Um. Hi? Long A/N in the bottom tries to explain.
I realized that I left you all with Chelsea sniffing a coat in the snow for five months and then I realized that you probably didn't like that.
Just... Just read it. xP
"Hey, welcome back! How was it this week? Anything especially exciting happen?"
Vaughn rolled his eyes at Riley as they walked down the pier. It was late on Friday night and Vaughn wanted nothing more than to just get back to his apartment and sleep after this last week's work. He really didn't feel like talking much—not that he ever really did—but Riley didn't seem to get that message. In fact, Riley was never that good and knowing when Vaughn wanted him to just shut up.
"Let me alone," Vaughn hissed, his breath creating a white cloud in front of his face. A breeze blew by and Vaughn felt goose bumps spring up on his skin, beneath his thin shirt. Riley noticed as Vaughn shivered, even though the cowboy had made sure to do so discreetly.
"Vaughn, man, where's your coat? Did you lose it or something?"
"Somethin' like that…" Vaughn mumbled, pulling his Stetson down and quickening his pace down the darkened, empty sidewalk. Riley raised an eyebrow at his friend.
"What do you mean? It couldn't have just gotten up and walked off, and you're not the kind to lose things like that. Did someone steal it?"
"Ha," Vaughn snorted, but kept the light scowl on his face. Riley stopped walking, his face stuck like he's just run into a wall.
"Dude," he started, gaping at the cowboy. Vaughn stopped and looked back at him. "Did you just… snort?"
Rolling his eyes, Vaughn continued on towards his apartment. It was just a few blocks away now, and Vaughn really couldn't wait to get inside and be warm. Riley shook himself from his stupor and jogged up next to Vaughn, smirking slightly. Vaughn grimaced—Riley was making it difficult to just go home and, well, be alone. Because that's all Vaughn really wanted right then. He just wanted to sleep.
They finally reached the outside of the apartment building. Vaughn stopped and turned to face Riley, who was clearly interested in Vaughn's change of… well, Riley couldn't place it, but there was something different about Vaughn, and he couldn't help but think that the missing coat had something to do with it.
Vaughn grimaced at the curiosity and suspicion in Riley's face. "Let. Me. Alone."
"Who'd you give the coat to?" Riley asked, taking a guess. Vaughn's eye twitched and he seemed to gain some extra color in his cheeks—Riley smirked. He was spot-on.
"None of your damn business," Vaughn scowled as he turned to open the door. Riley laughed.
"Did that girl seriously wear it when you gave it to her?" Another guess—Riley bit down on his tongue, hoping he'd been right again. Vaughn froze in the doorway for several seconds, his shoulders tense. Finally, he relaxed them.
"Yeah, she did."
Vaughn went inside and shut the door as Riley snorted. Sighing, he brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He hated when Riley was right.
Ooo
Chelsea hurried out of her farmhouse the next morning, smiling as she opened the door to a light sprinkling of perfectly-white snow. It was like there was a giant baker in the sky dusting the island with powdered sugar. Chelsea laughed to herself as she headed towards her barn, clutching the oversized black coat closer to her body.
"Good morning, Daisy," Chelsea smiled as she entered the barn, feeling a wall of surprisingly warm air hit her, "You've got it lucky, you know? It's so nice in here!"
Daisy let out a loud moo and started over towards the farmer, who was getting her brush out. Chelsea knelt down and started stroking the thick, brown hair, patting her calf's side gently as she did. Daisy turned her head and nuzzled her owner, causing Chelsea to laugh softly.
"Oh, Daisy, you goofball," she chuckled, brushing the other side, "You know, you're going to be fully grown soon. Then we can get some milk, and that means we can maybe get enough money to get you a friend or two. Once you're all grown up, the winter will be halfway over, and then Spring will come, and you can go outside again to graze. And I can plant a bunch of new crops, too. We'll make enough money to fix up this farm. I can get a warmer house for next winter, and we can upgrade this barn for you so we can find you even more friends, Daisy—and maybe we can even build a coop and get some chickens!
"Doesn't that sound nice? And we can all sit outside together, and it'll be really great. We'll get an apple tree, just like the one at home. Maybe some bees will come by and make a hive so we can get honey from them… You know what, Daisy? I haven't had honey in a long time. I think I'll get some from Chen's shop after you start making milk. I'd give you some, but I don't think you'd like it very much. Or, at least, I'm not too sure it's that good for you. I'll just plant some fresh grass for you to eat—how 'bout that? You'll like it.
"You know, I'm really glad I decided to get you, Daisy. You're the best cow a girl could ask for. Has anyone told you how good at listening you are? Because you really—"
"Uh, Chelsea?" Julia's voice called from the doorway of the barn. Chelsea's heart jumped up into her throat and she jumped up, dropping the brush and startling Daisy.
"Oh, sorry, Daisy," Chelsea said tightly, her face flushed in embarrassment—how much had Julia heard?—as she tried to calm down the calf by petting her head. Julia giggled.
"You are such a dork, Chelsea," she snickered, her eyes twinkling. Chelsea pouted slightly, still feeling like she could fall into the floor and disappear. Before Chelsea could ask what Julia wanted, Julia was already walking over, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. Chelsea wasn't sure what she was doing—glancing around, Chelsea confirmed in her mind that there was nothing out of the ordinary…
"Whose coat is this, Chels?"
