CHAPTER SIX

"Friend?" Dad frowned at me, his brow furrowed. "What sort of friend?" I was acutely aware that he was glaring at our joined hands, but I couldn't bring myself to let go of Shane.

"A friend, Dad." I rolled my eyes, tugging on Shane's hand as I walked back to the recording booth. "He's gonna sing with me."

"Hang on, Miley, I can't let just anyone sing with you." Dad protested, Shane stood next to me awkwardly, I wasn't sure if it was his hand or mine that was clammy.

"Dad, just trust me." I bet Shane was still an amazing singer, Dad would be in awe when he heard him.

"Maybe I should go?" Shane suggested, this time I was the one who frowned; Shane was never awkward or nervous before. He was always confident, strong, sometimes even cocky, and he swore a lot.

"No, sing with me." I insisted, not letting him go; I think it was my hand that was clammy, I decided. "Dad, can you playback Red Snow?" I requested, in hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea to choose a song about that night with Shane of all people, but it was the only one I had the music for here right now.

"This song." My eyes darted up to Shane when he spoke, his voice soft and rough, a lot deeper than I remember it. "It's about that night?" Even though it sounded like a question, we both knew it was a statement.

"Yeah." I confirmed, not that I needed to.

"I've got songs like this as well." My breath caught, I wasn't the only one who couldn't keep the thoughts locked inside. "I-I could e-mail them to you if you want." He offered shyly, his cheeks flushing pink.

"Maybe you could play for me instead." I suggested with a weak smile. "... In five years when we meet again." I could understand his desire to not want to be around me after last time, but just having him close by made me feel better; I couldn't imagine having to wait five years again. That's when Dad started the music for Red Snow; a slow, guitar based song. I moved closer to the podium with the music and lyrics on it and pointed to the top of the first page. I felt Shane move closer and felt his body heat as he pressed against my back to read over my shoulder.

My fingers moved absently on the sheet music in front of us, mimicking the movements they'd made on my guitar earlier in the session. I started first, singing the first few lines when my cue came in. I felt Shane smile against my ear and one arm wound around my waist, resting his hand on my stomach, his lithe fingers finding the warmth of my skin between my shirt and my pants.
Shane picked up the second verse of the song and I closed my eyes, enjoying the sound of his voice; deep and gravelly in the right places, thick with emotion, smooth and melodious. His voice made me melt and I almost missed the next cue for the chorus, mixing our voices together.
Even before, when we were on the train, we never sang together; I sang once, he sang a couple of times, but never together. His voice was a little higher then, definitely not as deep, but just as smooth and sweet. It still comforted me like it did five years ago.

2008

"They died." I murmured in realisation as we passed through the flurries of red snow. Red snow! It was blood from the caribou. The way the snow was flying everywhere and the movement of the train that made it go in every direction like a violent blizzard only made the image that much worse; it looked like it was literally snowing blood. But, it wasn't from the sky, it was innocent little snowflakes coated red with the blood of the caribou. The caribou that Shane said was okay. "You lied!" I accused, glaring at the older - kinda cute - boy who had come to stand next to me, looking nervous. "You said they got away, but you lied."

"Most of them did get away." Shane insisted, but the red snow proved he was lying. Snow wasn't supposed to be red.

"Liar!" I frowned, stepping away from Shane. Shane lied to me; after he saved me and he looked after me he was lying to me now, how could I trust anything he said anymore? "You lied, why would you lie?"

"I didn't want to upset you." Shane looked at me with big brown eyes that reminded me of a puppy dog. "You're the first person I actually cared about."

"Yeah right; how do I know you're not always lying? How do I know everything you said hasn't been a lie?" I narrowed my eyes; was it true about his Mom or was he just trying to make me feel sorry for him? 'Cause it was really sad about his Mom if it was true, but really mean if he was lying. Why would someone lie about something like that?

"Miley-" Shane stepped towards me, but I stepped back.

"Get away from me." I yelled, feeling like I wanted to cry. I don't know why I was so hurt by a boy who was rude and mean and I had only known a couple of hours. Maybe because he saved me from being burned so he was kind of like a hero? Except heroes don't lie. "Don't lie to me, stay away." I slammed my hands over my ears as I back away. Shane stood there for a moment, and he looked sad for a little bit, but the last thing I saw before I turned away from him was his pretty brown eyes going hard and angry so they weren't pretty anymore.

My fingers fumbled with the latch on the door and then I was accosted by the icy air. I shivered and clutched the extra long sleeves of Shane's hoodie closer. I looked down and gasped, I could see the tracks racing underneath the train; but worse than that I could see a big chunk of fur and flesh that had once been a living breathing caribou that was stuck under the train. I felt sick, how many of them died? How many are still hurt?
I squeezed my eyes shut and slowly stepped out, the metal connector-thingie felt like icy under my toes and I immediately drew back. I glanced back to Shane, but he didn't care - I guess he lied about that too - he was just sitting in one of the seat with his arms crossed and looking in the opposite direction. I sighed and decided to persevere, when I got to the next cart I would be able to forget about Shane. I bit my lip to keep from crying out at the cold as I stepped out onto the metal again. I was cold, my feet were frozen, I was starting to get wet from the snow, and worst of all this hoodie smelled like Shane and I really liked it. My toes slipped on the metal, I gasped and reached out for the railing. I looked down again and saw red on my toes... I wasn't wearing nail polish, Dad didn't let me wear make-up, he said it made me look too grown up. It was blood. Caribou blood. Those poor caribou!

