Page 3 of Spike

“It’s ice cream,”she said, pointing to the commercial-sized store-bought chocolate and vanilla.“In a tub.”

“Sure, it is, butI bet you’re an amazing scooper outer.”

She rolled hereyes. “Let’s go back to the horrible thing that’s going to happen beforedessert.”

“Oh, I didn’t sayitwasgoing to happen, only that itcouldhappen.”

She settled herhands on her hips and smirked. “Like what kind of horrible thing?”

I shrugged. “Idon’t know. An earthquake, a hurricane, avalanche, flood, plague of locusts.Hey, that sounds like a Bible story.”

She chuckled.“That’s true.”

“Oh, wait, whatabout the rapture? When all the good people are taken up to heaven. I’m sureyou’d be one of them. What if the rapture happens and you got sucked up toheaven and left me here on Earth before I ever got to witness your sickscooping skills.”

“You’ve clearlygot the end times all figured out. Do you read the Bible a lot?”

“Not so much, butSaturday is movie night at the House, and one time we watched this one withsome guy named Kurt Cameron about the rapture. It sucked, but I guess all thatshit’s in the Bible, right?” My hand went to my mouth. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry. Ididn’t mean to swear in front of you.”

She smiled wide.“I’ve heard the wordshitbefore.”

Even the way shecursed was adorable. She may have heard the word, but I wasn’t convinced she’dever said it until now.

“And I think it’sKirkCameron that was in the first Left Behind movie.”

I gasped. “Thefirstone? Someone made sequels to that movie?”

She held up fourfingers. “Four movies in total. Nicholas Cage is in the latest one.”

I stared at herblankly. “I have no response to that.”

Her jaw dropped.“What did you say?”

“Nothing,” I said,dismissively. “I just said, I have no response to that. It’s a quote from—”

“Joe Versus theVolcano?”

“You’veseenthat movie?” I asked in complete disbelief.

“It’s my favoritemovie of all time.”

“That’simpossible,” I said.

“We’re onlyallowed to watch PG and G movies in my house, and that was one we owned. Itbarely made the cut because of the kissing, but dad said it was okay becausethey get married. I watched it so many times, my brothers eventually hid theDVD from me.”

Joe Versus theVolcano was a romcom released in nineteen ninety starring Tom Hanks and MegRyan. It’s about a guy who’s a total loser who agrees to jump into an activevolcano to save an island of people who are obsessed with orange soda. Themovie was a box office bomb and is hardly ever talked about. By anyone but me.

I rolled up mysleeve and showed her my forearm which bore my first tattoo. It was a crooked,inverted lightning bolt within a triangle. A recurring and highly significantsymbol within the movie.

She gasped andcovered her mouth. “Is that real?”

“Got this twoyears ago. See that funny looking guy over there that keeps gawking at us?”

She nodded.

“That’s my bestfriend, Screek. He’s crazy, but he’s also a crazy talented artist.”

“His name is Screek?”

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