NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 37: Ice cream
"Hey," I put a hand on Lineth's shoulder, "let's go get some ice cream, my treat, okay?" I felt bad after laughing at her expense, and besides, I was getting bored sitting here doing nothing.
Lineth, who seemed to have dead eyes from our conversation, looked at me and articulated a short answer. "Ah... sure."
I nodded, "Good. "I got up from the bench and stretched a bit, even letting out a slight yawn from sleeping quite late last night. "Shall we go then?" I asked when Lineth seemed to have no intention of getting up.
"Ah. Uh, yes." She responded quickly, almost like a spring as she rose from her position with seemingly renewed vigor. She grabbed the edges of her sweater and tugged at it, though it did little more than crumple. "So, let's go."
I followed her to the escalators, grateful that she would lead the way, since I really couldn't remember where the ice cream parlor was in this mall.
As we made our way up the stairs, slowly and steadily, Lineth, who was one step above me, stepped back to stand next to me in what she thought was a soft way. Snorting slightly, I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and watched as, for the second time in a few seconds, she grimaced and tried to push her sweater down.
"If it doesn't fit you, why did you wear it?" I couldn't help but ask her.
"Does it show that much?" Lineth asked, and when I gave her a flat look, she laughed nervously. "It's my younger brother's... I didn't even have a pink sweatshirt, so..."
I blinked a few times as I looked at her and a smile broke out on my face, how funny could this girl be? In the span of a few minutes, I had laughed more than I could remember in a long time.
"You wore your brother's pink sweater? "She nodded, so I went on. "'Cause the color pink is for... lesbian?" Another nod, "You-pfft." I couldn't help myself, and had to laugh again.
"Hey!" She protested.
I tried, I really tried, but this girl's circumstances seemed to come from a bad plot of a story with 5 readers. I could see the people in front of us on the stairs looking at me because of my outrageous laughter, but most of them quickly stopped looking at me.
When I finished venting, I put a hand on the shoulder of the girl next to me. "Lineth, please don't steal your little brother's clothes." I said seriously with a slight smile on my lips.
Lineth sighed. "I know, I just didn't have time to go out and buy one in my size."
"You didn't even plan this charade well, do you always make spontaneous decisions?" I asked incredulously, watching the dark-eyed girl stare into the distance.
"Well, my brother always says 'You act and then you think,' I think he might have a point."
"I think so."
Once we reached the second level, it was fairly easy to find the nearest ice cream shop. As luck would have it, the mall's food court was not too far away and could be seen from where we were. The ice cream parlor had a strange name, which I didn't really bother to look at more than once, but the place seemed to be quite large and had a striking design with bright colors on the outside, although it was strangely empty, as the tables right in front of the shop were empty. Probably a bad sign, considering the number of people in the mall. Maybe they weren't that good.
"Do you want some of these?" Lineth asked, noticing my glance toward the ice cream shop. Her tone seemed confused.
"What's wrong with them?" I asked curiously.
Lineth pointed to a logotype of what looked like two animal ears on a circle that was placed small next to the name of the ice cream shop, "It's a demi-human ice cream shop.” She said simply, and when she saw my confused look, she continued hesitantly. "They're not that delicious, they're flavors that the demi-human species likes, so they might be too strong for us... You've never tried them?" She asked, looking at me curiously.
I shook my head, "Why don't we try it?" I proposed, I was quite curious about these ice creams.
"F-fine." Lineth said, quickly following me as I pushed open the doors to the place, ringing a faint little bell.
It was quite large, with a few tables here and there, almost like a restaurant but a bit smaller. Still, it was almost empty. I looked around, and except for the place where a human girl was checking some things at the counter, I only saw a couple of girls and a mother with her daughter in the ice cream shop.
The girls were the wolf girls from before and the mother and daughter looked like they had cat ears. It was quite an experience watching them, especially when I could see the little girl biting into her ice cream and her canines were more developed than the rest of her teeth, giving her that cute cat-like smile.
Even I, who was not a big fan of children, had to admit that the little white girl with the cat ears looked absolutely adorable. She made my blackened heart lighten a little.
I averted my gaze slightly to approach the counter and ask for ours, which happened to be near the girl and her mother, and they looked at us curiously, the girl's mother looking at me in particular, her eyes visibly widening as she fixed her gaze on me.
Unlike her mother, the little girl quickly stopped watching us and continued eating her ice cream happily.
"Prrr~"
As the little girl purred, I almost considered returning the flirtatious look the mother was giving me. I want a cat daughter! She's so adorable! Maybe I should use my status as a beautiful person to find a demi-human wife? Does that mean I'm a furry? Maybe, but she just looked so cuddly.
"It wouldn't be bad to have a kid." I thought out loud, looking away from the mother and daughter again.
"W-what?!" Lineth shouted from beside me, attracting the attention of the few people present, who gave her a few angry looks. "I'm sorry..."
"What are you going to order?" The human cashier asked as she looked at us, perhaps tired of us standing in front of her for so long and not looking like we were going to order anything.
I walked over to the glass and looked down at where the ice cream was, recognizing some by the familiar colors, like chocolate or strawberry. "What do you recommend?" I asked, puzzling over some of the names.
"Uh...well...the beef one might be good if you like that sort of thing," she said awkwardly, handing me the menu. "But here's our selection of flavors, you can ask for a free sample."
Beef?
I picked up the menu in disbelief and began to check out how crazy the flavors would be. Unfortunately, the only thing that looked familiar to me was strawberry and chocolate. The beef one didn't look appetizing, and the others didn't look that delicious, but we were already here, so I mentally shrugged and picked one at random. "This one." I showed the girl my choice.
The cashier adjusted her glasses and leaned over, "Are you sure?" She sent me a strange look.
"Does it taste bad?" I asked.
"Personally, I don't like it." She admitted. "But if you like the way a strawberry tastes with lemon, you might like it. "
I shrugged. "I feel like trying something new."
"Okay..."
And with that, I received my ice cream.
I pulled out a few dollars I had saved instead of using my cell phone and offered to pay, but Lineth, arm outstretched, quickly handed the money to the cashier as she received hers. "I-I'll pay."
I raised an eyebrow at that. "Didn't I say I was inviting?”
"What kind of woman would I be if I let a man pay the bill?" She said as if it was a normal thing to do.
I wanted to argue, but after some thought I shrugged my shoulders. If she wanted to do it, I wasn't going to complain. Free ice cream is free ice cream. "Thank you, kind lady." I joked.
Lineth puffed out her small chest with pride. "You're welcome."
