Ghost In The Snow

Chapter 38: Snow

"Tess?", Gerard whispered into the crook of my neck.

His arms were resting around my waist, my arms around his neck. We had been standing like this for ages. It was like we were frozen in this position. We were tired, dancing does take an awful lot of energy. And ignoring the weird stares is also pretty tiring, mentally. But we had been dancing like crazy, just letting go off ourselves and the rules.

"What is it?", I answered as blew some of his hairs away from my mouth. He chuckled a bit.

"Ew, that felt weird", he mumbled and giggled.

"This?", I asked playfully and did it again.

"Yeah it's weird", his hoarse voice answered. He blew some air into my ear.

"Ugh, you're weird."

"You too."

He pulled away from me, looking around. People had started to calm down, sit at the table and talk or, as someone in the corner did, make out. We were the last ones standing. And even in the middle of the arena.

I would say we were lonely in the middle of this, but we weren't. We had each other.

Gerard grabbed my hand. "Shall we go home?", he asked and smirked slightly. "Sure", I answered and smirked as much as I could without looking like a dog on weed.

We stepped outside in the cold darkness.

"Wow", Gerard whispered absent-minded. "What is it?" I was confused, Gerard was just staring up in the air. "Look", he said in a childish tone and pointed over at the lamppost. His smile was so caring, sparkling, and hopeful. I looked at him and shook my head slightly. "Can't you see?" He giggled, grabbed my hand and pulled me under the light.
I felt something cold land on my shoulder.

Snow.

"It's snowing!" He looked up at the dark sky. It was cloudy, the clouds just as empty-looking as the skies behind them. There were only a few stars, but they were clear. White dots on a black sheet of paper. Except for the giant fluffy clouds, which rained frozen raindrops.

"Isn't it nice?", Gerard asked with a big grin on his face. His little teeth were just as white as the snowflakes landing on his jacket. "It's beautiful", I whispered as I watched the snowflakes rain down in the schoolyard and create a thin, fragile layer of snow. I don't know why, but I suddenly felt slightly uncomfortable. Snow is beautiful, but it's also dead and wet and disgusting. Like a rotting corpse in cold waters. I squeezed his hand, making sure Gerard was alive. His hand was warm, and I heard him breathe.

After a minute or two, I looked at Gerard again. "Should we go home?", I asked, still a bit uncomfortable about this whole situation. Something didn't seem quite right. He nodded. "We need to sleep, so we can go out tomorrow morning and play in the snow", he said and sent me a crooked smile. I felt a new shot of adrenaline and excitement pump around in my blood, forgetting the stupid feeling about being watched. "I'm excited", I paused and started strolling casually, "you know I'll win the snowball fight." I sent him a confident smirk. "You won't", he smirked back and squeezed my hand.

There was just something about this.

Holding hands all the time.

It's great.

Holding hands in general, it's just a nice feeling. You know, you have your partner or loved one close to you, with you in every way possible. It's quite relaxing too, mostly because it reassures that they still love you, and they will still follow you.

Right until the end.

"Wow, it's cold." I shook my head. It was actually freezing. And I had nothing to cover my shoulders. I didn't realize we were standing under the tree. I chuckled. This tree, there was nothing special about it, but it's almost like a friend. Always there for you. Even though the tree really didn't do anything, but still. It was there, existing.

"Do you want my jacket?" Gerard looked at me with big eyes, almost scared about the fact that he hadn't offered it to me earlier. I nodded and saw his satisfied smile, as he took the jacket off and laid it around my shoulders. It surrounded me with a calming warmth.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth crawl under my skin. Gerard held my hand again, and suddenly he gave me a soft kiss on my cheek. I opened my eyes to see that face I loved so fucking much. I couldn't resist but smile. And my smile led him to smile more. And then we just stood there, under the tree in the dark. Discovering elegant, fragile snowflakes on our rather thin layers of clothing.

"You know", Gerard started after some time's silence, "normally everything I love gets ripped away from me." He looked down, lips separated and letting a cloudy sigh out in the cold air. "Like Frank and I's relationship", he shrugged. He glanced up at me with a sad smile. "So I'm happy to have you."

I felt a tear freeze its way down my cheek.

He saw the tear, wiped it away with his free hand. He then tightened his grip around my hand. The warmth, protecting us from the cold.

"I'm happy to have you, too." My voice sounded unstable, hoarse, and shaky. I glanced up at the stars, found The Big Dipper, then looked at Gerard again. I smiled to him, feeling another tear run down my cheek, feeling the cold air hit my teeth as I said:

"This is the best day ever."

More like the last day ever.