Fat snowflakes pour out of the gray sky. The wind swirls the lazy flakes into tiny tornados that rush around Henry's legs and fill his eyes and ears with white coldness.
Henry drops the rope he's holding and reaches up, tentatively, although he doesn't quite know why. He's knocked on Charlotte's door more times than he can count... yet suddenly, for whatever reason, he's shy. He shuffles his feet nervously, and raises one gloved hand into the air.
He knocks.
The sound is like a million drums in his ear, yet somehow he knows it was just a baby knock... nothing that will travel far. Nothing that anyone inside will hear.
"C'mon." Henry mutters, and knocks again, louder this time.
The door flies open and Charlotte is standing there, her afro'd dark hair a blur around her face. She grins and her white teeth stand out against her caramel on. "Hey. What's up?"
Henry feels a surge of happiness flood him as he stares at Charlotte. He gestures lamely at the sled behind him. "Wanna go sledding?"
Charlotte reaches up a hand into her mane of black tresses. Henry feels his heart sink down to his freezing feet. This was a stupid idea.
She grins. "Sure. If I can get a hat on this insanity." She gestures around her head and laughs, and suddenly, the apprehension Henry feels is gone. He feels like laughing and crying all at once.
Maybe... maybe Charlotte feels the same way about him that he feels about her.
But that's the thing: He doesn't even know what he feels about her.
It's so confusing, the burn in his chest he feels whenever he sees her. The way he feels like smiling whenever he's around her. The cold feeling he gets when he watches her walk away... even though they've just been hanging out. The lost feeling he gets when she's not there.
Suddenly he realizes that Charlotte's standing in front of him, her hair stuffed into a hat, wearing snow pants and a coat.
She steps out into the snow beside him and he watches snow flakes settle into her dark hair. "Henry. Where are we going?"
Henry grins. "Down the road. There's a hill there. I pass it every day when I come to get you for school."
Charlotte nods. "Oh. Ok."
Her vague response makes him feel like he should be talking, and suddenly his mind is blank and he has nothing to say. "Um... ok. Let's go then."
He drags the sled behind him, and Charlotte stops. "Wait. Let me get my sled."
Henry feels a twinge disappointed. If Charlotte has her own sled, it means that he won't have to stuff his body next to hers. Even though they'll both be separated by layers of clothing, and sledding down the hill is the least sexy thing he's ever heard of, it still awakens something inside him.
Something good. Something he's never felt for anyone else but Charlotte.
The air is a blur of swirling whiteness and Charlotte shivers as she comes up to him, and suddenly Henry feels the urge to hug her.
"Cold?"
"Mmmhmm."
He clears his throat, and somehow his arms are around her, and his face is buried in her hair. Not that he purposely buried it there... just... her hair's so big it's impossible not to get one's face stuck in it. And she smells amazing.
Henry releases her and looks into her face. She's blushing. "Better?"
She nods awkwardly, and suddenly he regrets the hug, although his body doesn't, and is calling for more.
"Let's go." Henry says, and despite himself, adds, "Tell me if you get cold again."
Charlotte gives him a weird look, somewhere between creeped out and happy. "I will." She says. And Henry feels a surge of happiness jolt through him, like lightning. He grins and the pair continues towards the hill.
It's huge, and icy, despite the weather's desperate attempt to hide the frozen crust of water over the snow. "It's gonna be slick." Henry said.
Charlotte grins. "I'm used to slick."
Henry looks at her out of the corner of his eyes, unsure what she means.
"Get in." Charlotte says, and Henry realizes that she's already sitting in her sled.
Henry scrunches himself up, folding his long legs into the sled. "Race you." He says, and pushes off.
And suddenly the world is speed, wind, ice, snow. He can't breathe; the ice and snow in his lungs burns like a million bee stings as he struggles to take in a breath out of the air he's rushing through.
He's winning.
A gust of wind suddenly hits him, and he's lost in its whiteness. And his sled hits something. And that something goes oof.
He's lying on top of Charlotte, looking down into her scared, yet happy face.
She looks up at him, and licks her lips. Henry swallows, and then does what he's wanted to do since he was twelve.
He brushes his lips across hers. "Charlotte."
"Henry."
And suddenly he's embarrassed. He rolls off her and offers her a hand up. Charlotte takes it and scrambles to her feet. The sleds lay forgotten at their feet. "Do it again." She says.
"What? Hit you with my sled?"
"NO. Kiss me."
Henry freezes, and a deep secret part of him begins to throb with the longing-the longing to kiss her. To feel her mouth against his.
So he does. He kisses her again, hard, and their teeth knock together. It's a desperate mashing of mouth and lips and tongue.
And when they break apart, Charlotte's lips are swollen, and Henry imagines his are too.
"I've wanted to do that for a long time."
Charlotte looks up at him and rolls her eyes. "So why didn't you?"
Henry stiffens, turns, and kisses her again.
And the wind blew, swirling the snowflakes around the couple silhouetted in the shadows created by the faint sunlight that breaks through the thick clouds.
I'm actually a little embarrassed to say that I wrote this in... exactly 19 minutes and 22 seconds...
LOL i'm not sure if that' exact but hey... it's been about 19 minutes since I started sooo
wow
I don't know where this came from
welcome to my insanity guys
thanks for reading