Have fun, my minions!
"What have you written?" Kristoff asks, leaning over Sven to get a better view of my arm.
"Just a poem that I remembered." I have the sudden urge to pull the sleeve back down, to hide the words written on my bare arm from his eyes, but that would smudge it, and I refuse to have my hard work erased.
"Do you often write poems on yourself with eyeliner pencils?" he asks warily.
I laugh. "Only when I have no other choice."
"You can't use that poem for your song, though, can you?"
My euphoria from finally coming up with an idea is beginning to wear off, and his question pulls me back to reality. "No, I can't. But it gave me an idea."
He's about to respond when a ringing comes from his pocket. He glances down, as if surprised that his coat is making noise, then pulls out a phone that looks strangely small in his big hands. One click of a button and the screen returns to black.
"That was my summons," he says, raising himself to a standing position slowly. "Sven and I have to get home now."
I stay sitting, unsure of whether or not I'm supposed to shake his hand or something. "Okay, have a good night, Kristoff."
He smiles kindly at me. "Thanks Elsa, you too."
"And," I say, as he's turning away, "thank you for listening to me. I'm sure I probably bored you."
"Actually, I found it to be very interesting." He looks thoughtful for a moment. "I'm glad I got to meet you here tonight."
"Me, too."
"Okay, well, I guess I'll see you later." He looks a bit flustered, running his hands through his hair and making it stand up on end. "Come on, Sven." The big dog gets up and trots after him willingly. I sit and watch until their figures have melted back into the trees, and then turn to the water again.
I'm glad that I met Kristoff here. It's nice to know that there are truly good people in the world, who won't judge you for things that are out of your control. What a nice person, I think. If only he and Anna would get together…
"Anna!" Holy crap, the game's probably over right now. My sister and cousin are at home, wondering where I am and worried sick. Shit. Here I am, causing problems yet again. I rummage through my purse for my phone, but it's dead. How convenient. Now they probably think that I've been kidnapped and sold into slavery or something.
I am going to be in so much trouble.
I hastily throw my useless phone back into my purse and scramble to my feet, disregarding the leaves that are stuck to my jeans. It's only about a minute's quick jog to get back to a sidewalk from the pond, but I run anyway. It's going to take me forever to get home. Why did I ever think that walking was a good idea.
"Stupid. This whole thing is stupid, Elsa. Only you could get into a situation like this." I mutter to myself as I fast walk down the street. I've only made it a few blocks when a car pulls up next to me. In the semi-darkness of the streetlights, I can't tell what color it is, besides the fact that it's dark. I walk faster.
As it falls behind, I hear the driver's door open, and I pick up my pace. I can hear shoes hitting the concrete, following me. I glance back just long enough to see a patch of dark hair before my pursuer collides with me, knocking both of us onto the pavement. I'm too scared to scream, but I hit in the chest my tackler a few times before I realize that I know this person.
"Jack?"
"What the hell are you doing, Elsa?" My estranged best friend's eyes spark and burn into mine, full of frustration and anger and…relief.
"What am I doing? What are you doing? Why are you chasing me?" I shoot right back. I realize that we're still on the ground, with Jack leaning over me, and it probably doesn't look very good. But I don't care. I'm mad.
"Chasing you? I wasn't chasing you!"
"Yes, you were. What else would you call the fact that you were running after me down a street and that you tackled me to the ground?" I move to push him off of me, but he catches my hands in his own.
"I was looking for you!" he roars into my face.
What? Why would he be looking for me? It registers in my mind that his hair is damp, and that he smells like what I would imagine a football player who has just showered after a game would smell like.
My silence prompts him to continue. "After the game, I got a call from Rapunzel. She was freaking out and asked me if I knew where you were. Why in the world would you try to walk all the way home from the stadium?" he demands angrily. The grip of his hands on mine increases.
"It's not that far," I manage to spit out, pulling my hands from his before he breaks something. I like to consider myself to be a mainly even-tempered person, but my anger seems to be feeding off of Jack's right now, and it's hard to reel it in.
