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Today was going to be the day. Yes, he’d said that every single morning as soon as he woke up since he’d seen the boy behind the counter, but today was different. Okay, so he’d said that before too, but it was really different this time. Because the boy behind the counter had spoken to him. And smiled at him. And he didn’t do that to just anyone, only to John. All right, so he didn’t really know that for sure, but he liked to think so.

So as he walked from the refrigerators in the back of the store to the front, holding his bottle of water more than a little tightly in anticipation, he practiced in his head just what he would say. He’d been doing that since before he’d risen from bed this morning, and by now it was perfected. He’d say a suave hello, and ask him how he was doing. Then the boy behind the counter would do the same, and he’d tell him he was great. He’d mention this party at his grandparent’s house this weekend, and invite the boy to come, who would immediately say yes and ask when to be ready by. It wasn’t complicated, just simple conversation, and once it was over the boy behind the counter would be his friend.

Except once he reached the front of the store, there was a different boy behind the counter. A younger one, probably sixteen, smiling brightly and talking the day away with each customer. Panic almost immediately overtook all of John’s senses. What if he’d quit? Before John ever got the chance to talk to him?? He mentally kicked himself, knowing he’d had several chances to talk to him, he’d just never had the guts. And now the boy was gone, lost in a huge city amongst thousands of other people, never to be seen by John again. How could he have let this happen??


“Can I help you?” John glanced up at the different boy, whose sweet smile was making him sick. “Sir?”


“Uh…I forgot something,” he replied, quickly turning to leave the store when he saw him: the boy behind the counter, standing before a shelf at the end of the store and haphazardly placing bags of candy onto it. He didn’t even try to be nonchalant as he moved to him, although he managed to regain his composure by the time he got there, pretending to look through the candy. “Hi.”


The boy looked up. “Hey.” And then he was stocking the shelf again, hardly giving him a second glance. But John had seen that look of recognition in his eyes, the same one he got to see every day.


“What am I supposed to call you now?” he blurted out, without even thinking.


The boy looked up again, confusion crossing his features. “Huh?”


“I used to…” John trailed off, realizing just what he’d asked and what he was about to say. But today was different, today he was going to make this boy his friend. And he smiled confidently. “I used to call you the boy behind the counter. But you don’t work there anymore, so now what am I supposed to call you?”


The boy shrugged, turned back to the candy…not exactly the answer John was looking for. But then, quietly: “You can call me Dave.”


“Dave?” he asked, rhetorically. “That’s a nice name.”


Another shrug. “I didn’t choose it.”


“I’m John,” he said, knowing the boy – knowing *Dave* would never ask. It thrilled him to know the boy’s name, in a way he’d never felt before. And he wanted to think and say it as much as possible. “I thought you’d quit for a minute, until I saw you over here.”


“Nope,” he said. “You’re stuck with me for a while.”'

John smiled, could’ve sworn he saw Dave do the same but the boy turned away to quickly for him to notice. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, Dave.”

“See you tomorrow…John.”

And John kept his smile all the way to the checkout counter, all while the new boy behind the counter rang him up, and as he went back into his Jeep and back to class. Because he’d made a new friend today. A new friend whose name was Dave. And John couldn’t wait to find out everything else about him, because a name was only the beginning.
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