Chelsea cringed. Dang—almost nothing was out of the ordinary. Julia raised her eyebrows expectantly, her hands placed gingerly on her hips. Chelsea sighed. No sense in lying to her, she figured. Besides, she probably recognized the coat already and was just asking to humiliate her.
"It's… uh, it's Vaughn's…" Chelsea muttered, feeling her cheeks heat up a bit. It didn't really occur to her what her wearing the cowboy's coat around implied. Julia's mouth dropped open.
"Wait—seriously? I thought it looked kind of like his, but—wow. When? How? Why? You have to tell me these things, Chelsea. I thought he was a heartless jerk."
Chelsea rolled her eyes. "He's not that bad when you get to know him. I keep telling you that."
"Well, you can't honestly tell me that you expected him to give you his coat, can you?"
"No," Chelsea sighed, frowning slightly, "it was a bit… weird. I mean, it was really, really nice and sweet and stuff, but just—I don't know—weird. Like, I wouldn't think he'd do that."
"But he did. Why?" Julia asked, leaning against the wall with her arms still crossed. Chelsea grimaced and leaned next to her.
"He thought I was too cold, I guess," she shrugged, leaving out the parts about her being too poor to buy anything and how Vaughn insisted that she keep it and, well, just about everything else in the conversation. Julia didn't need to know all that stuff.
"But why on earth would he just give you his jacket?"
"He didn't want me to be cold?"
"But," Julia raised an eyebrow suddenly, looking suspiciously at Chelsea through slightly narrowed eyes, "why does he care?"
"What?" Chelsea asked, suddenly nervous from Julia's attitude change. Was she implying something?
"Vaughn doesn't care about people—at least, that's what I've gathered from him over the last couple months—and now he's giving you the coat off his back because he doesn't want you to be cold?"
"Uh," Chelsea glanced around awkwardly, "yes?"
"Do you know what this means?" Julia pushed off the wall, her eyes shining. Chelsea swallowed, afraid of where this was going.
"That Vaughn isn't mean?"
"No! He's still a jerk," Julia laughed. Chelsea frowned, preparing to protest. Vaughn wasn't a jerk—wasn't this whole situation proof of that? Julia cut her off, smirking, "Chelsea, he totally likes you. Heck, he might even love you."
Chelsea fell silent for several moments, her face hard. And then she cracked up.
"Hey," Julia pouted, confused at Chelsea's reaction, "What gives? That wasn't supposed to be a joke, you know!"
"Bu-But," Chelsea gasped for air, clutching her stomach, "Vaughn can't be in love with me! That's just…"
"True." Julia said, raising her eyebrows stubbornly.
"Crazy."Chelsea amended, frowning slightly. "He doesn't love me."
"Wanna bet?" Julia asked, crossing her arms again. Chelsea shook her head in disbelief. She honestly thought that Vaughn was in love with her. It was so absurd to even think about—absolutely insane. There was no way…
"Julia, I think you read too many romance novels."
Okay, so, um. Excuses. Right. Uh. Sophomore year sucks?
It's been five months. And then I update with something as horrible as this. I'm sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. It was just like this wave of writer's block drowned me... But, yeah. I know you don't want to hear it. Anywho, I know what happens next. I really, truly do. In fact, I have all the major events lined up. The only problem is the things in between them. That's why this chapter took so long-I could not come up with a good little chapter to space it out. Ugh. It kills me, too. You know how, in my very first A/N of this fic, I said i had plot bunnies that would only work in a long fic? Yeah, well, I still haven't gotten to them yet. It's been like ten months and I still haven't gotten to use them. And I really, really want to. So that's why I have no doubt that, no matter what, this fic will be seen through to the end.
And this isn't over until I get to my plot bunnies, darn it.
Yes, this was written between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning. That might explain why it's such crap. It'll probably take another chapter or two before I find my style again. I apologize for that, too. This chapter is pretty much filler, but it covered something necessary. The next one is going to be very similar, but... a lot better. I promise. And I'm going to start it ASAP. Like, within minutes of uploading this one. Honest. I may fall asleep, though. But once it's started, it'll be finished soon, so... yeah.
Do you want to know what actually made this update take so long? Man, you all are going to hate me. Back in August, I was planning on playing a prank on all you people and update with a fake chapter-a chapter in which Vaughn and Chelsea died in a really stupid way and then "end" the fic. Then I was going to update a day later with the real chapter and say it was all a joke, ha-ha-ha, yeah.
I got my writer's block trying to figure out how to fake kill them.
And then I didn't write again until tonight.
It's okay if you want to punch me.
Uh, but anyways, yeah. I have a job now and I play JV basketball along with all my crazy homework and stuff, so it'll be really difficult to update. Honestly, I'm wondering how I'm going to be able to do it. It turns out that I had hyperthyroidism the entire time I was writing this fic, thus enabling me to only sleep for five hours a night. Now I take meds (bahahahaha) that make me normal, so I can't do that anymore. Which means no late-night writing.
Long author's note is long, but it all needs to be said.
I actually wrote my first original work during November (National Novel Writing Month ftw!), so that took up some of my creative juices. Maybe it'll be published someday. HA. YEAHRITE xD
So, I'll see you all next chapter. After that one, things get interesting. I believe I called this the Winter of Angst, right? Hm. Riiiight. xP
NEW FEATURE - CHAPTER STATS (Because it's just nice to know these things)
Word Count (excluding A/N): 1539
Date Updated: 12/31/10
Current Review Count: 132