Fan Fiction ❯ Josephine the Stegosaurus ❯ Snowflakes ( Chapter 7 )

Josie busied herself making coffee in the kitchen while Bryan got dressed. Once he came out, she hurriedly explained the situation to him, her eyes never leaving the ground, afraid to see his pleased smirk. She was stuck with him. For an indefinite amount of time. She sighed. Collapsing carefully onto the well-worn green leather loveseat facing the TV, cradling her coffee mug like a baby bird, she smashed the power button on the remote and changed the channel to “The Price is Right.” It was a must-see on those rare weekday mornings when she didn't have work for some reason or another, and happened to not be sleeping in. Josie hated waking up early when she didn't need to. Had it not been for her unwanted guest, she probably would have dozed back off to sleep for the rest of the morning. So, needless to say, it had been a while since she'd seen Bob Barker. That man is going to be on television forever.

“One dollar. Come on, bid one dollar.” Bryan had sunk down, to her dismay, next to her on the sofa. She surreptitiously crossed her legs, pressing her body to the armrest on her right, shaking her head dolefully.

“Nah. The next guy's just going to bid two dollars if she does. There's really no point.” Sure, it had been a while since she'd seen the show, but the strategies were unforgettable. They watched as the overweight lady with “Jeanne” scrawled on the garish yellow pricetag on her chest in sharpie bid one dollar on the showcased lawnmower, against Josie's advice. The next guy, a college student (obvious by the “UC Santa Barbara” t-shirt) whose fraternity was in the audience, from the sound of the cheers, bid two dollars. Frat boy won the lawnmower, as well as a year's supply of denture adhesive.

“Told ya so.” Josie sipped smugly from her mug she held with both hands, two fingers laced in the handle with the other hand bracing the bottom. Her bulky sweatshirt sleeves (She had put it on over her clothes after finding out she wasn't going to work. It was damn cozy.) obscured her mouth from Bryan so all he saw were her shifty blue eyes glancing at him sidelong, prideful in her small victory. He smiled back with his mouth closed, one side of his lips tilting upward in acquiescence. He took a sip from his own coffee mug.

They watched when Frat Boy won $50,000 in Plinko, and then went on to the final round with a spin of 70 cents on the wheel. He ended up losing to a sorority girl named Jenny in the end, and she walked away with a winnebago, a grill, and a new dinette set. The theme of her showcase was something about “camping in style”. It didn't really matter, the only reason they had those themes were so that Barker's Beauties got to play dress-up and pretend to act. It was really the cheesiest TV show in existence, but it was still fun in a mesmerizingly corny kind of way. It was one show where you could never tell if it was a rerun or not until you saw the model of car they presented as a prize.

“Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered. Good-bye.” Bob's daily send-off faded into the theme song, a chipper remnant from the 70's, and Josie stared at the credits. There was one hour down, how many more to go? If she could get away with just watching TV with Bryan for the rest of the day, everything would be fine. It wasn't that she didn't want to interact with him. No, she wanted to. It was just that she didn't trust herself around him; didn't trust what she would say, or do. And once she did or said whatever she didn't want to do or say, she didn't trust what he would do with that. It was all very complicated.

The strains of a pseudo-dramatic clarinet infiltrated her thoughts and she flicked the TV off. If she thought “The Price is Right” was a cheese-fest, then soap operas were the damn state of Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, she hadn't thought of what she would do after indignantly cutting the power. She turned to see Bryan staring at her with a curious expression, and grinned.

“Um…I hate soap operas.” He nodded, and what followed was an unbearably painful awkward silence. Josie's foot tapped against the wooden floorboards while Bryan looked off to his left. Oh God. This is insane. Ugh. She began humming a random song in her head, what happened to be that stupid WHAM! song that drove her insane. Wake me up, before you go-go…damn it what have I resorted to? Fucking George Michael? No, that was phrased badly. He's gay, right? Or bi? Or is he the one that keeps changing his mind?

“So…” Bryan attempted to start a conversation, and she snapped out of her mental ramble to look at him. Suddenly the air was too thick and his eyes were like molasses, suffocating and slowing her down so that all she could do was stare. A panic rose in her throat, and she scrambled to escape.

“I'm going to go outside,” said Josie decisively. She walked to the door where she yanked on a pair of snow boots, a thick winter coat, and a maroon-and-gold Redskins beanie with a pompom on top. She picked up some woolen gloves too, for good measure, and headed out the door without looking back, slamming it shut. She just knew she had to get out of there, and since she still hadn't investigated the newly-fallen winter wonderland, she had an excuse for running away.

