Picking up the bottle of hair wax, Elmer von Fersen snapped open the lid and squeezed a decent-sized amount of the pale orange, thick solution. He quickly shut the lid back down with his free hand and set it down on the table. He licked his lips, sighed and rubbed the wax into his hands. Elmer sniffed gently as he heard a creak come from the door in his room at the log cabin.
He turned around to see his girlfriend, Eloise Kahane, and two skiing instructors, whose names at this point were unknown to Elmer, waiting at the door. Smiling as he began styling hair in front of the mirror filed with fingerprints, and beckoned Eloise to come into the room. Catching the hint, she smugly strolled into the room and giggled coyly as she wrapped her hands around his waist. He became jokingly agitated and pushed her off cheekily to continue finished his hair.
"Calm down! You'll be wearing a hat anyway." Eloise turned around to pick up his phone from the coffee table that was stained with cigarette ash and where tepid cups of coffee sat before being spilt. Clicking the large obsidian button in the centre of Elmer's phone, Eloise allowed his phone's screen to flash into life, bringing a pale blue light into the room. After checking the time, she locked the phone and handed it to Elmer, but he was unable to take it as he hands were sticky from the wax. As a result, Eloise chuckled and snuck the phone into the front pocket of his jeans.
"What's the time?" Elmer wiped the remainder of the gummy wax for his hair onto the nearby towel, before casually lobbing it over to the sofa.
"Time to get a watch!" Eloise giggled and leant into Elmer and held a hand on his stomach. He winked at her before grabbing her waist and picking her up. They were soon locked in a kiss that was tender but satisfactory for the pair. Just then, one of the two skiing instructors coughed abruptly, interjected the duo. Elmer pulled away whilst holding Eloise up still. He glanced over to the instructors and chuckled awkwardly.
"Sorry." He dropped Eloise softly onto the floor. He turned and grabbed his hat and placed it on his head, before rearranging it several times. Then, he was pleased with the result. He turned back to the instructors and took Eloise's hand.
"Do you mind hurrying up?" The woman said, approaching Elmer. She spoke in a brash and surprisingly low tone. She came off as intimidating to Elmer, but he remained calm, provided he still held Eloise's hand in his.
"Becca?" The man followed her meekly. He placed a pale hand on her shoulder, prompting her to turn around. "Be nicer please?" He smiled shyly and she turned back around, bitter.
"I seem to have forgotten my manners." She stood up straight and pulled down her uniform. "I am Becca Sharp; I will be one of the three skiing instructors with you today." She spoke in a reluctant but polite tone to the boyfriend-girlfriend team.
"I'm Hayden." He took his hand out from inside his pockets and pulled it out for Elmer to shake. Elmer grasped it and shook it firmly. "Hayden Rockwell." He smiled and nodded, before stepping back. "Another instructor." He hastily added.
"Nice to meet you both." Elmer replied with an affable edge to his voice. He continued. "I apologize if I held the skiing group up in anyway." Eloise smiled at him.
"We're really both excited to be skiing, you know." She clenched onto his arm now, and giddily stared back over to Becca and Hayden.
"We'll leave you to finish getting ready." Hayden nodded and tapped Becca on the arm, signalling her to exit the room with him. With attitude, she did.
After their departure, Eloise rolled her eyes and looked at Elmer. They both knew what the other was thinking and simultaneously guffawed, with a flirtatious vibe.
"She's such a bitch!" Elmer laughed as he turned and picked up his scarf and jacket from the peg near the table he was preparing his look at.
"She really is!" Eloise placed a hand on Elmer's back as they giggled. "You looking forward to this skiing thing then?" Eloise inquired, but Elmer only shrugged.
"I don't know, I guess I am." He coughed nervously as he wrapped the scarf around his neck.
"Are you scared or something?" She jokingly said, turning to sit down. After a short pause, Eloise looked up. "No wait, what?" She chortled joyfully. "You really are, aren't you?"
