The sight of Kay’s giant ice cream logo placed a small smile on my face, the memories of past hangouts and funny moments between Gage and I flooded my brain. We had had so many moments that the last few weeks had seemed like a dream, like something that would suddenly disappear once we realized it was not real. Gage and his teammates sat at their usual table, the group of guys joking and taking the usual jabs at each other. The sight felt nostalgic. The confrontation between Gage and I from the other day seemed like a distant memory. The flashback of everything that was said dampened my smile as I walked closer to the scene playing out in front of me.

Gage’s bright smile felt like an old friend. 

I watched while he continued to be one of the boys, his hands in his pockets as his friends chatted with him about what had happened at practice that day. There was a slight squeeze in my chest like a hand had firmly grasped my heart, giving slight pulses as if reminding me that I was not the reason for Gage’s demeanor. He was so animated, the total opposite of the troubled boy who had asked me to promise to be there—something I had paced back and forth about because I wasn’t sure I wanted to go.

I looked forward to seeing Gage with an excited smile on his face, his body moving side to side as he waved at me to get my attention, his smile still giving me that slightly warm feeling in my stomach. The truth of what his smile stood for sat in the back of my mind, because I knew that he had silently hoped I would have showed up like I promised. What would have happened if I had not shown up? Would it have meant that my absence would have been the answer to the status of our relationship? Would it have meant we could no longer be friends? The answer to it all felt open ended. I felt, in the end, it would come down to the decisions Gage made in regards to us.

 “Tristan!” a voice shouted, breaking me out of my spaced out trance.

I looked up to see Gage and the others acknowledging my presence, all of their eyes on me as I walked up to the group. 

“What’s up, guys?” I said, placing my hands in my pockets to contain my sudden awkwardness, knowing in the back of my head that they didn’t know why.

The others nodded in my direction, Gage’s smile overshadowing their cool demeanors, “Hey man, glad you could make it!”

My world froze.

For a split second I had glanced at Gage with a look that could only be described as surprise, the words taking a moment to sink in. Gage had never spoken to me in such a way before, like I was just one of the guys, like our relationship was deeper than just being just friends. I composed myself instantly, flashing a bright smile towards the guy I still called my best friend, the feeling of my smile felt so unnatural in that moment. 

“Hey Gage,” I replied, my body feeling like someone had splashed cold water on me. 

 I felt cold, yet hot at the same time, my body starting to tingle like it had the other day when I had had my moment of anxiousness. My body buzzed, my fight or flight activating with just a few simple words from Gage’s lips, the feeling of wanting to run away at the forefront of my mind. I must have been dreaming. Gage’s words echoed in my head over and over, cutting deeply into me with the sound of each word. 

Something was wrong. 

“I’m so glad you made it, I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t show bro” Gage said, his hand clasping tightly on my shoulder. 

Everything went colder, “I mean I did promise, right? And I keep my promises, you know that.”

Gage’s smile didn’t reach his eyes at the sound of my response, the slight softness of his smile caused me a pain I had known all too well. The same pain I had experienced when I had left his house after my promise. 

“Of course,” He answered, “You’ve never let me down, Tristan.”

Our eye contact seemed to feel like an eternity, like if we looked away from each other, things would change. But I knew they had changed. I felt an ounce of regret, that my decision to show up at Kay’s had been the wrong one to make. Yet the fear of the outcome of not coming still surrounded me, choking my words back for my own benefit. 

“Who invited Tristan?” Brent’s voice broke our trance. 

“The same guy who invited you,” Gage chuckled, his hand giving my shoulder a slight squeeze, “Me.”

My smile remained on my face, “Nice to see you too, Brent.”

Brent looked at me with indifference, but I knew deep down inside, his blood boiled at the thought of my presence. It was the only bright light at the end of the tunnel, the thought of inconveniencing Brent with my surprise invitation. I looked at Gage, who looked slightly annoyed with his friend, realizing I wasn’t supposed to have been there at that moment. The promise from the other day had been his spontaneous fear from watching me walk towards his front door, and it showed he, too, had been scared of the outcome of me leaving that night. 

“Yeah” Brent curtly said, before turning to the others, “You guys gonna go get ice cream?”

The others nodded, taking their leave towards the stand where the same girl from before stood ready to take their orders. Brent sat on a table, his ice cream in hand as he looked at us, waiting for us to move with the others. 

“Gage, aren’t ya’ll gonna get any?” He asked, looking from Gage to me back to Gage. 

“Oh yeah,” Gage replied, awkwardly looking at me, “Do you want the usual?”

“Sure,” I gave him a small smile. 

Gage smirked, raising his brow in question, “Vanilla bean, right?”

“You know me so well,” I replied. 

With that answer Gage gave me one reassuring smirk, turning on his foot to head towards the others at the register, all of them still trying to figure out what they want. For a moment everything felt normal. Like how it felt before Gage had asked me questions I had been too afraid to answer, yet his words resurfaced as Brent looked at me inquisitively.

‘I don’t want anything to change between us, Tristan’

I looked deeply into the blue hard eyes of Brent Woods, “What?”

“Just vanilla bean?” He asked, “Nothing else?”

“Is it a problem?” I crossed my arms.

“Not really but it seems really…. Boring,” He answered, taking a bite of his ice cream.

“Oh yeah?” my eyebrow twitched.

Where did this conversation come from?

“Yeah. You couldn’t have picked something more… interesting,” He explained, casually watching my face, “Something with more flavor?”

“Vanilla bean has a really good flavor,” I answered.

“In a basic way, yeah” 

“Oh yeah? What flavor are you eating since you’re being the judge?” 

“Birthday Cake.”

“Now that doesn’t sound attractive if you ask me,” I explained, scrunching up my face. 

Brent’s mouth slightly dropped at my response, “You take that back.”

“No,” I responded, “I don’t know how you eat that flavor, it’s too much.”

“It’s better than your basic ass flavor. At least mine is popular with everyone unlike yours,” He looked at me in disbelief. 

The entirety of our conversation confused me at that moment, the uncharacteristic banter between us made my skin crawl. Brent and I had never spoked in such a way to each other and it had started to become odd. So odd that I could only think, what had brought this type of interaction between us? 

It left me mentally baffled. 

It felt like he was trying to one up me in the usual brent-like fashion, yet it also felt different than the other times we interacted. There was something behind his words that I couldn’t place. Like there had been more meaning to it than just ice cream, but I couldn’t draw any conclusions from it. 

“You see at least Gage likes chocolate,” Brent stated, “He fortunately likes things with taste.”

What was this conversation?

“Here you go, bud” Gage interrupted, placing a cup of ice cream in front of me. 

“Thank you,” I said, my conversation with Brent coming to an end. 

The others arrived shortly after Gage had walked over, distracting Brent from picking up our previous conversation. Something I mentally celebrated. Their conversation about how cute the register girl had been, their attention being fully taken away from Gage and I. 

“So what were you and Brent talking about?” Gage asked, turning to me sitting on the table just above where I sat. 

I took a bite of my ice cream silently sighing in happiness, “ About your weird obsession with chocolate.”

“But you both know I like chocolate, how is it weird?” He chuckled. 

“Well it must have gotten worse, since the last time we had ice cream together.” I smirked at my best friend.

End of Part 1