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Visible waves of heat shimmered over the beige asphalt, and Lohn skipped a couple of steps to get to the safety of the dead grass in a raised section. “I think the soles of my sandals are meltin’,” he said, as Redd ambled to catch up.
“That’s not all that’s melting,” Redd said, hastily lapping at his Dairy Queen soft-serve ice-cream before it oozed too far out of shape. “I think I sweated out that whole Coke already.”
Redd pawed his car key from the front pocket of his denim shorts and reached to unlock the Cadillac. Lohn went around to the passenger side, opened his door, and dropped into his seat with a heave of exhaustion, neck pressed against the backrest.
Redd shut his door, then turned the key one click in the ignition so he could switch on the air conditioning. The AC blasted out yet more heat, but at least the movement made it easier to breathe. Redd cranked his window open with one hand, the other twisting his wafer cone to coat his tongue with sweet, blissfully cold ice-cream.
Slowly pulling his own door shut, Lohn tended to his own ice-cream with his tongue, cleaning up the shape of the tall white mound, then kissing the top and glossing his lips as he donkey-lipped it.
A moment later he sat back with a sigh, and pulled off his mirrored sunglasses, which had left red marks on his temples. “This sun is makin’ my head hurt,” he uttered, rubbing at his skin until the marks faded. “This weather, Rabbit, I’m tellin’ ya... I say we get a free pass to eat this much sugar. We’ve gotta balance all them electrolytes. Whatever they are.”
Blinding sun drenched the parking lot, brightening the colours on every sign across the strip mall. Despite the fifty-odd parked cars, there was almost nobody around; everyone was avoiding the heatwave.
The volume on the radio was way down, but the rhythmic hum of a bassline made it into the car. There was a school nearby and the sound of children laughing and cheering rode on this faint excuse for a breeze. Another car had music playing, and a vaguely familiar melody faded in and out.
“Do you know what’s on?” Redd asked, examining his ice-cream. He pushed his orange aviators further up his sweaty nose with the back of his hand.
“What’s on what?”
“At the movie theater. Was there anything in particular you wanted to catch?”
Lohn shook his head. “I’ll just be glad to sit in the dark for a few hours. And they’d have better air conditioning than in here.”
Redd leaned back in the driver’s seat, spreading his thighs, knocking his flip-flops off and sighing. He puffed out a breath, struggling with the heat.
“You’re meant to close the windows,” Lohn said, nodding to Redd’s side of the car. “You’re just lettin’ more hot air in.”
“I’ll suffocate if you close the window, man,” Redd rasped.
“No you won’t,” Lohn assured him. “Like—” He transferred his cone to his left hand and leaned over Redd’s lap, using his right hand to wind up the window.
“Heyy!” Redd complained, feeling a chill on his arm.
“Give it a few minutes!” Lohn insisted.
“Not that. Come on, man, you got soft-serve all down my arm.”
Once Lohn pulled back he realised there was a white, wet streak down Redd’s bicep. “Shoot, sorry. I went and leaned right into you.”
Redd tried to duck his head to lick the stripe, grunting in exertion, but his arm couldn’t contort that way, and his tongue couldn’t reach. “What am I supposed to do with that?” Redd muttered. “Where’s the—?” He looked around for a napkin.
“Hang on, I got it,” Lohn said. He leaned in to hold Redd’s arm from underneath, and his shivery tongue spread over the smooth skin of Redd’s tanned, freckled arm, gently licking up the mess. Goosebumps rose on Redd’s arm as Lohn lifted away. “There,” Lohn said, swallowing. “Ew, you taste like sunscreen.”
Redd stared at Lohn, confounded. “What— What were you expecting? What...” He looked down at his arm, still processing. “You licked me.”
“Well, I didn’t want the ice-cream to go to waste, did I?” Lohn explained, tonguing his own ice-cream again. He’d almost gotten down to the rim of his cone. He licked his lips, then said, “Here’s a fun fact. Did you know soft-serve is technically not ice-cream? There’s not enough milk in it.”
“Not enough butterfat, actually,” Redd corrected.
“Oh. Yeah, that’s right.”
Redd hesitated, then finally got back to eating his soft-serve, and bit into his cone. He’d waited too long - a dribble of liquid fell straight down his chin and made a line down his chest to his stomach. He grunted in annoyance.
“You dropped more?” Lohn smiled. “Maybe we should’a eaten out of doors.”
“Where’s that napkin?” Redd mumbled. “There’s one somewhere— Oh, here.” He’d found a Wendy’s branded one tucked by the seatbelt plug. He flapped it to unfold it, ready to wipe. “Unless you want to lick this off me, too.”
Lohn raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really.” He snuffled a laugh. “Alright?” He gave Redd a baffled look.
