Chapter One
I hope you know the high stakes I’m putting myself in when I tell you this. No one really knows that this ever happened. Hold on a sec though. I can’t just tell the middle of the story.
It all happened when I was 15 and still trying to figure out what to do with my life. I always wondered what it would be like when I finally got out of this small town and everything I’ve worked hard for in school would finally pay off. That was exactly what I was thinking when I rode my bike to Amy’s Ice Cream Store for the first time since I had left there. I hadn’t realized that that was when everything changed. I thought it was going to be another normal day, eating ice cream.
The place was more adorable than anyone could imagine. The shop had soft teal blue walls and a wood floor. The front of the store had a candy shop sprawling with so much candy that even if half the inventory was taken, they could still feed half of Africa with what remained. The back of the shop held an ice cream station, which is always where Sam the Security dog chooses to sit everytime the owner of the shops mother comes in for a visit.
I was waiting for my friend Mark, who I have been friends with since the second grade. We had only met outside of school a couple of times. Mark was the one that I could count on shopping with or doing nails with, but never the person I could rely on to be on time.
I sat there pondering the multiple ways I would kill him for being late, until I got a text message:
Hey girl, sorry I’m late. Had problems with the boyfriend. I’m coming over now :)
“Finally, he actually responded this time” I thought to myself. I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal. I had nothing better to do anyway. I never had anything better to do for a while. My life would have been like a bag of stale chips, bland with no color once so ever. It would have been, if I wasn’t friends with Mark.
Eating my ice cream and watching some guy take out the trash, the place was completely empty. It had been half an hour and I was starting to get restless. I know Mark has to walk like two miles to get here, but it’s never taken him this long before. After a while I assumed he just decided not to come. I was getting ready to leave when Mark finally shows up.
“Hey Honey.” He smiled at me and gave a small wave. He walked over, practically bouncing as he walks.
“I’ve been waiting for centuries you know.”
“Yeah, it’s twelve now so I had to take the long way.”
I immediately understood when he said that. You see, Mark didn’t live in a very nice neighborhood. Not that it was a bad area, but the boys like to make fun of him for being gay. It also didn’t help that Mark’s really thin and cries a lot, but that’s no excuse for the things the boys do to him.
“I’m sorry.” I never know what else to say.
Mark's face turns completely pale.
“What?” I asked
Mark runs out the back door while the front door is opening. Just then, I saw four, tall brawny teenage boys walk into the shop. They looked like football players. Two of them were wearing jerseys. The front guy was clenching his fist and the other three were smiling maliciously.
They must have followed Mark.
I slowly got up from my chair and struggled to casually walk out the door. They must have known that I was friends with Mark from the countless times I had spent with him. The front guy screamed “There’s his friend!”
I locked the door of the ice cream store as fast as I could with the spare key under the mat then ran for my life until I was out in the parking lot. Quickly, I sprinted to see where Mark went but knocked into the trash guy. I don’t mean that I lightly bumped into him; I mean that I fell on him and that my elbow slammed his forehead between his eyes.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”
I frantically started apologizing and couldn’t stop. I probably thought that if I apologized enough, the red bump I had just made on his forehead would magically disappear.
He looked up at me for a few seconds before saying “It’s alright, the mark adds color to my face.” The poor guy then gave a weak smile and slowly came to his feet.
He had looked vaguely familiar and I thought he went to my school. He was pretty cute too, with dark brown hair and emerald green eyes. He also looked strong, but not scary. To put it this way, not like the guys I had just locked in the store. He then said,
“They might let me go early if I say I have a concussion.Taking out the garbage is like asking me to take out a bomb. They would both explode all over the driveway just the same.”
“Uh, yeah.”
I had completely forgotten that there were four guys planning to punch the life out of me if I didn’t give up my friend. There was just something so calm about this kid that made me want to stay and talk awhile. Of course I couldn’t, because I suddenly saw the four boys coming out from the side of the shop. I started desperately looking for Mark until I found him behind the dumpster.
Mark looked up at me petrified and said, “We’ve gotta get out of here!”
“Well, what are we supposed to do? We don’t have a ride and there’s no way that we could possibly outrun them.”
Mark looked out and moved his head side to side. I wondered what he could possibly be looking for. I found out the hard way. Just then, the ice cream truck pulled in. The man in the truck climbed out with four cartons of ice cream and hauled them toward the store. Mark glanced at me with a look that said he had to do it, but with a smile said that he needed to do it.
“No Mark,” I said with a mix of fear and excitement.
He looked at the truck again. “This is an emergency.”
“It’s illegal,” I warned.
Mark exploded into a sprint toward the truck faster than I could finish my sentence. Then I did something I never thought I would do that day; I ran right after to join him.
**Stay tuned for Chapter 2!**
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