Faker Than Barbie

‡Nine‡

 "So? What do you think of Sam?" Jenny asked, swinging her legs over the edge of the lift. We'd just left the lodge and were back on the slopes, but the whole lunch was either more fun than I'd had in a while or completely and utterly dreadful. I couldn't tell which at the moment.

Sam had tried very hard to completely ignore me as she engaged with Kyle, but being the equally conniving man that he was wouldn't let her, as he asked my opinion on all topics of their conversation and helped me stay in the loop. I'd say the boy deserved a little reward for that.

But in the meantime, while she was busy flirting I was gathering intel on the girl. She had a narcissistic personality with a God complex, thinking she was better than all of us. She and I had the narcissism down, but the God thing was all her. I knew there were people better than me, that's why I tried so hard to surpass them.

Her parents were on the board for a major law firm, but she decided to follow her passion as an opera singer. She gave us all a sample of a piece of hers and she got a standing ovation from the other people in the lodge. Kyle, though clapping slowly, showed no true enthusiasm. Jenny wasn't even paying attention.

The lack of recognition hit her ego pretty hard, and she ended up scowling throughout the night whenever she thought no one was looking. But I always was. And I saw every little twitch and glance she subconsciously made. I saw ever whispered mumble under her breath as she insulted someone without meaning to. I saw every little detail she tried oh so hard to hide.

"Well, she's definitely something..." I mumbled. I blew into my palm, trying to warm my freezing fingers.

"I can't believe she sang in a public lodge. Talk about an ego." She grumbled but I barely heard it under my laugh.

"I was just thinking that actually." Jenny chuckled and looked behind us at the lift after us, where Kyle and Michael spoke.

I turned, my eyes connecting with Kyle's instantly. He grinned and waved at me like a kid, and I just rolled my eyes with a smile. "You know, I don't think you give Kyle enough credit." She said, turning forward with a blush. "He tries so hard for your attention, and you don't even give him the light of day."

"Kyle is like a baby. If you give him a toy, he will play with it without fault, constantly with it in his hands even after it breaks. But if he's away from it for a second, he forgets he even had the toy in the first place. If I give Kyle a chance, with the way he is now, I will break, and once he's gotten everything he wanted he'll leave.

"I'm not stupid Jenny. I'd love to have something with him, with anyone really, but Kyle isn't mature enough to handle anything that I want. So he'll be my toy until he breaks."

"Well, that's not pessimistic at all. I get he wants to get into your pants, but Jade, what guy doesn't? He just has a better chance than any of them." She said. "Besides, I think you guys make a cute, conniving, manipulative couple." She laughed. "Especially with the things you do in your hotel room."

I glowered at Jenny's wink. "How you find out everything is always a mystery to me." She shrugged.

"Journalism Major. It's my job." She grinned.

"I don't know. If Kyle grew up a little bit and stopped being so... flexible with other girls, even when I'm not around, then maybe I'd give him a chance." I told her, dropping the subject as we slid off the ledge.

"How high up do you think we are?" She asked, looking at the view.

I looked over to the ski lift that had a little sign on the side. "Approximately 9, 456 feet from the ground." Her eyes bulged and she gulped hard. "Come on this isn't even that steep." I nudged her as I sat on the snow and buckled in my shoe.

In truth, it was pretty steep, but nothing I hadn't done before. Jenny was scared of heights though, which caused her a big problem. And now that she was all the way up here, there was nowhere to go but down.

"Hello, ladies. Talking about us?" Kyle slid down to the side and sat beside me, buckling in his own shoes before turning to look at me and grinning. "Hey, babe." I rolled my eyes but Kyle never failed to make me smile. "Race you down?" He said, leaning back and looking at the view.

The fog from that morning had cleared up, and we could get a gorgeous view of the houses and buildings entwined with the mountains. The sun was still making its way over the horizon, peaking out behind high clouds. The wind up here was colder than ever, and I shivered under the many layers of clothes.

"You're on." I didn't give him a chance to react as I jumped up, kicking snow into Kyle's face, and began snowboarding down the mountain.

The wind whipped at my face behind my mask, brushing back my clothes as I went down the mountain, carving into its side with the edges of my board as I went faster and faster.

The thrill felt a lot like the thrill of a standing ovation, of seeing an audience rise to their feet and applauded me with everything they have. Of having everything I'd worked for be verified in that one single moment.

I could hear Kyle shouting for me, but I didn't turn around. One look behind me, going at this speed, would land me in a crash. Though the only thing coming close to performing, snowboarding was a dangerous sport, and one wrong move could incapacitate me from every dancing again. Anything Kyle had to say, no matter how important, could wait till we had stopped.

But the yelling hadn't stopped, and my body had a mind of its own as I dug my heels into my board, bringing me to a quick and jerky stop. I flipped the board, laying on my stomach in the snow, as Kyle stopped beside me. Jenny and Michael quickly followed and passed us.

Kyle unclipped his boots and dug the board into the snow, before unclipping mine. "Kyle, what are you doing?" I asked, sitting up as he moved my board to the side. He crouched in front of me and lowered my mask. "It's fucking cold, Kyle." He smirked, and I could see him physically restraining himself from making a joke before he leaned in and crashed his lips to mine.

I welcomed the heat of his body as he leaned over me, our kiss becoming stronger and deeper. I played with his hair, since that was the only visible part of his body, as he tugged at mine. But this kiss wasn't fast paced or lust filled like all our previous kisses. This one was slow and felt like he could kiss my very soul.

I pulled away breathless, confused as to what happened. "Kyle," I breathed. "What the hell was that?" But he only grinned and flipped over so he was on his back, looking up at the blue sky above us.

"Just wanted to kiss you." I closed my eyes, catching my breath.

"Are you kidding me right now?" He looked over at me with a grin. "You made me stop while I was going," I looked at my watch, "18 miles per hour because you wanted to kiss me?"

He paused for a second before looking over at me with a broad grin, "Yep!" I narrowed my eyes, trying to discern what games he was playing. When I saw nothing out of the ordinary, I groaned shamelessly and threw a snowball at him. We were still on a very steep hill, so when he jerked out of instinct, he lost his grip and rolled down the mountain for quite a distance, all the while I laughed until I couldn't breathe.

When he finally stopped rolling, getting caught in a branch peeking out from the white fluffy snow, I calmed myself down, buckled my board and slid down to him with his own board.

"That's your karma." He glared at me but took the bored nonetheless. "Don't forget, it's still a race." Without giving him a thought to react, I jumped up and started sliding down the hill once more.

"Jade!" He shouted after me, the grin on his lips hard to hide, and jumped up, ready to follow.