The Break Up Plan (BoyxBoy)

It Comes Naturally

There's something transformative about changing into your work uniform. The individuality you enter with gets wiped away by a white button up and matching hats. At Mooove Over, our outfits were inspired by the rise of fast food in the "glorious" 50s and 60s. Our black slacks and white shirts were covered by a cow print apron. Some of the realism faded when I attached my cow-spotted bow tie using velcro and put on my folded hat with a hair clip. Still, the end product made our senior discount crowd sigh wistfully when they walked through the door.

Because I was a little late today, I clipped on my hat while I rang up the first customer. If they were upset about me ruining the fantasy for their 5 year old, then too bad.

"Maybe you should get fully changed before you greet the customers?" Bailey smiled tightly while scooping chocolate chip cheesecake.

"Thanks Bailey, I never thought of that before!"

The boy rolling his eyes in front of the customers was a senior at another school who I avoided getting to know. The guy was a mix of tanned skin and curly hair that made me curious about where he was from but not curious enough to ask.

I topped off our medium-cup stack so I could roll my eyes out of sight. There was no point in him brown nosing when our manager wasn't even in the room but what did I know? I was far from the bosses' favorite.

The pile of medium cups now towered hilariously over the others but the little black girl with curly black pom poms looked none the wiser. She pressed tiny hands against the glass, taking more time than could ever be necessary deciding what flavor her mom would purchase.

While Bailey had to stay attentive and smiley, my focus could be anywhere else. That's the joy of working register. As long as there weren't more than 3 people waiting for orders, I just rang up the totals and took their money. It left my hands pretty free to scribble around on my brainstorm sheet.

Deciding that I had to make them fight was easy. Figuring out how to do that was a whole new ball game.

It wasn't just about making two mostly positive and happy people fight to the brink of break up–which is a feat on its own. It was about doing it in a way where they didn't realize I'd caused it. If they realized that I was the person who sparked the fight, all their frustrations would turn to me in 2 seconds flat. Then, instead of breaking up a relationship, I would have broken up my friendship with Rin.

That was a grim reminder; grim enough for me to forget to smile in immense gratitude when some office worker left us a tip. But also, the tip was like 50 cents so I don't think it deserved a smile anyway.

Back to the point, if Rin ever found out that I caused his break up, I would be in worse than deep shit. I would be at the bottom of shit. Like in subatomically deep shit. For years, our friendship rarely had any secrets. So there was nothing I could compare this to. No gauge of reference to anticipate his reaction.

I had no idea how badly Rin would take this betrayal.

Which is why he could never find out.

"Elliot!" Bailey hissed, his scrunched up glare being undermined by how furiously he shook the sprinkles. "We have customers."

He loved to brag about how professional he was but the teenage trio across the glass was looking widely uncomfortable. Maybe that was also my fault for zoning out.

"Three large sugar cones with . . . 4 toppings each?" I worked the register calculator as fast as ever, impatient stares burning into my forehead. "That will be 7.65 each including tax."