Friday comes along, and I’m more nervous than I’ve ever been in my life. Even the day Dani and I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 pales in comparison to this. I’m happy Evan and I agreed to meet at 3:30, because that gives me ample time to get home and shower first. Even so, as I walk down to the Spellman Center, I feel sweaty all over again.
I make it to Samson and Sons five minutes early, and Evan’s already waiting for me outside. She takes me inside, to an empty ice cream parlor. Empty, except for the big blond dude behind the counter. My first, stupid guess is that he might be Evan’s big brother. She assures me that Kevin, as his name tag reads, is not (it’d be funny if they were, though, because of their rhyming names), but he still feels protective of her anyway.
“More so than my parents, even,” she says. “So I figured I’d run you by him first, see if he approves of you as my friend.”
Kevin leans over the glass-walled display of ice creams, sizing me up. “Haven’t met too many Darks before,” he says.
“You’re not alone, guy,” I say with a nervous laugh.
“I can’t sense anything wrong with you, but I’ll keep tryin’,” Kevin says, grabbing his ice-cream scooper and making for the tub of coffee-flavored ice cream.
“Nice of you to offer, but I’d kinda like to try the chocolate instead,” I say.
“Really?” Kevin turns to a different tub. “Have you tried it before?”
“Once or twice.”
Kevin grins. “You’re lucky you’re in Ice territory. We love chocolate so much, we carry five different varieties of the stuff. Which one you want? Dark? White? Rocky road? I personally like the Ghirardelli chocolate the most. I recommend that.”
I turn to Evan. “What do you think?”
“I’d go with what Kevin says,” Evan laughs. “He knows his ice creams. Well, he should. He’s a lot more of a kid than he looks like.”
“I’m only fifteen,” Kevin says, tossing two huge scoops of Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream into a medium-sized cup. “Shh! Don’t tell anyone.”
“How’d you get a job if you’re that underage?” I ask.
“My dad’s the manager,” Kevin says, taking some Oreo chunks and a broken Reese’s and adding them to my ice cream. “It took a lot of convincin’, but I got him to let me work here after school.”
He hands me the ice cream. “How’d you know I liked that stuff?” I ask, pointing to the toppings.
“I got a gift,” Kevin says cryptically, once again bending down to grab more scoops of ice cream for Evan. She, apparently, likes dark chocolate with crushed Heath bars.
We take our seats in a far corner, but rather than start eating, Evan simply gazes at me over her ice cream. I nervously eat a bit, then take an extreme interest in my spoon, stirring it around the ice cream repeatedly.
“So,” she says. “You remember why I invited you here?”
Oh crap, not the drawing again. “To see where you like to hang out?” I ask, hoping it’ll steer her away from her plans.
“Hahaha, no. You didn’t bring the notebook!” Evan shakes her head, laughing. “Come on, I know I made nasty jokes about your poetry yesterday, but I promise you got nothing to fear from me.”
“What’s this I’m hearin’ about poetry?” Kevin asks, pulling a CD player out from a cabinet and playing some old stuff - David Bowie, I think. “Whoops,” he says. “That’s the Adele mix. Lemme fix that…” He switches out the CD and some good old-fashioned Fall Out Boy starts playing instead.
YOU ARE READING
The Dark Ice Chronicles - The Magi
ParanormalDark warlock Jason Cross is quite the lonely boy - until the girl he likes takes the time to get to know him. Evan Michaelsen's presence leads to a string of major changes in Jason's life - not the least of which is the development of Ice powers he...
