Between Hello and Goodbye

Chapter 4: Kay's Ice Cream Shop

Enjoy chapter 4, the picture above should be what Brent looks like!

    Kay's Ice Cream Shop, the pinnacle staple of that small town feel that was Brindlewood, something that was all too common in Texas. I, personally, never understood the appeal of making a random business in town the hotspot for high schoolers to gather around after school ended. AP Literature and my other classes had proved to be more interesting than the concept of sitting with the soccer team talking about nonsense. Would no one save me?

"Hey Tristan, do you want anything? I'm buying" Gage asked, standing up to make his way to the cash register.

"Sure, just get me a coke," I replied.  

"What kind?"

"Just a regular coke will be fine"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Gage" I smiled, "Thank you."

Gage gave me a soft smile before heading off towards the register, leaving me alone with his teammates. The guys were talking about menial things, which girls they thought were hot, the latest news on which schools would be a challenge this year, and a select few whined about their current course load. I chuckled at the latter as I reflected on my course load for the year, but the conversation that had caught my interest was the one about girls.

I had never shown any interest in communicating with the others of my gender about my love interests, mainly because I only had one, and it was their captain. The guys talked about the way that the girls looked, commenting on their physical appearances, who had the biggest racks and asses, and who dressed the best to accentuate those features.

Honestly, boobs never garnered my attention.

But the guys around me talked on and on about the possibilities of getting close to the girls that were the center of their conversation, probably to engage with them in a way that me and Gage did. Sex, in a nutshell, was an enigma to me, something that I didn't focus on because my life and been about nothing but academics for the last three years. Maybe I had trumped myself by doing that, I didn't even know how two men were intimate with each other, let alone a man and a woman. The concept of what sex was not foreign to me, due to the very small amount of sex education that we were allowed when we were younger, I did, for one, know that women didn't get pregnant from hugging. Second, I knew the mechanics of sex, but not how the parts worked or moved, just that they went together like puzzle pieces, nothing further than that.

I placed my head into my hand as I leaned against the table to block what I considered 'man speak', noticing that Gage was still at the register. The register sat in the middle of the shopfront, the large space within the building behind it containing the machines for the sweets that the shop provided. Kay's shop was half the size of the Dairy Queen that used to reside on the other side of the town, the only difference being that it was still in business. The shop had a rustic feel to it, the shopfront providing a southern aesthetic with its barn red painted wood, the strategically placed white adding to the homey ambiance. Rows of blue milk pails sat underneath the windows, playing on the idea that they contained the dairy that was used in the ice cream. The look of Kay's Ice cream shop, in a way, felt nostalgic as I watched Gage interact with the girl behind the counter. Their conversation seemed light, both of them maintaining eye contact so they both knew there was a mutual interest in the conversation, a smile evident on both of their faces.

"Look at Gage over there working his magic on the girl at the register" One of his teammates said. I think his name was Brock?

"I always knew our captain had moves, I mean just look at him. He must be swimming in tail all the time" another added, looking at Gage proudly.