I finally reached the next cart which was infinitely warmer than outside, and even the cart that Shane was in was colder than here. Everyone was staring at me. Not like they curious 'cause I was the new girl like at school; they were staring at me and pointing and whispering to each other.

"It's that weird girl who burnt those guys." I heard a girl whisper and I looked over to see twin girls whispering to each other, but as soon as they saw me looking they stopped. I looked down to my feet when I felt them squishing into the plush carpet; I was leaving a trail of blood with every step I took and as soon as I noticed it, it didn't take long for everyone else too.

"She probably killed that horrible boy back there." I heard another girl whisper and I dropped my head. Didn't they know about the caribou? Or did they just not care about animals like I did?

"She even took his clothes." I clenched my fists inside the sleeves of Shane's hoodie, they thought I hurt Shane. They didn't even know me, they didn't even try to know me, they all avoided me as soon as Shane brought me onto the train.

I continued through the cart, leaving bloody footprints behind me as I tried to escape their mean stares and words. I kept going through, but I couldn't escape the stares and the whispers, the trail of blood behind me. It got to a point where I was actually running through the carts, trying to escape it, practically jumping from cart to cart until I ran into something solid.

"Well, well, young lady." I was sprawled on the floor after I'd fallen and was now looking up at the conductor.

"Sorry." I mumbled, I just want to get off this train. I don't want to be here anymore.

"Young lady, what is the meaning of this?" He said that a lot, I thought idly. Or maybe it was just to me and Shane. "Traipsing animal blood through the train, scaring the other children, not to mention the railway violations..." I gulped, I know I wanted to get off the train, but I didn't mean I wanted the creepy conductor to throw me off when it was still moving.

"'Scuse me, Sir." Two men in greasy clothes appeared behind the conductor; one of them was fat - like fatter than Uncle Earl - and bald and the other was was really tall and gangly and had a lot of red hair. His beard was so long he had it tucked into the pockets of his overalls.

"What is it?" The conductor snapped at the men, the tall one with the red hair was ringing his hair nervously in his hands.

"The light on the front of the train went out." The tall one said, his eyes flickering from the other man to the conductor to me.

"Well then, I suggest you fix it."

2013

My eyes were focussed on the flickering light in the hall as I came back to the present.
Dad had been blown away by Shane's singing and in the end he'd only left because the store was closing. Whilst Dad had just about fallen in love with my boy, Shane looked more or less uncomfortable. His eyes kept moving over to me as Dad talked to him (I say Dad talked to him because he didn't really participate in the conversation) trying to convince him to sing professionally... Worst of all - though the more I thought about it the more I thought it was best of all - he wanted Shane to sing with me.

The light had been the next thing that went wrong on the Polar Express; the light wasn't meant to go out, Smokey wasn't meant to go out and fix, Smokey wasn't meant to not come back!

I reached for my phone and looked down to my hand, after Shane had finally managed to get away from Dad he'd scrawled his phone number on my hand without saying anything, but I knew what he meant. I crept out of bed, though I didn't really have to creep 'cause Dad was in a different hotel room across the hall. Maybe I should tell the hotel staff that their light was flickering and making me remember things I'd been trying to forget for five years.
Instead I went out onto my balcony and stared at my hand, the numbers were a little faded from when Shane wrote them, but I could still make them out clearly.

"Whoever it is, go fuck yourself, it's, like, three AM." A deep, groggy, knee-weakeningly husky voice snapped when the phone stopped ringing in my ear. I was struck silent for a moment, despite his harsh words his voice was undeniably sexy when he's just woken up. "Fuck, get a life, Asshole."

"Shane!" I finally found my voice, desperately hoping he wouldn't hang up on me.

"Smiles?" His voice turned from angry to soft and nervous in that one word.

"I had a bad dream, Shane." I mumbled, we both knew what it was about.

Congratulations to Kevin and Danielle Jonas on the birth of their child; Alena Rose Jonas. She's realy quite adorable. I especially like the picture of Joe holding Alena, it's now the background on my phone... And it inspired a new story, though I don't know if it's going to amount to anything so I won't be posting it for a while if ever.

Sorry for taking so long lately; I won't give excuses you're all tired of hearing, I'll just say sorry and promise to try better next time.

Also, since I haven't decided for this story. I know what I want to happen and what will happen, I just haven't decided the end yet.
Can you guys, like, vote or something on weather you think Miley and Shane should have a romantic relationship or just friends?