Flying down three floors worth of stacked staircases as quickly as her clumsy rubber boots would allow, she fled to the outside world. The snow was still falling in malformed clumps, lazily drifting to the ground which was almost perfect, but for a few footprints leading to the parking lot which were already being filled with new flakes. She waded through the eight-and-increasing inches of snow to the normally grass-filled square adjacent to the apartment building. Journeying to the center of the area, she turned and fell back into a bed of fluffy ice shavings, closing her eyes and concentrating on the tickle of flakes hitting her nose, her eyelids, her lips. The wind nipped at her face, and despite her frozen bed, a warmth of content and a wool-lined coat spread to her covered fingertips, and to the ends of her rich red hair that spread in stark contrast to the pure white snow beneath it. The cold brightness of the air highlighted her pale skin and caused pink splotches like paint daubs to spread across her cheeks, and her smiling lips to glow.

She stretched out her limbs and waved them around, making a snow angel. She stopped abruptly and sighed, rolling her eyes when the sound of crunching came from the building, coming closer every second. Bryan laid down next to her, his feet facing the opposite direction with his head about a foot to the left of hers.

“Your head's on my wing.” Josie stared straight into the white-blue muffled sky, batting her eyelashes to keep the snow from falling into her eyes. Bryan turned to look at her, his dark hair glistening with icy droplets as though they were feathers from a real angel's wing.

“You're missing something,” he said. His voice was soft and smooth and Josie looked up as he leaned over her to the area above her head, his shoulder blocking the flakes from her face so she could keep her eyes open, the molten blue contrasting with her frosted eyelashes like diamond-encrusted sapphires. His eyes met hers. “Every angel needs a halo.” His finger dragged in the snow to draw an ellipse centered around the yarn pompom of her hat. She started laughing.

“Did you start watching that soap opera? Has all the cheesiness gone to your head?” She was caught staring back into his eyes, her mirth contagious as he smiled conspiratorially.

“I guess you just bring out the romantic in me.” He winked and a beat passed before he leaned back and brought up the hand he had fisted in her “halo” over her head, dumping a handful of snow in her face. She sputtered and shrieked as he stood to get a head start running away from her.

“You bastard!” Josie shouted and sat up, squeezing a small pile into a ball which she pitched at him, hitting him square in the back. She picked up another snowball and started running after him, pegging him in the head and squealing in triumph. He stopped running, turning around and scooping up his own ammunition while she frantically ducked behind a picnic table. His shot hit the table as she utilized the snow on the bench to fire back. He ran behind a tree trunk. Josie crouched and moved to the tree nearest to her while Bryan faced away from her. She crossed adeptly from tree to tree until she was at an angle where she saw his back. It was hard to be sneaky when the ground collapsed loudly under every step, so she stopped and threw quickly, ducking back behind the trunk before he knew which direction the snowball came from. He narrowed his eyes and stalked toward her tree. She cursed. Of course he knows what tree I'm behind, this is where my footprints end.

Thinking up a plan fast, she scooped up more snow and ran out, hitting him in the face with the snow, confusing him temporarily so she could tackle him. He landed on his back with her on top of him with an “oomph.” Her beanie fell off and landed beside them.

“I win!” Josie declared. Bryan retaliated by throwing some powder back at her, distracting her so he could roll them over, her hands still grasping the collar of his jacket so that with one pull, she would be able to…No! No no no, don't even think about it, Josie. She took a shuddering breath and frowned in defeat.

“Not so fast.” Bryan murmured and focused on her lips, causing Josie's eyes to widen in alarm. She licked her lips unconsciously and felt his body weight shift over her, bracing himself to lean down. She frantically tried to distract herself from the warmth of his body and the rich, dark glisten of his lips that stood out with his eyes as gems set into the perfectly carved ivory planes of his face. Concentrating on the tiny piercing of cold drops falling from his tousled hair onto her skin, she swallowed, shivering. I can't do this.

“I'm…” she whimpered, and he looked up at her eyes. “I'm cold. Let's go back inside.” Her whisper was rushed and pleading, and he nodded, retreating into his thoughts and pushing off one hand to let her up. They walked back to the apartment out of step, in silence. Josie put her coat on a hook beside the door, and hung her gloves and hat up near the radiator. Bryan followed step.

She mentioned that she'd change out of her wet clothes, which she did in her room, changing into comfortable sweatpants and a tank top, with a fresh sweatshirt over it. Then she thought of Bryan.

