Sun Kissed ✓

two

AS usual, the shift felt like it was over before it had begun. It had breezed by in a swift montage of children wrapped in colourful beach towels, girls with fresh tans and expensive sunglasses, boys in their Adam Sandleresque beach shorts and flip-flops, bikini clad-women with odd patches of sunburn and floppy hats, elderly couples wearing polo-shirts and sundresses, and a blur of every other kind of customer, some of which had been seen a million times before and some of whom were pleasantly refreshing and exciting.

A wonderful example was the guy on roller skates who had a sandy-coloured poncho draped over his chest and back and a red fanny-pack fastened around his waist. He had rolled inside the parlour, twirling a small, bright pink umbrella above his head and had thick, black sunglasses shielding his eyes.

"Bad luck to have that open inside, isn't it?" Tanner had asked with a laugh as he scooped the birthday cake flavoured ice cream into a tub for the customer.

The man grinned, "If it's bad luck to look this good then I might be the unluckiest guy in the world."

Tanner had laughed and the man had smiled wider, continuing, "If it's not a problem, I'll take the risk of bad luck for fun accessorising."

He took one of the flat plastic spoons and stuck it in the man's tub of ice cream, handing it over the counter. "Pink to match your umbrella. Have a good day."

Giving his umbrella another twirl, he laughed, and Tanner imagined the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. "Awesome, man. Thank you. Have a good one!"

He wheeled out, eyes of judgemental adults and amused teenagers and awestruck children following him. Tanner watched him with a similar fondness, a grin and a shake of his head as he greeted the next customer in line.

Austin had watched the exchange, wide-eyed and brows raised. It was probably the most expressive that Tanner had ever seen him. "Good for him," he said as he scooped mint chocolate chip onto a cone for a little redheaded girl in a mermaid patterned bathing suit.

Tanner pointed at her, "A guy on roller skates and Ariel? Today must be lucky after all."

She giggled at his faux surprise as Austin handed her the ice cream cone. Thanking him, she waved goodbye to Tanner with the closed fist that she was holding her change inside.

"Man, kids love you."

He shrugged, scooping more ice cream, "I love kids. It's a two-way street."

"Knew there was something off about you," Austin muttered before plastering on that artificial smile and serving the next customer. "Hi, what can I get for you today?"

By the time they were leaving work, their other co-workers had come in to switch shifts and the parlour was still pretty busy. Usually, around this time, families came in to get dessert after eating out somewhere or couples who had been taking strolls along the beach came in for a milkshake or a cone. It was a lot quieter than it had been during the early afternoon, but people were still coming in as Tanner and Austin were getting ready to leave.

Tanner knew they lived near enough in the same direction for most of the way. Anyway, they went to school together which meant it was unlikely that they lived too far anyway. It wasn't like they had many classes together, but they took some similar subjects and occasionally bonded over a shared teacher or mutual acquaintance. The most that they saw of each other at school was glimpses in the hallways as they brushed past each other or eating their lunches at nearby tables. They didn't look for each other or stop to say hi to each other ever, but that made sense considering that they had only become co-workers a little before summer started.

He whistled to Austin who was frowning at his phone screen and typing. "You coming?"

"Hm? Yeah," he said, glimpsing up and walking to the door. "Sorry."

"You know, if you're on your phone the whole time we're walking, I'll take personal offence," he joked, handing an ice-cold bottle of water over.

Austin tucked his phone into his pocket and took the bottle as he slipped past Tanner, outside of the door and under the sun, which was still burning bright, seeming to melt their surroundings with its intensity. "Thanks. No phone," he said. "You got it."

Tanner lifted his folded sunglasses from the neck of his t-shirt and placed them over his eyes. "Let's get going," he said. "The sooner we get out of the heat, the better."

"Totally," Austin agreed, falling in step as they walked.

As they passed by the other beachside stores and casual restaurants, Tanner considered that he was going to be doing most of the talking and decided that he was okay with that. It's not like it was out of the ordinary anyway. At this point, it was the expectation, but he was a good talker.

If he had to spin topics out of nothing to get Austin to like him then so be it.

NOTE

Thanks for reading! Hope you stick around for the next chapter, would be much appreciated <3

Still a little bit of building up and establishing in this chapter so I hope you'll excuse that :)

Please remember to vote and comment if you enjoyed!

NEXT UPDATE

Thursday. 29. July. 2021.