told him everything, every little thing and why. He, he just said he understood why I did it. That made me feel even worse."

Grace stared at her friend, processing what she had said. "So Logan isn't actually...?"

"A serial heartbreaker who treats girls like disposable objects? No." Bonnie's voice cracked. "He's actually... he's actually a pretty decent guy.”

For a few moments, each girl wrestled with her own thoughts at the revelations they had just heard. The girls silently poked at the super sundae infront of them, or sippedfrom their hot drinks. None of them spoke for a long time. But somehow, for the first time that morning, the silence felt safe. Then Scarlet picked up her spoon, dipped it into the middle of the sundae, and nudged it toward them. “Well,” she said, “we’re definitely writing a song about this.”