But You Love Her (Alexheed)

Chapter 5

"One mint chocolate chip, and um. . ." Alex paused, searching his mind. Samheed always either got chocolate or strawberry ice cream. " and a cone of strawberry and chocolate, thanks." The ice cream seller-man-vender nodded and disappeared back into his truck while Alex waited outside with a five dollar bill.
   
In the sheer winter, Alex was buying ice cream. Even after falling into an icy lake, and rigidly freezing the entire snowy night, he was buying ice cream. After Alex left that morning, they made plans to meet back at the hideout to clear out piling snow and hope that there was no form of infrastructural damage later on the day. Though, when Alex noticed the ice cream van still here by Central Park, he had to stop for ice cream.
   
The ice cream seller-man-vender popped out with two cones and passed them down to Alex, in which he paid his five dollar bill. The icecream man didn't question why someone was buying ice cream in winter and Alex didn't question why someone was selling ice cream in the winter. He began to walk into the park.

As he skipped down the regular stones, and passed the frosted Willow Tree, he reflected on yesterday.  Last night, Alex and Samheed warmed up with hot chocolate and then played video games until they fell asleep on their controllers. Earlier, they were walking home and even before that, Samheed and Meghan were trying to keep him warm with some form of obscure clothing.

    Alex had Samheed's beanie on today. Contentment, Alex figured, was the feeling that took him over yesterday. The feeling that arises when he skipped stones into the ponds or worked with his charcoal. However, it felt different yesterday. Different than just contentment. He had come to realize that feeling wasn't just prevalent yesterday. It had always been there.

    Whenever Samheed and Alex hung out, ran the fields of grass, and played music atop nature's ground in the clearing, the same feeling rose up, faint enough to never think much of it. Dating wasn't irregular to people in his middle school, despite the awkwardness in most of those relationships. He had overhead two boys talking about their crushes, and yet Alex couldn't think of any girl he could be with at the time. His mind swam away from the topic like a fish in sea, busy with fantasized plans with Samheed after school. He figured it wasn't something to worry about. He was content. That faint feeling was enough. Samheed, Alex realized, was enough. 

    His thick boots made their way through the trees and into the clearing, the only visible thing being the snow that rested in layers above the structure. The wind was still whistling, and the sounds of people shrieking and laughing were still faint from the ice skating lake. Alex shuddered. Never again. 

    "Sam, you here?" He called out, even though he knew no one was here yet. Usually, Samheed was always the first to arrive. With filled hands, Alex could only wait out the time by finishing his cone (even though he tried to wait, he couldn't resist the creamy goodness). Then, when Samheed still wasn't here, he used his free hand and cleaned off bits of snow from the hideout's makeshift roof without freezing his hand off.

    Inside the hideout was gross.  Snow that managed to escape inside melted, and so puddles and mushy snow took place inside. The hung up artworks crinkled in the cold, but it had already been through enough after all these seasons and years.

Rustling came from behind, and soon enough the familiar boy with marigold eyes came into the clearing. Samheed's head was facing the ground, and when Alex called out his name, Samheed offered a small smile. "Hey, Al," he said, softly.

"Got you ice cream. The strawberry scoop kind of fell off by accident, but it's your fault for being so late," Alex replied. He held the ice cream out for Samheed, but he didn't take it.

It was then the air seemed to have grown heavier.  "Everything alright?"

There was a long pause, a long silence between them. Alex searched Samheed's eyes anxiously, but there was nothing to be found but darkness. A fist curled up Samheed's hand.