Right Place, Wrong Time

8. December Flush

The day Lauren's fever broke for good was also the first heavy snowfall of the year, but she didn't let that stop her returning Joey's lecture notes that she'd finally managed to copy up. She could easily have given them back to him next week when they were in class together, but he had gone to the effort of bringing them over on the same day and so would she.

As much as she hated the snow, there was something serene about the town when it was dampened by it, her footsteps muted, the light — though it was rapidly fading — softened. Approaching Joey's dorm, that serene bubble was popped by the sound of someone moving around outside, footsteps crunching on snow, breath coming in pants. Without her glasses on, she could see the steam from their breath before she could see who it was, and when she realised it was Joey a smile came to her face. Instinctively, she stepped back behind a wall to watch him without him spotting her.

He was making a snowman. She had to contain a laugh at stumbling across the unexpected sight, but there was something incredibly endearing about it, this young man with a foot on her in height transformed into a boy. He had already rolled one large ball and had just finished a smaller one. As he hefted it on top of the base, she imagined his muscles rippling beneath his coat. She watched him smile to himself, then begin scouting the now slushy ground for sticks to make the arms. When he stood back with a frown, Lauren finally made herself known, stepping forward and offering him the spare buttons still attached to the inside of her coat.

"What are you doing out here?" he said, a smile spreading across his face, flushed pink with cold.

"I could ask you the same thing."

He waved an arm at his creation. "Making a snowman."

"You're crazy, you know that?"

"I don't see much snow in California, do I?" he reminded her.

"That's fair," she smiled. A shiver ran through her body. "I'd be happy if I never saw snow again."

"Then you wouldn't have gotten to meet my new best friend."

Lauren laughed, the sound swallowed by the snow. "What's his name?"

"I haven't named her yet," he said, and she felt a warmth in her chest. "Would you like to do the honours?"

She squinted appraisingly at the snowman. "Diane," she declared.

"Diane?" he repeated, laughing. "Okay, perfect."

"I think she'd look better with some eyes," she said, holding out the buttons again. He pressed them into the head of the snowman, and she laughed.

"What?" he asked.

"You've made her look cross-eyed."

"Okay, okay," he said, pulling them out and repositioning them further apart. "Better?"

"Mhm. One more thing." She unwound the scarf from her neck and wrapped it around the snowman. "There."

He took off his hat and added it too before they both stepped back to look at it. "Pretty good," he said.

The cold air now swirling around Lauren's neck, she shivered again.

"Are you cold?" Joey asked, wrapping an arm around her and rubbing hers.

"Aren't you?" she replied. "It's fucking freezing out here."

"I was, but I don't even feel cold anymore."

Lauren glanced up at him, and he smiled down at her, his eyelashes coated in snowflakes, while inside she was trying not to panic. He could have warmed himself up with the exertion, but still. Wasn't a sign of hypothermia when you stopped shivering?