It Will All Work Out (Intersex gxg)

Chapter 4

"Oh my God, this is the best thing ever!" Shay moaned as she kept licking her ice cream cone. She'd gone with a Bubblegum flavor, always a classic, while I'd selected a Mint Oreo. We'd biked the thirty minutes to Clementine's after we'd had a good lunch of leftover wings and pizza, and now we were enjoying the reward of that bike ride. Before we started eating them though, Shay had used her phone to take a picture of the cones, being so particular that the ice cream was running over our fingers before she was done. She took one of mine, and then had me take one of hers. Yeah, it was sweet to commemorate it, or at least that was what I hoped she was doing.

I didn't understand the warmth that spread through my body at the sound of her moan, but I could heartily agree that it was amazing ice cream. "Yeah, there are a couple of other places around here that make ice cream, Hill Top and Gigi's, but I always liked this one because it is where my dad used to take me whenever we ran errands and he wanted to give me a treat," I told her in a soft voice.

She looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. "You haven't mentioned him before. What happened?"

I sighed, then opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I couldn't talk for a moment, as it just hurt too much, and my throat felt constricted from the pressure. Shay put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me against her body, making me feel better immediately. I just let her hold me, and after a minute, I was finally able to relax. "He died. Four years ago on my birthday, he was killed in a car accident when he went to pick up my birthday cake. That was why meeting you yesterday, and having such a good birthday, meant so much. It's hard to celebrate when it's also my dad's death anniversary." I could feel tears prick at my eyes before they started to run down my cheeks. I couldn't help but sniffle, because I never talked about my dad much, and I guess I'd never had to discuss it with anyone in a way that didn't make me bawl my eyes out.

She didn't reply right away, but her arm tightened around me, and she whispered into my ear. "It's okay to cry. It just shows how much you loved him, and how good of a father he was. Thank you for sharing this special place of yours with me, it means a lot that you would do that. It might not seem like much, but nobody has ever done something like that for me."

I sniffled again into her shirt, not caring at all that she had pulled me into her body as much as I cared that she was supporting me. I needed this so badly, and she still barely knew me. "Thanks, Shay. This means a lot to me too. I'm glad I shared this with you too." Right there, I vowed to never take anyone else here. This was my spot with Shay, and I wanted to keep it that way. I didn't know if she would feel the same, but a part of me thought she just might. It was a small thing, but it also felt like maybe a brick in a foundation that allowed more to be built atop it.

"Is there anywhere else you'd like to show me? I haven't seen anything around the town at all, so I'm open to anything." She was talking in a whisper still, and never let me go as she did.

There were a lot of places we could go, and many of them I hadn't been to in years. "Yeah, but it might take a while on bikes. We could go to the movies, or the beach or try some restaurants, whatever you're in the mood for."

"Time is all we have. We have a bunch of it before my folks come home, so we can visit a few things every day," she suggested.

And that is precisely what we did. We spent the next two days biking all over the town. I showed her my favorite beach over at Goddard Memorial Park, we tried the other two ice cream places, got some burgers at a yummy place called The Trap, and then went to see movies up near Interstate 95 in Warwick. It was a really perfect two days, and Shay and I spent the entirety of it smiling.