What The People Don't See

Lithium

"Stella? Stella..."

His voice seemed to float to me from far away, disturbing my dreams, like butterfly wings softly breaking the surface of a still lake.  I groaned something incomprehensible, batting away his fingers from my shoulder as he tried to gently shake me awake. I felt him sit down in the chair opposite me and rest his head in his hands, sighing as he did so. I let myself doze again, drifting slowly away, the sound of his breath lulling me to sleep.

"Stella, if you don't wake up now, you won't get to see your surprise".

"Surprise?" I grunted, my head immediately jolting up. A sharp pain shot through my shoulder and I grimaced, remembering how I'd hit it. I blinked in confusion, wondering why it was suddenly a lot brighter. I glanced over at the clock. Shit! It was half seven. I internally scolded myself for falling asleep. So much for staying awake for Ross...

I looked across the table at him, taking in his tired but happy appearance. He had his coat from last night still on, buttoned almost all the way up to his neck. His cheeks were flushed a light pink and he appeared to be shivering. But from anticipation or the cold I didn't know.

"Come on" he said, standing up and offering me his hand. "I'll show you, but you have to cover your eyes, okay?"

Gladly. I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped his wrist, the thrill of being surprised washing away any signs of tiredness. He carefully guided me across the floor, instructing me on where to put my feet and to mind my head. He was so preoccupied with minding me that he crashed into something himself, cursing and laughing at the same time. I heard the sound of a door being opened and then a blast of ice cold air slapped me in the face. My breath caught in my throat as Ross told me to take a step down. I did as I was told, feeling my way with my bare feet, something wet yet crunchy beneath me. Ross's hand fell from mine and I was left alone, something soft and delicate brushing against my skin every few seconds.

"Open" Ross whispered and I did.

The first thing I saw was his smile; the little gap between his front teeth. I watched as his eyes drifted away from mine and gazed upwards, smiling at the sky. I knew I was doing it again, admiring him for just a moment too long, but I really couldn't help it. I had never met anyone like him before.

And I was just about to tell him when a snowflake drifted past me and landed on my arm, dissolving into my skin. I looked up in shock at Ross who simply nodded behind me. I turned, feeling a smile crack on my face as I stretched my arms out towards the edge of the balcony. The city was covered in a blanket of  brilliant white. The snow itself was so bright that it lit up the entire street, completely outshining the flickering streetlights. It was a miracle. It hardly ever snowed here, and when it did, it was usually in February or March.

I didn't feel so cold anymore. I was too jittery from the excitement to feel much else. I turned back to Ross to share my joy, but before I could do so much as open my mouth, a huge snowball came hurtling at me, exploding against my face. For a moment, I just stood there in complete shock, watching Ross as he struggled to know whether to laugh or to run. Slowly, I raised my hand to the ledge of the balcony and scooped the fresh snow into a tight ball, grinding it between my hands. Ross nervously backed towards the apartment, watching me as I tossed the snowball up into the air and caught it again and again. I was really enjoying watching him squirm.

"Payback Farrelly" I said, flinging the snowball at him as hard as I could. He ducked just quickly enough for it to graze the top of his head and he was already scooping more snow of the ground, laughing at his escape. I lunged at him, chucking snow all over his clothes. I wasn't even bothered with making snowballs anymore. Instead, I bent down and used my arms like a digger to toss as much snow into his face as possible, giggling as he tried to spit it out of his mouth. We were screaming and squealing hysterically; doing our best to avoid each other as we ran around the tiny balcony. Once we realised how icy the ground was, we began to skid across it, pretending we were professional ice-skaters. We must have looked insane if anyone down on the street had seen us chasing each other.