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The humidity was stifling. Eugene wiped away sweat from the back of his neck with his left hand, his right hand holding and guiding his bicycle handlebars but also holding a quickly melting ice cream cone. A cold trickle ran down his fingers, the vanilla ice cream beginning to melt into his hand. He grimaced, switching the cone to his free hand and quickly brought it to his mouth, licking the cold milky frozen treat before anymore got onto his hand.
Walking just a few feet in front of Eugene, pushing along his own bicycle while eating his ice cream, chocolate, was Sid. Whose own face was flushed from the heat, tee shirt sticking to his back from sweat. His own ice cream cone was melting at a rapid rate, just like Eugene’s, in the muggy Alabama heat, despite this, he kept walking.
The two boys were headed to the creek, the only place around their houses that offered a bit of breeze and relief from the humid late August heat. Before going up to the creek, they decided that they had wanted to get a couple of ice cream cones from the drugstore on Springhill Avenue. It was only a five-minute bicycle ride from the drug store but since they both had ice creams to hold, it was a ten-minute walk instead. For the ice creams, that was just about ten minutes too long and they were quickly disappearing before the two friends could enjoy them sitting with their feet in the cool creek.
By the time they arrived at the creek, Eugene’s cone was already at the very end of its life and Sid had finished his just a few minutes prior to their arrival.
“I’m sure glad we decided to get ice cream before heading up here.” Eugene said as he sat down by the largest oak tree that provided the most shade from the sun, he looked at the remainder of his waffle cone for a second before just deciding to put the whole thing in his mouth to finish.
Sitting beside his best friend, with a soft groan, Sid immediately stretched out, laying in the soft grass. “We should’ve gone to see a movie instead.” Using his feet to kick off his shoes, Sid pushed them to the side and let out a louder groan. “It’s so hot today. It would’ve been nice to sit in a cold dark theater. The Crichton is showing Pinocchio, which I’ve already seen twice,” he grimaced, “but I wouldn’t mind seeing it again just for some nice cool air.”
Eugene let his head rest against the tree trunk behind him and smiled internally at the thought of a nice cool movie theater. “The Crescent downtown is showing that new Cagney movie. We could go down there tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah!” Sid said sitting up on his elbows. “Roy told me he saw it the other week. Said he loved it.” Pausing, he looked up at Eugene and smirked. “Also said he saw Mary Houston and her girlfriends there too. Even talked to her apparently.”
“Roy?” Eugene rolled his eyes. “There’s no way he talked to Mary Houston, I bet he’s lying.”
Shrugging, Sid just flipped over and laid on his stomach. “I don’t know, probably. I mean I don’t think she would even give him the time of day; I mean come on, it’s Mary Houston.”
“Wasn’t she sweet on Bobby anyway?”
Bobby was one of the most popular boys at Murphy High School. He was also the captain of the football team. There was hardly a girl at the school that didn’t like him, Mary Houston being no exception. Bobby had even asked Mary to the spring dance. Eugene, on the other hand had gone with Sid’s cousin from Montgomery and Sid took a girl from his class named Alice. Both of the boys wished they had been able to ask Mary instead.
Sid nodded in response to Eugene and lowered his head and spoke in a softer tone. “Y’know, Roy told me that he saw Bobby and Mary necking in Bobby’s dad’s car after the dance.”
Eugene’s eyes widened in surprise. Almost at the age of 17, Eugene was no stranger to hearing about people necking, he was just a stranger to the pastime himself. He hadn’t even kissed a girl yet. He was holding out hope that a girl like Mary Houston would be his first kiss and girlfriend, all soft skin and curls.
Of course, Sid was also holding out that same hope. However, neither of them had yet to nab Mary. Both boys were bumbling idiots around her, even when they saw her at church or any of their parent’s society functions.
“Yeah, well, your cousin tried to kiss me when I was dropping her off at your house, so I think pretty much everyone had kissing on their mind after the dance.” Eugene shuddered at the memory, Sid’s cousin was a nice girl, pretty as well, but her shrill voice combined with the fact that she giggled at every little thing he said that night made him want to end the date as soon as possible. After the dance was over, he rushed to drop her off at Sid’s house where she was staying for the weekend. Being every bit of the Southern gentleman that his mother was molding him into, he made sure to walk her up to the front door and that she went inside safely. That was his only intention, she on the other hand, had different ideas and as soon as he told her goodnight and that he had a good time, she practically launched herself towards him. Eugene barely had a second to realize what was happening before he was jumping backwards in a flash.
Of course, that exact same second, much to Eugene’s horror, the front door opened and he was greeted by the surprised face of his best friend, Sid. Who did a terrible job at hiding his laughter as he raised an eyebrow at Eugene and asked in the most serious older cousin voice he could muster, “Just what exactly is going on here?” Eugene’s face was as red as his hair when he left the Phillips house and got back into his father’s LeSalle. It had been months and Sid still hadn’t let Eugene live it down.
