It came as a news flash, but winter was cold. Kyle didn't usually have trouble with temperature, but as they waited in front of the palace of Avignon, the silly French song about the bridge right in front of them playing on repeat inside his head, he had to admit he could do without the chilling wind.
Next to him, the others huddled up in their jackets, shivering. It had snowed heavily the night before, and even if it had stopped, the sky was still clouded and the light of morning barely made it through. The break of dawn had come with a chilly mist that seemed to be seeping into their bones. And to make matters worse, Billy was nowhere in sight.
"Where the hell is Billy," Jimmy mumbled. "I'm freezing my ass off."
Jerry opened his mouth, probably to comment on the language, but closed it after a giant puff of vapour came out.
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
On y danse, On y danse
"Do you think anything happened to him?" Jessie muttered into her hands.
"I hope not," Jerry said. "Should we call him? Should we go in?"
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
On y danse tous en rond
"I want to go inside the castle," Tina said. "It's so beautiful."
"Beautiful is a bit of a stretch," Kay retorted. "Huge and impressive, yes."
Les beaux messieurs font comme ça
Et puis encore comme ça
Les belles dames font comme ça
Et puis encore comme ça.
"Kyle?"
"Huh?" he turned to the others, finally getting the song out of his head.
It was horrible. He didn't even know why he still remembered the lyrics. He'd had a weird night anyway. He'd never shared a bed with anyone, so he'd been in a half-awake state, just to make sure he didn't knock Jessie out of bed.
"Should we wait for Billy or go inside?" Kay repeated the question.
He opened his mouth to question why she was asking him this, but then remembered he was actually supposed to be the leader. God, he wanted Sam back.
"I say we wait another ten minutes. It's still early." And they were hanging out there all day anyway, because he honestly doubted they'd find anything by taking the tour. The only reason they were going inside was to see what they were up against. They'd be breaking in during the night and checking properly.
The others nodded and returned to shivering. The fog and the wind really weren't helping and Kyle hoped Billy would be getting there soon. The mist turned into frost on his lashes, making it hard to see.
"Jerry, I'll race you to the corner and back," Jimmy said all of a sudden, jumping up and down.
"Race me?" Jerry raised his eyebrows. "You want me to run in these extremely heavy winter boots through snow reaching my knees? You have got to be joking."
Jimmy next turned to Kyle, and he had to admit running didn't sound like a good idea to him either. "Just keep hopping around." He turned a worried eye to Jessie, Kay and Tina as he said this. If Jimmy was so cold, he could only imagine how bad it was for them. Though they were taking it a lot better than his hopping brother.
YOU ARE READING
Freeze (The Jewel Project #4)
Adventure"I know your weakness. You want to be fair, you want to do right, you want to be the good guy. I could give you a depression you'd never crawl out of." Sometimes, no matter the turmoil in our lives, it's the seemingly irrelevant, simple, normal thin...
