Spring Ice Cream (Paul)

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar had decided that he enjoyed Paul's presence enough to continue requesting they spend time together. Since they had both crammed themselves full of sugar at the valentine's dance he had therefore asked Paul to endless get-togethers for candy and pastries or, today, ice cream. 

There was a self-serve frozen yogurt place right outside the mall, which had sounded like a good destination to the teen, and so they had agreed to leave school together on Wednesday to head to the mall. They would have to be back by 8:00pm, since Paul wasn't yet 16, but that was fine with Sunar; that would be nearly five hours being out on the town, which was such a long time. 

Sunar tugged down the lever on the peach mango flavored yogurt, watching it twist out with interest. 

"This is going to be amaaaaaaaazing," He crowed as he danced up towards the toppings. There was so much candy, but he wasn't sure how good that would taste with peach mango. He felt a tug of regret at that; he should have thought of that before he chose a fruity flavor! But -- wasn't Easter in the spring?! Maybe Paul celebrated Easter! Then he wouldn't miss out on candy due to his poor choice in yogurt (which would still be delicious, mind, just delicious without candy). Twisting around to face Paul he asked, "Hey! When's Easter? All these candy toppings makes me want a chocolate egg or...bunny or something." 

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul was delighted that he and Sunar kept hanging out together. Paul kept accepting Sunar’s invites to hang out. Paul came to found out that Sunar has quite the sweet tooth.

Paul was also delighted that he was going out on a school night. If he did go out he would hang around Pilot Ridge. Not this time. He told his parents he was going to the mall with a friend. Paul didn’t give his parents the chance to protest. Paul knew it was a school night and would be home at reasonable hour.

There were many flavors to choose from. He went for the strawberry banana. Paul filled his cup. The frozen yogurt wasn’t in the perfect twist, but it would still taste good. Paul followed his dancing buddy to the Sunar.

“Easter? You’re a little behind.” He sprinkled some Reese Pieces on the yogurt. “Easter was like the last Sunday of March or something like that. There may be some stores with Easter candy on sale.”

[Sunar Chugani]

"Easter was in March?" Sunar's face fell as he placed his yogurt on top of the scales that would tell him how much he needed to pay. He fished a handful of crumpled dollar bills from his pocket, which he shoved at the poor cashier, and then he dropped another dollar into the tip jar.

"For some reason I thought it was in April..."

Holidays that weren't on fixed days of the month were so difficult to keep track of, especially when they weren't your own. But at the idea of candy sales his face lit up. "Yessss! Let's go to the dollar store after this then!" 

He knew that the dollar store had sales on candy after Christmas and Valentine's Day, often months after the holidays had ended. This was quite unlike stores like Target, where the post holiday sales lasted about one weekend before the next holiday's products were set up. 

With any luck they would have some Easter candy for dirt cheap. 

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul laughed. "Yeah, Easter was early this year. It moves around." The only way Paul knew when Easter was either he looked at a calendar or his mom says something. "Calendars will tell you." It was Paul's turn to pay for his frozen yogurt.

"How about we sit over there?" He motioned to an empty table. He led the way over to the table. Now that the two were hanging out more Paul was less awkward.

Paul mashed the Reese Pieces in the yogurt. “How is this frozen yogurt? I’ve put yogurt in the freezer and the out come is not this. This is more like a creamy.”

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar meandered over to the table Paul had indicated.

"Hmmm...yeah, you're right! This isn't like normal yogurt at all!"

He had never really thought to compare frozen yogurt with the non-frozen variety; instead he had compared it to ice cream, since it was supposed to be a healthy alternative.

He reached into his pocket for his phone, then smacked his hand against his forehead. "I left my phone charging in my room or I would look it up. Do you have your phone?"

[Paul Wilkerson]

“Yeah,” Paul reached into his backpack and pulled out his cell phone. He had two unread text messages and a new voicemail. He didn’t have the sound on because he was in school and forgot to turn the sound back on after school. Paul opened the two texts. They both were from his mom. The first one wanted to know when Paul was going to be home. The second one was telling Paul to answer his phone. Oops.

Paul sent a quick message back to his mom. He passed the phone to Sunar. Paul had nothing on his phone that he didn’t want Sunar to see. He didn’t think Sunar was the type who would snoop.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar pulled up the browser, tapping into the search bar:

waht's the diference between yogurt and frzen yhogurt 


"Google says the difference is cream!" He announced as he scanned the top entry, and then he immediately scrambled to backtrack. "Oh, no, it gave me the difference between frozen yogurt and ice cream." 

He frowned down at the phone in disapproval. "That's not what I asked! Okay, let's see if any of the search results have an actual answer...." 

He scrolled down until he found an article that looked promising. "It only talks about the nutritional content...." He complained. He didn't know how to parse any of this information. After checking a few more pages and finding the same break down of nutritional differences he finally found the Wikipedia page on frozen yogurt. 

"Okay! Frozen yogurt is made of yogurt and sweetener and...milk. Isn't yogurt already made out of milk?"

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul ate his frozen yogurt. Paul snickered at Sunar as he was finding everything expect the answer to his question. It was amusing to the teen. It was always annoying when that happened. Especially, when he was trying to d a homework assignment and need some information to help get the assignment.