"No!" Elmer raised his voice a little, but not enough to ruin the humour in the atmosphere. Eloise stared at him with intent as he bit at his thumbnail. He gave in. "Okay, I am." He sat down, apathetically.
"Look, nothing can go wrong, Elmer!" Eloise smiled.
"How do you know?" Elmer clicked his fingers one by one, to highlight his fear.
"There are going to be three skiing instructors looking after about twenty of us." Eloise stood up and strolled over to Elmer and sat on his lap, lightly.
"I'm a little apprehensive about it." Elmer clasped his hands around Eloise's and sniffed.
"At least you're not like that Zane-Nathan." Eloise teased.
"What?" Elmer snickered slightly.
"He's full-on freaking out." Eloise ridiculed the pathetic twenty-two year-old that was Zane-Nathan.
"Really?" Elmer turned noticeably sombre about the situation, thinking why he was.
"He read on-line that avalanches occur twenty to thirty times a year in some places, and that one hasn't happened here for about five months." Eloise rubbed her hand over Elmer's chest while he evidently thought about the poor guy.
Outside, Zane-Nathan was indeed working himself up for a fright. Attempting to calm him down was thirty-something year-old woman dressed in the grey and green skiing instructor outfit. Zane-Nathan, a timid physiologist, travelled to Elk Skiing Resort 180 in Bern, Switzerland from Berks County, Pennsylvania with his friends.
"Just calm down, okay?" The skiing instructor's efforts were in vain. She placed two hands on his shoulders in an attempt to reinforce some comfort in the wreck.
"Get the fuck off me!" Zane-Nathan ripped her hands off his body. "Who the fuck are you anyway?" His face was turning a shade of red subtly.
"I apologize, sir." The woman said, rubbing her hands together. "I am Matija. One of the skiing instructors." She smiled at him as he looked up, still flustered, although much more serene now.
"Is it true?" He asked, panting a little from his freak-out.
"Is what true?" She replied, cocking her head to one side, almost comically.
"That there hasn't been an avalanche here for five months. Is it true?" Zane-Nathan's face was fading into a more natural hue now.
"Yes that's true." Matija laughed and stood up straighter. "Isn't that a good thing?" She hesitantly rubbed his arm.
"But avalanches happen about twenty times a year." Zane-Nathan looked up and pushed his glasses up. They were now sitting comfortable on the bridge of his nose, stained with tears.
"That depends entirely upon the location, sir." Matija grinned a little at him, slightly sinister. "Now why don't you get some coffee and calm down, yeah?" She gave off a friendly aura, to which Zane-Nathan could only counter with an insignificant nod.
"I'm sure he'll be okay anyway." Eloise's smile widened as she saw Elmer cheerily beaming at her, letting there be a romantic and jovial moment between the two of them.
"He'll be fine." Elmer put his hand in Eloise's black hair and twirled it around in his fingers. "Your hair is awfully soft today." He winked at her.
"Thanks." Eloise cracked another smile. "Shelly let me borrow some of her shampoo yesterday."
"How is Shelly?" Elmer loosened his grip from Eloise as he took his phone out of his pocket and into his hand.
"She's good, I guess." Eloise answered.
"Is she looking forward to going to the skiing lesson?" Elmer asked.
"She couldn't stop talking about it!" Eloise rolled her eyes. "If she wasn't talking about breaking up with Kane, she'd be talking about skiing!" Eloise suddenly realised she disclosed her friend's secret as she saw Elmer's face snap into shock.
"What?" He asked, leaning his head forward in bitter amazement.
"Shit." Eloise muttered and escaped from Elmer's clutches. "Just forget I said anything."
"No, I can't just forget you said that, what was that?" Elmer grew angry, still gripping his phone.
"Baby, forget it." Eloise tried to turn soft so she could melt away Elmer's worries, yet it failed.
"My best friend is going to be dumped by the woman he was about to propose to?" Elmer seethed, not realising he too had just revealed his friend's secret.
"What?" Eloise leant back in utter awe.
