Jackson sat at a table down at a table in the food court. As he absentmindedly started eating his usual order from the chinese place, he looked over at the ice cream stand.

Since it had been an unusually hot summer that year, you’d expect that they’d be hopping but not a single person was in line to get ice cream. The attendant had a bored, glazed over look in his eye and he was doodling idly on a receipt. Jackson sighed dreamily as he watched the boy.

Jackson had never had a summer romance before but he supposed it was better late than never. He hadn’t gotten the courage to talk to the boy yet but he knew a little bit about his from the many times he walked slowly past the stand to try to listen in on his conversations. His name was Bambam and he had a cute accent that sounded like he was from Thailand? Yeah, it had to be Thailand. Bambam had a cute voice and would chatter on endlessly whenever he was with coworkers. He never stopped smiling and he was always really sweet when kids came to buys ice cream from him.

Letting out a high pitched squeal, Jackson covered his face with his hands and curled in on himself. Just thinking about the cute boy was killing him and he felt his cheeks turn pink. He took a deep breath and tried to breath at a more even pace. 

He hadn’t even talked to the guy but Jackson was so whipped for him.

Jackson took a few more bites of his noodles before he peeked back over at the one cream stand. Bambam was still doodling, but overtime someone walked past him he would look up hopefully at them. When they didn’t even glance at him, he’d sigh and add on to his doodle. Jackson frowned and rested his chin on his hand as he watched Bambam. No one was stopping by the stand and he was working all by himself today. that couldn’t be fun.

With every sigh from Bambam, Jackson grew more restless. It was obvious that Bambam wasn’t having fun. He was normally so lively, even when it was slow. Had something happened? Had he been alone all day? Or was it something else?

So consumed in worries for his crush, Jackson didn’t realize how much he had eaten until he stabbed the bottom of the styrofoam carton and came up empty handed. He gave the carton a reproachful look, as if it was the reason Bambam was unhappy. Restless, he used his plastic fork to carve into to the carton. He ended up trying to make a likeness of Bambam that looked at him with a fake, unhappy smile.

“What are you looking at?” Jackson asked Fake Bambam.

Fake Bambam said nothing, even when Jackson raised his eyebrows challengingly. Jackson slammed the lid down so Fake Bambam couldn’t give him that look again but it sprang back up and Fake Bambam smiled mockingly at him.

“What?” Jackson said angrily. “Are you saying I should go talk to him? That’s crazy. I can’t just go up to him say ‘Hi I’d like some ice cream. Wow it sure is slow for you to day that’s really weird shouldn’t you be busy when it’s this hot outside?’ I can’t just strike up a conversation with him like that.”

Fake Bambam said nothing but continued to stare at him. Jackson stared back at him. After a minute of the impossible staring contest, Jackson finally gave into his stinging eyes and blinked.

“Okay,” He pointed at Fake Bambam. “You’ve convinced me. I’ll go talk to him.”

Jackson stood up and threw away his trash before heading to the ice cream stand. So he wouldn’t freak out, Jackson forced himself not to think as he got closer to he guy he’d been crushing in all summer. Bambam glanced up a little and smiled when he saw the man heading straight at him. He quickly put the recipe filled with his doodles on it.

“Hi!” Bambam cheerfully greeted him when he was still a few feet away from the counter. “Would you like some ice cream?”

“Yeah, that sounds great!” Jackson smiled in a way he hoped was handsome and charming instead of terrified and nervous like he actually felt. 

“What flavor would you like?” He asked.

“Hm… What do you recommend?” Jackson was thankful he had day dreamed about talking to Bambam a thousand times before because that helped him think of something to actually say because honestly he had no idea what any of the flavors they had were. They were all called “Fruit Flavor Fire” and “Chunky Chocolate Charlie” and a bunch of other alliterations and bad puns. Which was cool, unless you wanted to know what they tasted like.

Bambam beamed at him. He probably never got asked that. “Well, personally I love Funky Chunky Fruit. It sounds gross -I have no idea who comes up with the names for these flavors at - It’s vanilla with random streaks of different fruit flavors mixed in.”

“Eh, I’m not much of a fruit person.” Jackson wrinkled his nose slightly. “Got anything unique with chocolate?”

