hot chocolate
Hot chocolate used to be my favorite drink. It was my go to before I started drinking coffee. I had a big group of friends, and we would go to coffee shops together when it was cold out after school. I would order a hot chocolate. I liked when it would come with whipped cream because it would get on my nose and make people laugh.
There is a Starbucks on Amidon that my parents would take me to for hot chocolate, usually when we were on our way out of town. I would sit the cup between my thighs so it wouldn’t make my hands too hot.
They would serve hot chocolate at the annual botanical gardens Christmas event in town. It was so hot you could barely feel it against your chilled hands, and it would leave tiny blisters on the roof of my mouth. I liked to run my tongue over the blisters the day after, feeling the skin that became leathery and rough until it healed.
My theatre teacher in high school ordered me hot chocolate once when I had to stay late to program lights. I spilled it on my jeans and my friends made fun of me because it looked like I had shit myself.
When I was little I would take the hot chocolate packets in the back of our pantry and pour them into my mouth. It would dry my mouth out instantly and make me cough, but it also gave me a sugar rush I craved.