Two Scoops of Summer Love

6. Bubblegum

I was so, so wrong. Well, I guess only a little bit technically. Downtown was busy but The Creamery was dead and Sweet Thing was to blame. Buses of summer camp kids were rolling into town and swarming main street. I suppose as a part of their grand opening Sweet Thing had invited these summer camps to boost opening sales.

Small children in neon coloured swimsuits were running up and down the sidewalks laughing and screaming. There were no people that I envied less than the poor camp counselors trying to reign in their wild beasts of campers. These neon beasts were constantly rushing in and out of Sweet Thing with their sand covered hands clutching coins for ice cream. Our shop was disappointingly dead.

The camps were starting to pack up when I went outside to clean up the grubby fingerprints left on the window. I was in the midst of spraying down the window when Camille addressed me from down the street.

"It's been busy today!" she shouted from her parent's shop. "Are you ready for your break yet?"

"I don't even really care to be honest," I shrugged. "We've had like five customers all day. Technically I think I've already had it."

"Ana, I'd hate to be you," Camille said. "That sounds really boring."

"Yeah, well, welcome to my life." I sighed and scrubbed a particularly greasy hand print from the window.

"Come and get me when you get off work and we can go chase some seagulls or something like we used to to cheer you up."

I mumbled some indecipherable words back and continued cleaning. My fingers were tingling from whatever was in the bottle of cleaner I was using. It was enough that I worried about it, but I also just figured I was making a big deal out of nothing. I had been getting my hands wet all day, of course they were going to feel weird. I was jumping to be able to reach the top of the window when I heard a familiar voice. 

"Need some help, pipsqueak?" Turning around with my hand on my hip, I met Cameron's gaze. His hair was lit up like a halo in the sun as I looked up into his eyes, squinting. His ever present smile was dancing on his lips.

"I'll have you know, I am not a pipsqueak." He had the audacity to laugh in my face!

"I don't know about you, but you do seem a lot pipsqueak-ier than I do." His smile was back again but it didn't have the power to distract me.

"I am above average height for my demographic, not sure if you're aware," I said. "I'm taller than a lot of people that I know."

"And yet you still can't reach the top of the window, huh?" He grabbed the cloth from my hand and easily swiped away the grime from the top of the storefront, missing the shade of pink my face was turning. He slapped the rag back into my hand like a little high five before he gave me one last smile with a wink and walked down the street. As he turned back to look at my probably confused face I managed to holler a weak thanks before he turned the corner. I grabbed my spray bottle and turned back inside the ice cream shop.

Fifteen minutes later I hung my apron up and finally headed outside towards my freedom. I kicked some stones across the sidewalk as I made my way to the corner store. The bell jingled as I walked in and Camille popped up from behind the counter. She shouted something into the store room and ran past me out the door, yanking my arm and pulling me out with her. 

We tore down the street while our matching tennis shoes from last summer slapped the pavement in an unorganised rhythm. As Camille lead the way, pulling me by my hand, I had to grin because it was moments like these that I lived for in the summer. It didn't matter that I was wearing a pale blue tank top stained somehow from work or that my shorts had rolled up my thighs making them seem shorter. All my self-conscious worries melted away as I raced down the street following the girl who was closer to me than my own sister.