Ice Cream Solves Everything

"Ice cream?" Kayden asks as we walk out of the police station

"Who eats ice cream at twelve in the morning?" I ask him as I laugh

I spent eight hours going through that stack of papers and I don't want to see another paper anytime soon.

"Who doesn't eat ice cream at twelve in the morning?" He asks as he holds the passenger door open for me

"Touché" I say as I climb into the car

-

"No way!" I shout as he pulls into the parking spot of my favorite ice cream shop

"You get ice cream from Hola Bonheur's too?" I say excitedly as I turn in my seat to face him with a wide smile

"Of course. He makes the best ice cream in town" Kayden states like it's a fact

Which it is.

When he turns the engine off I quickly hop out of the car and run into the empty ice cream shop.

"Aspen, I haven't seen you in awhile" Mr. Carello says in a scolding voice which causes me to smile as I walk up to the counter

Mr. Carello also owns a pizzeria downtown.

Spoiler alert, he makes the best cheese pizza in history.

"How have you been, Mr. Carello?" I ask as I hear the bell over the door ding which indicates that someone just walked in

"As well as a sixty-five year old man who runs two businesses can be" he says with a bright smile which causes me to grin at him

"It's about time that you visited Hola Bonheur's" Mr. Carello says as he looks at Kayden, who's now standing beside me.

"You two know each other?" I ask with a confused facial expression as I look between the both of them

"Yeah, Kayden is my nephew" Mr. Carello says which causes me to glare at Kayden who just shrugs with a smile

"I thought you knew" he says which causes me to hit his shoulder in a scolding manner

"If I knew I would've made you take me sooner" I say in a 'duh' tone which causes Mr. Carello to laugh at us

"You two are adorable together" he says which causes my breath to hitch as Kayden awkwardly clears his throat

"Actually, Aspen has a crush on someone else" Kayden says which causes me to look at him and glare

"I do not have a crush on anyone" I say but both of them give me knowing looks

Wow, they really are related.

"Do I know them?" Mr. Carello asks his nephew which causes Kayden to shrug his shoulders

"We did not come here to talk about my love life," I say as my cheeks start to turn pink from embarrassment which causes them to laugh before Mr. Carello asks for our orders

"I'll have a strawberry milkshake" I say since I want to try something different from my usual order

"I'll have a vanilla scoop in a waffle cone" Kayden orders which causes me to scoff

"Who knew that your taste in ice cream would be so basic" I say which causes him to laugh

"I could say the same for you" he says before he walks to a booth which causes me to gape at his retreating figure

No, he didn't?

-

"Thanks for taking me out for ice cream. I really appreciate it" I say as he pulls into my driveway and cuts the engine

"Anything for you" he says with a smile which causes me to blush as I look down at my intertwined hands.

He turns in his seat and looks at me with an unreadable expression.

"There's something bothering you" he says as he grabs my hand which causes me to look up at him and sigh

"How can you tell?" I ask which causes him to smile

"You look nervous" he says in a 'duh' tone

"Oh" I say as I look down at my hands again.

Kayden grabs my other hand and rubs them soothingly before he speaks.

"Aspen, you shouldn't beat yourself up because of this" he says with a serious tone which causes me to look at him with a sad expression

"I feel like it's my fault" I say as tears start to prick my eyes

"It's not your fault," he says as he pulls me in for a hug

"Then why did she leave when I mentioned the name 'thunder'?" I ask as I reach up and wipe away my fallen tears

"Maybe 'thunder' is her friend" he suggests which causes me to pull away from him as my brain goes into overdrive

Is this 'thunder' girl dangerous?

If she is, how dangerous is she?

How long have Charlotte and 'thunder' known each other?

"Stop overthinking" he says which causes me to snap my head towards him

"Why should I? She could be in trouble right now" I say as I take my phone from my pocket, so I can call her, only to have Kayden snatch it

"When people tend to overthink, most if not all of their predictions are wrong" he says

He's right.

I'm just overthinking.

-

I wake up in the middle of the night from my phone ringing.

I groan before I squint my eyes open and peek at the caller I.D.

Unknown.

Why is an unknown number calling me this early in the morning?

I decline the call before I roll onto my side and close my eyes. As I'm falling into a deep sleep my phone rings again which causes me to groan and rub my temples before I reach out for my phone.

"Hello" I rasp out since I'm still half asleep

"I need you to meet me at westside skate center in five minutes" a girl says on the other line

"Who is this?" I ask as I start to quickly wake up

"Meet me there if you want to see Charlotte" she says before she hangs up which causes me to look at my phone in confusion

I look at my clock only to see that it is two in the morning.

