Bruises
Jack Frost sat by the window in the café that morning, his usual spot. If he had to be honest, he was a little nervous.
He was meeting an old friend. Rachel Gothel. The two were close in high school, but haven't met in person since then, their careers and lives having kept them apart.
Jack was looking forward to meeting her again.
"Frosty!" said a voice from the door. Jack rose from his chair as he was embraced by a petite young woman.
"Rapunzel" Jack replied, using Rachel's old nickname from school. They sat down at the table, and Rachel ordered a coffee.
Jack could only gaze in wonder at his friend. They were both in their thirties now, but she still looked like she did in senior year. Her hair was shorter, its natural brown as opposed to the long golden braid that had so earned her her nickanme, but if he was honest, Jack thought she looked better this way.
"Good to see you're still beautiful" he said, showing off his signature snow-white smirk, "Guess gravity has set in yet"
Rapunzel could only chuckle at her old friend, even to people like her, Jack was still an incorrigible flirt.
"So" Jack continued, "How's Eugene?"
Rapunzel's smile faltered, "We've been separated for two years now"
Jack stopped smiling "Oh, sorry. I didn't know..."
"I didn't tell you" Rapunzel interrupted "it's no problem"
Rapunzel's coffee arrived. The two sat there for a while, not talking to each other, just enjoying the company.
Jack broke the silence, "You said you have kids now?"
"Yeah, two girls" she replied, "There's Elsa, she's five, and Anna, who's three"
Rapunzel pulled out a picture of her daughters. Jack smiled at the small image in his hands, it was a picture of two girls building a snowman. The older one, Elsa he guessed, was a bright young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Anna, the younger girl, had one of the cheesiest grins Jack had ever seen plastered across her face, her hair a funny reddish-brown tied into a pair of pigtails.
"It's nice to see you finally got out of Burgess" Rapunzel said, taking the photo back "We all knew how much you hated it there growing up"
Jack nodded in agreement. Their hometown, Burgess, while he had nothing personal against the place, it was just too boring for him when he was a kid. So he sought opportunity elsewhere the first chance he got, and he never looked back.
The two continued to talk as the hours of the morning turned to the afternoon. They reordered drinks, their subject now on the topics of their high school years.
"Have you seen him since?" asked Jack. He was referring to Hans, a rich scumbag that Rapunzel had had a short romance with in school. That one hadn't ended well, long story short, Hans had cheated on Rapunzel and got a wrought-iron frying pan to the face for his troubles. Jack chuckled at the memory, he had despised Hans, and any injuries like that were just hilarious to Jack
"No, not in years" Rapunzel answered. "How about Merida? Are the two of you still together?"
Jack smiled sadly back at Rapunzel "No"
"What happened?
Jack looked puzzled for a moment, as if struggling to find the words "We... drifted apart" he settled with "Yeah, we liked each other and it was fun, but our lives were going in different directions so, we decided to call it quits" A smile found itself back on Jack's face "Besides, I hear she's in Queens now, with the "man of her dreams"
Rapunzel smiled "I remember when she said that man was you. You know who the lucky guy is?"
"A man by the name of MacGuffin. I don't know his first name"
Deciding that they had had enough of the café, the pair decided to order some drinks to go and went for a walk.
"Oh!" Rapunzel suddenly exclaimed after about ten minutes of silence, startling Jack (almost making him drop his coffee).
Rapunzel was speaking again "You'll never guess who I saw last week. Remember Henry?"
A massive grin broke across Jack's face "Hiccup? Of course! We were practically best friends!"
It was true, Jack and Henry (or Hiccup as Jack called him) were often mistaken for brothers with their similar troublemaking devil-may-care attitudes, messy brown hairstyles and scrawny builds. The two had last met up about five years ago, when the two ran into each other in Berk, where Hiccup was now living.
"Is he still breeding those lizards of his?" Jack asked. Hiccup always had an obsession with reptiles, or "little dragons" as he would call them.
"Yeah" Rapunzel confirmed "Apparently he's got this big monitor thing living in his house now, and his wife is somehow okay with it!
Jack laughed. Hiccup never changed then.
Rapunzel glanced at her watch, and her eyes went wide.
"Sorry Jack, I've got to get home"
Jack smiled "Relieve the babysitter of her torture?"
"Yep" Rapunzel replied, emphasisng the 'p' sound of the word. This earned a laugh from Jack.
She turned to leave. As she walked away, Jack called to her.
"Hey Punzie!"
She turned to look back at him.
"A lot's happened, hasn't it?" Jack asked. Rapunzel she what he was talking about though.
"Yeah" Rapunzel replied, "Not necesarily all good"
"You ever think if you could, you know, go back and change it all, would you do it?"
Rapunzel smiled at her old friend "No" was her simple reply.
Jack returned her smile "No, me neither"
He turned to walk away "Let's do this again sometime" he called over his shoulder.
"Yeah" Rapunzel called after him.
With her friend out of sight, Rapunzel walked home, and the smile on her face couldn't be any bigger.