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.

“I mean, c’mon, you can tell she’s totally into him,” Brock explained, the girl laughing along with Gage at something he had said, “See, he’s got her totally in the bag.”

I looked away from the guys, my eyes focusing on the scene before me, the sight leaving me with a feeling that I rarely felt; Fear. Sure the girl was pretty, beautiful even, but she was someone that Gage had just met, so the thought that he was attracted to her had me confused. He had never shown interest in her before that moment, not showing any indication that his intention when he had told me he was going to get us drinks was to pursue her. Relationships were still an enigma to me, mainly because I had never been in one, so the guys’ words had affected me in a way that concerned me. 

Was I afraid that if Gage and the girl exchanged numbers after that moment, he would forget about me? That our current status to each other was something to be forgotten because of some girl? Would he not figure ‘us’ out before pursuing whatever relationship that the girl promised? My head started to hurt from all of the overthinking, the fear creeping in the back of my mind that I was going to lose Gage to something as trivial as a girl. Yet the churning in my stomach seemed to worsen the more I watched them. 

“Guys, come on, I think you’re reading too much into the situation,” I blurted out, tearing my eyes away from Gage, “You don’t know, maybe he knows her from somewhere.”

“Nah, I know flirting when I see it” Brock replied, the rest of the guys looking at me like I had grown a second head 

“I think y’all are just jumping to conclusions, Gage could just be being friendly” I said.

“Tristan, I’m sure our boy is over there spittin’ game. He’s your best friend, tell me that he’s not over there doing exactly that” another player, whose name escaped me, spoke out from the group. 

My brow raised at the insinuation, “Yes. I am his best friend, so I’m sure I know that he’s probably over there being cordial and making friendly conversation.”

“What is this about friendly conversation?” A voice sounded from behind us.

A voice I knew all too well. 

My head snapped around, the guys following suit as we looked at the source of the interruption, the figure standing a few feet away from us with a confused face. The one person that would have turned the conversation in the favor of the others instead of me, someone who, I knew, would challenge everything I said. 

Brent Woods. 

He was the guy that all the other guys in school wished they were, the guy that girls swooned over and fell beside themselves to receive the smallest bit of attention from; a typical popular high school jock. His family lived in the part of town where the ‘wealthy’ residents of Brindlewood resided, his home alone reaffirming his social status year after year, since our freshman year. He was also Tristan’s right hand man when it came to the soccer team, staying within Gage’s good graces so that he could have influence over the players. The guys excitedly greeted him, giving him fist bumps and half hugs that guys tended to give other guys, so that it wasn’t considered weird. I stared at him with a blank face, an unimpressed expression evident on my face as we locked eyes. Our similar looks of light contempt reflected our feelings towards each other, my body refusing to move or even stand to greet him, the guys still tried to gain his attention during our silent engagement.

“So what were y’all talking about?” Brent asked, taking a seat at the picnic table directly next to me.

“Tristan thinks Gage is just being nice to that girl over there” Brock answered, pointing in the direction of the register, “But we know our boy is over there spittin’ game.” 

Brent’s eyes bored into me for a second before he turned his head toward the register, “Oh, Gage is flirting alright. I know that body language anywhere.” 

My jaw clenched at his words, my eyes glaring into Brent’s blue irises as my body temperature rose at the moment his head turned to look back at me, his smug grin appearing on his face. Brent’s main goal, ever since he became closer to Gage, was to get under my skin. 

And it always worked.