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.”

The three white girls–who could have been anywhere from 13 to 23–packed a lot of disdain in their faces as they gave me their cards. Each paid separately, waiting somewhat anxiously for the cards to clear which damn, I could relate to. My account looked good these days but I remember panicking about 7 dollar purchases too.

With their cones in hand, the teenagers made the bold move to leave out the side door and push open the gates leading into our outdoor seating area. We weren’t instructed to clean those chairs (management liked to rely on rain to do that) so I had no idea what would be awaiting them on the seats. 

After spending a second inspecting the chairs, all three climbed onto a table, enjoying their ice cream with their feet resting where their bums were supposed to go.

I didn’t understand how they found that more comfortable than the chairs inside. Yes, our outside chairs were matte black and our inside chairs had the same pattern as my apron but at least they were cleaned every 3 hours. And, we had heating inside so the ice cream actually melted. The mysteriously aged girl-women hanging around outside were visibly shivering and I hadn’t seen a drop of ice cream trail down the sides of their cones.

Luckily, I wasn’t paid to care.

I turned back to the paper tucked beside the cash register. The ideas were a bit scattered and written in all different sizes but still legible.

The first thing I wrote was “what do couples fight about?” The next thing was my first answer: “cheating?” 

I do believe the vast majority of TV and movie fights between couples have been about infidelity. Often also accompanied by phrases like “how could you?” and scenes of women throwing their drinks in other people’s faces. 

But making Rin or Stephanie think that they were cheated on felt wrong to me. Yes, that’s coming from the guy planning their break up but I’m not a monster. 

Just . . . proactive.

Besides cheating, I put down “money”. Issue with that idea is most of those money fights included married couples. I couldn’t see how Rin having a lack of funds could break them up. He was 16 not 36. He could probably make Stephanie pay for all their dates and still be considered a catch.

I mean with a face like that . . . 

“Elliot!” Morgan barked, coming up behind me. I scrambled to cover my writing but I’d managed to make seven words cover the entire 8x11 page. Luckily, the wiry blonde 2 years my senior wasn’t looking at the paper.

She was glaring at the girls.

“Is it warm today, Elly?”

“No.”

“Then why are three customers sitting outside when we closed outdoor seating for the winter?”

“We did?”

“Yup,” she popped the P loudly, a visible spray leaving her makeup free lips. “But I guess during Saturday shifts you’d have to pay attention to know that type of information.”

I didn’t work weekends. I never worked weekends so I could catch up on school work. But it was my fault she didn’t tell me? 

“When they leave, please lock the gates so this doesn’t happen again.”

Passive-aggressive management felt kind of aggressive-aggressive today but I kept my mouth shut. Morgan would never apologize anyway. I think she tried to appear tough since she was so young so I’d leave her to her mind games.

10 minutes later, as I stepped into the cold without a jacket to lock the gates, I realized that Bailey did work Saturdays. Full day shifts in fact. Yet he didn’t say a word when the girls went out there and was happy to stay quiet when Morgan tried to rip me apart.

Instead of plotting the break up, I switched gears to plot my revenge. Maybe Morgan would appreciate some honesty. How else could she reprimand Bailey for his negligence?

The shop was empty when I walked back inside. Meaning I got a full view of Bailey’s horrified expression when I beelined for the staff area, where Morgan was working.

I don’t know if it was the ice cream or revenge but something definitely smelt sweet.

—————

I had been home for an hour when he tore through the door.

“Honey, I’m home!”

It was the sort of joke my parents would love, very predictable and very white. But now that Rin had yelled it from the foyer, my blood ran cold.

I flew across the room to lock the door at the same time that I heard his feet thunder up the stairs.

“Elly?”

Rin wasn’t here. Why was he here? Today of all days he had to be here instead of with his girlfriend? What happened to her parents not being home again? The perfect sleepover???

“Why is the door locked?”

Why did you show up when my room is covered in ideas to ruin your relationship?!

I’d spent the past hour turning my brainstorm papers into a google slide. Also whenever I finished with a paper, I’d throw it into the air to celebrate my progress. A process that resulted in 11 sheets of paper lying in every corner of my bedroom.

“El?”

“Just a second!”

My dry ass feet skidded against the hardwood as I flew around, anxiously picking up the loose leaf. Once they were all crumpled into my trash bin, I opened my bedroom door and settled in front of my computer.