Hidden at the bottom of the last drawer in her dresser was a shirt, larger than any that would fit her, with `UMD' stamped across the front in capital letters. She dug it out, biting her lower lip, and held it gently on her fingertips, caressing the cool cotton. She brought it to her nose. There was the faintest trace of cologne, only detectable to one who was trying to smell it, woven into the fibers. With one deep breath, she turned and left her room with the shirt.

She held it out to Bryan, who was standing in the kitchen, putting some water in the kettle to boil, her eyes locked on the dry fabric. He put the kettle down and reached out to take it from her grasp.

“It's…dry, at least. I figured you didn't want to sit around in wet clothes. I don't have any pants your size, though, sorry.” Her voice was soft, giving the impression of a whisper, disconnected from her body, and she crossed her arms over her chest. He looked at her, concerned, and then read the shirt.

“How'd you know I went to the University of Maryland?” he asked, puzzled. Her eyebrows furrowed.

“I didn't. It's my ex's shirt. He went there. I…kept it.”

“Just for emergencies like this, right?”

She appreciated his smile. It took the edge off the strange difficulty of her offer. “Of course.”

Josie turned to the kettle and forced herself to keep her eyes locked where they were while Bryan changed his shirt. He changed back into the pants he wore the night before as well, preferring dry, once-worn pants to soaking clean ones. She prepared two mugs of hot chocolate, and took them over to the couch when Bryan notified her that he was finished changing. They sat in silence, drinking the warm, silky liquid that erased the chill of the snow outside.

“So you went to UMD?” Josie painted her voice with an upbeat tone, willing him to cooperate and not push the matter to a place she wouldn't like.

“For undergrad, yeah.” Part of Josie wanted to ask if he'd known a Jeremy Sloane, but the other part didn't want to know. “You went to Tech?” Bryan pointed at her sweatshirt, another one of many she owned with “Virginia Tech” blazed across in felted lettering.

“Yeah.” The silence was deafening. There was a void in the air created by the unbroached topic, keeping their mouths shut while their drinks grew cold.

“So, when did you break up?” She gasped, hoping she would get away with leaving it be, but his eyes were kind and encouraging, helping her fight the urge to stay silent.

“Almost two months ago. Mid-December. My holidays really sucked.” She let out a painful laugh.

“How long were you together?”

“I guess it was about a year and a half.” Bryan's eyebrows shot up. “He lived in Boston, where I went for grad school,” she said. Bryan took a sip from his mug, assuming that she had finished speaking of the matter. “We…” she said abruptly, causing him to look back at her. “We were engaged.” She smiled grimly and swallowed hard. “He moved down here, we didn't live together, but we were going to after the wedding. He was a lawyer, so he could work anywhere. I was so sure that he was the one, that we were in love. And then, he um…he cheated on me with one of my would-be bridesmaids. I saw them together at a restaurant. It was the little Vietnamese place where we always went for pho, and Miranda was there with me, and I just couldn't believe it. His hand was on her leg, and he was…smiling at her. That…intimate, genuine smile that I always thought was just for me.”

Josie stopped as her vision grew blurry with tears, and she didn't resist when Bryan reached over and tugged her towards him, holding her in a platonic embrace while she let out the pain she held in for so long. Her nose was buried in the gray specked cotton that had meant the entire world to her—the happiness and the pain—and she felt the deep holes in her heart start to heal when she realized that the faint, stale scent of cologne that plagued her thoughts so often was gone, overtaken by something natural, fresh, and wonderful. Her sobs were calmed by the soft circles being drawn over her shoulders, and she was sensitive to the minor calluses of his fingertips on her back, every rise and fall of his chest against her cheek. She was warm, safe, and content in his arms, and it felt more right than anything she had ever known.

When her breathing calmed, he released her and wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb, brushing back her hair, still damp with melted snow, from her face with his other hand. He smiled warmly, and she looked at him with red-rimmed eyes, gratitude reflected in their depths.

“Forgive me for saying this, but I guess I kind of have to thank that girl,” said Bryan. Josie narrowed her eyes quizzically. “If that didn't happen, you wouldn't be single now, would you?” For a second, she was conflicted as to whether she should laugh or smack him for being so insensitive. She decided on a combination of the two, reaching behind her for a cushion and beaning him in the head, all while laughing incredulously.

“Insufferable.” She shook her head with her arms and legs crossed, looking forward and trying to ignore his own laughter.

“Josie?” Bryan asked with a smile still in his voice. She turned with an eyebrow raised, looking up through her thick lashes, trying not to smile back. “We're going to be friends, right?” The smile she was trying to suppress broke through, and she chuckled.

“I guess so.”