Hey! Sorry this took me so long. I hope you like this and well, yeah.

Disclaimer: all rights belong to Kelley Armstrong, for this wonder series, and Taylor Swift, for her wonderful lyrics.

Summary: One year is enough. One year causes plenty of damage. And one year of avoidance always causes problems. After one year, Chloe has the biggest challenge to face- feigning nonchalance. Can she do it? Or will she burn, although, she seems more likely to be frozen by the ice of pain and shattered by the hammer of loneliness?

Cold as You

I blew the hair out of my face and shoved the keys into the ignition, turning on the machine. As soon as I did, the car roared to life, as did the C.D. player. I punched the button that switched it to the radio and them slammed it off. The song was playing on both the radio and the CD. A coincidence? I think not.

The date stared me in the face, orange light up letters on a tiny screen, taunting me. I closed my eyes and rested my head against the head rest and sighed, the air blowing through my nose. I put my arm over my eyes and flinched when something hit the corner of my eye. Pulling my arm away, I saw the nuisance:

My watch.

I stared at the numbers that were illuminated on the tiny screen. 6:30. And underneath it, the date. I choked as the little numbers demanded attention, seeming to glare at me. I wanted so badly to look away, but I couldn't. The torturous numbers held me captive until a honk of a car sounded in front of me.

I jumped a little and tore my gaze away from my watch. The garage was open, a black, sleek-looking automobile in the entrance. The red tail lights told me to move and I looked down to switch the gears before my eyes wandered to the rearview mirror and I began to cry; I knew what I would find up there.

I pulled out of the driveway and turned onto the still quiet street, windows dark as the sun just barely began to peek over the mountains. I drove down the silent roads, the silence just as still and hostile in my car no matter how loud the heater roared. I shivered despite the beginning to burn heat. No matter how warm it got, I would always be cold, my heart beating feebly as it tried to keep me alive. Alive for what? I don't know. Most likely more pain.

I stopped at the street light, the red light seeming to glare at me as if to say, "You stupid girl, falling then burning. You didn't even have him burn with you. Stupid girl, don't you learn?"

Just to keep from staring at the light, I glanced in the rearview mirror. A mistake. The black car was behind me, and the still rising sun didn't do anything to hide who sat there. A tall figure sat in the driver's seat, black hair falling in their eyes. Green eyes, hard and guarded. They glared at the back of my car and I flinched. He looked up and met my gaze for a second in the mirror and I quickly looked away, pain flaring in my chest, making it hard to breathe as my heart wailed in agony.

The light changed to green and it did nothing to help me. As I sped towards the interstate, I didn't see how it helped at all. The green might've been the green of spring grass, but it was green. Nothing, not even a difference in shade, made the burden any lighter. I choked as I struggled to keep my sobs down. I pushed harder against the gas pedal and flew down the nearly empty road, doing seventy. Even that wasn't enough to outrun the pain.

Hoping to drown myself out, my cries for him, I turned on the radio.

You have a way of coming easily to me.

The song met my saddened cries and shhed them, as the sweet, sad, pained voice sang. An image of him burned to the front of my mind's eye, every little detail blown up for me to see. The song, plus his picture, urged me to cry. The first, hot tear burned down my face, leaving a hot, salty trail down my face where it pooled in the corner of my mouth. It was the first wave of the dam.

And when you take, you take the very best of me

So, I start a fight 'cause I need to feel something

As the tears spill down my cheeks, I think of all the things that I said. All my retorts. All his replies. All the pain. I think about the fights we got into, where we would both end up crying, wouldn't talk to each other for weeks and then, when one says the other's name, all is forgiven. It was torture, because we would be living in a façade, a lie. We would pretend we were happy, because, we were really just huddling, waiting for the next fight. The next rude words. The next unkind comment. The next shot of pain. The next heart-break.

You do what you want 'cause I'm not what you wanted!

My hands shake and I can barely keep the steering wheel still. My watering eyes make the road blurry and I have a hard time seeing where I'm going, keeping to the correct lane. The exit signs fly past in flurry of black blobs and I blink back the tears, trying to focus on the speedometer.

85.

Oh, what a shame! What a rainy ending given to the perfect day.

A streak of lightning runs across the sky and I begin to notice that my tears were not the only reason I couldn't see.

It's raining.

A crack of thunder surprises me and I let out a yelp. Immediately, I slam the wipers on and the world is open to me. I slow down, bringing my speed to 65. Suddenly, a red light flashes in the corner of my eye. I glance at the road, steady the wheel and look down at it.

I'm low on gas.

Just walk away ain't no use defending words that you will never say.

