First Ice by Andrei Vozensky.
A girl freezes in a telephone booth.
In her draughty overcoat she hides.
A face all smeared,
In tears and lipstick.
She breathes on her thin palms.
Her fingers are icy. She wears earrings.
She'll have to go home alone. Alone.
Along the icy street
First ice. It is the first time.
The first ice of telephone phrases.
Frozen tears glitter on her cheeks –
The first ice of human hurt.
First Ice.
As the snow whirled down making thin lines in the condensation, a huddled shape shuddered. Sobs echoed around the phone box. The only light came from the moon and stars with the distant glow of street lams at the end of the dark side street. Up on the main street it was just a typical Friday night in the city, people laughing, talking and having a good time, people queuing up out side clubs. All oblivious to the shrouded shape crying on the bottom of the phone box.
The figure stood shakily to their feet. As they stood the full length tan overcoat slid down till it was hanging normally. They leaned against the shelf, which should have held the phone book, and tried to control their breathing which was still shaky and silent tears fell down her face leaving tracks in the fine dusting of make up. Under her eyes were mascara tracks and her lipstick was smeared on the crumpled paper tissue from when she had tried to wipe her face. Pulling out a mirror she examined the damage that had been caused by 5 simple words. Those words that had ripped out her heart, burned it and defiled it, taken away any hope of mending, and given it back as a shrivelled, holey, black something that would never fill the hole left by her happy heart. She pulled out a clean tissue and started to wipe away the mascara and the powder she had so carefully applied that night. She pulled her neutral colour lipstick out of her bag and re-applied it. "No reason not to"; she reasoned with herself, "it might take on-lookers attention away from her blood shot, and rather puffy eyes, which" she sighed sadly "I can do nothing about".
As she carefully put her lipstick back in her bag she thought back to earlier that night, back to when she had been glowing with happiness. "I look beautiful" I thought while looking into the full length mirror. My friend, Alice, had done wonders with my hair. I had been planning to have it up in a ponytail with two thin strands loose framing my round face, but Alice had turned up with her box of wonders, her name for her box containing every type of hair styling equipment ever know. So I'd been through 2 hours of my hair being pulled, twisted, clipped, heated and cooled, squirted with protective sprays be fore I was finally deemed suitable, luckily for me I had already changed into my outfit for the evening as Alice said "If one hair is out of place before you even set off I'm re-doing it all, you wouldn't want to be late would you?" as she smiled sweetly but her eyes glinted evilly proving she meant every word. My dress was a light baby blue that came just past my knees with dark blue, almost black, straps, that crossed my back, and a belt, to go with it I had 2 inch black heels and a small spaghetti strap bag the same colour as my dress straps I did my own make up as Alice has been known to go over board. It was subtle with just a dusting of powder, a cream eyeshadow that accented my large grey eyes which were framed by thick dark lashes, and a neutral coloured lipstick so that the attention was drawn to my eyes. After being looked over by Alice, who looked slightly disappointed that I hadn't got a hair out of place, I got in my car and drove into town. After that my night had gone down hill.
It had started when I got to the movie theatre. I had been told he'd meet me outside. It got to 7 o'clock and he still wasn't here. 7:05 still no sign of him, "its okay" I told myself over and over "He's probably just stuck in traffic. He wouldn't just leave you here without any explanation" It got to 7:30 and the truth settled on my shoulders that he wasn't coming. I had looked up just as a car's headlights shone down the alley I now was in and lit up the scarlet phone box. I would have used my mobile but I didn't want to be over heard. I got to the phone box and dialled his number. "Hello?" his voice came floating down the phone "who is this?" when I told him it was me his voice didn't change unless it got more distant. "Why are you calling me?" those words stung like hail on exposed skin, as I thought this I shuddered from the cold and pulled my coat tighter around me. When I asked why he wasn't here he just laughed and replied with a heartless "because I changed my mind. I don't love you anymore" and with that he hung up on me without even a goodbye or any other explanation, or what I wanted most an apology and for him to tell me it was all a cruel joke, that he was actually just around the corner, that his friends put him up to it.
I made sure I looked better; I let my hair down and pulled it back into a low ponytail. I pulled out my phone and used it to call Alice. "Hello?" she answered on the 3rd ring, I have never been so glad to hear her voice. "Bella? Are you ok?" she asked her voice saturated with worry "Can you get a cab up to the cinema? I'll pay" I asked my voice on the verge of breaking "stop it!" I told myself. "Yeah, 'course I can, are you crying?" she asked obviously wondering why in the middle of a date I was calling her in tears. "No," my voice broke as I answered her question, "alright just hang on I'm on my way, my dad was on his way up to pick up some electronic gadget, I'll hitch a ride from him" I told her where to find me.
Luckily for me Alice only lived 5 minutes away from the cinema at most. Within 3 minutes there was a light tapping on the glass. I looked up into Alice's worried green eyes, with her blonde hair falling into her face as she looked down. I smiled weakly at her. I opened the door and she pulled me into a bone crushing hug which I gladly received. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Did he leave you here by yourself? Where's your car?" Alice fired off the questions with such speed I only caught the general gist of them. The last one I heard loud and clear. "It's in the parking lot behind the cinema" I said wearily handing over the keys, I knew I wasn't safe to drive. "Ok, I'll take you back to my house. Mum and Dad said you could sleep over." I nodded as I stumbled out of the phone box. Alice helped me into the passenger side and set off back to her house.
"HE SAID WHAT?" Alice screamed after I told her what had happened. "After he asks you out, he not only stands you up but says that he changed his mind and thoroughly ruins it by saying WHAT?" yeah note to self never upset Alice. "That he didn't love me anymore" I whispered. Alice went mad; she threw cushions on the floor. "This is bad" I thought. When Alice starts throwing thing she starts off with soft things then gets on to harder and more breakable things like chairs out of 2nd storey windows. She suddenly froze in the action of reaching for a chair and took off to the basement as fast as she could. In the basement was Alice's punch bag. She'd gotten it because sometimes she loses her temper. She got it after the whole throwing the chair out of her closed bedroom window; her parents thought it might be a safer, and less destructive, way for her to channel her anger. With every punch she called Edward every name she knew, which was a lot. As she calmed down the profanities got less insulting and quieter. I just sat and watched on the steps, as I knew that while she was angry she would lash out at anything. Her brother, Emmett, learned the hard way, he tried to restrain her, when she was beating the stuffing out of the 1st punch bag, because she had missed the punch bag and hit the wall which she then saw to have proved a greater challenge, she was really angry, and her knuckles had started to bleed and so Emmett tried to stop her and she spun around and hit him. She broke his nose and split his lip, this at age 14, and now she'd had more practise and had another two years muscle and strength. When she had fully calmed down we started to plan revenge on Edward. Emmett walked in on us plotting followed by Jasper and Rosalie (Alice's boyfriend and his twin who was Emmett's girlfriend) and, as I saw Alice and Rose as my sisters I saw Emmett, and Jasper, as my older brothers (I am actually an only child so they are the closest I have), when they coaxed what had happened out of us he sat down and helped us plot. With Rosalie on our side we couldn't fail, Rose could get practically anything she wanted from most of the boys in Forks High School. Also having Emmett and Jasper on our side was going to be a great help as they can go places we can't and get to Edward in ways we can't. We continued talking until about 2o'clock in the morning when we finally fell asleep.