Sea Salt Ice Cream: A Celebration of Friendship

Sea-salt ice cream sounds disgusting, Roxas decided, but tastes really good.

He, Hayner, Pence, and Olette were sitting on the rooftop of the highest building in Twilight Town, the spot that had been dubbed their hangout over summer vacation. The best thing about it was that nobody else would try to steal it- they’d be petrified of falling.

But not Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette. They had unanimously agreed on the deserted rooftop… all of them needed a place to disappear and this was definitely it. It had been two months already and, although the four friends had enjoyed watching other people, they’d never been spotted back.

It’s weird how no one ever looks up. They’re always looking down, watching their feet so carefully that they miss the really important things, like the sunset. Or that they’re heading straight for a pole. Roxas licked his lips and gazed out to the sun setting under the houses and buildings below. Life was good.

The four best friends were sitting in companionable silence, each clutching a sea-salt ice cream and lost in their own thoughts. Olette was swinging her legs over the side, tracing a pattern in the cement with her finger and Roxas knew she was planning where she would drag them the next day. Pence was staring down at the brick road below, thinking about how idiotic a person would have to be to even think of jumping from this height, while Hayner was wondering if there was a way he could jump without killing himself.

And if any of them looked at me, they’d probably know exactly what I was thinking, too, Roxas thought, taking another lick of his ice cream.

They were all like sea-salt ice cream: Each of them was sweet, with a little, quirky tang that made them even better. Roxas, Hayner and Pence understood when Olette got into one of her bossy moods, or when she blew them off to do girly stuff like shopping and makeovers, just like nobody cared when Pence got overly cynical, or Hayner got too carried away with his thinking that everything is a competition, or a game.

Because that was the salt in their sea-salt ice cream. That was the little, quirky tang that made them even better.

Because Roxas would always be Roxas, Olette would always be Olette, Pence would always be Pence, and Hayner would always be undeniably Hayner.

And that’s just the way they liked it.

(Author’s Note: A tribute to my friends. You guys rock!)

Rochel B. is a freshman in high school and writing, drawing, music and reading are her passions. Her article “Seat, Salt, Ice Cream” is a celebration of the value of friendship but just as important, the celebration and appreciation of individual differences.