“Well,” Bambam laughed and Jackson swore he nearly died from how sweet it sounded. “How much chocolate are you willing to eat? I can give you chocolate ice cream with steals of chocolate syrup in it with chunks of chocolate in with as well as brownies and then dip it in chocolate and and put in it a chocolate covered cone.”

“That sounds like way too much chocolate.” Jackson said with wide eyes. “I’ll take a large.”

“Wow really? You’re just going right for it.” Bambam smiled as he put on some gloves and began to scoop out the ice cream.

“Might as well. Where’s the fun in holding back?”

However, when Bambam handed him the massive, way too chocolatey ice cream cone, Jackson may have had a few regrets. It only took one bite for him to feel sick of chocolate. But Bambam was watching him expectantly with an innocent an adorable smile on his face. Jackson forced himself to take another bite.

But while he ate, Bambam kept talking to him. No one stopped by the ice cream stand with so they were never interrupted. They ended up chatting for like half an hour before the mall started to shut down and the employees from the rest of the food court began to leave. By that time, Jackson’s ice cream was long gone and the two were talking like they had known each other for years.

“Hold on a second Jackson, I gotta check out my drawer.” Bambam said when it was closing time.

“I’ll wait for you,” Jackson smiled. “We can walk out together.”

“O-Oh. Okay.” Bambam quickly turned around and if Jackson wasn’t totally crushing on him and sure he was over analyzing everything Bambam did, he’d say he’d been blushing.

A few minutes later, Bambam ran hung up his apron and ran over to Jackson. In his hands, He held two small vanilla ice cream cones.

“I couldn’t fit anymore vanilla into our overflow containers so they were going to be thrown out. Want one?” Bambam offered one of the cones to Jackson.

“Yeah, thanks man.” He smiled at the ice cream boy briefly before glancing at the message his mom had just sent him. He went to grab it blindly but instead of his hands meeting the crisp cone, his hand met something really cold a squishy.

Jackson made a grossed out confused, and slightly offended expression as he pulled his hand away and found it covered in vanilla ice cream.

Bambam and he were silent for a moment as they took in his hand covered in the sticky white substance.

Then, all of a sudden, Bambam cracked up. He was laughing so hard his face was turning red and Jackson was starting to feel like a clown. He held his hand up to his face to cover his mouth, forgetting that he too was holding ice cream, and accidentally stuck his nose in it but that only made him laugh harder. He was gasping and wheezing for air and Jackson was partially happy that he was the one that made him laugh so hard partially offended that it had to be at his expense.

“You have no right to be laughing at me!” Jackson yelled indignantly, launching his crush into a new cacophony of giggles. “You have ice cream on your nose!”

He reached out at went to wipe it off of his nose to show him how much was on his face but missed and instead slipped his fingers across Bambam’s lips. They both froze instantly. Jackson eyes were wide and Bambam let out a shaky breath that Jackson could feel brush against his fingers. Bambam had soft lips that were a lovely natural shade of pink. They were slightly sticky from the ice cream he had just been eating and it flashed through Jackson’s head that his lips were probably just as sweet as the desert he served. Jackson glanced up and met Bambam’s eyes. He stared curiously back at him.

Suddenly, Jackson was startled into realizing that he was touching the lips of the boy he had a massive crush on since summer had started. He quickly pulled away and looked at the ground. He just couldn’t bring himself to look at Bambam and see what his reaction was.

A hand reached out and gently touched his cheek. 

Jackson looked up just as Bambam stood up on his tip toes. Bambam leaned in close and softly, lingeringly, placed a peck on Jackson’s cheek.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you watching me all summer.” Bambam grinned mischievously and winked at him before turning and walking to his car. Jackson watched him go until he got in his car and drove away. 

Jackson reached up and gently touched his cheek.

Bambam had kissed him. 

Jackson had never had a summer romance before, let alone a summer crush. He had never had soda sweetened kisses on beaches by a bonfire or summer drives in the heart listening to music full blast down the freeway. He had never held hands with someone under the stars and danced with the fireflies with his loved one in the forest. 

But as Jackson stood outside the mall his his hands covered in vanilla ice cream and cheek slightly sticky from the ice cream covered lips of his crush, he couldn’t help but think that maybe this year he would have a summer romance.