Redd paused, then glanced to his right, wondering why Lohn thought that had been a genuine invitation. But Lohn was already leaning across, eyes set on the drip on Redd’s belly.
“Wait, why—”
Silenced, Redd sucked in a breath, frozen in shock as Lohn’s cool, wet tongue drew a line upward from his stomach to his sternum. Redd held his ice-cream cone up so it didn’t touch Lohn’s long hair, and he stared at the top of his friend’s head as Lohn licked again, making sure he’d got every bit.
Lohn swallowed, then rose up and licked Redd’s throat, giving a soft purr as he did.
As Lohn pulled back, Redd saw his impish grin.
“Wh...?” Redd breathed.
Lohn had just... licked his neck?
Licked. His neck.
And made a noise.
Highly amused, Lohn grinned, and turned his eyes down shyly as he returned his attention to the flat base of of his cone. He dipped his tongue into the reservoir and it came out white; he swallowed, then chomped up the last two half-bites of the cone until it was all gone, and he scrunched the ‘DQ’ branded paper sleeve in his fist.
Redd’s heart was pounding. “Uhh.”
He slowly untensed himself, letting go of a shivering breath. He stared at his ice-cream, and then at Lohn, who looked seriously pleased with himself, still wearing that cheeky little sideways grin. He didn’t look back at Redd.
The stripe on Redd’s neck where Lohn had licked him was pleasantly cool. All of him was arush with hot and cold waves, as if his internal thermostat had gotten a corrupted emotional signal and wasn’t sure what to do.
“Are you—” Redd started, staring at his friend. “Are you sweet on me, or something?”
Lohn glanced over, blue eyes sparkling with either alarm or amusement. Maybe both. He huffed a laugh, rolling a shoulder. His eyes dipped to Redd’s belly, then back up. “Am I ‘sweet on you’ in the literal sense?” he wondered. “Sure. Sweet like ice-cream.”
And that was all he said about it.
Redd let out another breath and ate what remained of his dessert, mind occupied. As he got down to the final puddle of white cream inside the pale cone, he looked at it, noting the way the white stuff shone in the light.
He wondered what Lohn was thinking. Did he mean what he’d said? That he was sweet on Redd? He had... feelings for him? Was he joking? Or was he just messing with him, as per usual?
It had to be a joke. Had to be. True, Lohn’s teasing didn’t usually go as far as licking. It never had, in fact. But he did love to tease...
Redd had never paid the flirtations much consideration, always assuming Lohn was just having fun. And it was fun - Redd always liked it too, even if it made him fluster. But what if...?
What if Lohn meant it?
Redd snuck one tentative look at Lohn, who was folding and unfolding his iridescent blue sunglasses on his lap, smirking to himself.
Redd decided to chance making a fool of himself, and play his own little joke on Lohn. At least he’d find out what Lohn was up to. So he spilled melted ice-cream messily onto his lower lip, then tossed the crunchy base into his mouth and munched until it vanished.
He cleared his throat, pressing his lips together so the slick, milky remnants of the soft-serve coated his lips. He could feel it oozing down into his beard, which he didn’t like, but he resisted the urge to lift the napkin already in his hand. It was softening with sweat from his palm.
“Hey, man...” Redd flexed his fingers, then flung one hand over to lightly tap Lohn’s forearm and get his attention. “Is there anything left on me?”
Lohn looked over at Redd. “Eurgh. Well, yeah. What did you do, pour it down your face?”
Redd replied, “Are you not going to do anything about it?”
His skin prickled all over with anticipation, thrilled by the way he’d basically dared Lohn to kiss him. He planned to pull away if Lohn did lean in, but at least then he’d be sure if Lohn had been joking or not.
“You... want me to wipe you?” Lohn smiled awkwardly, his unibrow pinching slightly in confusion. “What am I now, your mama?” He took the napkin from Redd’s hand and lifted it to wipe it over Redd’s mouth, scrubbing it a bit to clean the dribble that had run into Redd’s beard. “You know we have mirrors in the car.”
Now Lohn returned to his own side of the car, scrunching the napkin and letting it fall into the footwell. “I think AMC is not far from here. They’ve got better air conditioning than the local theater. And the popcorn’s almost as good.”
Popcorn? Is that all he was thinking about?
Redd slowly felt his shoulders slump. Lohn glanced over, chatting about other movie theatre concessions, and only then did Redd realise the hollow, frustrated thing he felt was disappointment.
Oh. Turned out he’d kind of wanted Lohn to kiss him. Or wanted him to try, at least. That would’ve been funny.
That would’ve been fine by Redd.
That...
Redd pressed his lips together flatly, eyes drifting to the parking lot, watching an old lady in a floor-length sundress pass by with her grandkids hopscotching and running around her in crop tops and neon-coloured shorts. Redd pushed his aviators up, trying not to think about Lohn.
