Him & Her

Ch.12

Ch12

Elizabeth woke up to the sound of a phone ringing.

Her eyes fluttered open and she gently pushed away from Cole, who was still asleep. She put the blanket over him again.

She suddenly panicked. Light was coming in from the snow covered windows; it was morning. She had spent the whole night here. What where her parents going to say?

Ring,ring.

Elizabeth absently picked up Cole's phone from the floor and answered. She didn't know what she had done until she heard the voice calling.

"Cole, dude, where are you?" Dixon's voice asked, "You disappeared yesterday at night and I haven't seen you since. Ya, a blizzard came and no one could leave their freaking houses, but you're supposed to be stuck here with us! I had to sleep on the dirty floor!"

Elizabeth didn't know what to do. Hang up? She couldn't tell Dixon it was her, should she wake Cole up?

Dixon continued complaining, "Right now I'm stuck here with a bunch of other losers and Lacy is freaking out, screaming in my ear that she wants to go home, but of course I can't do anything and I wish she would just shut..."

Cole stirred in his sleep and Elizabeth wished he would wake up.

"Cole?" Dixon asked, "Dude? You still there?"

Elizabeth shook Cole's arm, but he just rolled onto his side, his back facing her.

"Cole?" Dixon sounded impatient.

Elizabeth shook Cole harder making him groan.

"Cole!" Dixon yelled.

Elizabeth shook him again and he spun towards her, sitting up.

Elizabeth quickly put the phone to his ear as he yelled at her, "What?!"

Elizabeth bit her lip, wondering what Dixon was thinking, trying to keep from laughing. She watched as Cole took in his surroundings. He looked at the windows that had a thin layer of white snow that seemed to glow in the morning light. He looked at her, then he finally held the phone to his ear with one of his hands and rubbed his eyes with the other.

"Ya..." he mumbled, "Ya, ya."

Elizabeth picked up her now dry but cold jacket from the floor of the car and slipped it on.

"Y-what?" Cole asked stifling a yawn.

His icy blue eyes met Elizabeth's.

"Ya, she's here with me." he said, then paused, "Why is she here? Um..."

Elizabeth dreaded what Cole would say. Would he make up an excuse for why he was talking to a loser, or would he admit his love for her? She was afraid of the answer, she knew Cole was afraid of losing his popularity, but she couldn't help it if he told Dixon he hated that he was stuck with her.

Suddenly Cole said into the phone, "Uh, I can't hear you- I'm- I-" he then hung up.

Elizabeth didn't know what to feel. Relief that he hadn't said anything mean? Or angry that he hadn't said anything nice? She decided not to feel either, she just sat next to him on the bench and tried to keep warm.

"So..."Cole mumbled, "We should really get back home."

"Ya." Elizabeth replied, "My parents are probably freaked out right now and Henry and Brandon are..." she stopped talking. She had no idea what Brandon was thinking right now. Did he hate her, or was he fine with her ditching him and going with Cole? It seemed impossible that it was going to end well with him.

Cole seemed to flinch when he heard Brandon's name. "You're friends with him?" he asked.

Elizabeth nodded. Her heart pounded faster than normal in her chest and all she could think of was trying not to say anything stupid in front of Cole. She wanted to get as far away from him as possible, but at the same time she missed his warmth when he had hugged her close to his chest.

"Should we go now?" Elizabeth asked.

Cole nodded, "The only problem though is that I don't think the car will start. Even if it did, I would probably run into a tree with all that snow on the ground." he put his jacket back on.

"So we walk?"

"And try not to freeze our butt's off." Cole smiled, a sight that made Elizabeth's heart stop.

She smiled as Cole opened the door with a hard push. He climbed out into the cold world and Elizabeth followed. She stepped onto the snow that was ankle deep. The snow froze her feet, her high heels providing no protection from the elements of nature. She looked up and saw a blanket of white that sparkled in the sunlight, covering the ground for as far as she could see. The trees were frosted with snow, the grass didn't show, the wind blew through her jacket, made her hair fly. It was a beautiful sight, if only it hadn't been so cold Elizabeth would've stayed there staring all day.

"Let's hurry." Cole said.

Elizabeth was already freezing. The morning sun was no match to the cold. She closed the car door and trudged forward, Cole right beside her.

They walked in silence for a few feet. Cole looked into the forest as he walked, hands in his pockets, his hair looked like he had just woken up-which he had- and for some reason Elizabeth liked it that way. Cole seemed to barely have any trouble with walking in the deep snow. Elizabeth on the other hand, could barely walk. She almost tripped several times, and almost lost one of her shoes even more, by the time they had made it a few feet from the car Elizabeth was already exhausted and she couldn't feel her toes.

"Are we close?" Elizabeth said between heavy breaths of cold air that made her mouth dry.

"Not even halfway there." Cole replied, stealing a look at her. "You holding up ok?"

Elizabeth let out a laugh, "Not really. Here I am in the middle of who knows where in the snow with a boy I wanted to kill just the day before. Not to mention that I think I lost my toes back there." Elizabeth looked over her shoulder.

"And how do you feel about the boy now?" Cole asked.

They walked in silence for a while. Elizabeth's face went red, she didn't know why she had said what she was thinking out loud but it was too late now.

"That's still undecided." Elizabeth said, eyes on the white snow at her feet.

Cole smiled, "Undecided, huh? That's not bad. I know you're still warming up to me."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are, I can see it in your eyes."

Elizabeth shielded her eyes from him with her hand, "No I'm not."

Cole laughed, "You still are."

Elizabeth let a smile form on her hidden lips, "No I'm not."

The argument went on for a long time, and Elizabeth forgot all about her frozen feet.