"I'm sorry." the words ring in my head with the singer's words. "I'm sorry." Those never meant anything. They never have. They don't fix anything. They leave a fake trail of happiness and blindness as you slowly walk away from the pain and keep walking, simply waiting for the next time. For the snake to bite you again. To apologize again. To leave a mark again. To hurt again.

I glance at the road signs that tell me what's at the next stop. A few motels, a couple of restraunts, a few casinos, weirdly enough, but no gas stations. I crank up my speed a little, going to 70, and cross my fingers it will get me to the next exit faster.

About three miles later, I'm staring at more exit signs as they fly past. One says there is a Flying J a few miles away. I pull to the exit lane.

And now that I'm sitting here thinking it through, I've never been anywhere cold as you.

I realize that the song playing on the radio is no longer the song playing in my head, but the lyrics are there anyways.

You put up walls and paint them all the shade of gray.

I turn off the music on the radio and listen instead to the lyrics in my head. I pull up to the light, red shining hazily through the dreary rain as it hailed down on me. As I waited for the light turn to green, my blinker on, I see headlights shining bright right behind me. I looked in the rearview mirror to see nothing beside the two glowing orbs due to the heavy fall of tears from the sky.

It's like the sky is crying with me.

I shake my head, from both the idea and the anonymous car behind me, and turn left, as the light is allowing me to.

And I stood there loving you and wished them all away.

I sigh as I drive down the quiet dirt road, gravel churning underneath my tires, sticky from the rainfall. The silence of the rain batteries e ring against my car was interrupted when my cell phone went off. I dug it out of my back pocket and glanced down at the screen.

BLOCKED NUMBER

I stare sadly at the screen, glancing at the road only to make sure I wouldn't run into a tree. I only knew one person who had blocked their number from me, though I had their number programmed into my phone. I even had it on speed dial. I stared at the number a moment longer before sliding it over with my thumb.

CALL ENDED - YOU HAVE 1 MISSED CALL

Sadness boiled in my stomach as I remember the first time I had answered that exact same number. Having said 'Hello' to the person on the other end, I wasn't expecting to have my heart shattered. Hearing his voice, demanding that- well, I don't remember what it was anymore, but I'd hung up. He'd been furious, he'd called me twice more, but I never answered. I was too broken to only hear him demand things.

But, it also killed me to know that he'd blocked his number. He'd put a wall between us, painful and cutting. It separated us, probably more than it should. But, that wall, it hurt me. I don't know if it hurt him.

I beg everyday for him to take it down. Maybe not verbally, but in my heart. I plead for him to do so.

It might make this simpler, or even better.

And you come away with a great little story. Of a mess, of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you.

Oh, what a shame! What a raining ending given to the perfect day.

I toss the phone into the passenger seat and drive on. My car makes a weird singing sound and I check my gas-

I'll barely make it.

Run splatters against my windshield, making it hard to see even though my wipers are going double time.

Just walk away, ain't no use defending words that you will never say.

My heart burns as I listen to the lyrics in my head. The rain seems to taking on a rhythmic beat, following the song's melody.

Lightning flashes across the sky, my car's tires screech as they hit a particularly nasty bit of mud and my car slams off. I scream as I'm thrown against my seatbelt.

The only sound other than my labored breathing is the sound of the rain hitting my car.

In the middle of nowhere, my car broken down, in the middle of a rainstorm.

And now that I'm sitting here thinking it through,

My phone has zero bars as I slam it shut. How He got a hold of me earlier befuddled me now as I remember the little x by my signal, saying that I couldn't reach out to anyone for help.

I consider screaming. I've always hated that in movies, heroines that scream for help when cornered. However I didn't think anyone would hear me.

I got out of my car, thinking that the Flying J couldn't be much farther. I could buy the gas there, call a tow on the phone, use the bathroom.

My hair was soaked as soon as I closed the door. I shivered underneath my huge coat, wishing that it had a hood. I hurried as quickly as I could to the patch of trees off to the side of the road, hoping they would give me some shelter.

Bright lightning flashed across the sky and it illuminated a tree. I stared at, unsure if I had seen correctly. There was no way that what I saw was what I thought. I lived in Pennsylvania, yes, but we lived two hours or so away from the spot.

I walked over as thunder rolled through the earth, long, dark and lingering. Just like the storm clouds. I touched the trees bark, rough and gritty. The same way bark always is. I brushed my hand over the trunk to see if it was there.

I've never been anywhere cold as you.

My hand hit a mark, like something had dug away at the bark to make a slightly curved line. I followed, trying to figure out what shape it made. Finding a spot where the bark was slightly in the design, like it was jagged; a sharp point. I flinched as I realized what it was:

A heart.

