Frostbitten Past

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"NO, ABSOLUTELY not. I'm not doing that!" Andorra stared at her mother, fear thick on her tongue. She was standing in the kitchen, her backpack already slung across her body, her shoes already on her feet. It was closing in on half past seven, and she should have already been at school.

"Honey, I don't see the problem with your Aunt Ruth taking you to school."

Andorra saw many problems with that sentence alone, but she didn't know how to tell her mother that her aunt was crazy. That her aunt wanted to kill her.

"Mom, you know that Aunt Ruth and I don't get along. Please don't make me get in a car with her. Please." Andorra didn't beg for much, but she was going to beg for this. She would talk to school over getting a ride from her aunt Ruth.

She wished she had a cell phone. She wished she could call Kyle to pick her up.

Her mom seemed to think about this for a moment, looking at Andorra with eyes that pitied her daughter. "This is why she wants to bring you to school. To work on your relationship."

Andorra tightened her grip on her backpack. She'd never been the type of girl to outright disagree with her mother, nor was she the type of girl that didn't listen. She always listened. Was always the good girl her mother wanted her to be.

Andorra opened the front door. "Then I'm walking to school. I'm not getting in a car with her mom. I'll see you this afternoon."

Andorra had never been so abrasive and demanding in her entire life. She'd never walked out on her mother. And, despite that, she wasn't turning back. She wasn't going to let her aunt drive her anywhere.

A car was already waiting in her driveway, and when Andorra focused her gaze on the driver, she felt shocked. Kyle was sitting there with an easy grin on his face, like he knew she needed a ride. His timing was perfect, impeccable, even.

She slid into the passenger seat. "Uh, how did you know where I lived?" Her unasked question was: why did you come pick me up?

Kyle backed out of the driveway and smiled at her. "That's a secret."

She didn't like that type of secret. "Kyle, don't be creepy." She wanted to ask if he'd followed her home, but didn't dare. Maybe she was overthinking it. Maybe it wasn't strange that he'd found her home.

"I'm not being creepy!" He said in defense, eyeing her in the passenger seat. She leveled him with a flattened stare, like she didn't believe him. And she didn't. Not for one moment. "Alright, okay. I'll admit, I asked for your address. I thought maybe, now that we're going to the dance together, I can start picking you up for school."

Andorra wanted to cross her arms, but she didn't. She leaned back into the leather seat and hummed to herself. "Who did you ask?"

"I may have asked the front office at school."

Her eyebrows pushed together in disbelief. "The school would just release that information?"

Kyle's mouth twisted. "No, not usually."

Andorra wanted to ask more, but they pulled into the school, and her eyes caught Noah walking towards the entrance of the building, his body gliding towards the front doors with such ease and confidence. She wondered where he got that type of confidence from.

"Next time, just ask me about that kind of information." She still felt that it was weird he'd asked for her address, but she felt the sudden desire to just drop it all together. It's not that important. He saved you from a ride with your aunt.