“Why are we here?” I asked Cole as we crossed the black and white checkered floor (which desperately needed to be swept) to the freezers.

He looked at me stupidly. “Because I wanted ice cream. Do you want anything?” I shot him a glare for his smart alec remark and reached into my bag for my wallet. Cole shook his head. “Nope. My treat.”

“But…” Before I could argue, he had already walked to the counter. I really hated not paying for myself.

The girl glanced up from her phone and sighed. “What can I get for you?”

Cole looked down again at the freezer in front of us. “Two scoops of…um, Superhero.” He motioned for me to order. Not feeling very creative, I decided on vanilla.

We took our Styrofoam cups to a high table in the far corner that overlooked the street.

Looking up from his tie-dyed ice cream, Cole caught me staring at him. “What?”

I shook my head and smiled. “Nothing. I’m just a little curious as to why you wanted me to hang out with you at an ice cream shop.”

“What?” he asked. “You don’t like ice cream?”

“No, no, ice cream is fine.” I couldn’t help but point out the blue splotch on his chin. He quickly rubbed it away with a napkin.

“I don’t know. You just don’t seem to get out enough.” He crumpled the napkin and put it on the table. “Maybe a little-“

I finished the sentence he abruptly ended. “…too uptight?”

Cole ran his hand through his hair; I began to wonder if it was a nervous habit of his. “I didn’t say that.”

He didn’t have to say it. I looked down at my plain and boring cup of vanilla ice cream. “You’re probably right.”

“You’re not that uptight.” I looked up at him; he was only saying that to make me feel better. “No, really, Talia.”

I laughed. “You know, you’re not as bad as I thought you were.”

“Awesome. Thanks.” He said sarcastically.

“No, I mean,” without warning, my hands reached out to push his own playfully. I realized it and quickly jerked my hand away and placed it in my lap. How embarrassing… “You knew what I meant.”

He flashed a smile. “Yeah, and you were just the weird girl who ruined grade curves.” I was relieved that he hadn’t noticed (or, at least, not put as much thought in it as I had) that my hands had a mind of their own.

“Wait, do people really call me ‘weird’?”

Cole shifted in his seat, looking down. Was he serious?

“Do they?”

Even if he could lie, Cole wasn’t very good at keeping a straight face for long. I was almost sure that colors were going to stream from his nose. “What if they had? Who cares?”

He was right…and although I myself knew I was a little eccentric, but who really preferred to be called “weird?”

An awkward silence followed. I didn’t have a rebuttal to his question and, honestly, I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “So, anyways… do you have any more suggestions for the English essay?”

“C’mon, Talia. Do we really need to talk about school and homework while we’re eating ice cream?”

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry.”

Another silence. Changing the subject felt like a bad idea.

“What about,” Cole hesitated, “the cruelty of the gods?”

“What?”

“You know, the Greek gods?” I looked at him through squinted eyes as he chuckled at his wonderful wit. “There are stories and myths that portray the gods in a not-so-great light. They are selfish, ruthless, and vengeful beings.” He stopped for a moment to finish off the last spoonful of his melted ice cream. “We could write about some examples of those traits and explain why we think whether or not we feel the gods were justified in their ways.”

I sat for a moment, rolling the idea in my head. “Cole, that’s not a bad idea at all. How did you even come up with that?”

“Well, I actually am really into ancient civilizations and their mythologies. I’ve done some reading on…”

I nodded mechanically and tried my best to listen. It was no use; a barrier in my brain broke like a faulty dam, letting thoughts flood through. Had any other guy than Cole been the one to mention his fascination with mythology, I would have probably fell “head over heels.” That didn’t happen often.

It sounded ridiculous, even in my own mind, but the more I tried to put it out of my mind, the more it stood out. If only it wasn’t Cole…

“…and sometimes, well, I just wonder how these civilizations came up with these stories. Did they just make them up…or could they have had some truth to them? I mean…”

But why not Cole? I mean, he was like any other guy…aside from the fact that he had really strange dreams. Then again, now so did I…

“I can’t help but to compare my own…’fate’ or whatever you want to call it…to some of the characters in these myths. You know, why would fate, or the gods, or any god, be that cruel?”

What he had said stirred me from my thoughts. “What do you mean?”

