Mack Zack
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Sneak Peek of Feb 2022 Story
🕑 Added 2022-02-24 20:20:07 +0000 UTCStill a work-in-progress. No title yet. But this is the first chapter of the lactose intolerant girl story that won the poll.
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The Ice Cream Barn wasn’t doing too well. One would think that an ice cream parlor shaped like a barn with more available flavors than all the local ice cream parlors combined would be a hit. But the location of The Ice Cream Barn wasn’t in an ideal spot. Unlike its family-run competitors, The Ice Cream Barn was situated on a busy state road nestled between a Chase bank and a car wash. There wasn’t even a sidewalk, and the nearest restaurant was almost a mile down. Flick’s establishment, down in the center of town, had been around since the 1950’s, and they never saw a drop in customers. I Scream over by the suburbs was next to a high school, and that was another prime spot for the ice cream business.
Rumor had it that the manager of The Ice Cream Barn, Larry Carr, was already looking to close down. He hadn’t quite signed off on that yet, but he was drowning in bills that had yet to be paid because each month had less and less customers. All of this led to a very boring job manning the cashier. Larry used to have five employees. It was a big space after all, and they needed to manage a lot. The backroom was a library of ice cream all tucked away neatly by the gallons in a series of chest freezers. More shipments came but they still had lingering pints and gallons from months before. Larry needed to throw out several boxes, and therein his money.
Now, the cashier was manned by just two people – Nicole Roberto and Jenna King. They were about to graduate high school, and they were both lucky to have found a job to at least get some work experience in to impress colleges.
Nicole and Jenna hadn’t really hung out before. They knew of each other but were in different friend groups. Nicole didn’t really consider herself popular, but to Jenna she was “one of the more popular kids”. Nicole’s group of friends really consisted of girls like her who were awkward around boys and whose idea of a Friday night meant watching anime until past midnight while eating junk food. Meanwhile, Jenna’s friend group consisted mostly of boys. She smoke and drank and did all the things that Nicole would never dream of doing, like spray-painting “Epstein was murdered” on the school walls and forging teacher signatures to get a better grade.
The two girls had their own view of the other that conflicted with their own self-image. Nicole honestly thought Jenna was pretty cool, if a bit scary, while Jenna considered herself a dumb asshole getting by with luck. Jenna thought Nicole was hot as hell, but Nicole thought herself to be dull and average. Nicole did think Jenna had an interesting taste in clothes, when in reality Jenna wore a lot of hand-me-downs from her older siblings. They never really spoke to each other until they ended up working together at The Barn.
On their first day, Jenna commented right away on how long Nicole’s hair was. Nicole hardly ever cut her hair, despite other girls telling her too. Her brunette hair almost reached her butt, and she had a secret silly fantasy of wanting to be like Rapunzel. She also loved swishing it back it and forth. Jenna found it mesmerizing whenever she walked away. Nicole was nearly pale white and typically wore jeans and a blouse or long-sleeved shirt. She had blue eyes and a cute face that frequently turned red when she laughed or suffered an ounce of embarrassment. Jenna found herself stealing a glance at Nicole’s popping booty. Nicole never flaunted anything, but Jenna could tell that she had it Nobody really caught on yet, and Jenna never fully expressed it, but she was bisexual. She got nervous around Nicole all the time. Funny, she had no problem vandalizing and stealing liquor from her parents, but she froze up at the sight of a pretty girl like Nicole.
Jenna was way more of a tomboy. She always cut her black hair all the way past the shoulders. She had tried so many different color dyes and styles since she was a freshman that she lost track. Right now, she had a sleek look, almost mimicking the old Greaser style of the 50’s. Nicole thought she was very aesthetically pleasing. She wasn’t bi though, but it was far more socially acceptable for girls to compliment other girls on their looks. Nicole once noticed out loud that Jenna parted her hair differently, and Jenna’s nerves nearly made her keel over. A small bite from an edible once and a while eased Jenna’s nerves.
The two girls worked for about a month before really getting to talk and getting to know each other. There was a whole lot of nothing to do from 4:00PM to 9:00 PM, so they mostly passed their time spinning in their chairs and talking about who they liked and what show they watched. This eased Jenna’s nerves as she got used to Nicole’s presence, but she still had butterflies trapped underneath everything. Nicole meanwhile was very pleased to be friends with Jenna – her devil-may-care attitude was fresh air from the anxiety of school pressure.
“You know,” Jenna began in a low voice, “I overheard Larry in his office today and I think he’s actually going to close. For real this time.”
“He says that all the time.”
“Yeah, but I saw him signing something. I think it was the Chapter 11 thing.”
Nicole sighed, leaning on the counter. “Well. Time to find another job, I suppose.”
“It’s a shame though. All that ice cream will go to waste.”
“Yeah.”
Jenna spun around a couple more times, and then stopped and looked at the containers of ice cream in the serving buckets. She slid open the freezer door and dug in to scoop herself up a few helpings of Cookie Dough.
“What are you doing?” Nicole said, eyes wide.
“Wot?” Jenna said with her mouth full. “This is all gonna go to waste, anyway, yeah?”
“But—but I don’t think that’s a good idea. Larry is gonna get mad at us. He’s gonna know that ice cream was taken but it won’t add up to the cash we have.”
