A Year Without Snow

-17-

Saturday, 10th December 2016 - 3rd part 

"Oh, shit! Look what I found!" I heard Dallas' voice say as I was kneeling next to an old chair trying to clean its seat.

After a while, I heard gasps of admiration and then the voice of one of the girls I didn't know, "Oh my God, Bryson was so cute!"

And that was when I stood up and walked to where the voices came, as I spotted Dallas' blonde hair behind a big brown closest. As I looked down I saw a Dallas kneeling on the floor, beside him was that girl, Sophia and in front of them stood a big pile of albums.

"Of course. It had to be albums." I commented as I knelt beside Dallas and picked up the album he was seeing.

In the front, covers were displayed the numbers 2004, and I recognized it as the year I had arrived at Oak Hollow. "You were so cute, Daisy," Sophia said looking at a photo in which I was playing with Zeus on our front porch.

"Thank you." I thanked her.

Then I turned the page and a photo of five small kids appeared with a lot of clothing on, surrounded by snow and Christmas light that I recognized as being in the Snow Festival.

"Look that's me!" Dallas noted pointing at the smallest of kids.

"Same crazy hair, Dallas," Grace commented. "And that's you." He said pointing at an equally small girl with dark black hair, "Before you decided to paint your hair like my grandma's. And that's Bryson and Daisy and... that's Jack, God he looks different."

"What are you doing?" Carson asked from above us, we looked up and saw him and Bryson looking down.

"Nothing," Grace said as she snatched the album from my hand and quickly closed it. "Just looking at old photos."

"Never heard that living in the past is unhealthy?" Bryson asked from above and I rolled my eyes.

"Thank God you don't hold grudges from the past, then. That would have been rather toxic." I noted while standing up and reaching for one of the only few boxes that still wasn't in my car.

"Don't you dare to start again," Dallas warned as he too stood up.

"Not gonna waste my breath, Dallas," Bryson said while walking away and I rolled my eyes.

I started placing the albums on the box and Grace knelt beside me as she helped me.

"What are you doing, Daisy?" She asked as she too placed a few albums dated in the '70s in the box. "I'm packing these albums."

"C'mon, Daisy. You know what I mean. All of this bickering." She replied.

"I'm defending myself. Something I should've started doing a long time ago." I said, "Will you pass me the tape?"

"What for?" She asked.

"To seal the box."

"Daisy."

"He's been taking potshots at me for months now, I'm just starting to realize that I've got all the right to defend myself," I answered as I sealed the box with the tape.

"Why? It's not going to do you any good." She noted as I stood up.

"Closure, Grace. It's my way of making myself believe that I've done nothing wrong." I replied. "That I've got the right to fight back."

"You shouldn't have to make yourself believe that." She stated while standing up beside me.

"Well, it's kind of hard to do that when everybody tells you otherwise," I said while picking up the box from the floor.

And so the rest of the day was spent in a blur of detergents and brooms, I didn't have any other chat with Bryson and even had a few laughs with Dallas, which were enough to make me a lot happier.

At eight o'clock in the afternoon, we were all seated on the ground with two empty boxes of pizzas in front of us and a completely clean storehouse.

We had filled the ground with the most diverse sets of vintage-looking carpets without a single inch of floor to be seen which made it look like we had just entered a rich psychics' tent. The high walls were packed with paintings and bellow it, close by the walls, stood six tables, each one accompanied by four chairs each with its own old design. By the end of the room stood two wardrobes that were to be packed with bottles of the most various alcohol and in front of it three dressers that were to serve as our counters. And finally in the middle of the room stood a space that was to be the dancing floor for which Dallas was promising to bring a disco ball.

"I swear it! It will be the biggest disco ball you've ever seen!" He said from beside me a soda on his hand from the middle of the dance floor where we all seated in a circle."So tell me Dallas, who will hang it up there?" I asked him while crossing my legs and looking up to where the disco ball was meant to go.

"Details, Coconut, details," Dallas replied at me and I smiled and moved a little next to him.

"Well, when are we planning on opening for business?" Sophia asked.

"Tonight?" Dallas excitedly asked turning to me for approval.

"Already?" Grace asked from where she was sitting across from me. "I don't see why not!" Scar agreed with Dallas equally excited.

"Well, the sooner we open, the more we profit," Melanie concluded.

"Don't we need to buy stuff?" Grace asked.

"No! You think!?" Scar sarcastically asked, "We're going to open a club without alcohol!", Grace rolled her eyes at this.

And I felt a wave of guilty passing through me, I could not bear seeing them fight, especially not because of me, making me realize that Dallas had been right, we needed to put an end to this.

"Worry not, my friends! I've got an alcoholic connection!" Dallas assured us, with a little side look towards me, the expression on his face saying I told you so.

"We don't doubt it," Bryson commented.

"So, that's it?! We're opening?" Scar asked excitedly hugging Dallas who was beside her.

"Can you get alcool for tonight, Dallas?" Melanie asked.

"Yes, I can!" Dallas answered.

"Well, then I guess we're going to open!" Melanie concluded making them cheer. "But wait! We need a name!"

"Well, it's Daisy's space, she should choose," Sofia suggested looking at me.

"Oh, alright," I said, taken aback. "I would've said Audrey's but it's a bit weird giving my grandmother's name to a club. What about... Zeus'? It was my dog's name."

"Zeus'," Melanie said as if testing the name.

"Zeus'. Zeus'! I like it!" Dallas agreed.

And so the rest of the day ended, with Zeus' being born once again and, especially, with the promise of what was to be the next months of me standing up for my own self, creating some unwanted bumps and tiring fights, sure, but still, far better than the self-pity I had fallen into, in the previous months, I had settled in a place of self-loathing that Bryson had got for me. But not anymore. I was tired of hating myself. And because the Universe requires balance, the source for my hate was now two guys who had turned my life to shreds.

And now I could finally breathe within my own body.