After a 30 minutes of tormenting drive, Jordan parked the car in the gravel road that has a small trail to the deserted part of the lake. We started walking in the trail after taking all the necessities for a nice swim.

"Why don't you try and ask him? ", Eva whispered.

"You know I can't", I said looking at Elijah longingly, who was walking along with Jordan in the front. "I am scared."

"One day, Jordan is going to find out and you won't be able to do anything about it. People have feelings Grace, things happen to them without control. Maybe Jordan might help if you tell him about your feelings towards Elijah", Eva stated as a warning.

I knew, Jordan was not a person who'd judge me. He never took out on my physical appearance for his status. Maybe I could say about my feelings on Elijah to Jordan if not to Elijah, but if things went south, the friendship we shared these years would be crushed. I would rather bear this feelings than spoiling our friendship.

Atleast I will know what is happening in Elijah's life..

When the lake came into the view, the boys started running towards the water, removing all the clothes in the way, throwing the bags abruptly near the dock and landed in the water with huge splash.

This side of lake was encrusted with large trees and insects. People of our town rarely used this side. Jordan discovered this place during his Scouts expedition and it became our safe haven.

"Grace!! ", Eva yelled at my ears.

"What?! ", I said rubbing my ears at the intensity.

"I said change your clothes", she gave me death glare.

"Okay. Geez"

After changing into my shorts and swim shirt, I turned to see Eva wearing a spaghetti strapped swim suit. Times like these, my confidence flew out the window. Though there were times that I actually didn't care about myself, the looks of disgust from the people really got me each time. I tried my best to avoid such gazes and concentrate positives that life's given me--it wasn't as easy as it was. It's just that I love food more than anything. Food was associated with my every emotion. There were times I tried diets for weight loss, but I didn't have enough motivation to do so.

"Lets go", Eva told walking towards the lake -- waking me from my daydream .After an hour of playing, swimming and letting ourselves go in water, Eva slowly pulled me out of the water. She was changing in a haste and was fidgeting with her feet.

"What happened, Ev? ", I asked furrowing my eyebrows, watching her carefully.

It isn't like her.

"Nothing. Dress up fast. I want to leave right now ", she said while shifting her eyes between the boys and me.

"Why? Something going on? ", I asked her putting on my pants. 

"I may have done something with Jordan's shoes to which he might become furious and I may have the desire to live a little longer", Eva smirked while looking at me and then his shoes.

I am not going to see what's in there.

We both started running while laughing towards the town festival crowd.

"I can't believe you did that", I said while laughing.

"He did eat my chocolate brownie and called me Marie", Eva said while heaving a sigh. The festival was packed with people from the neighboring towns, various stalls for games and food were installed in the front of the mayor building. Various displays of achievement and honors that town has achieved and people who have helped in the enhancement of the town were all there. This time of the year was the most exciting time in our town and to my excitement there were many ice cream stalls displaying mouthwatering ice creams and popsicles. 

After eating a chunk of ice creams and popsicle, we both went for the giant wheel, that stood majestically at the center of the crowd that takes upto 50 feet up. The thing about riding giant wheel was when you were at the crest of the ride, the nature unfolded beautifully in front of you by showing transparent lake perfectly reflecting the clear blue sky and surrounded by bottle green vegetation on all the sides extending for kilometers on one side, and sculpted building appears as lego models creating an exuberant good feelings.

Feeling lighter at the top of the wheel and sinking feeling overtaking while going down brought whirlwind of emotions inside me. I felt like nothing could hold me down even if it was far from truth. I might had taken some wrong decisions while facing my fears but life was all about mistakes and learning. We learn from mistakes and I was not going to make those same mistakes again. I was able to spot Elijah in the crowd with a girl. Those were people in my small world, who truly worry about me and I was not going to let them down.

As the ride was going on and on, I could feel the emotions bottling up within me. I felt like crying, I felt grateful, happy, sad at the same time. I sense some kind of pressure building up inside me. I closed my eyes and started counting.

When I opened my eyes, Eva was looking at me. I shot a small smile at her indicating that I was doing fine and started looking at the grandeur view in front of me. When we were descending I saw it again.

The cloak.

The nightmare that had been haunting me for months. It disappeared in the blink of the eyes.

It has to be my imagination.

When we unloaded our cart my heart was sputtering inside my chest and the sense of paranoia took over, with a creeping sensation. Thin layer of sweat formed on my forehead. My eyes were frantically searching the crowd, praying the cloak I saw was just a figment of my imagination.

"Grace! Grace! Are you okay? Grace, look at me", Eva jerked me towards her snapping me out of the thoughts. My mind was blank. I could see her face etched with worry, but I couldn't register the things happening around me.

Slowly after few deep breaths, I smiled at her, " I am fine, I think my stomach is acting up after eating and riding the wheel. That's it".

"Okay, then let's get you home. Its just mayor speech after this", she said nudging me to walk forward. When we walked back to the car, Jordan was sitting in the hood with his phone.

"Shit. I forgot about him", Eva grunted next to me.

I started laughing thinking about the outcome of the little prank that Eva pulled on Jordan. This brought Jordan's attention to us.

"See, lets be civil ,okay?. You ate my brownie without my permission and called me Marie and I squished some insects inside your shoes. You did one and I did it back, okay?. Lets end it here , okay".

Jordan was intently listening to what Eva was saying, threw a smile small towards her.

"I ended it earlier, Eva. Lets get going."

"What?" Eva and I asked at the same time.

"Come on girls. Elijah went to festival with his friend, let's get moving okay. I am tired", Jordan told us taking us by surprise and started the engine .

Eva and I looked at each other surprised because 

a) Jordan wasn't compromising type b) He loved his shoes more that his ex girlfriend c) He never left a festival until we dragged him out

The Jordan inside the car smiling at us was contradicting the things that real Jordan did. Without saying anything we both entered the car.

"I think something is wrong", Eva whispered to me looking at ever so joyful Jordan. My eyes were trained at Jordan looking at us through the mirror. 

I think so too