Usually I'd ignore something like this, but Charlotte has been missing for two days know.

I am way too worried about her to ignore this.

I quickly get up before I run into my closet and grab an oversized hoodie to put over my tank top and night shorts. I put my brown hair into a ponytail and slide on my running shoes before I grab my glasses and tip toe down the stairs.

As soon as I reach the bottom of the stairs I glance around only to notice that my mom is asleep on the couch.

Thank the heavens.

Who knows how much trouble I'd be in if she caught me.

I quickly but quietly walk across the living room before I slowly open the door and close it behind me.

I sigh as the cold air hits my face which causes a white cloud of air to appear in front of me.

I jog in the direction of our towns westside skate center as I try not to think about all the bad things that could've happened to Charlotte.

-

As I approach the skate center I see a silver haired girl dressed in all black glancing around nervously until her eyes land on me.

"Who are you?" I ask as I stop in front of her which causes her to smile

"I'm Carolina, nice to meet you" she says as she holds her hand out for me to shake, which I return

"Do you know where Charlotte is?" I ask with a serious voice which causes her facial expression to turn into a pissed off one as she leads me to a blacked out van

She has a distant look in her eyes.

As if she's remembering something.

As soon as she opens the side door I see Charlotte sitting on a bench while holding her hands over her ribs.

Her hands are covered in a red substance.

Oh shit, she's bleeding!

I quickly hop into the van and help her apply pressure onto her wound.

"What the hell happened?!" I ask with a frantic tone as Carolina closes the door and walks around towards the drivers seat

"It's fine, I'm fine" She grunts out as she leans her head back against the window

"You're not fine, you need to go to a hospital" I say as the van starts moving

"No, I can't go to the hospital" she says which causes me to look at her as if she was insane

Does she want to die?!

"I care about you too much to let you die in front of me" I say which causes her to look down into my eyes with an unreadable expression

What expression is that?

I've never seen it before.

Before I can ask her what happened, again, the van comes to a sudden halt as a teenage boy, who looks to be around our age, throws open the door and rudely tells me to move so that he can put her in the wheelchair beside him.

"Chill Hayden, she's coming with me" Charlotte says with an eye roll as she walks around me and sits in the wheelchair

I get out of the van and walk beside her since this Hayden dude doesn't trust me enough to wheel her.

We walk into a brick mansion which looks beautiful.

"How did this happen?" I ask calmly since everyone is currently running frantically around us

"Trust me," She grunts out in discomfort as she moves in her wheelchair

"You don't want to know" she says before she's wheeled into an all white room. As I go to walk in there Carolina grabs my arm and shakes her head.

"I don't think you're ready to know the truth" she says with a sad smile

"Is she in any kind of danger?" I ask desperately as she leads me towards the stairs

"I'm sorry. It's not my place to tell" she says as we walk upstairs which causes me to nod

I'm not going to force information out of her if she feels uncomfortable about it.

I'm sure Charlotte will tell me soon.

"Wait in here. I'll come up and tell you when she's done getting surgery" she says as she opens the door to a modern looking room

I nod before I walk into the room which causes Carolina to close the door behind me. I turn on the flat screen and pick a random movie to watch.

Please god, let Charlotte get out of this safely.

I don't want to lose her.

-

I jump up from shock and adrenaline.

When did I fall asleep?

I feel arms tighten around my hips which causes me to tense as I look behind me.

I relax when I see Charlotte looking at me with a sleepy look of confusion.

Aww, she looks so cute when she wakes up.

"Thank you" She says with a smirk which causes my eyes to widen as I blush furiously

I can't believe that I just said that out loud.

I can't believe that I'm thinking of someone that I consider my sister like this.

"How are you feeling?" I ask quickly changing the subject as I examine her bandaged side

"Tired" She says before she breathes out

"Then you should go back to sleep. I need to go to school anyway" I say but before I can get off the bed she grabs my arm and pulls me into her so that my head is laying on her chest while her arms are securely wrapped around my hips

"You and I both know that I can't sleep peacefully unless you're in my arms" she says which causes me to blush as I try to get off of her

"Stop, I'm probably hurting you" I say as I gesture to her bandaged wound which causes her to roll her eyes

"If you were hurting me I would've said something" she says as we lay on our sides so that we're facing each other

"No you wouldn't" I say honestly which causes her to smile as she wraps her arm around my hips again

"Believe me, I'm okay" she says with a sparkle in her bright green eyes as she looks into my hazel ones

I smile as I lay my head in her neck.

That's my girl.

The one that no one else sees except for me.