“Yes?” He thought for a moment. “It has to be. Milk, chees, sour cream, yogurt all have milk in it and they’re all dairy.”

This was seriously the convers at hand. Two boys at the mall after school eating frozen yogurt were having a in depths conversation about the difference of non-frozen and frozen yogurt. Totally nothing weird if anyone sitting near by listening in on the discussion.

[Sunar Chugani]

"So is yogurt like....double milk?" Sunar shook his head and slid the phone back across the table towards Paul. "How does that even work? I don't get science at all. But at least it isn't as bad as math!" 

He dipped his spoon into his yogurt, lapsing into silence in order to enjoy the delicious fruity flavor for a few moments. But he could never remain silent for long, and so after a moment he asked a question that he had turned over in his mind for weeks. 

"So, are we dating or are we just friends?" 

How did other people seamlessly transition from one state to another? It seemed that some people just fell into dating without any sort of discussion. 

[Paul Wilkerson]

"I'm the worst person to ask about science." Paul stated the fact. It wasn't lie. Paul needed all the help he could get. He put another spoonful of yogurt in his mouth.

He slowly pulled the spoon out while he thought of an answer to Sunar's question. It was a good question without a clear answer. They went to a dance together. And hung out a few times before this fro yo thing. It wasn't like they have really done anything that would be considered as dating. They could be two friends hanging. They could be on date. It was a little hard to tell. Plus Paul never had been in a relationship so he didn't know when the transition from friends to boyfriends would happen.

Paul bashfully shrugged his shoulders not knowing the answer.

[Sunar Chugani]

"Oh." 

So Paul didn't know the answer, either. That was unfortunate; Sunar always assumed other people were better at this than he was. Then again, Paul had tried to find a date by posting an anonymous note in the bathroom, which was perhaps not a method designed to ensure success so much as to ensure hilarity. 

Sunar wasn't entirely sure what one was supposed to do with boyfriends (or girlfriends) for that matter. Sure, he had seen movies, but often those played up the dramatic aspects of family dynamics (and he definitely wouldn't tell his parents if he dated a boy, so he hoped he could avoid that part.) Or they played up the sexual aspect, and he wasn't ready for more than hand holding, and maybe chaste kissing. 

However, the idea of having someone special was nice. Someone to hold hands with, and who would be the first person he shared both joys and sorrows with, that was a thought he liked. 

He didn't know where Paul stood there, though. Maybe he would prefer to date someone cooler, or hotter, or better. 

Still, he wouldn't know if he didn't ask, so he took a deep breath and responded to the shrug with, "Do you wanna be?" 

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul felt kind of bad. It didn’t sound like Paul’s answer was what Sunar was looking for. Paul just sat in silent eating his yogurt until Sunar posed another question. Did Paul want to be boyfriends with Sunar? He was the one who wanted to be in a relationship. And the fact that Sunar and Paul kept hanging was promising. It meant that Sunar wanted to be around Paul.

Yes.

It was a simple answer but Paul bashful and kept the yes to himself. Why? Why couldn’t he say it? Mainly for two reasons. One, Paul didn’t know how to. Even though he just needed to say yes. It was simple as pie. Two, maybe Sunar didn’t want to. But then again, Sunar was the one who asked Paul to the dance.

How did one little question make everything weird?

“Do you want to be?” Paul asked Sunar’s question.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar didn't answer immediately, instead turning his attention towards finishing his yogurt. 

He wasn't sure what to make of that deflection; did Paul intend it as a polite rejection? That was what he'd been afraid of, that asking would inherently change the dynamics of their friendship for the worst. If Paul didn't want to date him, and he'd just asked, then that probably would mean further hanging out would be weird, no matter how well he took the rejection. 

He didn't see how it could be otherwise. 

When he finished his yogurt he peered into the bottom of the paper cup with uncharacteristic shyness. 

"I think so but....I've never dated anyone before so I don't really know what you do. But if you don't want to that's fine!" He added hastily, continuing to stare at the melted yogurt stuck in the corners of the cup. "You can forget I said anything if you want." 

[Paul Wilkerson]

Things got awkward fast. A simple question about if they were dating or not made things kind of weird. Of course Paul never been in this situation before. He didn’t know what to do or say. And it seemed like Sunar was in a similar position. That was a good thing? Neither one knew exactly what to do in this situation nor what dating was all about.

Paul played with the last little bit of melted yogurt. “I’ve never dated.” He admitted. He looked up to Sunar to see his reaction. Maybe, once they get over the awkwardness, it was best for them to date. Then they could figure things out together. Even if the two didn’t hook up, Paul wanted to remain friends. He wasn’t sure Sunar felt about that.

He took a deep breath. “Doyouwannatrydating?” Paul spat out all in one go before his lost the courage to ask.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding when Paul asked his question. If the other boy was willing to ask that they try dating, then that must mean he wanted to. People didn't ask out anyone they weren't at least somewhat interested in, after all.

Right?

No, of course not, that would be silly.

"Yeah!" He agreed with enthusiasm, "Let's do it!"