Protecting The Storm

•10•

Parker  P.O.V.

  The little bell rung, just above the door of the ice cream shop. A girl around our age behind the counter greeted us with a warm smile. My body aches slightly as I walk up to the counter. I look over at Storm. She seems fine, but I know what happened now. Both me and Emmett do.

"What can I get you three." The girl behind the counter asks.

"Two scoops of chocolate ice cream please." I say.

"Two scoops of cookies and cream." Storm says quietly but with a smile.

  "One scoop of vanilla, one scoop of chocolate and a handful of cherries." Emmett said as he got to the counter. The girl at the counter nodded while blushing and looked at the cash register.

  "Your total will be $9.25."
  I handed her money and told her to keep the change as we headed to a table to wait for the ice cream.

  "I think that girl likes you Emmett. You should go talk to her, maybe get her number." Storm says grinning.

  I looked over at the counter. The girl was scooping in Emmett's order and seemed to make his scoops bigger than mine or Storms. I smiled and looked back at Emmett.

  "Looks like it, she made your scoops bigger. She's definitely a keeper."  I tell him. He chuckles and looks at the counter.

  "I think I might just ask when she gives us our ice cream." Emmett says grinning.  Just as he finishes talking, the girl grabs the tray and walks over to the table.

  I looked at the girls name tag and it read "Maggie". Her hair fell down past her shoulders straight and dirty blonde.  Her eyes were a dark brown. She was pretty short, only coming up to  Emmett's shoulder as he stands up to grab the tray from her. 

  She smiled at him and quietly said a "thank you". Emmett grinned at her as he gave her a nod. Her eyes connected with Storm and recognition flashed through her eyes.

"Hey, your Storm right? The one who stood up to Aubrey?" She tilted her head.

"Yep." Storm said as nodded her head.

"That was really cool what you said to her. It looked like she was a Chihuahua she was shaking so much!" The girl laughed out. A small grin played on Storms face.

"Thanks, but I bet most of the kids are on Aubrey's side right now."

"Are you kidding! Pretty much everyone is rooting for you! It's all over social media!"

Emmett, Storm and I looked at each other. Emmett turned to Maggie.

"You guys haven't seen any of it yet?... A bunch of people posted videos of it all over Twitter and Instagram." Maggie said swiping on her phone, then handing it to Storm.

  Storm watched the screen carefully as the video flashes through and then she starts scrolling through the comments. I hold out my hand for the phone when it's over. The comments were seen coming from both sides but most were words of encouragement to Storm. 

  "This is awesome Storm!" I told her.  She grinned. Her smile slowly faded as she watched the phone.

"Parker can I talk to you for a second. Lets let these two get to know each other." She said getting up from her chair and nodding at Emmett and Maggie talking away.  I nod and follow her to a secluded edge of the Ice cream shop.

  "What's wrong?" I ask.

  "The video. Thats whats wrong." She whispered frantically.

  "Whats wrong with the video? People are on your side. They're standing up to Aubrey. I don't really see how thats a bad thing." I say confused. She should be happy.

  "I mean thats good that they're standing up for themselves and everything but the video has gone viral. That means that more than just the people in this town are seeing this." She says.

  "Yeah, okay? Still don't know whats wrong here."  I say. Storm rubs the temple of her head and sighs.

  "Oh, well, not to throw out the most obvious reason but what about the mad man trying to kill me? Did you ever think about that? Or maybe the fact that I'm supposed to be on the down low and I've been here for a week now and I'm more famous than the mayor!" She says, rolling her eyes.

  "I'm starting sense some sarcasm here and its not appreciated."  I say.

  "Really!?" She says, throwing her hands up. She pinched the. Bridge of her nose. "Lets just get back to The table." I nod and look over at the two hitting it off

  Emmett grins as he talks to Maggie while Maggie laughs at something Emmett says and nods. I walk back to the seat and sit down taking a bite of my Ice cream.

  "So, are you free tomorrow? Maybe we could catch a movie?" Emmett asks.

  "Yeah, sure, I'm free tomorrow. What time?" Maggie says trying but failing, to be calm. Emmett grins at the girl.

  "Is 7:30pm good? We could catch the 7:45 showing of that new movie, After Earth? Unless that's too Syfy for you then we could watch one of the comedy movies." Emmett suggested.

  "No that's fine! I've been wanting to see the Syfy movie for a while." She shook her head as she smiled. The bell rang over the door as another customer walked in.

  "Well I gotta get back to work. It was nice talking to you guys," Maggie said. She hugged the tray she was holding tight to her chest as she backed away from the table and back to the counter.

  "Well, look who has a date!" I said, leaning back in my chair. Emmett's face brightened as he looked over to Maggie at the counter.

  "Yeah, she seems pretty cool, and she likes Syfy movies which is so much better than that cheesy comedy movie I offered to take her to."

  "Maybe she's the 'one'," I joked, nudging his arm. Storm grinned across the table nodding.

   Emmett looked back at Maggie behind the counter and smiled at her. Maggie handed someone an order and glanced at Emmett. Pink colored her cheeks and she grinned. She turned her head and looked down at the register and Emmett grinned as he looked at us again.

  "Or, maybe it's just a date with a really cool girl."