The Labrador had no regrets.<\/p>\n
Not even a little.<\/p>\n
Tail wagging wildly, he licked the last streak of pink ice cream from the pavement while the crowd around him burst into laughter.<\/p>\n
A carnival worker nearly dropped his popcorn.<\/p>\n
A teenager leaned against a game booth crying with laughter.<\/p>\n
Even the exhausted parents nearby couldn\u2019t help smiling.<\/p>\n
And in the middle of all of it\u2014<\/p>\n
the two children stood frozen.<\/p>\n
Still trying to process what had just happened.<\/p>\n
The little girl looked down at her empty cone.<\/p>\n
Just the cone.<\/p>\n
Nothing else.<\/p>\n
The boy blinked twice.<\/p>\n
Then pointed slowly at the dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2026\u201d he started.<\/p>\n
The girl finished for him.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026ate everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another second passed.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
they both laughed.<\/p>\n
Hard.<\/p>\n
Sudden.<\/p>\n
Uncontrollable.<\/p>\n
The kind of laughter kids fall into completely, like there\u2019s no room left for anger anymore.<\/p>\n
The Labrador barked happily, convinced he\u2019d done something wonderful.<\/p>\n
\u201cHEY!\u201d a voice shouted through the crowd.<\/p>\n
An older man in suspenders came jogging over, completely out of breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuddy! Bad dog!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Labrador immediately sat down proudly beside him, tongue hanging out.<\/p>\n
The man looked at the ruined pink mess on the ground and sighed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh no,\u201d he groaned. \u201cNot again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd laughed even harder.<\/p>\n
The little girl wiped tears from her eyes from laughing too much.<\/p>\n
The boy crossed his arms dramatically.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe owes us new ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n
The old man nodded seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what?\u201d he said. \u201cFair point.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few crumpled bills.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo new cones. Biggest ones they\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
The kids lit up instantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally?\u201d they asked together.<\/p>\n
The old man smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly if you forgive my criminal here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Labrador barked again like he understood every word.<\/p>\n
Moments later, the boy and girl walked side by side through the glowing carnival midway, each holding an enormous swirl of fresh ice cream.<\/p>\n
This time\u2014<\/p>\n
they were careful.<\/p>\n
Very careful.<\/p>\n
The dog trotted beside them proudly on his leash, occasionally glancing up hopefully for another accidental snack.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know,\u201d the boy admitted quietly, \u201cI probably wouldn\u2019t have shared it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The little girl giggled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou looked like the kind of kid who eats fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy stared at her for a second.<\/p>\n
Then laughed again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou looked like the kind of kid who bites people over strawberry ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n
She gasped dramatically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never.\u201d<\/p>\n
A beat.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026unless it was the last one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now they were both laughing again.<\/p>\n
Ahead of them, the Ferris wheel glowed against the orange-pink sunset sky, turning slowly above the fairground.<\/p>\n
Music drifted through the warm evening air.<\/p>\n
Somewhere nearby, prizes clattered from a game booth while children shouted excitedly.<\/p>\n
The little girl glanced down at the Labrador.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s his name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBuddy,\u201d the old man answered proudly.<\/p>\n
The boy nodded thoughtfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuddy kinda saved us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girl tilted her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy stealing our ice cream?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d the boy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy making us stop being mad.\u201d<\/p>\n
The little girl looked at him for a moment.<\/p>\n
Then smiled.<\/p>\n
A real one this time.<\/p>\n
Not protective.<\/p>\n
Not defensive.<\/p>\n
Just happy.<\/p>\n
And as the carnival lights flickered brighter beneath the summer sky, the three of them disappeared deeper into the fair\u2014<\/p>\n
two former enemies and one ice-cream thief\u2014<\/p>\n
laughing together like they\u2019d known each other forever.<\/p>\n
Because sometimes\u2014<\/p>\n
the best friendships begin with something completely ridiculous.<\/p>\n
And sometimes\u2014<\/p>\n
it takes a goofy dog crashing through your bad mood<\/p>\n
to remind you how small the problem really was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Labrador had no regrets. Not even a little. Tail wagging wildly, he licked the last streak of pink ice cream from the pavement while the crowd around him burst into laughter. A carnival worker nearly dropped his popcorn. A teenager leaned against a game booth crying with laughter. Even the exhausted parents nearby couldn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}