“And it looks completely normal in here,” Rin spun in a circle, glancing around my semi dirty room. “Why were you acting so suspicious?”

That’s when I realized that behind my back was my neon green google slide with black lettering. I wasn’t great with design so it was pretty bare. No photos or graphics to distract from the “How to break them up” listed at the very top. In 36-point font. I’d also taken my time with the shape function so the subtitle, “Rin and Stephanie”, was circled with two lines over it to X out their names. 

It couldn’t have been more obvious. And if I shifted the wrong way, Rin would see it all.

“Nothing,” I chirped, coughing to fix my squeaky voice. “I mean- nothing, I just wasn’t wearing pants.”

“I’ve seen you without clothes a thousand times,” he laughed, eyes fluttering down to my legs like he could see me. Without pants. 

Swallowing became kind of difficult for a second because just thinking that he was thinking that was-

“Why weren’t you wearing pants?”

My muddled brain was not equipped to answer such an advanced question. It was blanking when I needed a clever excuse. I opened my mouth, ready to say anything, but then he asked me-

“What’s on your computer?”

He stepped to his left, I stepped to his left. He took two steps to his right, I took two steps to his right. He darted forward, I flinched back like I’d been smacked.

“El, seriously, what is it?” he scoffed softly, a hint of concern leaking into his voice. “Come on, what happened to no secrets?”

Rin was still coming closer and the off button was so far back I’d have to turn around to reach it. I’d be completely exposed. This friendship would be over. That’s the only reason why I just blurted out.

“Porn!”

His mouth dropped open and my face—no—my entire body was turning red. But he stepped forward again (the fucker) so I doubled down.

“It’s been a long day and I just needed to relax,” I rushed out, breathing heavily.

“You want me to watch with you?”

If someone walked by and heard me choking while he laughed, they would have come up with a lot of different scenarios. I think my toes were turning red. And Rin was just grinning in the face of my mortification. 

“I was kidding,” he laughed, eyes drifting to the side of my body like he’d catch a glimpse of the screen. “It’s fine. I’ll just turn around since you’re such a prude.”

The second Rin’s back was to me, I clicked away from the slide. But just getting it off the screen wasn’t enough. There was a good chance I’d told Rin my password one time or another. Maintaining the lie would take a bit more effort.

“You know, if you wanted to know more about sex, you could’ve just asked me,” he drawled. “I now have plenty of experience.”

I snapped around but his back still faced the opposite wall. Although I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was wiggling his eyebrows obnoxiously as the words left his mouth. 

What a horrible way to find out my best friend was no longer a virgin. He’d been excited a month ago when her parents were out of town the first time. I thought they’d done some stuff but not that. 

I guess I hadn’t let myself accept that it could happen. 

Would happen.

I pulled myself away from his nonchalant stance to get back to work. If he got on my computer, my browser history could lead him right back to the doc. My history was cleared and a new incognito browser was opened to complete the story. 

Confirming my lies was taking more and more effort but our friendship was worth it. I would protect it at all costs.

“You done?”

Pictures flooded my mind. Scenes of Stephanie and Rin in a million positions and none of them including clothes. They flashed by too quickly for me to dwell on any one of them because all of them tied my stomach in knots. Then sunk my stomach to the floor. Below the floor. Down to a place I could no longer reach.

“Yup,” I slapped a smile onto my face, powering down the PC. “And popping your cherry with one girl doesn’t count as plenty.”

Rin scoffed off-handedly but I wanted a reaction out of him now. I was itching to see something more than the player displayed to the rest of our school.

“I wonder what the girls at school would think,” I started, snark curling down the corners of my mouth. “If they found out you were a virgin for most of high school.”

“I think they’d forgive me,” he cooly replied. His smirk was sexy and confident. Some of the tension in my body eased. It wasn’t what I wanted but staying angry felt impossible. Reluctantly, I smiled. 

“But seriously, when the time comes I’m happy to give you pointers.”

“Get out!” I yelled, laughter slipping through. Even if he was making me smile more than I had in hours, I still had to reach for a pillow to chuck at the idiot’s head.

“So you got any games on that porn computer? I’m getting bored.”

“Teasing me till I’m beat red isn’t enough?”

“Nah, I do that anyway,” he explained, slipping into my gaming chair like it was meant for him. “It comes naturally, like breathing.”

“You suck,” I laughed. “And I’m totally going to beat you at COD.”