"It's at least five miles, Elsa."
"No, it can't be."
"You really don't want to argue with me on this one." Jack seems to have regained at least some of his composure, and judging by the look on his face, he's finally realized the awkward position that we're both in. He sits back on his heels, his eyes never leaving my face.
I prop myself up on my hands and take a look around. His car is still idling by the curb about thirty feet away from us, and from this distance, I can't tell if there's anyone else in it or not. A glance to the side, though, and I'm overcome with embarrassment. There are lights on in at least three houses right in front of where we are, and I can clearly see faces pressed against windows, watching the show. Jack follows my gaze, and immediately pulls me to my feet.
"Come on," he says a little impatiently, keeping a hold on my hand as he marches quickly back to his car.
As soon as the doors slam, enclosing us in the small space, my anger begins to ebb away and be replaced with sheepishness. I turn my face away towards the passenger side window to keep Jack from seeing.
"What were you thinking? Why didn't you answer your phone? What could've possessed you to make you think that walking five miles home in the dark by yourself was a good idea?"" As soon as Jack speaks, my anger returns.
"Why would I tell you?" I demand, rounding on him. "You probably wouldn't believe me anyway, since I'm such a good liar and all."
He looks shocked. "Elsa, you know I didn't really mean that, right?"
I scoff.
"No, really. It just…it just slipped out, and I didn't mean it. I'm really sorry." He leans over to take my hand, but I move it away, out of his reach.
"Jack, don't." The expression on his face makes my heart hurt, but I don't soften.
His ice-blue eyes bore into my false green ones, apparently searching for something, possibly some resemblance to the girl that used to be his best friend, but I know that he won't find her. The contacts have taken care of that. And I hope it bothers him.
"You know, you really haven't changed all that much."
I blink. That's not what I was expecting him to say.
"I mean," he continues, "your hair is still different, and your eyes are…different, but you look the same, and you act the same. I can't believe I didn't recognize you the first day I saw you on that computer screen."
"That's because you weren't looking for me."
He shakes his head. "You're wrong. I looked for you in the face of everyone I saw. At school, online, just walking down the street. I looked for you everywhere. And I never saw you. And then you were literally sitting right in front of me, and I didn't see you."
"You still don't," I say in a low voice.
He furrows his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"You look at me" I gesture with one hand from him to me. "You look at me and you don't see the person that I used to be. You don't see the person who fought monsters with you and got into trouble with you and who shared secrets with you." My voice catches, and I have to pause and clear my throat before continuing. "You don't see Elsa. You don't see me. You look at me, and you see a stranger." Tears begin to well up in my eyes, and I try to rub them away, but only succeed in blurring my vision more. I want so badly to reach out and embrace my friend, to tell him how much I miss him, but I can't. He sees me as a stranger.
Jack finally looks away, breaking the moment between us. He puts his hands on the wheel, but the car remains immobile. I watch his hands, unable to look at his face again, and I realize that they're shaking.
"Take out your contacts."
"What?"
"Take out your contacts," he repeats. "I want to see your eyes again."
I stare at him for several seconds before I realize that he's serious. Dead serious.
"Okay," I say, and lean down to retrieve the contact case from my purse. As I'm unscrewing the caps, the thought flits through my mind that this probably isn't the best idea in the world, but it's too late to turn back now. I remove the first lens, and then the other, and have to blink a few times to get used to the world through my real eyes again.
"Look at me." The request comes out as a whisper, but I can hear the desperation edging his voice.
I rotate in my seat slowly to face him. As my eyes meet his, I suck in a breath and keep it, refusing to release until I know how Jack will react. Blue meets blue. Just like how it used to be.
We stare in silence until it almost seems to be a contest. To see who will keep staring at the other the longest, and I refuse to be the first to look away. Then I notice a smile starting to creep its way across his face, the same grin that I've craved to see ever since I started to think of him as more than a friend, all those years ago. My heart begins to pound in my chest, so loudly that I'm sure he can hear it.