“Good thing I opened the front door before Sandra was able to plant a big one on you.” Sid laughed at the memory, the smile stretching out across his face, reaching up to his eyes. “I think she was planning on making you the future Mr. Sandra Phillips. Just think, we could’ve been cousins by marriage.” Sitting up, Sid scooted up closer to the trunk of the tree and rested his body against the oak, bumping his shoulder against Eugene’s as he shook with laughter.
“Shut up.” Mumbled Eugene as he looked down with a slight redness blooming across his face. Something he attributed to the hot summer heat.
Sid’s laughter joined in with the buzzing sounds of the cicadas that were in the trees. A breeze swept through the trees rustling the leaves, making the Spanish moss sway from where they hung from the trees. The sun was still high in the sky, sitting against the blue background, its rays beating down on the two boys even through the oak leaves. Eugene shifted a bit and tugged on his collar of his sports shirt hoping to get a breeze through the cotton material.
“Anyway, I’m glad that Sandra didn’t get to plant that big one on you.”
Cheeks still tinged with red, Eugene looked over at Sid who had suddenly become very interested in the grass underneath his fingers. Eugene noticed that Sid was biting down on his lower lip and shaking his head slightly, there was also a red tint on his cheeks that matched Eugene’s.
Letting a smile form on his mouth, Eugene just nodded in agreement with Sid. “You’re right. Me too. Sandra looks just like you, it probably would’ve been like kissing you. Definitely dodged a bullet there.”
Sid’s headed shot up and his mouth fell open in surprise. “Hey now, are you saying that it would be so bad to kiss me?”
Shrugging, Eugene tried to keep in his laughter. “Well, you were the one who said that Alice didn’t even want to kiss you that night.”
The day after the spring dance, the Phillips’ came over to the Sledge house for Sunday supper after church and afterwards, the two boys snuck away to the backyard with Coca-Cola’s, where Sid confessed, with an embarrassed look, that he had asked Alice if he could kiss her when he dropped her off after the dance and she politely said no thank you. Eugene had just laughed so hard that half of his Coca-Cola spilled out of the bottle.
Sid nudged his elbow into Eugene’s side as his friend’s body shook with laughter from the memory. “She didn’t know what she missing.” Sid grumbled with a frown on his face as he watched Eugene continue laughing. He elbowed Eugene again to get him to quit laughing. “Alright, we get it, it wasn’t that funny.”
As he let his laughter die down, Eugene let his head rest against the tree trunk behind him. “At least Sandra wanted to kiss me,” He tilted his head to his right so that he could see Sid sulking beside him. “Alice on the other hand,” Laughter started to bubble up in Eugene’s throat as he imagined a horrified Alice declining a kiss from Sid. “Seems that there was no way she was going to kiss-,”
Before Eugene could finish his sentence, he saw a flash of Sid surging towards him and suddenly felt the hard press of Sid’s chapped lips against his. He could almost smell the chocolate ice cream on Sid’s breath when suddenly he felt Sid quickly move away, eyes wide with surprise at what he had just done.
Red in the face, Sid quickly opened his mouth and started apologizing. “Gene-I-I’m real sorr-“
Eugene surged forward this time, closing his eyes while grabbing the front of Sid’s tee shirt to make sure that he wouldn’t move away this time. Sid watched wide eyed as Eugene lips connected with his, it was a softer this time unlike when he, himself had done it just a few seconds before so abruptly. Eventually, Sid closed his eyes too as he felt Eugene’s body relax against his, the smell of the vanilla ice cream on his friend’s breath that he’d eaten from earlier.
Pulling his lips away slightly, Eugene opened his eyes and found himself staring right into Sid’s eyes, whose face was flushed and had let out a soft noise of protest as Eugene lightly loosened his grip on Sid’s shirt. Eugene searched his friend’s face for any sign of resistance, his heart hammering away in his chest, it felt like it was going to jump out.
The cool breeze that had been blowing moments before had suddenly stopped. Oak leaves on the trees mixed with the Spanish moss were now hanging limp on the limbs. There wasn’t even chirping of the cicadas anymore, a sound that never seemed to stop. The air completely still as it sat heavy between the two boys. Thick with need and want.
Timidly, Eugene lifted one of his hands up to Sid’s face, his palm coming into contact with Sid’s cheek which was soft with sweat on his skin. Sid melted into his friend’s touch, placing his own warm hand on top of Eugene’s.
A breeze broke through the trees, the wind blowing through the boy’s hair as the sound of the leaves rustled and the sounds of nature began again.
“Definitely dodged a bullet by not kissing your cousin. Woulda been real terrible.” Whispered Eugene softly, a smile spilling across his face, the heat from his beath hitting Sid’s face.
Sid just let out a huff laughter before he grabbed Eugene’s shoulder and pulled him so close that the two were pressed against another, chest to chest, dipping his head to catch Eugene’s lips with his own again.