Secret Santa One Shot Exchange 2016

Yellow Umbrella

Oh man! Okay so, this one is actually written by me for -saintnikkilas! For whatever reason, the person I assigned to you fell off the face of the Earth. But that's okay, because I actually was a SUPER huge Twilight fan a ways back (quite a ways now, actually... 9 years ago? God I'm getting old). I had fun writing this! I really hope you enjoy it, and I hope you had a great holiday!

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The falling snow didn't used to remind me of him. In fact, for most of my life, it reminded me of Ontario. That's where Dad and his family were from, and every Christmas I'd get to scurry up there and spend winter break with him, and with the the snow.

Snow didn't make me think of Jasper Hale until I moved to Washington, the very first day I did, in fact. I was surprised mom's car managed to survive the journey up from Southern California. I remember I was thinking about how I'd miss mom's girlfriend, well, now ex girlfriend. Cameron was nice, I'd miss her making me tea when I had a bad day. That was just how my mom lived her life, though. If it didn't work out, she packed up and left. I can't say I blame her, Dad did it to her. It was the less painful way of dealing with heart break. Might as well be a family tradition.

While lost in my thoughts, my head somewhere still back in California, our car was struggling to make it through the roads in the center of town. Snow was covering everything. I remember thinking it looked like one of those cliche movie scenes, like the ones from the hallmark channel. Snow reminded me of Toronto, of dad's death, of happy memories sledding with my cousins, of humming Augustana songs while holding hot chocolate...

Snow reminded me of anything happy. I wanted to stay in those happy thoughts, blankly gazing out the window to the town of Forks, the place that would be my new home.

But if that had happened, this wouldn't be much of a story, would it?

Rather than continue to space out, to only rarely focus on shop signs or people bustling about the town center-- My eyes transfixed on a single person-- and that person snapped me right out of my happy thoughts.

God, he was everything. If oxygen had been capable of finding my brain in that moment, I'm sure I would've thought that even the moon in the sky at night would stop to look at him. Surely, he had to be the person who put stars in the sky-- or perhaps, he was a star, himself. His eyes sure looked like them.

I remember everything felt like it was moving in intense slow motion. His eyes had locked on to mine, just as mine onto his. The girl beside him also gave me an intense stare, a frown apparent on her face.

That didn't matter, though. Nothing mattered when it came to him.

And then he was out of sight.

But not out of my head.

The rest of the day felt like a blue in comparison to that one moment. I remember glancing out the window of my new room thinking about how the fluffy snow looked like a snow crown when it fell into his blonde curly hair. I remember thinking about how the snow would never remind me of anything else ever again.

'~'~'~'~'

It was a while before I got to see him again, that strange man with the enchanting eyes. It wasn't until I decided to venture out into the new town on my own that I finally got a chance to interact with him.

The snow was a bit more like sleet as it fell from the sky, it sunk into my boots as I walked home from the bookstore. My umbrella, though I looked a bit silly carrying it, was protecting the cold from settling into my hair and upper torso. Most people had retreated inside, scared to drive due to the ice forming, and scared to be out walking in fear of getting wet.