Jenna stopped to think. She gobbled another helping and smacked her lips. “Hm. Good point.”
“Yeah. Exactly.”
“So…let’s eat from one of the gallons out back.”
“What?” Nicole half-screamed. “No! That’s worse!”
“There are like a MILLION of them back there.”
“But Larry keeps track of everything.”
“On a computer yeah. But stuff gets lost in shipping all the time. If anything, he’ll just think something didn’t come on time.”
Jenna was already headed for the back room, but waited for Nicole to give in. The door sounded anytime someone entered, so they would know from the back room if someone arrived. But Nicole had never done anything “against the rules”, not even once. She feared repercussions more than anything.
“I can’t eat that stuff anyway,” she said. “I’m lactose intolerant.”
“What?” Jenna said. “Since when?”
“Since I was born? I told you.”
“I don’t remember---oh wait. Maybe I was high.”
Nicole did a double-take. “You were—what? You were HIGH on the job?”
Jenna shrugged as if it were nothing. “Yeah. Sometimes I’m high.”
“But you---what---” Nicole was freaking out. What if they suspected her of getting high too? How come Jenna didn’t reek of weed? Wait, didn’t she drive here?
“I make edibles,” Jenna said, smirking. “They last only for a short while.”
“But ON THE JOB? Are you crazy?”
“Nicole, I don’t know if you realized by now but---NOBODY EVER COMES HERE! We’re going out of business. Face it. Now come to the backroom if you want to have a little fun while we’re at it.”
Jenna went through. She hoped Nicole would be interested in following her. Maybe they could even have a moment---no. That would never happen. Nicole was so straight it wasn’t even funny. But she could still dream.
Nicole cursed under her breath and looked around. She was paranoid that Larry was watching them through the security cameras. He never did say anything about any time they were goofing off.
From the backroom, Jenna shouted, “WOW. THIS TASTES SO GOOD!”
Nicole didn’t want to be bored to death at the cashier, so she went to the backroom, where it was cold and dingy. She rubbed her arms and got her jacket from the coat rack.
Jenna was already digging away at a gallon of chocolate. She wasn’t even high this time. She just forgot to have lunch. She had just taken a giant spoon and served herself right from the bucket.
“MMmmmmMMM. So good. Have some.”
“I told you I was lactose intolerant. Or are you high again? I can’t tell.”
“No, I’m not high. You can’t even have just one bite?”
“I swell up like a balloon.”
“And then what?”
Nicole’s cheeks blushed. She looked away. “Uh. My stomach just feels weird.”
Jenna shrugged. “We have Tums in the bathroom. You’ll be fine. Come on! I can’t believe you’re not excited. I thought lactose intolerant people still loved to break the rules and eat the shit they’re not supposed to.”
Jenna didn’t quite understand, and Nicole was too embarrassed to tell her. Yes, ice crema was delicious. Her personal favorite was cookies n’ cream. But any time Nicole had an ounce of lactose, her stomach went into knots. She would bloat to the point of needing to undo her pants, but that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was the embarrassing bout of gas that she had to let out. These weren’t dainty little toots and poofs. These were rip-roaring, monstrous trumpet blasts. She will never forget that one time she went to her friend Casey’s house for her birthday party. She ate three pieces of cake, icing and all, and was unprepared for just how intense the reaction would be. They were all sitting watching Spirited Away. The only bathroom in the house was occupied by their friend Laura. Nicole sat on the far end of the couch holding it in…buttcheeks clenched tighter than ever. When Laura finally got out of the bathroom, Nicole shot up but then she lost control and let it rip.
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!
The fart sounded like a trombone holding one long note. The girls all stared at her, gasping and laughing. Nicole’s face was redder than a tomato. Everyone then started laughing and saying things like “Oh my God, Nicole!” and “That was so loud!” and “You fart like a boy!”. She held herself up in the bathroom for some time until people stopped talking about it.
Nicole never wanted to go through that embarrassment ever again.
The door chime rang. Nicole went to get it, and her heart fluttered upon seeing Mark. He was the captain of the volleyball team at their high school, and Nicole had had the biggest crush on him for the entirety of their high school career. She never understood why he couldn’t keep a girlfriend. He was so nice and charming and witty. He was a towering 6”3 with dark complexion, perfect teeth, and scruffy black hair.
Mark had brought five members of his volleyball team over. It was the most customers The Ice Cream Barn had seen in about a month.
“H-hey,” Nicole said. “What can I get you?”
Mark smiled at her briefly. “Vanilla, in a cup.”
“Wow, lame,” said one of his teammates. “You always get vanilla. There are THOUSANDS of other flavors.”
Mark shrugged. “I like vanilla.”
In a desperate attempt to win him over, Nicole said, “Y-yeah. Vanilla is cool. I like vanilla too.”
Mark scoffed at his teammate. “See? Don’t hate on vanilla.”
Nicole could have been dreaming. She went through the motions scooping their ice cream and handing it over. She nearly let them go without paying because she had been staring dumbly at Mark.
Jenna watched this whole thing from behind the door of the backroom. Nicole’s crush on Mark was bigger than the moon. Jenna sighed and waited for the boys to leave before entering.