"He was about to propose to her." There was no use in wriggling out of this one, so Elmer just elaborated.
"That's horrible." Eloise sighed. "She just doesn't feel like..." She paused and bit at her index finger nail. "Like he's... mature enough." Eloise gazed at Elmer for a while.
"I... can kinda see where she's coming from." Elmer sniffed.
"She'll probably be going to do it now." Eloise groaned. "But just forget about, okay?" She smiled docilely in the direction of Elmer, despite not actually looking at him.
Strutting down the hallway, Shelly Bolles was ready to get rid of the baggage that had been holding her back for the past two years and ten months. Kane Tiller, her rather ridiculously rowdy and somewhat childish boyfriend. Whipping her hair side to side, she pushed her flat shoes into the ground with every stomp, continuing down the never-ending corridor.
Once she found the end, she was satisfied that she'd made a mark on any individual watching, which indeed there had been none, and continued her journey onto the stairs.
Shelly found herself become a little giddy with excitement over the fact that she'd be rid of that silly Kane. He was no good for her anyway, always drunk and hitting on other girls, flirting with them like she wasn't there. Shelly and Kane rarely had sex, and when they did, Shelly ended up having to entertain herself with reading a book after Kane finished early because he was 'in a rush', or whatever particular excuse he had decided to use that evening.
She bounced down the stairs, thrilled with anticipation to not have to deal with him for much longer. Shelly smiled as she saw her friend at the foot of the stairwell, and she became more and more exultant with every step she took down the stairs.
"Hey Shelly!" The woman grinned, opening her arms for a hug. Shelly embraced her closest friend, Maggie Wales, for what felt like a couple of minutes, but in reality was a few short seconds. "You ready to do this?" Maggie gave Shelly some eye-contact to kick her adrenaline up another notch.
Maggie was a waitress with Chinese descent, who wasn't too sure what she wanted to do with her life. Then again, being eight years junior to Shelly, she had much time to think of what route she wanted to take. Most likely she'd be pushed into some form of medicine by her parents, despite complaining of the classes. She had no interest however in fashion, journalism, literature, science, technology, animal care, construction, catering, performing or horticulture, so there weren't many directions left for Maggie to take, so she'd befriended Shelly Bolles to help her with an occupation. This developed into a healthy friendship.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" Shelly flipped her long blonde hair from side to side and hollered with joy. She flattened out her pink jumper as she zipped up her gray hoodie, subsequently proceeding to scratch her forehead, to try and cool herself off slightly.
But she couldn't contain her excitement.
"Do you know what you're going to say to him?" Maggie placed a hand on Shelly's shoulder and shot her an ever-so slightly austere look.
"Get the fuck out of my life?" Shelly giggled and flipped her hair once more as Maggie and her collapsed into a miniature fit of chuckles.
"I'll leave you to it; I'll go meet Eloise and Elmer." Maggie playfully pushed Shelly towards the reception of Elk Skiing Resort 180 and gave her one last look before leaving to meet her two friends. "You go girl!" She left Shelly with one last motivational phrase to try and ease her into a more sensible tone, but it didn't work.
Shelly had never felt such a strange cocktail of emotions. She was abundant in jittery hope that was mixed with a diminutive dash of morose misgiving and sullen scruple. She honestly could not wait.
Making his way to the reception, like asked, was Kane, a considerably stubborn man that was athletically able. Confident and crowd-pleasing, he was much-loved by his peers, as well as a significant amount of strangers in his home-town of Berks County.
Hitherto he was never rude to Shelly; he just never made his true feelings clear to her. Those being feelings of love, feelings of passion, feelings of vehement desire. Kane was ready to take their thirty-four month relationship to a new level, that being marriage. He was about to propose to her, now all he had to do was wait for her arrival.
Kane didn't have to think twice about asking Shelly to marry him. Despite her being three years older than him, he understood that she was a rebellious lady who wasn't one to be messed with. Kane respected that. She could be down-to-earth, but that took time. Kane had time. He took the time to get to know her over months and months before they officially started their relationship.
