In Here, The Tears Taste Like Ice Cream

“Aiden, it’s a little odd being in here like this again; at least without you.” 

The parlor, with the ice cream in different shapes and sizes and flavors, is tiny when you’re not here but that’s life when your close friend is a little distant these days. 

I met you in the middle of a junior high school summer where the sun melted anything cool before it touched a fridge. You wore polos and jean shorts like me which made me think our mothers shopped with the same brain or we were secretly long-lost brothers. What made things weirder was that you and I attended the same junior high but didn’t run into each other meeting at Hayden’s Ice cream Shoppe. 

I was halfway through a rocky road cone and you came in with three dollars and a smile on your face, staring at the birthday cake ice cream as if it was gonna teleport into your hands. You sprinted to the front without somehow tripping over your untied laces and slapped the money on the counter in front of the cashier who had her back turned. 

“Let me get a birthday cake… ice… cream”, you trailed off when she faced you in the most radiant smile, trading your money for a scoop of birthday cake ice cream in a small paper bowl with a plastic spoon. 

“Here’s your change”, she handed you the money and never lost her smile probably because she was a genuinely kind person. 

“I’m Brian, B-Brian Aiden F-F-Forrester”, you stuttered with your back as straight as an ironing board. 

The only reason why I didn’t react the same way was that you never act that way about your sister. That’s gross but I didn’t say anything about it and watched you stumble over everything to catch her nametag. 

“Her name’s Naomi Copeland”, I called out and she tried to shush me but I wanted to help you out a little since she wasn’t wearing it. 

That was when you turned back to me and sat with me. I knew it was kind of selfish of you but at the same time, it was kind of selfish of me though I didn’t mind making a friend especially since I didn’t have any. 

“His name’s Jamal, Jamal Copeland”, she called back and we laughed before she served someone else who walked in. 

“Well, Jamal Copeland, what’s your sister like?”, you asked during the first bite of your birthday cake ice cream. 

I turned to Naomi who waved and shook her head and I turned back to you. 

“Not here because I don’t want to embarrass my dear old sister”, I yelled out in a grin while customers stared at me and she hid her face behind the register for a few seconds. 

“Perish the thought”, she laughed and you swooned until I snapped and you returned to Earth. 

We exited the parlor and walked away from the parlor until it was out of sight and then we got to talking. 

“Naomi is alright, I guess. She’s weird for a high school sophomore; she keeps to herself a lot, she reads all the time when she’s not working, and she watches old romance movies.” 

You were engaged the entire time and I have never seen anyone interested in someone that deeply. It should have made me uncomfortable and maybe it did a little bit but you didn’t mean any harm. 

“She sounds amazing. Hey Jamal, who’s this Hayden person running the ice cream parlor?”

I was busy skipping cracks in the sidewalk when you asked and my foot stepped on one when you asked me. I knew you meant well but I felt as though I was hit by a truck in that instant. 

“That’s my dad’s name or it was my dad’s name”, my voice cracked and you didn’t know whether to put your arm around me or comfort me so you did both. 

“I’m sorry I asked. I had no idea”, your voice cracked too but we didn’t laugh about it like I hoped we did. 

I waved my hand as if I was trying to push it away. There was an arcade not too far from us and I needed to game my sadness out so we headed inside. 

It was packed with kids around our age slapping buttons and shaking joysticks and playing air hockey on top of all the noise around us and of course-

“-they have mozzarella sticks”, we echoed and smiled so wide, our mouths could have swallowed our faces if the smiles were any larger. 

We weaved through the sea of fellow gamers and I slid the cashier the four dollars needed for the small, checkered paper box of eight mozzarella sticks to split between us. We scanned the area for arcade machines to play when it stuck out- a massive arcade machine called Horse Killer EX. We spent hours as horses with elephant guns riding and shooting people and eating mozzarella sticks and talking about nothing and everything before Naomi showed up to take us home. 