That would’ve been real nice, though, wouldn’t it? Lohn wanting to kiss him. Redd’s chest rushed with tingles at the concept.
Lohn had gone quiet. Redd met his eyes, and saw Lohn looking back, smiling.
“What?” Redd asked.
“You dehydrated or something?” Lohn asked. “All your neurons still firing?”
“Uh.” Redd managed a crooked grin. “Yeah, it’s the heat. That’s probably it. Are we going, or what?”
“Just waitin’ on you to drive.”
With a huff, Redd reached for the car’s ignition, but paused with his hand on the key, not turning it.
“AMC,” Lohn reminded him. “It’s a couple blocks away.”
“Yeah.” Redd took a small breath. His hand dropped from the key to his bare thigh, and he looked over at Lohn.
Lohn looked back patiently, eyes as blue as the sky they were hiding from. Redd swallowed hard, attention on Lohn’s lips.
“What’s the hold-up now?” Lohn asked. His wonky smile made Redd smile too.
“Ih— You—” Redd stammered. “You have, uh... ice-cream... on your lips.”
Lohn lifted his limp wrist up to wipe at his mouth, but Redd reached to take his chin, so the faintest pickle of stubble stung his thumbprint. Lohn met Redd’s eyes, innocently surprised. He lowered his hand back to his lap, and allowed Redd to keep holding his face.
“I can get it for you,” Redd said softly. “W-Would you mind if— D’you want me to get it?”
“Well, I could’ve gotten it by now,” Lohn said, chin juddering in Redd’s hand as he spoke.
“I don’t mean that.” Redd exhaled. “I actually meant...” He swallowed. “Can I...?”
Lohn waited for the rest. When it didn’t come, he prompted, “Can you what?”
Redd said nothing, just looked back in hope.
Lohn’s cluelessness faded in stages. About three seconds in, he realised there might be something else that interested Redd besides ice-cream residue. After one more second, he understood there was no ice-cream to ‘get’, and became more confused, brow descending.
But five seconds in, he realised Redd wanted to kiss him, and Lohn’s focus dropped to Redd’s lips, realising (six seconds) that Redd had wanted to be kissed before.
Lohn’s lips parted. A flash of a smile shot up.
Their eyes met.
Little more than eight seconds after Redd asked, Lohn whispered, “Yeah, Rabbit. You can get it.”
Redd rushed to touch his lips to Lohn’s with a deep breath in. Lohn’s hot hand cradled Redd’s neck at once, and Redd opened his mouth, taking a tentative kiss. Lohn smiled, and closed his own mouth, sealing their kiss, then opening another.
Redd’s eyelids fluttered, aviators crushed into the bridge of his nose by his proximity to Lohn’s cheeks. Redd sniffed in a few shaken breaths, heart pounding in his ears and throbbing in his fingers as he guided Lohn’s chin.
Lohn broke the kiss first, because he grinned, and Redd couldn’t find his lips anymore.
Redd pulled back, breathing unsteadily. Lohn’s eyes were shining bright, crinkled up with a quiet, comfortable joy.
Redd let out all his breath at once: a sigh of relief. His glasses were smudged.
Lohn puffed out some spittle and burst out laughing, head back, body shaking. He pushed Redd away playfully, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, still snickering.
Redd chuckled. Elation made him dizzy for a moment, but he gathered his wits, and cleared his throat.
“Yeah,” Redd concluded, as a pleasant coolness descended his body. The air conditioning was working properly now, but his full-body chill had nothing to do with that. He could’ve been standing on the surface of the sun and still feel this cool. “Gosh... You are sweet on me, aren’t you? In the, uh... non-literal sense?”
“Heh! You got that right.” Lohn laughed again, and this one was nearly a giggle. “Took you long enough to notice.”
Redd would need to think about what that meant later. His head was all foggy and sparkly now. He smiled at Lohn, then finally moved to turn on the car. “So, we’re going to Cinemark?”
“Were you not listening? I said AMC, man.”
“Right.” Redd glanced over one more time. He beamed when Lohn realised he’d been teasing. “I knew that.”
Lohn patted Redd’s side, affectionate. He giggled again, squirming in his seat and touching fingers to his lips, then tucking his hair behind his ears, twice. He was a mess - and a happy mess, at that.
Flustered and smiling, Redd set the Cadillac out of ‘park’ and into ‘drive’.
Then he did exactly that: he drove. Best friend by his side, both of them still giggling occasionally. And Redd thought to himself... boy! In all the world, there was not one frozen candy, chilled drink, or an ice-cream, soft-serve or no, any cooler or sweeter than this.
Not one.