We stepped into the ice cream restaurant named The Grand Marshmallow. Its logo was literally a giant marshmallow and a tall sign held its logo up. Inside, we noticed the glossy, furnished floors whose square tiles exchanged between black and white. It seemed to have just been mopped, hence the Wet Floor sign standing in our path to the counter. The set-up was, admittedly odd. I don't know why there was a counter to order stuff and a bar, separate from each other. In any case, we walked over to the counter, careful not to slip. And because I'm a gentleman, I paid for the ice cream. Or, I'm sorry. Custard. I got plain vanilla custard and she got chocolate with raisins — a decision I didn't approve but paid for anyways.
The bar itself was clean, save some spilled milk at the end of the counter. Everything else was clean, though, so we sat in the rather comfortable stools and waited for our custard.
A few minutes later, we were handed our ice cream and, in an attempt to break our silence, I said, "No cone, huh?"
"Naw, I don't like the cones." She said. "Plus, I'm allergic to them." Interesting. Brianna was also allergic to ice cream cones. More broadly, though, it was eggs.
"Oh, should I have—" I started, pointing to my cone with my free hand.
"No, it's okay. I'll only react if I eat cones. Or, I mean, eggs." I noticed a slight shakiness in her right hand, which was holding her ice cream dish.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah. I just get a bit shaky sometimes. I'm sorry." She dug her spoon into her chocolate and raisins and took a bite.
"So, uh," I paused to swallow the ice cream in my mouth. "I never caught your name."
"I'm Brianna." She said. Oh my God. Could it be? No, there was no way. "What's your name?"
"My name's Ray. And you know what I just realized, Brianna?"
"What's that?"
"Today's my birthday!" I announced.
"Really?!" Brianna asked, excitedly. "We should celebrate!"
For a moment, I remembered Tabetha — or, Ashley — and our adventures and that tragedy. I must've stared into space for some time, though, because I heard a clap next to my ear as if to take me out of hypnotization.
"Are you okay?" Brianna asked.
"What?" I looked around, a little startled. "Oh, um, yeah."
"Something on your mind?"
"I'd rather not think about it right now." I caught a wild tear roll down my cheek. I wiped it away.
"Well, we should celebrate your birthday. How old are you turning?" Brianna asked.
"Twenty." I said.
"Oh my God!" Brianna squeaked. She seemed even more excited than me. "I'm turning twenty in a week! Let's celebrate!"
"That's actually not a bad idea." I said.
Almost interrupting me, Brianna said, "Great! Let's go!" But, almost to contradict her words, she grabbed some napkins and walked over to the spilled milk and cleaned it up.
"Let's go."
YOU ARE READING
as the way comes
General Fiction[redacted] is a 17-year old kid in high school. He is sort of a lonely kid until one day, he meets an attractive young woman who saves him from the feeling. He decides to go with the flow and see what happens. That is, until he doesn't.
