The clock struck midnight, and a New Year began. January let out a cheer along with his sister February. I followed suit, smiling at their excitement. It was moments like these that I lived for. When my best friends were happy, and it made me happy too. We were happy, and we were together.
They both fell asleep soon after that. Then I fell asleep after them, smiling to myself, and dreaming of the possibilities of a new year.
****
Neither January nor February had awoken when I opened my eyes that morning. They both slept soundly, exhausted from the excitement of the night previous. I crept silently to the window, not wanting to disturb them.
Looking outside, I saw that the snow was falling. The wind was painting with the motion of the snowflakes, blowing them across the lawn, into the trees, and onto the window. The wind formed a map out of the snow against the windows. Mountains and valleys and oceans of flakes dotted and spread across the glass. I traced the outlines of the snowy land with my finger, admiring the art that nature could create with only the white of the snow.
Looking beyond the glass window I saw the overcast sky shading the world into greys and blacks and whites. The world outside the window reminded me of an old black and white photograph. A snapshot of history that captured the beauty of the skies and the emotion of the photographer who had seen it, photographed it with his camera, and shared that emotion with the world. A small time capsule designed to deliver a feeling of elation to the future, despite its lack of color.
A strong hand clapped onto my shoulder, and another hand clasped over my mouth. I let out a startled yelp which was muffled by the hand. I whipped around to face my captor, but saw only January, smiling at my momentary panic.
At nineteen, a couple of years older than me, January was quite a bit taller, so he had to lean down in order for me to hear his whispering voice. "Come with me."
I did. Silently, January led me out of the room. I tripped and nearly fell onto the inflatable mattress January slept on. Whenever I stayed over, he slept on that mattress, allowing me to take over his bed. I always told him I could take the mattress, but he always told me no and took the uncomfortable mattress for himself.
February was still sound asleep. We made our way down the stairs and rounded the corner at the bottom. I kept walking, wrongly assuming we were headed for the kitchen, but January grabbed my wrist and pulled me against the wall, hiding us from the view of the stairs.
"What?" I whispered to January, but he only gave me a sly smirk, put his finger up to this mouth in the universal gesture of "shut up", and pulled out his phone. I watched as he typed in a number I didn't recognize and hit call.
The sound of a phone ringing hailed from upstairs, and I recognized it as February's ringtone. January had to put his hand over my mouth again as I nearly laughed out loud at the loud thud of February falling out of bed after being violently awoken. I heard her footsteps moving around the room upstairs.
I heard footsteps move through the hall.
I heard them move down the stairs.
I heard them around the corner.
And then January leapt out from behind the wall and, gently, tackled his sister to the floor. She let out a shriek and I laughed, this time without a hand to silence me. She tried to knock January off her, but he was a lot bigger than her. It was no use, so she did the only thing she could do. She started laughing.
At first her laugh was a quiet giggle, but soon she was laughing uncontrollably, loud and happy. January rolled off his sister and laid on the floor beside her. He was laughing as well, which only gave me permission to laugh harder and louder. I ended up on the floor with January and February, too lightheaded to stand any longer.
