𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔 , seblos (hsmtmts)

⁶ slushie run

seb

I'LL HAVE TO admit something, and I know everyone says this when someone dies, but I'm not the same after Nessie died. It's a week later, and my whole family seems to have gotten over it, and I guess I'm the only one who's not fully okay with this? But it's stupid.

Other than that, things have been pretty normal between Carlos and I. Except for the fact that now, I can safely say I have a crush on him. But I couldn't safely say it to him. I don't know. Everything is so confused.

"Seb, you okay?" Carlos says. "We have five more minutes until our shift is over. Do you want to go to the gas station and get slushies? Our slushie machine got taken down two years ago after someone reported our slushies. I guess they gave everyone food poisoning," he giggles.

"Sounds fun!" I reply, and he smiles.

"I think I have a Speedway card somewhere in here..." he starts to rummage through his wallet quicky, in search of a Speedway card. When he finally finds it, he holds it in the air. "Got it!" He beams, singsongingly. I look at the clock, and now we have two more minutes until we close for the night.

"You wanna close it up?" I ask Carlos.

"Wipe off the tables and sweep. I have the rest." Just as I start to sweep the floors I hear a ding at the door.

"Sorry, we're closing in two min-"

"I can order in less than two minutes," the lady snobs. Her hair is gray and curly, and she's holding a huge purse.

"Okay, welcome to A La Mode. What can I get you." I make sure she can hear that I'm annoyed.

"One mini banana split," she responds, and I roll my eyes.

"CARLOS, CAN YOU MAKE THE BANANA SPLIT?" I yell, and he shoots me a thumbs-up. "Okay. coming right up, ma'am." Carlos walks up to me, laughing.

"I can order in LESS than two minutes," he huffs, mocking her, in the most inaccurate accent ever. We both break out into laughing fits.

"Excuse me young men? I can hear you. I'd like to have a word with your manager," she frowns.

Of course she does. They all want to. But the thing is, Angela left ten minutes ago. I just figured we wouldn't be getting anymore business, and I guess Angela didn't think we would, either, so it would make sense.

"Sorry ma'am," I say in between giggles, but Carlos and I don't stop laughing, "our manager left. I guess she thought we wouldn't be getting customers two minutes before we close."

"Passive aggressive. I love it," Carlos whispers in my ear. I blush.

"Fine! Forget the banana split!" She storms out of the shop and Carlos and I break down in laughter again. I go back to sweeping the floors as Carlos mocks the way she walked. She had a tall, confident stride, and her hands were on her hips.

I haven't laughed like that in the longest time.

When we're both done doing our closing duties it's 10:05, five minutes too late.

"Ugh! We would have left five minutes ago if that annoying lady didn't strut in here wanting a banana split!" Carlos remarks. We walk out the door, and since we came to work together, we get into his car.

The car ride is quiet. It sounds like we both have stuff on our mind, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's the same thing. But that's crazy to think. Right?

We make it to Speedway and when we enter me and Carlos grab hands and run towards the slushie machine at full speed. The worker doesn't seem too concerned.

"What flavor are you getting? I'm getting cherry," he says.

"I'm getting cherry too. It's the best flavor."

"Right? Sebby, you are the first person to understand me." I smile with him, and he grabs the two largest cups possible. "Do you want a large?" I just nod. He hands me a cup to fill up, but he fills his up first, so I just kind of stand there awkwardly until he's done.

"Just the two slushies?" The lady working there asks. She looks sleep-deprived.

"Yup!" Carlos answers. The lady scans them, and then she scans Carlos's card. When everything is taken care of, we go outside and stand right next to the gas station door for just a few minutes.

It's probably not the smartest idea, if I'm being quite honest, gas stations are never safe. Carlos and I talk for a while.

carlos
We've been hanging out for a long enough time now, but now it's almost like we're too good of friends to even ask him out! So I'm slightly stuck. I drink my slushie in deep thought.

"Hey Seb?" I ask.

"What's up?"

I stop for a second. "Do you want to come to my house and go stargazing? Like... as a date?" I say it slowly, and he smiles weakly.

Oh God. I probably screwed something up. Should I have just told him I liked him? No. Should I have kissed him?

"As a date?" He repeats what I said.

"Mhmm."

"Carlos... you're asking me out?" My heart stops. I can't tell what that tone of voice means!

"I mean, yeah," I admit, and he blushes.

"Then of course. I would love to come over and go stargazing." He smiles and grabs my hand. "As a date." We stare at each other for a moment before someone next to us whips out his vape.

"You guys wanna hit my vape?" He says, pretty creepily, actually.

"NOPE! WE'RE GOOD!" I yell, and Seb and I run away as fast as possible, even faster than we ran to the slushie machine. We get into my car, and we talk the entire car ride, so it's not awkward at all.

When we get to my house, I lead Seb to my room's window. I open it completely, and I show him a spot to lay down on the roof. He takes my hand again and lays down on the roof right next to me. We stare at the stars for a second before we get to talking again.

"So," he starts, "how often do you do this?"

"Every so often," I reply. "Okay. Literally, every other night. Unless it's a) raining, b) CLOUDY, c) way too cold, d) snowing." Seb giggles and so do I.

"So do you actually have any knowledge on these stars and... constellations?"

Okay. I know nothing about constellations. I just love coming up here and looking at the stars. Occasionally I would imagine Seb was next to me. But now, he actually is next to me. And it's even better than whenever I would imagine it.

"I don't know anything about constellations, Seb," I admit.

"It's okay. Me neither. But I think I see the little dipper," he brags.

"You definitely don't."

"YES I DO! Look!" He points at a jumble of stars that form... something, but it doesn't look anything like the little dipper.

"I'll take your word for it."

an // i started crying because i got a three-pack of fun dip, and it came with three flavors, but only TWO STICKS.