Starting Over

"Hello, what can I get for you?" I smiled kindly at the kids that walked in, they looked no older than twelve or thirteen and there were three of them, two boys and a girl.

One of the boys walked up to the counter and looked through the glass, his gaze snaking across the available ice cream choices. The other boy was talking in hushed tones to the girl and after a short while he turned to me.

"I would like a single scoop, chocolate cone and she wants a single scoop vanilla cone."

I nodded and turned around, grabbing a cone and filling it with chocolate ice cream, handing it to the boy and doing the same for the girl-- only with vanilla.

"And for you?" I asked the other boy. He took one last wistful glance at the available choices before asking for a chocolate cone.

I got him his order and they payed before going to the table in the corner of the store and sitting, chatting animatedly with each other.

I smiled at them and once again wished my parents had another kid, or had adopted one.. I really wondered what it was like to have a sibling-- Not that these kids were siblings, I wasn't sure if they were or not. But they way they acted around each other lead me to believe they were.

"Riley, what the hell are you staring at those kids for? You look like a fucking pedophile."

I snapped my head around to the speaker and frowned. Geez, did I really? I hope not.

"Oh, yeah. No actually I was just wondering what it was like to grow up with a sibling."

Ash rolled his eyes "Horrible."

"Hey!" Alyx was walking by when he said that and she smacked him in the back of the head with the wet towel she was carrying.

"Bitch, don't mess up my fucking hair." His hands immediately shot to his hair, tugging on the dark strands to make sure they were in perfect condition. He shot a glare at Alyx and she smiled, walking daintily to the counter and wiping it off.

I raised an eyebrow in their direction. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Alyx stopped wiping the counter and looked over at me. "Nothing's going on."

"Well I just.. Ash is grumpy and you're all peppy. It's like my first day at work all over again."

Alyx smiled "That's funny. Everything's back to normal!"

"What do you mean?"

Ash scoffed and turned on his heel, walking to the back room and sitting in his usual chair, stuffing his headphones in and nodding his head to the beat.

I turned back to look at Alyx as she was finishing wiping the counter down, she was humming a song and would occasionally stop humming to sing the lyrics under her breath.

"Alyx?"

"Huh?" She whipped around to look at me, as if she had totally forgotten she were at work and I was standing right next to her.

"What's going on?"

She twirled and balled up her rag, trying to toss it into the backroom to hit Ash, it fell short and landed halfway there.

"Damn." She turned to look at me "Nothing's going on." She shrugged and leaned against the counter.

"Yeah right." I scoffed "You haven't been this happy since.. since.. Geez, I don't know."

She just shrugged and turned around, looking at the front door as the bell rang, signaling a customer. "Hello!" Her cheery voice rang out through the small store, I took my chance to go to the backroom.

I sat down across from Ash and glanced at him, he took out his headphones and I could still hear the music coming from them. Sounded like he was listening to Alesana.

"What's wrong, Ash?"

He frowned and looked out at the front counter to see Alyx busily getting ice cream for the people that had walked in.

"Her boyfriend woke up, and he's getting out of the hospital soon."

My eyebrows shot up "That's why you're upset?"

"Yes." He growled. "Her boyfriend's a tool."

"Oh. Really? She seems so happy with him.."

"That's because he's been sleeping. He can't do anything stupid if he's in a coma."

"Oh." I couldn't really argue with that.

The room fell into a comfortable silence, Alyx's chatter could be heard from the front counter and I heard the bell ring again, probably someone leaving. The song on Ash's iPod changed and his headphones started on a different song, whatever it was, I hadn't heard it.

"Ash?"

"Hm?" He looked up at me from his phone.

"What do you guys do in the winter?"

He frowned "What do you mean?"

"I mean, the shop. You guys can't get too much business in the winter.. Do you?"

"Oh, no not really. We usually either close it up for the winter and find different jobs or keep it open and hire someone to cook. We have everything here that's needed to be a restaurant, and occasionally people come in for food, but we're better known for serving ice cream."

They did have a small kitchen, and I had always wondered why.. I guess that answers it.

"Oh okay, what are you going to do this year?"

He shrugged "Dunno yet."

I nodded and leaned back into my chair, closing my eyes for a moment before hearing Alyx walk to the backroom. I peeked one eye open, Ash had his headphones back in and Alyx was standing in the doorway.

"Riley? Can you take over? I'm going to go to the hospital."

"Yeah, sure. Just don't let him hear you say that." I nodded in Ash's direction and Alyx rolled her eyes.

"He can suck it up. Thanks." She grabbed her purse off of the table and walked with me up to the counter.

"Later Alyx, have fun."

"Bye!" She shouted over her shoulder as the door swung shut behind her. The store was empty and the radio was playing some old time song. I leaned against the counter and yawned, looked like the rest of today would be slow.

I looked at the clock on the wall, two hours 'till closing. I scanned the store again and then switched my gaze to outside. I didn't see any other form of life.. not even a bird, let alone a human. Maybe Ash would let us close up early.

I heard the door ring and I turned back to face the counter, shock coursed through me when Mason was standing there grinning at me.

"Hey, Riley."

"M-Mason? What the hell are you doing here?"

He shrugged "I was out for a walk and saw you in here, figured I'd stop by and say hello."

"You go for walks?" That was the best thing I could come up with. I hadn't been expecting to see him, at all.

"Occasionally, when my life is pissing me off." He gave me a lopsided grin and his shaggy brown hair fell in his face.

"Oh, right. Well.. Um, how have you been?" I frowned, not really sure that was the right thing to say.

He shrugged "Alright." He looked down at his shoes "I miss you, Riley." His gaze met mine again, awaiting an answer.

Okay, Riley. Don't tell him you miss him.. Don't do it.

