May 10th

The Exit Sign to Innocence

As they shuffled out the door, ice cream in hand, Julia said something abruptly. "I want to grow old like them," she blurted out, looking down at her hands as she picked at her nails. "Nobody takes marriage vows seriously anyways, I know my parents don't," I said, laughing nervously. I definitely should not have said that out loud I thought to myself. Julia looked over at me and made intense eye contact, "you go to Brighton Day, right?" She asked. I broke the eye contact and looked away for a split second, my eyes traveled down, and color rushed to my cheeks, "yeah I do actually, I'm a sophomore," I replied. She nodded her head and looked down at her phone, her thumbs moving seamlessly across the screen.

All of a sudden, Julia's phone rang, and she immediately pressed the green "Answer" button. I tried to make myself useful and distract myself from eavesdropping. "Hey yeah I'm just working, you can just stop by, we aren't busy," Julia said. She went on for a few minutes talking about some party that was happening later. I tried to take mental notes on the way she said things and the language she used to talk to her friends. After she hung up, she turned to me, "my friends are going to come in a few minutes, I hope that's cool," she said. I shrugged my shoulders and went back to staring out of the window.

A few minutes went by and I watched a couple cars drive by, most of them with their windows and sun roofs rolled down. I broke away when I noticed that Ray and Tony were walking down towards the ice cream shop. I turned to look at Julia, who kept staring at her phone. "Hey, I think those are your friends coming in," I said, turning my head slightly. She looked up and got up from sitting on the stool, "Oh yeah, thanks," she said emotionless. Tony and Ray walked in, both of them dressed the same, a baggy t shirt and sneakers. Ray looked gorgeous as ever, it was clear that she had tanned over the past couple of days. Her skin had turned into a beautiful olive color that draped flawlessly across her collarbones. Her dark brown hair, parted in the middle and coming down to her shoulders, looked effortlessly shiny under the neon lights over the ice cream flavor rows. She sported an oversized baggy Harley Davidson t shirt that covered most of her denim shorts and wore a pair of lowcut white Nike Airforce One's. Tony wore mostly the same thing, swapping out for a pair of khaki shorts and brown leather flip flops. Together, they were model perfect in every way.

"Hey Jules," Ray said, her voice sounding like liquid butter. Tony turned to me, "Hey, you're the same girl we say the other day, right?" he asked. Ray turned to look at me for the first time and offered a slight smirk. "Yeah she was," she replied to Tony indirectly. I nodded my head, "how did you like the Matcha? It's not really a popular flavor," I asked Ray. She smiled and looked over at Tony, "I actually liked it, that's why we decided to come back in today," she answered, running her slender fingers along a strand of hair as she pushed it behind her ear. "I can get you a cup if you want," I offered, walking over to the Matcha flavor row. "That would be great, thanks," Ray replied, turned over to Jules. "So... Jules are you coming to Grayson's tonight?" she asked, leaning over the counter. "Yeah I think so, I get off at around 8 so I'll be there," she replied, glancing over at me. 

There was an awkward pause as I concentrated on scooping the ice cream, as they all turned to me. "Hey Matcha, what's your name?" Tony asked me. I looked up and turned to them. "Oh," I said with an awkward laugh. "Izzy, short for Isabella," I answered, plopping a scoop into a cup. "What are you doing after work?" Ray asked. "Nothing probably, why?" I answered, bringing the cup of ice cream over to them. "There's a party at Grayson Burke's house tonight, you should come," Ray offered. "Party's aren't really my thing," I admitted, handing the cup of ice cream to her. "Well, have you ever been to one?" Tony piped up, shifting his weight to his other leg. I stayed silent, softly admitting I hadn't. Jules laughed, "well how do you know if you've never been to one?" she asked. I smiled and looked at them, "I guess you're right, I'll go, what the hell," I said. Jules offered to carpool since we both got off at the same time and I agreed.

After Tony and Ray had left, the clock struckaround 6 o clock. In a couple of hours, I was going to be at Grayson Burke'sparty. All the crazy stories that went around school happened at his parties,they were legends within themselves. Ray, Julia and Tony were all part of theinner circle that included Grayson and a few others. I didn't know how to feel,I was excited but also really anxious since I didn't really know anything aboutany of them. It was summertime, an excuse to live a little and get out of mycomfort zone, something I had spent so long protecting.