• The two sit on their loveseat with fingers intertwined. One smiles vaguely, the other stares into space with a look of bland curiosity. The smiling boy pushes the girl, who glares, obviously not in the mood for his antics. He shrugs it off like he always does, and the girl is very grateful for this. Life has been harsh enough to her as it is.

    The fireplace in front of the two is blazing with crimson light. The boy lets go of the girl’s hand and kneels in front of the fire, willing to go with his gut. The girl behind him shoots him a look of annoyed warning, but he ignores it so he can look at the unique characteristics he sees better than anyone else on the flames. He puts a finger forward, poised to put it in the middle to see what would happen. The girl immediately jumps up and pulls him backward, eyes wide as plates. The boy looks apologetically at the girl, who smiles just as vaguely as the boy had before, if not more. The boy’s eyes downcast, and the girl smirks reassuringly.

    He looks at her with a strange sort of grimace. She shrugs, but suddenly the boy’s arms are around her middle. She turns slightly pink with surprise, and she wraps a stiff arm around his neck. Not thinking this was good enough, the boy starts to tickle her sides with the tips of his fingers. She screams out and swats him away like a bug. He looks dejected as he trudges back to his bedroom. The girl notices this and seemingly shrugs it off.

    She walks to her room just as dejected as the boy. Slamming her door shut in regret, she runs to her bed and buries her face in her pillow. The New Year begins in two days. She knows the next day will be her last chance for the year to make it up to the boy. As she realizes how cold she’s been in hopes of pushing him away. Tears well up in her eyes like they do every other night, and she sobs as silently as possible, knowing the boy needed sleep even more than she did. As she was amerced in her own anger, she couldn’t hear the door across the hallway creak open as the boy crept over to her door to listen. He knew she couldn’t hear him, or see his grim expression.

    The pain in his heart for her was growing by the day. He was under enough emotional stress as it was, with his condition and all. Isolation was not the life for him, but the girl seemed to prefer that life better. As she sobbing continued, the boy’s head drooped even further. If he hadn’t been so belated with his feelings, then maybe they would be happy now. It felt like he had been sucked into a black hole and there was no way of escaping. Hearing that her sobs had subsided, he tip-toed back to his room and gently closed his door with the hand that wasn’t in a cast.

    The girl shrugged off her tears and blew her nose. She thought off the days when she could think straight and the happy memories they once had before all of this. All of the betrayal, the lies, and the scorn were too much.

    She remembered how she used to dream of him loving her back, all those years ago. She used to dream of them getting married and having a family and making each other happy, but that was never going to happen; not now. He knew she was only here out of pity. After the car crash, with his dominant arm crushed, it was basically impossible for him to do anything. She needed to be there for that reason, and she owed him for the times he had kept her out of trouble when they were still on good speaking terms. Before this, she had been content with never seeing his face again, after the suffering she went through when he broke her heart. Deceit was her specialty, so she knew how easy it was when one knew how to do it successfully.

    Now, he loved her more than anything, and she didn’t want to believe him. She loved him too long ago, so she was positive she could never care for him again. But she knew she wanted more. She was well aware she still loved him. Her main problem was that she was deathly afraid that he would abandon her again. One more time was something she was positive she wouldn’t be able to handle well. Needing an escape, she pulled out some music and some ear buds, and within minutes she was in her little world where she could forget everything.

    In his room, he was sitting crossed-legged thinking about what had happened to him all those years ago, when they were together. The smirk she would always have plastered on her face even made him smile because he could see right through it. Or rather, he could back then. Now, everything was different, but at the same time nothing had changed. She was the same person, but also very complicated. Her smiles were the same, but there was also something he could sense behind her façade. She was unhappy…because of him. He knew he had to do something about. The New Year was going to start in two days after all.

    Asleep under her dark sheets, she dreamt something terrifying. He was dead because of her. She would disappear and on that day he would get in another car crash, but this time he would die. When her mind’s eye was able to get a closer look, she could see him whisper something with a smile on his face.
    “I’ll be waiting for you.”
    And she then woke up in cold sweat. She looked at the clock and realized how early it was, so she put her head back down. Of course this meant she would drift back into the same horrid dream.

    This time she was at his funeral. There was sad music playing, and everyone was wearing black. It was snowing outside and very cold, but she still was wearing a long-sleeved black dress, tights, and boots. Nothing else. Even her mind could tell she was crying. Her dream self brought a white finger to her cheek and felt the warm wetness that was seeping out of her dark, remorseful eyes. She could see his parents and sister huddled together by the casket. She shakily walked over to them and tried to begin to explain how sorry she was. Before she could open her mouth, his mother was hugging her.

    In his bed, he was tossing and turning as well, although not because of a dream. The pains in his arm seemed even more gruesome than ever, and he didn’t want to go wake her up so he could get ice. If was his belief that she needed more sleep than he would ever. So he stayed put.

    The shock of her dream woke her up once more. She got out of this bed and slipped on a sweatshirt over her camisole and pajama pants. She sped out of her room as quietly as possible and put an ear to his door. Realizing why the sheets were rustling so much, she walked even faster over to the kitchenette where she retrieved a bag of ice. Going back down the hallway she shook her head sadly. Knocking on the door, she heard a groan. With her built-up stress she could have smashed the door down.

    He could sense her presence before she even reached his door. Groaning was the only thing he knew how to do now, so that’s all he could do to signal her in. A tight smile graced his dry lips as she roughly opened his bedroom door and ran to his side. She held up the ice pack, and he nodded in response. She pulled up her stool from next to his nightstand and put the ice on his arm. He knew she could feel his gaze begging her to let him penetrate her thoughts. Holding the ice on his arm, she reached over and hugged him for real.

    This felt absolutely surreal to him as he let her hug him. He wished it wasn’t only out of pity. The girl smiled against the side of his neck like she used to when they were together. When she did, she swore she could feel a lone tear trickle down his neck onto her own cheek. The air was filled with a pungent feeling of regret and love mixed together in one. She let go of him.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “I’m sorry too.”

    “This wasn’t completely out of pity, you know.”
    “Oh? So you don’t hate me then?”
    “You know I could never.”
    “I’ve had second thoughts about that.”
    She slaps his good shoulder.
    He taps her side gently with his bulky cast.
    She blushes.
    “I miss this.”
    “Hm?”
    “The closeness.”
    “You know what I miss the most?”
    “What?” he whispers.
    “This.”
    And she kissed him for the first time in six years.