"Oh. Well, yeah.. You kicked me out." It was true, he did kick me out.

He winced as I said it and I regretted saying it, that was kind of a low thing to say. "Sorry." I frowned and he shook his head.

"No, it's okay. It wasn't right of me to kick you out.. It wasn't even right of me to get involved with you, but.. I'm just drawn to you." He frowned "Great, that sounded really cheesy, didn't it?"

I smiled "Yeah, it did."

"Damn.. Well, despite the cheesiness, it's true."

I just nodded and kept quiet, not really sure how to respond. This was awkward..

"Would you want to hang out sometime?"

"What?" My head shot up and I stared at him, wide-eyed. I really hadn't been expecting that.

"It's okay if you say no, I was just wondering if you'd like to."

"Mason, I- It'd .. I don't know if that's a good idea. With this whole.. Marriage thing." I pinched the bridge of my nose "I just don't think it'd be good."

He nodded slowly "Well, if you change your mind.. I'll be at Jitters on Monday, at one." He nodded at me and turned around, walking back out the door and setting the bell off.

Jitters was the 'new hot-spot' to get coffee in the city, in all reality it was a few months old and just like any other coffee shop, honestly I'm not sure what the big deal with it was.. I had been there a couple times with Chelsea, granted they had very exceptional coffee, but I didn't understand why it was such a big hit lately. It was almost always packed, but in the afternoon it tended to be a little slower.

I bit my lip, should I go? I know that if I did, I wouldn't be able to help feeling more than friendship for him, and in his situation.. That wasn't a good thing.

"Hey, let's close up." Ash came walking up to the counter, I jumped in fright. I hadn't expected him to meet me up here.. In fact, I had totally forgotten he was in the back room.

"Oh, yeah sure. Close up." I turned to walk past him and try to compose myself. I was a little jittered after my recent encounter.

"Hey, are you alright?" Ash grabbed my arm as I walked by and I turned to look at him.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm just going to go sweep the back."

"Okay." Ash frowned.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Wait okay, lemme get this straight." Chelsea wiped the air.. as if that'd clear everything that I had just told her. "He's in an arranged marriage?"

I nodded and leaned back in my chair, tapping my foot.

"Wh- Ho- What the hell is up with that? How do you even get in one of those these days? I can't believe they still exist.. What the hell!"

"Yeah, do that for about three days and you'll be where I am.. Hell, I'm still baffled about it."

"You can say that again." She sighed and plopped back into her seat, a comfortable silence settled between us and I took a drink of my soda. "An arranged marriage? I just.. How" she scoffed, shaking her head. "How does that even happen?!"

I shrugged, hell if I knew how it happened.. I wasn't even sure I believed that's what it really was.

Chelsea took a drink and looked up at me "Uh huh, okay.. well that's an interesting for being a total d-bag to you. So I mean, can't he get out of this thing? If he claims to like you so much..."

"He can decline their orders to marry the chick, but they'd cut him off."

"Pfft." She rolled her eyes "I'm sure he could live."

I shrugged. It wasn't so easy.. and I wasn't sure if Mason had such good friends as I had to help him out.

"Why don't you just out him to his parents?"

I choked on my drink and took a moment to compose myself. "Wh-what?" I looked up at her, my eyes wide.

"Tell them he's gay."

"He's not gay."

"Riley, he was in a relationship with you, you two had sex and now he's telling you he misses you and still cares for you.. He may not be gay, but he's certainly not straight."

"Either way." I frowned "It wouldn't be right for me to out him to his parents -- and who knows, they would probably take it better than my parents did."

"Yeah, but if they knew he was gay.. Would they still make him marry Alyssa?" She raised her eyebrow at me and I stared back at her.

"Wait, are you suggesting I out him to his parents, so that he can be with me?"

She shrugged "I'm not suggesting anything, I'm just saying. I know you still care for him, Riley. I just want you to be happy. Be that with Mason, or Ash."

She always managed to say shocking things while I was taking a drink.. This time I spit my drink out and started coughing and spluttering. "Ash? What does he have to with anything?"

"Riley, please.. He obviously has a thing for you, and I can see you warming up to him."

"You hardly ever hang out with me and Ash at the same time!"

"I have my sources."

Alyx.. Damn her for ratting about me and Ash.

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair. "When did things get so complicated?"

Chelsea smiled at me sympathetically. "Things will work out eventually, Riles."

"Right." I nodded.

"I'm sorry, Riles.. But I have to go." Chelsea was frowning at her phone, tapping away at it furiously.

"Oh, no problem." I smiled at her and she got up, giving me a kiss on the cheek before bidding me farewell for the time.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I pulled the blankets up to my chin and snuggled into my bed, enjoying the cushiony comfort. For being a guest room... Ash and Alyx certainly had picked a good mattress for the bed.

A light knock on the door caused me to look up. "Yes?"

"It's me."

"Oh, come on in."

The door opened a moment later and Alyx walked in, frowning.

"What's wrong?" I sat up, thankful I had decided to actually wear pajamas to bed tonight, instead of my usual boxer shorts.

"I .. it, well.. He broke up with me."

I frowned, not needing further explanation. I opened my arms and she walked quickly towards the bed, climbing in and allowing me to hug her. She was sniffling quietly, trying to not cry.

"Have you told Ash?"

"No, he's sleeping.. I didn't want to wake him up."

"Well.. He'll be happy." I smirked when I heard her let out a low chuckle.

"Yeah, I suppose he will." She pulled away from the hug, smiling sadly at me and wiping the tears from her face. "Can I stay here tonight?" She frowned, and I nodded in reply.

"Of course, I don't mind."

"Thanks."

"No problem, Alyx."