Ice Cold

33

Wren Ridley

My feet carried me over to where Elijah was sitting without giving me a chance to really think about what I wanted to say to him. What could I say other than: please don't tell Fox?

Elijah's friends looked at me when I approached the table while Elijah was already getting up like he knew I was going to take him away.

"It appears we need to talk," I said. "Excuse us."

I led Elijah away from his friends to a table in a secluded corner. He didn't say anything as we walked together, but I heard him let out a sigh from behind me.

"This is a bit of a predicament, isn't it?" I said as the two of us sat down across from each other.

Elijah looked at me with exasperation, his wide eyes staring intently like he wanted to burn me with his gaze.

"I'm really trying hard not to be pissed off at you right now," Elijah said in a low tone.

"Are you pissed at me?"

"Kinda!" he replied.

I knew it wasn't because of the fact that I was with Landon. He didn't even know anything about what the two of us were for each other. He was angry that he was put in the position where he had to decide if he had to keep something from Fox.

"Tell Fox if you need to," I started. "But I don't think you do."

Elijah glared at me. "What's going on with you and Landon? Are you just friends or is it something more?"

We were both silent for a moment, then Elijah put his hand up to stop me before I even made the move to say anything.

"You know what, the less I know about this the better," he said. "The less I know, the less pissed off Fox can be at me when he inevitably finds out."

"So you won't tell him?"

"You're putting me in a really awkward position!" Elijah said in a fierce tone. "Tell Fox and he's going to be pissed at you when he's trying to have a better relationship with you, or don't tell him and he's pissed at me when he finds out I knew."

"He doesn't have to find out that you know anything," I told him. "You don't really know anything anyway."

"There's this thing in a relationship called trust. I know you know nothing about that, but I can't lie to him and tell him I knew nothing when he eventually finds out."

"He won't find out anything," I assured him. "There's nothing serious going on and you don't need to worry about it."

"If it's not serious, then why can't Fox know?"

Elijah knew the answer to this question, but he wanted me to say it out loud. He needed justification for keeping quiet about this for me.

"You know Fox," I started. "He overreacts. Just me interacting with Landon is enough to send him into a spiral."

Elijah groaned and put his face in his hands.

"You must hate me," he muttered.

"Surely you can talk Fox down if he does find out," I said. Fox was soft when it came to Elijah. He was practically the only person he would listen to.

"I tried telling him to move on from what happened with Landon the last time we saw him here and he wouldn't listen," Elijah reminded me. "It's like he doesn't get that Landon was pretty much in the same position as me but worse. Micah told me about how his dad outed him at church in front of everyone."