Death Trail

ice cream

"Green peas." I randomly say to Nate.

If this works and we end up finding Xavier, I'm buying a shit ton of them just as a thanks.

He looks over with justified confusion on his face, because really who wouldn't be confused?

"What?" He follows my eyesight.

"That's how were going to find Xavier," I say excitedly pointing towards the billboard.

"Green peas?"

"Yes, green peas," I say, but then I correct myself.

"I mean not the green peas itself, but what it says," I explain. "Steps, we need steps. We follow steps to try and find him, and see if they lead us to him, and I know it's not that impressive of an idea but this way it'll be easier to figure out what we're going to do, how we're going to do it, and when. What do you think?" hopefully I don't sound insane to him.

"Okay, now see your making way more sense now. For a second there I thought you lost it," he laughs in relief, but wipes off the smirk when I throw a glare his way.

Sending me a smile, "let's go home and figure this out, little detective."

I roll my eyes at him and whack him as we squeeze our way to the front of the car.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

My mind is racing with thoughts as I try to figure out ideas or ways this could work, or what could go wrong or just maybe if we pull this off, things can finally go right.

In the back of my mind I notice Nate stealing glances at me with some confusion still on his face but I can't manage to pay attention to him right now with all the thoughts flitting through my mind.

"Hey you still up for that ice cream?" Nate pipes up, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Oh yeah, but only if you let me get it this time," especially since he didn't let me get the groceries.

He lets loose a defeated sigh, and nods his heads with a small tilt at the corner of his lips, and starts driving towards Johnny's ice cream shop. I can already taste the heavenly cookie dough ice cream on my tongue.

"Let me guess, cookie dough ice cream, two scoops, chocolate sprinkles cone, peanut butter cups in between the scoops, with a dollop of peanut butter at the top for some reason," He recites my very specific ice cream order that I get every time here, and to show that he's not the only one that remembers I counter with, "Mint chocolate chip, two scoops, regular cone, with chocolate syrup drizzle in the cone not on top of the ice cream, with M&M's at the top but you always end up giving me half of them for some reason," I say the last sentence sarcastically.

As he parks the car, making sure this time there's enough space for us to get out from the door. I watch his smile grow taking over his face, "Well, have you ever heard the very wise, and very old saying, 'sharing is caring'?"

"Yes, indeed I have, very wise saying since it gets me M&M's," he laughs and opens the door to the stripes and swirls of Johnny's ice cream shop, the cool air suddenly surrounding us.

When we first go in, I notice the owner at the cash register making jokes with the costumers and welcoming people with wide smiles, and as soon as me and nate approach the register, his smile grows.

"Olivia! I haven't seen you here in a while, how are you?" his eyes soften with sympathy, but I pretend not to notice.

"I'm great Ahmad, I brought someone with me," I say pointing towards Nate. No, his name isn't Johnny, he just thought it would be more appealing than 'Ahmads ice cream shop', which I thought was just as cool.