You & The Ice: A One Direction Story

Chapter Two: @niazkilam has followed you back

My sister gets home late, late and it wakes me up. She's often loud, even when she doesn't mean to be. Snowbell barks softly a few times from under my blankets, but gives up due to her tiredness and falls back asleep. I try to do the same as I hear Leah dig around the fridge. She's humming some song but it's too faint for me to hear. Sighing, I push off my comforter and plod out of my room.

"Oh hey!," Leah says, she has one earbud in and it's getting tangled in the items she has in her hands, "I didn't wake you up, did I?" I lie and shake my head. It appears that she's making a sandwich, a big one at that. "Make me one?" I ask, hopping onto an empty counter. I swing my legs as she applies dollops of condiments and throws floppy meat onto bread, she's still humming the same song. "Where were you tonight?" I question, trying not to fall asleep sitting up, "Oh, I was with a friend, we were listening to CDs," Taking out her iPod from her back jean pocket, she tosses it to me and the earbuds she was just wearing go flying with it. I'm lucky enough to catch it. "Have a listen, I know you don't usually listen to anything other than classical these days, but Bay, we have to get you into some good music" Scoffing under my breath, I put both earphones in. I almost recognize the band, not really by name, but I feel as though I've heard something like it.

I listen to the entire song I call "Right now, I wish you were here" and when it goes to loop again, I take one earbud out of my ear. "I like them. Who are they? The Beatles?" As the track plays through the one bud still left, I begin to actually absorb more of the lyrics. "T-The Beatles?!" Leah howls, "How can you possibly be so out of touch that you don't know, one that this is 'One-Dee' and two, that the Beatles sound nothing like them!" Her outburst makes me laugh so hard it causes the remaining earbud to fall out.

We trade iPod for sandwich and eat silently, both soaking in our exhaustion. I'm the first to finish and say goodnight. As I leave for my room, Leah looks as if she's going to use her plate as a pillow for the rest of the night, so I turn out the light. My bed has been taken over by a white cloud when I return to it. Snowbell has sprawled out, her belly facing the ceiling and her shaggy legs are up in the air.

Sighing, I grab the only blanket not being squashed and lay on the floor.

The sun barely peaks over my bed when I wake up. My hip feels like someone's broken it or ripped it out and then put it back sloppily. Snowbell is peering down at me from my bed, wagging her tail, waiting. After a groan and a yawn, I stand and collect what I need to take her outside for her morning walk, which by the looks of my window, it's more of an early morning walk.

We trot down the side-walk together, Snowbell happily sniffing what she can. In my pajama pocket, my phone vibrates a few times before going silent. I quietly wonder if there's a way to mute Instagram notifications as we take a turn down some neighboring street. A man is jogging toward us, he's wearing all black with dark sunglasses on. His jumper is the type that goes all the way to your neck, and he wears a matching black baseball cap. As he gets closer, his jog begins to look more like a sprint, and his heavy breath is so audible that it's almost like a loud wheeze. Breezing by me, the man takes the turn down my street at a startling pace. He's running from something, or someone.

I stop only to take a look around for a moment, waiting for some monster or crazy guy to pop out. Maybe he was the crazy guy. Before I continue down the road, Snowbell tugs the lead behind us. "No girl, we don't turn around just yet" But she's already made up her mind.

Snowbell yanks as hard as she can with her big body and goes flying the same way the man went, taking her leash with her. It clanks on the concrete sidewalk as she gallops away. My feet go before my head can really register that I'm running and my hip burns in protest.

I make the sharp turn to go down our street and can no longer see Snowbell ahead of me, the noise of her leash handle is only faint and not consistent, as if she's stopped somewhere I can't see.

I stumble around, looking down each little alleyway on my side of the pavement, "Snowbell!," I call. I hear nothing in return. Looking both ways, I cross the road. Maybe she went all the way back home, she knows how to get back. Trying not to worry about whether or not Snowbell ended up running into that frightened man, I check the final alleyway before my apartment. A small yip echoes at the end of it. It's dark and it stinks a bit like old food, but I brave through. At the end of the passage there's a brick wall and a massive tuff of white fur flows by my head.

Just across from a semi-full trash bin, Snowbell is rolling on the cobble floor, next to the same man we saw earlier. This time, he's taken off his sunglasses and his cap is tucked in his back pocket, getting squished into the ground below him.

"Uhm," I start, "Are you.. Alright?" He pushes his hands hard into the ground and gets on his feet. "Who-" Peering behind me he says, "Is this your dog?" As if on queue, Snowbell shoots up from her rolling around on the ground party, and takes a loop around me. "Yeah, sorry did she chase you down here?" In my head I really ask: Who was chasing you before? But I bite my tongue. "Er, no." He smiles a little bit, it doesn't match his eyes, which keep shifting behind me. "Do you mind not telling anyone I'm here? Like, could you not scream"

I take a step back, Snowbell makes a humph sound and turns her head to the side. "What, are you like, a criminal?" Shit. Maybe if I hadn't slept on the floor last night I would be confident in scoping up Snowbell with all my strength and sprinting away. I think to myself, holding my hip a bit as I remember what it was like to run all the way here. "What? A criminal?" Chuckling, he kicks a pebble toward the trash can and it bounces off it, "No, no nothing like that" He stops checking behind me. Right. "Well, I don't know who you are, so I can't tell anyone" I state, slowly reaching down to grab Snowbell's dangling lead.

"I'm not, trust. I'm in like, in this band," He rambles, "And sometimes fans can get a bit... Excited" He laughs, properly this time, looking me in the eyes. "I'm Louis," He holds out his hand even though I'm too far away to reach for it. Snowbell beats me to it and pushes off her back feet to lick Louis's hand. "I think she's heard of me" He chuckles again, reaching down to give her a few pats and scratches.