He must not have realized that he had been rambling and accidentally said more than he had meant to. Looking down and shaking his head, he said, “I’d rather not talk about it.” He then turned to the window beside us, watching two small birds play tug-o-war with a french fry.

As much as I wanted to push him for the answer, I didn’t. The look on his face, a heavy-hearted, distant look, told me to just drop it and leave it alone.

The two birds finally compromised and each left with half a fry. Cole passively smiled and asked, “So, do you want to go home…” He trailed off, leaving me to answer.

The words came out faster than I could stop them. “Well, I don’t have to be home, but if you’re ready to go then I-”

“Okay, good. I want to show you something.”


We had only been in the car for about fifteen minutes before Cole took a sharp left onto an old and rocky dirt road. As we climbed uphill, I realized that the farther we drove the gravel road, the more secluded we became. As absurd as it was for me to even consider it, I couldn’t help but to think that this was exactly what happened before some people were brutally murdered. Yes, a little extreme, but I wasn’t very used to jumping into cars with guys and riding to the middle of nowhere.

As we rounded the last bumpy curve, I could finally see where the driveway ended. In front of us sat an enormous pond, its water a yellow orange from the late afternoon sun. Dense forest surrounded the end of the pond. To the left and right were large fields full of colorful wildflowers while the driveway and a small white house sat on its fourth side. It was almost more than my heart could handle; even Thoreau would have been speechless.

“What is this place?” I was finally able to ask. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of everything; I wanted to make sure I took everything in.

Cole seemed distracted as he stared off towards the pond. “Hm? Oh, it’s kind of a ‘secret’ place.” Honestly, his answer made me a little skittish as I followed his eyes to the water. It would have been the perfect place to hide a body. “At least, that’s what my granddad used to call it.” He looked down and chuckled quietly. “We’d come out here every weekend during the summer for our ‘fishing trips.’”

I smiled. I tried to imagine Cole as a little boy, fishing with his grandpa. He didn’t seem the kind of person who enjoyed fishing but, then again, I didn’t really see him as an ice cream kind of guy, either. It was safe to say that I knew a lot less than I thought about him.

Wandering again why he brought me here, I asked, “You know, if this place is so ‘secret,’ then why did you let me in on it?”

He sat quietly in the driver’s seat, seeming to find the right words. “I…don’t know. I know you’re into all of that ‘art stuff.’” I cringed at the phrase. “I thought maybe you would be able to appreciate it the most.”

I was surprised. The same guy who, only a couple of weeks ago, wanted nothing to do with me, was now being…nice. Why the sudden change?

“How did you know I was into art?”

“I’ve seen you outside of school sometimes with your camera or sketching something. It’s not hard to figure out.”

True. “Oh.”

“Yeah. And, you know…come out here whenever you want. I’m sure you can find something inspirational out here.”

“Um, thanks.” I suddenly realized how ungrateful I sounded. “No really, thank you. That’s really great of you, Cole.”

He shrugged his shoulders and turned to climb out of his car. I followed him to the edge of the lake, where he sat on the thick grass, leaning back on his elbows. I quickly hid my hesitation and sat down too, trying not to think about all of the bugs that could possibly crawl on me.

Before long I noticed that we were once again sitting in silence…which bothered me. Cole continued to stare out in front of him; I couldn’t tell if he was trapped in his own thoughts or just enjoying the view. He must have noticed my staring. “Looks like the fish still bite out here.”

I watched the rippling water as the fish skimmed the surface, playing “fish tag” or whatever it is that fish play. “How long has it been since you and your granddad went fishing?”

He sighed. “Well, he died a couple of years ago.”

I felt my cheeks redden, which was easily hidden by the reddish-orange the sky was turning everything. “Oh, I’m s-” I stopped myself from apologizing. Once again, a lonely and sad look told me to stop. From that one look I knew that his granddad meant a lot more to him than I knew. It reminded me of what he had mentioned at the ice cream shop. What had happened to him that could cause him that much hurt…and make him feel he “deserved” whatever happened? I said it anyway. “I’m sorry.”

He looked back at me and tried to smile, but it was the same smile that you give when someone apologizes for a death. “It’s getting dark. How about I get you home?”