Ice Cold

Chapter 1

The hardest part of any story is always the beginning; there's no good way to start. You either start the story way too soon and give too many details of the past, or you start way too late and don't include enough details of the past. Finding that sweet spot is nearly impossible, but yet we still invest in those stories because we as humans are in a way... nosey little assholes who don't mind our damn business. It's human nature to be curious, to want to know more, but as the saying goes curiosity killed the cat. However, in this case, I'm not the cat, I'm curiosity.

I find human beings to be just as interesting as the next person, but I also believe that people tell you what people want to tell you. There shouldn't be any prying because if they really wanted you to know, they would have told you in the first place. Hence why I find celebrity gossip tabloids to be full of garbage and the people who write them are sad and pathetic. But as I said, I find beings just as interesting, and that's how I found myself in the checkout aisle at Kroger buying a People's Magazine, a habit that I inherited from my mother, along with my random assortment of groceries as part of my after gym routine.

"Can you believe that junk?" the cashier, a teen no older than 16, muttered as she finished putting my groceries into bags.

"I know, but I can't help it. Even the lies in this magazine are more interesting than the lies I tell my friends about my evening plans," I joked.

"No judgment here, I bought this magazine solely for the man on the cover," she laughed as she moved on to the next customer.

I glanced down at the cover and the man she was talking about was Elliott Ryan. Now, normally an NHL star wouldn't be hot gossip, and while I don't know much about him other than the gossip in the magazines and whatever tweets or posts I see while I'm scrolling on social media, he's a real manwhore and has a type for social media influencers. His latest scandal, real or not, included breaking up with his TikTok girlfriend of a month during one of her Live Streams. The former LA Kings player being recently drafted to the Minnesota Wilds seems to be the issue for the LA based-couple as Ryan just wasn't into doing the long-distance thing, well at least according to the magazine.

Elliott Ryan and I actually added the University of Michigan together. He was a big deal back then too. He would hookup with a lot of the nursing majors, who were always so stressed out of their mind that when they had a free weekend they always just went a little too hard. Well that, and the stress caused other body parts to be nice and tight. We would sometimes attend the same parties due to multiple girls in the program dating guys on the hockey team but never interacted because if I'm being completely honest, my tongue was probably down someone else's throat. We also had a group project together our freshman for a communication class, and he did all his works so I had no complaints about him. If anyone were to ever ask me about him, I would say he does a mean reference slide.

Making my way back to my apartment, lugging the groceries and magazine all the way to my door, I pounded on the door. "Gianna, I swear to god my arms are going to fall off if you don't open the door this instance," I yelled through the door.

About 30 seconds later, I heard the pattering of footsteps, along with a string of curse words as the door swung open, and was greeted by the face of my beautiful roommate, "Fucking hell, Nora. Where the fuck is your key?"

I gave her a sheepish smile, as I made my way to the kitchen to put away the food, "It's in my pocket, but I was lazy and didn't want to get it out."

"Why am I friends with you? Wait, I have a better question, why did I agree to live with you?" Gianna sighed, contemplating all of the choices she had made in the past 2 years. Gianna, my beautiful, Italian best friend had remained my best friend through all of college and when we both received job offers from the Mayo Clinic two years ago, it was a no-brainer about living together. Gianna was the most put-together person I have ever met. She was 5'8 and had the most perfect tan skin all year round and perfect brown hair that never seemed to have a hair out of place. It wasn't a shock when she got the offer to work here, she was always the smartest person in class, but it was a shock when I got the offer seeing as how the only thing I got out of nursing school was mental illness. And yet, here I am alongside the perfect Gianna Morelli.