In my entire lifetime, I've only seen three perfect snowfalls. They were serene, and beautiful, falling gently through the air and landing on the ground to form a white blanket of snow.
The only joy in a sea of pain and hurt.
I'm twenty three now and I've lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico my entire life. I'm a well adjusted young man, with a great job that I love, a wife and three kids-one girl and two boys.
It took me a long time to get here. It took everyone a long time to get here. And not all of us got to this point in time. Some of us just...stopped. Gave up where we stood.
And that's where the snowfall comes in.
My name is Ryan Evans and in my entire lifetime, I've only seen three perfect snowfalls.
I never want to see another one.
The first snowfall was at my grandfather's funeral, when I was eight. Sharpay was still seven until the next day and she didn't understand why everybody was standing around a big box crying. It was just a box, right? And Grandpa was just sleeping, so when he woke up everything would be fine, right? He'd open his eyes and crack a joke about how freaking ugly that box was and everyone would laugh and it would all be all right.
My heart still breaks every time I remember that day, and her words echo, bouncing around in my head.
"Why is Grandpa sleeping in the ground?"
The second snowfall is where this story begins and where life before ends. Actually, it begins a few days before the snowfall and I'd begun to wonder why it was so cold lately but I just brushed it off as it being December in Albuquerque.
Silly me.
Anyways, about two weeks before the second snowfall, my best friend and her boyfriend had gotten in a fight about something stupid and he was driving her home in his truck despite it all.
Troy Bolton always was a gentleman, even if he didn't really like the person he was around. And Gabriella? Well, he liked her. A lot.
Anyways, Troy was driving Gabriella home and he'd just passed into the middle of an intersection when Troy's truck was broadsided on the passenger side.
And that's when the air got cold...
A/N: A complete track list and link to a fanmix for this story will be provided at the end of the story.