After they became legitimate, Kane almost took her for granted. He acted as if she was absent from him, he would never pay her enough attention and he'd always leave her doubting their status.
But Kane was ready to change. Ready to adapt to how Shelly wanted him to be. He was going to make that clear today. He'd be sure that she knew how he really felt, and the ultimate proof of this was a proposal. Kane was cocky, and knew he'd be accepted by her. Not a shred of disbelief that Shelly would reject him lingered in Kane's mind.
"I hope Kane and Shelly don't affect the skiing class." Elmer pondered the subject.
"Well they'll have to suck it up." Eloise grew more and more serious. "They came here together, they'll leave here together." She spat as the words rolled off her tongue.
"Okay, no need to get worked up about it." Elmer side-hugged his gorgeous gal to make sure she knew he was there for her.
"I just don't want us to end up like that." She gazed upwards to Elmer.
"That will never happen, babe." Elmer tightened his already firm grip on her to reassure her. "I'll always love you." He gently kissed her head and she reluctantly smiled.
"If you say so." She replied, somewhat discontent, but the matter was not up for discussion as she flipped the topic. "Come on, let's go." She picked up her jacket and threw it around her shoulders as Elmer scurried out of his room after her.
He looked back at his perfectly neat room before nodding and flicking the light off, leaving the room to be swallowed by a shadow and encased in a black bubble.
Boyfriend and girlfriend William Long and Flavia Castillo had finished getting ready thirty minutes prior to everyone before them. They were always punctual and were extremely organized at every detail in life, from getting to a meeting at the right moment, to having their hair styled down to each individual hair strand.
William led an interesting and somewhat dishonest life. Riddled with tattoos as if he was a schoolgirl's notebook, he stood at six foot, a lofty companion for his girlfriend. William was always a soppy fellow and tried to mask this by having his tattoos and attempting to lead a more rugged life than he had originally prepared for. He occasionally spoke of an alter-ego he had, which often annoyed his counterpart, named Falcon.
Falcon had developed when William was exiting his teenager years, just shy of a decade ago, to help him become tougher and to increase his masculinity. Yet it backfired, as all Falcon provided to William's life was stress. Falcon was perfect. Well, what William wanted to become. Because of this, William grew shy and lacked self-esteem, becoming puny in comparison to Falcon.
Flavia was always an upbeat girl who never hated and saw only the good in other people. Born and bred in Spain, Flavia moved to Berks County Pennsylvania as a twenty year-old, and soon met William. Being pushy on the rare incidence was her only downfall, but even this didn't matter to him. She never expected much out of life and often channelled her sorrows into her one greatest passion; dance.
Flavia danced whenever the opportunity arose for her to do so. She had a drive for it as it was the only way she could express herself fully. Flavia's passion had started as a young girl in Spain after watching a dancing couple on the television, and soon enough she was hooked, begging her mother to take her to dance lessons.
William and Flavia came to Elk Skiing Resort 180 with Elmer, Eloise, Kane and the rest of them, on a getaway holiday. Soon enough they'd changed their minds and wanted it to become some sort of couple's retreat, deeming Zane-Nathan and Maggie illegible for the trip. But this was thought up on the plane journey to the skiing resort, so William and Flavia had to deal with it.
"You looking forward to skiing today?" Flavia jovially asked.
"I really am." William was going to be himself today. At least that's what he was telling everyone around him.
"You gonna be yourself?" Flavia smiled. It was funny for her to think of William not trying to be like that silly alter-ego Falcon.
"I told you, I'll try." William placed a heavy hand upon Flavia's shoulder.
"Okay." Flavia kissed him on the cheek before picking up her goggles from the side-table. She placed them around her neck, ready to ski.
"They all better hurry up." William looked at his watch with intent, as if he was trying to speed up time, but in vain.
