Instead of Me

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"You should stop smoking, Finny," Annie told me as she plucked a cigarette out of my mouth and threw it to the ground, stomping her heel on it.

"I should," I agreed as I adjusted the knitted beanie on my head and pulled my scarf over my mouth.

The cold January air was frigid and sharp. I could see our breaths as we walked to school. My nose was red and Annie shivered as she pulled her jacket closer to her.

"So will you?" she questioned.

I shrugged and breathed inside my cupped hands, rubbing them together. "Possibly."

She scrunched up her little, pointy nose. "No, you won't. I know you too well." She smiled.

I knitted my eyebrows together. "Oh, really?" I pulled on my gloves and picked up some powdery snow and created the best snowball I possibly could as discreetly as possible. "Then maybe you'd know I would do something like this." I threw my arm up, ready to chuck the snowball at Annie only to be smacked in the face by a snowball she had made.

She laughed. "Actually, no. But I saw you making it."

I rolled my eyes at her. She rubbed her arms harshly, trying to warm up as the wind blew towards us, blowing her hair away from her face, allowing me to see her warm, chocolate brown eyes, and the freckles dotting her little nose.

Annie noticed me staring at her. "What? Is there something on my face." She rubbed her pink, striped gloves on her cheek.

I chuckled and shook my head. "No, you look great." I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to me, trying to warm her up as I kissed the top of her head. "You just seem a little cold."

Annie laughed and pushed herself against me, holding her arm around me as we continued on our trek to school. "Maybe I wouldn't be so cold, if you didn't crash your car into that mailbox," she teased. "Then we wouldn't have to walk to school."

"Okay, one time. I crashed my car one time." She'll never let me live that down. "You know, I could make you walk everyday and just not drive you whenever I get my car back," I joked.

She smiled and shook her head. "But you won't do that."

"And what makes you so sure of that?"

"You're my best friend." She grinned and I could see the little gap between her front teeth. "You wouldn't leave me."

I sighed and rubbed her arm. "Yup," I replied flatly. "I'm your best friend."

Annie hugged me tighter as we approached the school. Buses were dropping students off and the teachers who got stuck with monitoring the entrances grumbled and complained while shivering. Annie and I strolled on into the school, immediately being hit by the warm air, allowing us to finally take off all the layers of coats and scarves. We roumded the corner and headed towards our lockers. My arm was still around her.

"Hi Anastasia."

Annie suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked up to see Heathcliff LaMontgne, the school newspaper editor, standing in front of us, smiling at her. She quickly pulled my arm off of her and stepped towards him, grinning. "Hi Heath."

I snorted at their awkwardness towards each other. Annie scowled at me, her cheeks blushing. I shook my head at her while I unwrapped my scarf from around my neck.

Heath glanced over at me and I clenched my jaw. He returned his stare to Annie. "Um... I was wondering if you wanted to buy a copy of today's paper." He stuttered a bit. Anyone could tell he liked Annie. And everyone could tell she liked him.