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On a hot summer day in Cape Cod two girls were out by the dockyard watching the workers. It was their first summer after graduating highschool. The girls were Ivana Marek and Florencia Irene Lopes Sousa, or Iva and Flor, they had been best friends since elementary school. Iva had offered to drive them out to the docks on her bike, and Flor agreed. Both of them were going out of state for college so it might be their last time in a long while that they’d go down to the docks. Flor was fixing her hair that had gotten messed up by the helmet, her hair was long and curly. The brown color complemented her tan skin, Iva had noticed how etherial Flor looked somedays. When she was younger, Iva remembered that she was jealous of Flor’s curly hair. Iva’s was straight and smooth, something she remembered Flor’s mom being jealous of Iva’s mom for.
“I hate hemet hair, why is yours still nice,” Flor said with a jokingly upset tone. “Is that why you braid it like that.”
Iva laughed, “Damn right it is, my mom would kill me if I cut my hair short so halo braids are my only helmet hair savior.”
Flor put the helmet she was holding back on the bike and leaned on the railing of the dock. She looked out at the ocean and watched the waves. Flor always felt at ease around Iva, there wasn’t a need for her to keep up any act or pretend that she’s someone she isn’t. Iva had known her longer than any of her other friends. The two of them had immediately come together, the only kids in the class that were children of immigrants, the quote on quote weird kids of the class. The ones that always had actually good food in their lunch boxes and didn’t have the same accent as the rest of them. Flor’s parents were from Portugal and Iva’s were Slovaks that left not long after Czechoslovakia split. The two bonded over this and to this day are best friends.
Iva stretched and looked over seeing a food stand that was selling snow cones, “Flor, I’m getting one, you want a snow cone too.” She called over.
“Yeah, get me a cherry one.” Flor yelled back.
Iva pulled her wallet out and bought two snow cones, a grape one for her and a cherry for Flor. She was happy that the grape one was colorless since she didn’t want to stain her top. She smiled at Flor, the sun hit her right and she looked beautiful. Iva has had a crush on her since the end of last year, but didn’t want to mess up their friendship by telling her. Flor knew that Iva was gay, hell she was the first person that Iva came out to. She just didn’t know if Flor would be into her. Flor was known in school for dating a lot of guys, none of the relationships lasted long, maybe a month at most. And Flor would always cry to Iva about it, to the point where she didn’t even know if Flor was even attracted to guys. However, she wasn’t going to assume that Flor was into women just because she has poor relationship skills.
Iva walked up next to Flor and nudged her leg with her foot making Flor jump, “Jesus Christ!” Flor said.
“I got your cherry snow cone, mildly melted.” Iva grinned, handing it over. “Be careful, Mrs. Lopes probably won’t want to deal with a stained shirt. I always thought my mama was scary but your mom still haunts my nightmares from that one time I spilled wine on the tablecloth that one new year.” Iva laughed.
Flor smiled and started eating her snow cone. There was a nice silence while they ate, and watched the waves crash on the rocks.
After a few minutes Flor smiled, putting her snow cone on the ledge. “Iva, I’m really happy we’re friends. You’ve always been a shoulder I can cry on, always been there whenever I needed you. I really love you Iva.” She said, the way she said ‘love’ seemed to have a deeper meaning than friends. “I’m really happy we got into the same school, we won’t have to be apart.” Flor smiled with a slight blush.
“Flor, I’m also really happy to be your friend.” Iva said brushing up against her. “You’ve accepted me no matter what. I’d be distraught if we had to go to different schools.”
“Iva I…” Flor said, pausing for a second looking out into the ocean.
Iva looked over at her friend, the woman she loved.
“I-I lo-like being around you so much.” Flor said not being able to say love to her for some reason. “I really like you, not just as a friend.”
Iva looked at her, she turned bright red. She thought she might be hearing something, since wasn’t Flor straight. Last she remembered Flor was straight. “Are you saying what I think you are?” Iva asked flustered.
Flor smiled and leaned forward, kissing Iva. Somehow Iva’s face turned almost as red as the cherry snow cone that Flor was eating. The taste of the kiss was a mixture of the cherry and grape syrup from the snow cones. Flor pinned Iva to the ledge, and Iva wrapped her free arm around Flor’s neck. After a minute that seemed like hours Flor pulled away.
“That’s how I like you,” She smiled.
“That was great.” Iva said, trying to keep her cool. “I didn’t know that you could do that.”
“I have practice, was that your first kiss? I don’t remember you having any girlfriends.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Iva said embarrassed. She had girlfriends but they never kissed her. That was the first time she’d been kissed by someone in that way.
“Ooooo,” Flor said looking at Iva, “Little Ivana has never been kissed before that. Little tiny Ivana Marek.”
“You’re less than an inch taller than me, Flor.” Iva said jokingly. “You only look taller because you’re wearing heels.” referring to Flor’s heeled ankle boots.
Flor smiled at Iva, her lips were red from the cherry snow cone. She looked around for somewhere to throw away the paper cup the snow cone came in. “Are you done with yours, Iva.”
“Uhh,” it took her a second to remember the snow cone she was holding. Iva looked down at the snow cone, which was now a slushie, and chugged it. Instant regret as she got a brain freeze, causing Flor to laugh.
“You didn’t have to chug it, Iva,” she said, still laughing. She walked over and took the cup, “I’ll get you a water just put your tongue on the roof of your mouth” she left to throw the cups away and to grab a water bottle.
When the sun was starting to set Iva said, “I think we might want to head back, I’d like to drive with some sunlight.”
“We should get home, if I’m out too late my mom will make me do all the housework tomorrow.” Flor said. She looked over to Iva with her lips still red from the syrup. “This was an amazing date, Iva.”