I pulled my hand away just as lightning streaked across the sky and I saw the design.

A heart, a little rusty, but otherwise, flawless in construction. Inside were two initials, a plus sign signaling their devotion.

We'd been silly kids when we did this, but seeing it now, my heart screamed in despair and desolation. The bark held it for eternity, holding it together.

Unlike us.

D + C

We weren't forever. We didn't stand tall. We didn't hold. We shattered.

You never did give a dang thing, honey, but I cried, cried for you.

I yelped when lights suddenly appeared on the tree and I spun around, turning to see a dark shape with two glowing headlights shining on me and the tree. I shielded my eyes from the blinding light, trying to see past the glare.

The lights shut off, as did the vehicle, and the driver's side opened, revealing a tall man. I couldn't make much else of him out, however, he bared down on me and I shrunk into the tree, looking to either side of me for an escape route.

"What were you thinking?" Derek's low, deep, threatening and, to those who knew him well, frightened voice growled.

"I-I-I" I stuttered over my words, unable to comprehend anything.

"Did you think to check you gas mileage before you took off, how much of an idiot are you?" the comment stung, and I snapped back before I even knew what I was doing.

Tears flowed down my cheeks as I said, "A pretty big one, since I ended up with you."

He reeled back as if he'd been slapped. Then, he marched forwards until he was right in front of me, glaring, but beneath the hard angry, green glass was a shattered, hurt look.

"That's not what you said before."

"You weren't like this before."

And I know you wouldn't have told nobody if I died, died for you.

"Chloe," he reached towards me, one hand attempting to snatch my hand. I jumped out of the way, leaving the tree in full view. I may love him, he may hurt me, but I wasn't going to bend. If I lasted a year, I can last forever.

Died for you.

"No Derek." I say, glaring up at him. "Don't try to help me, to try to tell me you love me. I'm not blind any more."

"I- Chloe, I"

"Just go away Derek." I turned away. Another stream of lightning hit the sky.

Derek gasped and I looked back to see him staring at the tree. "This is our tree." He whispered. "From out first kiss."

"Yeah." I'm about to go back on my way when he blurts out, "Do you remember Springsteen?"

"Springsteen, the song?" I'm confused. He hated that song.

"Mm-hmm."

Oh, what a shame! What a rainy ending given to the perfect day... Ahh!

Every smile you fake is so condescending, counting all the scars you've made.

I sang the first few bars of the chorus. "When you think it about me, Do you think about seventeen? Do you think about my old Jeep? Think about the stars in the sky?"

"Funny how a melody, sounds memory. Like a sound track to July, Saturday night." He sang back in his sweet, deep base. "That was our song."

"Our song? How about the song I listened to over and over again and tried to get you to sing but you thought it was ridiculous." I mumbled, remembering how I'd crank it up in my room, when we were home alone, in the car anywhere I could get away with. He never sang along.

"Chloe, I know you love that song. I hear you playing it everyday on your radio. Please, I'm so-"

"Sorry?" I snapped, angry with the cursed word. "You're saying sorry? For what? Making me live everyday with this sadness and pain? For killing me and leaving me? Don't say you're sorry, Derek, when sorry is just another empty promise."

"Chloe!" He grabbed my arm and pulled me in front of the tree, pointing at the heart.

And now that I'm sitting here, thinking it through,

"Chloe, so you see this? Do you see this?"

"I see it, Derek!" I said, wanting to get away from him. The way his body pressed against mine, his arm holding me there brought back memories- memories I didn't want to see.

"It's been here for eight whole years! Tell me, we've been together seven of those! If we could work through that, we can work together now!"

"What have you been drinking?" I whispered. "We're done for. We're over. We-"

"And yet we're still living in the same house. If we can do that, we can fix this. Chloe, please."

"Derek, I- I can't!" I felt the warm tears slide down my cheeks, combining with the cold rain droplets. "Everyone leaves, nobody stays. And you, you promised to stay by my side, and look where we are now! Love- it's bittersweet. Derek, I can't do it, not again."

"Chloe, please." He moved to face me, placing both hands on my shoulders. "We can do this, give me a second chance."

"At what, Derek? At putting on a show? Fooling me?"

"No," his face was so close I could feel his breath on my lips. "A second chance at loving you."

He just waited there, mouth inches from mine, simply waiting for me to seal the deal. I touched his lips, and I was immediately fifteen again. Brave, wild and free. But, the thing is, I really had never been anywhere as cold as him.

I've never been anywhere cold as you.

And here's Cold as You by Taylor Swift. I hope you liked it, thanks for reading. And the next short, Let Her Go by Passenger, should be out within the month.

-Jo