The Guy Everybody Wants

Chapter 9

We pulled into the parking lot, and I was thankful that there was snow, otherwise this trip would have gone downhill faster than someone on skis running downhill away from a bear. You get the picture.

Walking into the lodge and getting tickets was a breeze, as my family was friends with the family that owned this place, and I had been there so many times that I practically had skis reserved.

Jamie was marveling at the sight of snow in Southern California, or so I guessed, and when someone brought out our skis to us, she seemed taken surprised.

"They just bring you the skis here? Don't you have to rent them?" She looked at me, her nose scrunching adorab- no Colby, stop right there.

A few awkward seconds later I realized I hadn't answered. Nice job Colby, real smooth. "Um, I know people?" I scratched the back of my neck and shrugged.

"Uh huh." She said. "You just called ahead didn't you?"

I smiled. "So what if I did. It helps us get out on the slopes faster doesn't it?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, I guess. My only real question is how did you get my shoe size?"

At this I looked away, embarrassed. "I've spent a lot of time with shoes, and so I'm a pretty good guesser."

"You've spent a lot of time with shoes." Jamie said flatly. "I understand that every guy in Southern California is obsessed with shoes, but calling it "spending a lot of time with them" is kinda weird, even for you." She lightheartedly punched my arm ad smiled, to show that she was joking, but only sort of.

"My mom used to take me shoe shopping with her." I said. "For hours." I paused. "I made it a game of guessing the shoe sizes of the people that walked in, and so I got good at guessing quickly. Sooo." I paused and poked her arm. "I did "spend a lot of time with shoes."" I included the air quotes and everything. This story was an abridged version of the fact that I was always with the models and their shoes when I was younger, but it was a much more agreeable version if I do say so myself.

Jamie laughed, and it was like sunshine on a cold day. Except not today because that would melt the snow, and then we couldn't ski, and then- Colby, back on track. Right. Anyway, by this point we were walking towards the ski lift, following the crowds of people that tended to show up on days like today.

"I bet I can get down the hill faster than you Cali boy." Jamie said once we reached the top.

"Oh yeah?" I asked. "Wanna bet?"

"Loser buys lunch!" She said as she pushed off.

"Hey!" I shouted, tripping over my feet in my effort to start quickly. "Now she's going to think she's the best." I muttered as I spit out snow and got back to my feet.

She had already been down there for a minute or two when I reached the bottom. "You cheated!" I mock-yelled at her.

"You tripped." She said, laughing. "I almost fell over from laughing so hard, but I had to win."

"Competitive much?" I asked as we headed back to the ski lift.

"Yeah, my brothers-" she trailed off for a few seconds before she cleared her throats and continued. "My brothers and I would have skiing competitions every month back home." She smiled. "I never won."

"See for me it's the other way. Stiff and I would come out here and I would always win, no matter how many times he started before me. It's like he had two left feet." I leaned closer. "And he has two left feet for dancing, and don't let him try to fool you otherwise. He's stepped on so many people that it's a wonder he's never gotten arrested for assault."

She laughed at this and I smiled in return. I was only half joking.

There were a few moments of silence.

"I thought you would be a snowboarding kind of guy." Jamie said.

"Really?" I asked, kind of bewildered. "That takes too much balance. I suck at it."

"You never know until you try." She sang at me.

"Oh, believe me, I have tried. And failed."

She laughed. "I bet I could beat you at snowboarding."

"I bet you could."

We went up and down the different slopes a few more times before I realized that the sky was beginning to darken. People had been slowly leaving, but I had thought nothing of it, only assuming that it was time for them to go.

"We should head back." I said to Jamie as we sat on the ski lift for one more round. "There's not many people left and it looks like it's about to be a pretty heavy storm."

"Okay." She said. "We've been here for a while anyway." She paused. "Colby-"

The wind rushed by heavily and I missed the end of her sentence. The other benches on the lift were practically torn off the track and ours tilted precariously to the side before righting itself.

"Colby?" She yelled. "What do we do?"

"I have no idea!" I yelled back. "Just don't fall off. Someone should be here soon."

The wind whipped around us and I looked down at the slopes as people staggered towards the lodge. I looked up and down the lines of the ski lift and saw that only two other carriages were full. At least that meant less people in danger.

As if the wind wasn't bad enough, it started snowing. Hard. I had only ever been somewhere it was snowing once, and that was a nice light snow that didn't have the evilness of Darth Vader and the vengeance of a teenage girl betrayed.

A growing sense of panic filled my chest and I looked over at Jamie to see if she was having the same thoughts I was. From the look of horror on her face, I guessed that they were about the same thoughts as mine.

I took a couple deep breaths, trying not to inhale the snow and tried to think of a solution. What would someone in a Hollywood movie do?

It took a few seconds for my mind to be clear enough. Call for help. I had a phone, why was I not using it?

The moment I reached into my pocket and started to pull out my phone I realized my mistake. My gloves were still on and the snow made them slippery.

In that moment, I made the most Hollywood mistake ever. I dropped my phone, our lifeline to the outside world, and I watched it fall through my gloved fingers and into the white void below us.

My eyes widened and I felt my stomach revolt. I may not be afraid of heights, but as the speed of the winds increased, I felt my fear of falling increase.

"You dropped the phone." Jamie said, panicked. "I don't have mine either!" Her breath was coming in short gasps.

"Calm down." I said, as calmly as I could. "It'll be fine." I released one of my hands from its death grip on the seat and wrapped it around her. "We will be okay."

Thunder cracked and I wondered if I could believe my own statement. Would we be okay? Were the other people on the lift okay? Was someone coming?

With hundreds of questions running through my head a minute, I allowed myself to do the one thing I had wanted to do since I first felt the wind.

I panicked.

~~~~~

Hahahahaha so I'm not dead. (I think).

Updates will become frequent in July (I hope).

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