You stared at the back of her head while I was eating another rocky road cone and you were eating another birthday cake bowl but we played I spy anyway. Actually, I don’t remember what we did other than talk while you made eyes at my sister. 

The next few weeks brushed by like that. I was there at the parlor and you showed up every shift Naomi had but we hung out anyway. We hung out there with our same ice cream and headed to the arcade blowing hours on Horse Killer EX, snapping the heads off people trying to get us or run away until Naomi arrived with more ice cream. 

We were filled with ice cream and arcade thoughts even during school when the fall weather would bite at our skin until we threw on our jackets. You made a game out of crunching leaves and playing Horse Killer EX in real life where we took turns being the horse and one of the horse’s ruthless or terrified prey. You were always a better horse and I was always better being terrified prey because I couldn’t pretend to be ruthless even as a horse. 

High school came along and Naomi stayed introverted while you stayed obsessed with her. She sat with us outside the cafeteria during lunch and we shared ice cream-related stories we made up on the spot. There was one that stood out to me though and I wasn’t sure if it stood out to you too but it came from Naomi so maybe you noticed it. 

“Two boys named Jeff and Tarek met at an ice cream parlor, not unlike yourselves and there was a girl named Janet who came in ordering the same peanut butter and pistachio bowl. Gross, right? Well, Tarek didn’t think it was and in fact, he started ordering the same peanut butter and pistachio bowl to strike up a conversation with her.

“Jeff and Tarek headed to the arcade and played Pearl Harpoon 20XX until close but Tarek never stopped thinking about Janet and every chance he got, he brought her up. At first, Jeff didn’t mind and even gave him some solid advice on talking to her. He told him something about being himself and seeing if Janet would accept him the way he was but, of course, he wished he never gave that advice to Tarek because he ran with it. 

“Jeff saw Tarek as always at the same ice cream parlor but he showed up in hopes Janet did which she always did since that was the only place selling peanut butter and pistachio. He left Jeff sitting by himself to speak to Janet and she asked Tarek if Jeff wanted to come and sit with them but he told her he was positive Jeff didn’t want to become the third wheel.

“All throughout high school, Jeff wished and hoped and prayed that Tarek would come back to him and be his friend but his buddy was fixed on Janet. Eventually, he would spot them playing air hockey and Pearl Harpoon 20XX together and it broke his heart. When Jeff finally confronted Tarek about it one time, his friend became frustrated and said the only thing that changed was him and Janet isn’t coming between them.

“Soon enough, Janet would not only come between Jeff and Tarek but replace Jeff and it made him so angry, he never returned the parlor for a long time. Tarek didn’t notice because he had Janet and that was more than enough for him. Once Tarek stopped visiting that ice cream parlor after a new one that sold peanut butter and pistachio popped up, Jeff returned and ate his ice cream alone and cried all the time for what used to be.” 

We were stunned by the story for different reasons; you were stunned because you thought it was beautiful and I was stunned because I thought it could very well happen to us. 

If I knew it would, I would have frozen time or turned it back if I had the power. You were a sophomore pursuing Naomi more than you did before and after all that time of you trying, she gave you a shot. Strangely enough, there was a new ice cream parlor that opened up and I took over my dad’s once she was gone and what made it worse was that it was another location of this ice cream parlor she was running. She wasn’t the problem at all because she warned us about this; the problem was that you came between us, Aiden. 

I never called you Brian because you told me your dad called you Brian and you hated him but then, you let Janet, I mean, Naomi call you Brian. Whatever your name is, I couldn’t hate you if I tried when I miss you too much to scream at you when I see your arms around my sister. I remember seeing you one time and it was because Naomi told you to fetch something for her from this location. 

“Hey”, you said blankly. 

“Hey”, I said blankly. 

In our eyes, the tears started to form but you left and I turned away before either of us saw the truth. We looked back at the same time with tears flowing and knew we didn’t hate each other because I could never hate you, Tarek or Brian, or Aiden or old friend.