Disclaimer: Please see previous chapters. Thank you.

A/N: Look! Look! I posted something. Good for me. I hope you all like this chapter. As stated in previous chapter, not sure how often I'll be able to post this week. School and studying are taking up most of my time. But, I may get another chapter or two up. We'll see. So, read, review, and enjoy. –Alia G. L.

Chapter 13: Friendship

Due to my little adventure in the snow, I spent the next week with a terrible cold. I was constantly sneezing and coughing. Poor Louise. She must have had to have gone out every day over the course of the week to by me new handkerchiefs. I was going through them faster than they could be cleaned. There were no such things as Kleenexes back then. A pity, because I sure could have used some.

Erik said I should have known better than to go out in the snow and throw snowballs. I retorted that if he hadn't thrown them back, I wouldn't be sick. His reply was that if I hadn't pulled him down, we'd never have had this problem. I pointed out that it was him who had thrown the snowball that had made me fall in the first place. He just laughed at that. In reality, I didn't care about the cold. It wasn't life threatening and the snowball fight had been worth it. And the cold went away fairly quickly. Soon my thoughts turned to other subjects.

My birthday was fast approaching, it being in the middle of January. I didn't tell Erik or Louise, though. When it came about, I celebrated it quietly by myself. I used it as a time to remember my parents, brother, and friends, who, at the moment, were lost to me. Erik noticed I was different and more subdued on that day but contributed it to some other past event, i.e. my fleeing America. So, without ceremony, I turned nineteen.

A few more months flowed by. Erik and I soon became the best of friends. We talked of everything and nothing. We discussed politics, weather, America, Paris, fashions, painters, and many other brilliant subjects. Erik proved he was the genius the movie and book claimed he was. He'd sit down with me and explain the intricacies of paintings and buildings and even politics, which was my worst subject. He was so full of knowledge. Only one subject was off-limits: our pasts. We both guarded those as if they were precious treasures.

We continued to go to the park every day, and if not every day, every other day. It soon became a ritual. The snow and rain never bothered us. We'd walk around and if I could remember them, I'd tell him the names of plants and animals and any legends I knew about them. Erik was into legends and myths. I wonder what he would have thought if I'd told him that in my world, he was a legend.

Sometimes I'd bring a book and read it out loud in some secluded spot. We avoided other people at all costs. Erik was still nervous about the mask and always kept it hidden from view. That meant if we ran into someone, he'd turn his face to the side. I felt terrible for him, but I knew he'd have to get over it.

Slowly, I was breaking through the ice that had surrounded his heart since Christine's rejection. He trusted me more and our friendship blossomed with the coming spring. I don't believe he was in love with me, though. I was in love with him, but he wasn't ready for that. I prayed often that I wouldn't do anything to cause his heart to freeze over again.

I wore Erik's bracelet whenever I could. Of course, doing chores around the house wasn't conducive for priceless bracelets, so I normally just wore it for dinner and while Erik played the piano. He only commented on it once.

"I see you're wearing the bracelet I gave you." He pointed to the silver bracelet encircling my wrist. We were upstairs and I had been reading to him out of my fairy tale book.

"Yeah." I smiled and turned the bracelet around on my wrist. I did that a lot when I was nervous or at a loss for words. "It's gorgeous. Too bad housework doesn't go too well with it." He nodded and said it was a shame. That was the only time he mentioned the bracelet.

I made another interesting observation about the Phantom. I don't think he ever meant for me to see it and the minute he noticed it was out, he shoved it back under his shirt. "It" was the ring Christine had given him. He wore it always on a chain around his neck. I dared not ask him where it came from, though I already knew. He also knew that I had seen it. It became another topic that was off limits to discuss.

June came on with beautiful weather. Our hours spent at the park increased. Since I never told them my birthday, Erik threw a small party for me on the anniversary of my coming to live with him. It was nothing fancy. Louise baked a cake and we had a nice dinner. I didn't receive any gifts.

Though he never spoke of it, I knew Erik was running out of money. Let's just say it was woman's intuition. He could have only put so much away from when he lived at the opera house. He needed a job. Being the person that I was, I tried to see what I could find. And I found the perfect one for him…