I Will Wait

Chapter 8

"Something blue." Caleb hummed as he picked up our ice cream cones from the little cone stand. He handed me my cone and went straight to licking the sweet creamy ice cream on his.

Our second item was something new. Creams and Dreams had opened only a month ago according to Caleb and was the talk of all of Rivers. We figured it would be the best option to go plus, under the clue it said buy it. There was no way either of us would turn down ice cream.

"What would they be talking about? There are a million blue things in this mall. And why is this scavenger hunt like that old wedding thing?"

"What?"

"You know, something old, something borrowed, something new, something blue. I think that was how it goes."

"Your mom put it together for us."

"My mom's on vacation." I replied. "How could she have?"

"Your mom planned it all before she even left. Did she not tell you?"

I huffed and forced a bite of ice cream into my mouth so that he could not see the tension knit into my expression. A no mumbled past my lips.

"She's been so excited to put it together. Joel texted me this morning and said we needed to meet up here."

That little—he knew it was going to happen. That was why he told me to get off my sorry bum and go do something. He had a whole plan and Caleb was in on it! It might be a little far, but I would go as far to say he knew that Caleb was about to text me.

"I had no idea." I said quietly.

There was no reason to go about frowning and sulking now. I had to admit, this was the most fun I had had since coming back home. I would finish it off and interrogate Joel later.

"You said something blue was next." I asked, ignoring the previous conversation.

He nodded, mouth full of ice cream. We started walking away from the ice cream shop and around the corner to go back outside where there were less people and the sun was shining bright, beating down on the pavement below. The heat felt good after being inside where the air conditioner felt like it was set to somewhere below zero. We had to find something blue, but as far as we were concerned it could be anything. The sky was blue above our heads. The sign to the toy store to the left was illuminated with bright blue letters at night. The water in the pond... that was less blue. The socks in the store to my right were blue.

Caleb snapped his fingers. "That's it."

"What's it?"

"I know exactly what they are talking about." Caleb made a sharp turn around himself and marched back into the mall. I had to almost skip to keep up with him. I balanced my ice cream in my hand, trying to lick all the melting creaminess before it dripped down my arm, the rays of the sun speeding up the process.

"What are they talking about?"

"Big Blue!" He exclaimed.

"The whale?" I replied. "Its still running?"

Caleb led us through the crowd of people and we spotted Big Blue in the center of the mall where people sat and talked, older couples giving their legs a break, younger families eating snacks with their kids. Big Blue, interestingly, was completely kid free.

"He's still going!" I exclaimed. "Let's go!"

From across the mall a sight caught Caleb's attention and he pulled me to it almost immediately.

It was Chris and Joel, a bag slung over the crook of my brother's elbow. Had those two actually stopped at a shop? They were taking their leisurely time walking up to Big Blue. They had not seen us yet, or they were confident we had not seen them, but we had. The confidence they possessed was more than Caleb and I could say for ourselves.