The couple were waiting in the reception when they heard Shelly's footsteps coming from around the corner. Flavia smiled as she recognized the sassy quality that was flooding into the room now. She nodded and looked at William and couldn't resist a giggle.
As Elmer and Eloise left for the reception, they too heard footsteps approaching. Only for them it was Maggie's feet.
"Hey guys!" It was indeed Maggie, and she greeted the duo with her arms open, ready for a hug. Eloise grinned wide as she paced towards her and held her in a tight hug.
"You alright?" Elmer asked Maggie, almost a little confused as to why she had come up to greet them.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Maggie pulled out of Eloise's grip as she spoke.
"I was just wondering why you came up here, that's all." Elmer stated.
"Oh." Maggie sniffed. Eloise could sense the awkwardness between the pair and decided to bring up the topic of skiing again.
"You ready to ski?" Eloise asked to which Maggie smiled and nodded.
"Raring and ready to go!" She laughed. Elmer chewed his lip as the trio marched down the stairs, to the reception of the ski resort.
Kane was now entering the reception and spotted Shelly. She seemed a little off to him.
"Hey!" He ran up to her and scooped her up, throwing her around in his arms. Shelly didn't seem her happiest.
"Hi Kane." She murmured. Now she was actually about to break it off with him, she felt guilty.
"You okay?" Kane rested a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
"I'm just gonna tell you." She smiled, nervous. She flipped her hair out of her face and licked her lips.
"Okay." Kane took her by the arm and sat her down. "I have something to tell you too." Kane smiled, not anxious in the slightest.
"I need to go first." Shelly sighed. She looked up at her gleeful boyfriend as she sat up straighter. "We've been... together for almost three years now."
"I know!" Kane interrupted, proud of their accomplishment.
"Ah, yeah." Shelly sniffed. "But, I need to say something important." Kane didn't understand what she was getting at. "I'm... breaking up with you, Kane."
Kane's face crumpled and fell completely flat. He came across as not only melancholy but also frustrated. Shelly didn't want him to be angry; she only wanted him to understand.
"What?" Kane's voice cracked.
"I don't want to be with you anymore." Shelly confirmed. Kane scratched his chin with a wavering and shivering hand.
"I do." Kane murmured.
"Kane, we can't do this anymore." She groaned back at him.
"I was going to ask you to marry me." Kane whispered to her.
"What?" Shelly replied, stunned by his revelation.
"I wanted to marry you, Shelly." Kane stood up and dropped the ring out of his pocket, not looking back.
Shelly picked up the small, diamond ring from the ground and smiled sweetly. She thought to herself.
Kane brushed a tear from his eye and continued walking until he saw Elmer, Eloise and Maggie come down the stairs.
Matija and Zane-Nathan had just come back from their quick coffee break, and they were both buzzing with anticipation.
"You seem a lot happier now." She told her with a friendly smile.
"Thanks. I'm just a lot calmer now." He giggled a little.
"Ready to ski?" Matija asked as Zane-Nathan grinned, giddy.
"Yeah!" Zane-Nathan was elated as he picked up his pace and walked to William and Flavia in the reception.
Becca and Hayden were now approaching the reception too, and saw the small skiing class.
"I thought there was supposed to be about twenty of them today." She moaned.
"Obviously not." Hayden sighed.
Flavia and William had been chit-chatting to Zane-Nathan. Eloise, Maggie and Shelly were wrapped in their own gossip. Matija had greeted Becca and Hayden. Kane was deep in conversation with Elmer.
"She just broke up with you?" Elmer tried to sound shocked, but he knew what would happen. Eloise had told him.
"Yeah. Just like that." Kane was obviously trying to contain his tears.
"That sucks, man." Elmer placed a hand on Kane's arm in empathy.
Hayden clapped to get the group to pay attention.
"Now! There obviously is a significant number drop in the amount students we thought would be going to be going up to the mountains, but that's okay!" He shouted to them.
"Everybody just grab your skiing shit and we'll go on up!" Matija laughed as she spoke.
