Ski Lodge

15// Snowfall

Emmett and I join the line for the J-lift; it's longer than usual today, which I am kind of excited about. I turn my head around, my skis still very much facing forward and ask Emmett, "what's your favorite color?"

He laughs, "black," and points to my reflective skis.

I turn forward and grin victoriously.

"Trisha," Emmett says.

"Yes?" I turn my head back around.

"Yours is purple."

"How could you tell?"

"Your ski suit. Plus, you dyed your hair purple in the sixth grade."

"You remember that?"

"It was so daring. Really it took guts."

"I was a rebel definitely. It was only the ends of the hair but I got detention by two separate teachers."

"They were jealous of your rocking hair."

"You think?"

"Absolutely! It went perfectly with your purple pencil case, and they just weren't that stylish."

"Not everyone can pull off a purple, unicorn pencil case."

"Didn't it make noise?"

"Oh, absolutely. It made a sparkle sort of noise every time I zipped it open."

"Your teachers must have loved that."

"I was an icon."

"A true influencer. I actually begged my mom for a purple pencil case after I saw yours."

"Really? With the unicorns?"

"No, it was just plain..."

"Boring," I huff.

"Definitely not as cool as yours, but she let me settle..."

"Never settle," I interject.

"I agree in most cases, but in this case, I got a purple and black checkered pencil case."

"That's way cool!" I say.

"I know. I still use it to this day."

"Apparently not often. How has it lasted so long? Mine is buried deep in a dump somewhere."

"Aren't you supposed to be the sustainability major?"

"Earth health science, actually. Sustainability is my minor. And I only started being sustainable in college, so none of my previous actions count."

"Not even that car you had in high school that guzzled gas."

"We don't talk about that." I glare at him.

"Whatever happened to that again..." Emmett taps his chin deliberately trying to get me to finish the thought.

I glare, but a smile pokes through. "I wrecked it."

"How did you do that?"

"I wrecked it by accidentally driving into the middle of a paint parade where it got hit by every color of the rainbow, blacking out my windows so I couldn't see, and I ran into a pole at only 2 miles an hour! But it went through the front of the car and totaled it." I smile. It was a scary situation in the moment, but when my mom watched me sheepishly tell her the story while the parade was still going on around us and my rainbow car, she started laughing so much she cried. I knew it was an infamous story among her friends.

"Right..." Emmett laughed.

I tried to reach behind me to punch his shoulder but not being able to turn my skis around was a bit of a handicap. He smiled as he leaned back just a fraction of an inch.