Ben & Jerry

Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream is a wonderfully stimulating frozen dessert.  It comes in many flavor.  You have your traditionals such as choc late and vanilla.  You can also find other, more unique flavors as well, such as Phish Food, named after the famous band Phish.  It is in one of these small Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream parlors that our story begins.1

Rick is athletic for he is a cheerleader.  Not to say that we mean Rick is a "fag" or a "queer", as some people refer to him as; no we mean Rick works out, plays a sport, and enjoys playing that sport.  In this way, he is no different from any other football, baseball, or basketball player at his high school.  However, Rick is a homosexual and in this regard, Rick is different.  Celebrate diversity as Rick always says.  To those who meet Rick, they naturally assume he is a heterosexual.  This troubles Rick greatly because he dislikes society which enforces people to think every body's the same, no one is different.2

For the most part, Rick is well liked.  He is friendly, kind, and helpful.  Everyone pretty much accepted his sexuality, that is, two weeks after he came out.  When he had come out sophomore year, everyone was a bit shocked and taken aback.  They would have never suspected some one who seemed so "normal" to be gay.  But, the school body got over it, moved on, and became involved in prom, thus deeming the news "old gossip".3

Tony, on the other hand, was not very athletic.  He enjoyed drama, poetry, and reading.  He had always had an air of homosexuality about him.  This air was the cause of some sad times to Tony, mostly due to cat calls and a bit of harassment from some of the "tough guys".  Everyone else figured that Tony was gay, but they were just far too polite to say anything about it.4

So, when Tony began to casually tell people that, yes, he was gay, it wasn't much of a shock.  Tony seemed to be a bit surprised by this reaction, but at least it was better than even more harassment and he welcomed it thankfully.5

Since the first day of freshman year, Tony had enjoyed Rick's personality and features from afar.  Too shy and too scared to say anything stopped Tony from expressing himself.  However, Tony never gave up hope.  Dreams and fantasies of being with Rick, kissing Rick, making love with Rick always showed up.6

"You know, you really should say something to Rick," Amy, Tony's closest friend, had said on more than one occasion. "I'm almost positive he's gay too."7

"I don't think so," said Tony. "He just doesn't seem gay."8

"If you continue on like that, you'll never find the right guy."9

Coincidentally, Rick was also having dreams about boys.  Much more often than not, the boy Rick dreamed about was Tony.  It was true that when he had first seen Tony, Rick had thought, "Well there's a nice looking kid."  It was true also that Rick was questioning his sexuality.  Rick thought about it all until one day, he met a bonafied gay guy.10

One of Rick's old girlfriends had met up with him at a party which they had both been invited to.  Rick's old girlfriend had brought along a boy who had introduced himself as John.  Later, Rick and John had talked about things.  Things such as how John had known he was gay, how John had been able to tell his peers, and how John felt about being gay.  While reflecting on all he had talked about with John, Rick realized that he, too, was gay.11

Tony had come out at the beginning of their junior year.  Rick, with the assurance of knowing that Tony was also gay, had come up to Tony about three weeks after having come out to the school.12

"Tony," said Rick, trying to convey as much coolness as he could. "I was wondering if, ummmm, you would like to, uhhh, to on a date with me?"  Suddenly, Rick felt a bit nervous.  Tony had light up like a light at this simplistically complex question.13

"Yes!" Tony said, almost at once.  He hoped it didn't sound to lame. "When?  What time?  Where?"14

"Well, would this Friday be good for you?" Rick asked, suddenly regaining his confidence. "Say maybe at six and I'll drop you off at ten?"15

"Yeah," Tony replied happily. "That'd be good."16

"Alright, I'll see you then." Rick said, and with that, he walked to Chemistry class, grinning.  Tony, however, was not only grinning, but he had a literal spring in his step as he headed to his math class.17

Friday night had arrived and, after going through every pair of jeans, every T-shirt, and every pair of shoes he owned, Tony finally felt readily for his date.  Rick arrived on time, and, after quickly meeting Tony's parents, they left on their date.  They went to see a movie that was romantic and halfway through it, Rick had reached over and timidly gripped Tony's hand.  Tony smiled to himself, he was holding the hand of the man of his dreams.  The world was perfect in that moment.18

After the movie, they still had an hour before they had to leave to take Tony back home.  They decided to take a walk and on their way, they came across a Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream parlor.  They both craved something sweet and wanted to take a rest, so it seemed only fitting to stop here and order an ice cream cone.  To their surprise, they both enjoyed choc late ice cream the best.  After taking their cones, they walked over to a booth near the front of the store.  They talked, learned about each other, and set up another date in which to go out again.19

Tony, who had been nervous about the date almost the entire time he had known about it began to discard some of the nervousness and fear.  He had been afraid to let in love, he saw what love could do to a person, or sure, movies and books talked about it all of the time.  Some ones heart was used, or beaten, or torn to shreds and he had made a vow to himself that that would never be him.  That he would never be used, nor would he use another for his own needs.  He had been afraid that as the date went on, Rick might turn out to be this terrible person.  That he might turn out to be this selfish jerk, despite of the good looks and seemingly sweet personality.  But Rick had only pr oven to be more loving, sweet, caring, and kind as he had ever been.  This began to make Tony fall in love with Rick.  Tony had always loved Rick, but not until he had been sitting there, in Ben and Jerry's, licking chocolate ice cream did he realize how madly he had fallen in love with him.  Tony hoped that the feeling would remain.20

On the way back to the car, Rick had taken Tony's hand in his again, and they walked back to the car.  This public display of affection earned some stares for the two boys.  Some people smiled, as though happy for the two, some looked a bit shocked, as though it was some kind of new bug they had never seen before, and still others looked and scoffed at the two boys, as though they were violating they law.  Tony didn't notice any of these, and Rick tuned out the bad stares and only accepted the good ones.  When they reached the car, Rick, gentlemanly, opened the passenger door for Tony and Tony got in.  The drive back was rather quiet, each of them enjoying the others company.21

When Tony climbed the stairs and went to bed, he lay there, reflecting on the date, and made a very important decision: he would take chances on guys, he would be willing to having his heart used, beaten, and torn apart because, if he didn't, he would miss out on life.  Sure, it would hurt, but pain was just as much a part of life as love was, and by not accepting one part of life, one would not be able to fully experience it.  Tony smiled, rolled over, and looked forward to seeing Rick again.22