"Elsa." I'm locked in the gaze now, almost as if he were hypnotizing me. His expression is confident, now, as he leans toward me. "I see you."
I bite my lip, trying to keep the emotions that are raging inside my chest to myself. He moves closer, so that we are almost nose to nose. "Elsa," he says again, and I close my eyes as the sound of his voice saying my name washes over me.
And then, the gentlest pressure of his lips on mine. My eyes fly open in surprise, but only for a moment. I reach my right hand up, tentatively, and touch his face, and that's all it takes.
He pulls me closer, or as close as the car seats will allow, and when his mouth meets mine again the almost timidity of his first attempt has vanished; there's urgency in his touch. My left hand joins my right as they wind around his neck and into his hair. There is nothing in all the world for me in this moment except him.
One of his hands moves to hold the back of my head, while the other remains on my back, crushing me to him. Jack's lips move with mine, and I'm having difficulty remembering why we were angry with each other only a few minutes before. I think I could stay in his arms forever.
An insistent buzzing from his pocket disrupts us, though, and we move apart, but just enough for Jack to rest his forehead against mine as his hand leaves my back to fish for his phone.
"Hello?" he asks, his voice raspy. "Yeah, I've found her." He pauses, listening to a voice that even I can hear. It has to be Rapunzel. No one would be able to reach and maintain that octave but her. "Yep, we're on our way over. Not a problem. See you soon." He flips the phone shut without looking at it and looks up into my eyes again.
"I've been tasked with bringing you home. Immediately," he says, twisting his mouth into a rueful grin.
I exhale. "Well, I guess you should listen, then."
"I guess…" he leans against me, "but one more kiss won't hurt."
Just as I'm preparing myself for another kiss, he places his lips against my forehead. Surprising. I wouldn't have pegged him for a forehead kisser. And I tell him so.
Jack's laughter reaches my ears, and suddenly, I'm laughing too. He starts the car and pulls away from the curb, trying to still the merriment, but his shoulders are still shaking as the car glides down the dark streets.
"Ah, Elsa," he says, reaching a hand out to grasp one of mine, "I can't tell you how much I missed you."
"I missed you too," I say, weaving my fingers through his. We sit in silence for the rest of the ride back to my house. When he pulls into the driveway, I hesitate.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm going to be in so much trouble," I whisper.
"Nonsense," comes his mock-stern response.
"My parents are going to kill me."
"No, they're not," he says firmly.
"Ugh!" I say, leaning my head into my hands.
"Elsa, it's going to be fine," he says patiently, pulling my hands away from my face. "Your parents don't know that you were missing. Just Anna and Rapunzel, and they're going to be so relieved that they won't have time to be angry with you."
"Really?" I ask. It almost sounds too good to be true.
"Yes, really. Or at least, that's what Rapunzel told me…the part about your parents, at least. The part about Anna and Rapunzel is purely conjecture."
I give him a shaky smile. "Okay, then. Here I go."
"Wait a sec," he says, and pulls me into a bear hug. "I'm really glad you're okay, Elsa," he whispers into my ear. "I'm so glad you're okay."
I smile into his hair. "Me too." Entangling myself from his embrace takes some work, but I manage to get out of the car semi-gracefully. "I'll see you soon," I say, and he just nods at me as I close the door.
The sound of the car door must have been all Anna and Rapunzel were waiting for, because immediately the front door opens and they both race out, making a beeline for me. "Okay, just hold on a minute-" I start, but Anna crashes into and knocks me to the sidewalk for the second time in an hour.
"I'm so relieved that you're home safe!" she cries into my shoulder. "We thought something terrible had happened to you!"
I awkwardly pat her back from my cramped position. "There, there. Everything's okay."
She sniffles, and Rapunzel offers her a tissue. I look up at my cousin, who just winks at me. What's that supposed to mean?
"What on earth have you been doing this whole time?" my sister demands.
"It's…it's a long story…" I trail off, suddenly remembering that I need to talk to Anna about something important. "But first Anna, I think you have something to tell me."