cold souls; trixya au

eighteen;;

"My parents invited you to dinner at the hotel where we're staying", I said, when we were getting ready to go down that hill. "I was supposed to tell you this as soon as you arrived to pick me up, but I distracted myself with something and I ended up forgetting... It's nothing big, it's just because it's our last night here. James will love it if you go."

And me too... I wanted to complete.

"I don't know," she said, shortly after. "I'm a little embarrassed. Isn't it a family dinner? I'll get in the way."

"No way!", I spoke vehemently. "Quite the opposite! You were part of our days here, so it makes sense for you to go too!"

She was a little uncertain, but said she'd think about it. Then she asked: "What time did they reserve a table? It's good to know, so we don't delay here."

"7:30 pm," I replied.

She looked at the clock and said that we'd have an hour and a half to ski, as it'd be good to take me to the hotel an hour before the scheduled time, so that I could have some time to get ready for dinner.

"So let's not waste time," she added. "I want you to do exactly as you did earlier today, on the other ramp. It'll be much easier because there are fewer people. There's no need to be afraid, I'll accompany you."

That way, I remembered everything she'd said. I leaned back, flexed my knees and gave the impulse. I started to descend slowly, but gradually I was gaining speed. From up there, the view was so beautiful and the mountain was so silent. I felt the wind blowing in my face and, for a moment, I understood why people love skiing so much. The feeling of fullness mixed with freedom that invaded us in doing that was kind of addictive.

Suddenly, when I thought everything was going well, I saw a tree in my path. I tried to swerve, as she'd taught me, but I was going too fast and the skis refused to obey me.

In an instant, Katya appeared by my side. "Brake!" She shouted. "Put the tip of the skis in!"

I tried to do what she said, but it just made me unbalanced. It was as if the skis had rebelled!

When I realized that the tree was getting closer and closer and that I was going to bump right in front of it, I decided to force a fall, at least that way I'd tire on soft snow, not hard wood. So, I hung my body to the left and felt the thud on the floor right afterwards. However, because of the speed I was at, I kept sliding and ended up hitting the tree in the same way, although not as hard. But the glasses and hat even got out of my head.

"Trixie, did you get hurt?", Katya quickly came towards me and started to spare my arms and legs, to make sure I hadn't broken anything. "Does it hurt anything?"

I started to laugh at her concern: "Yes, I'm completely sore, I think I've broken all my bones, you'll have to carry me down there!".

She stopped trying to find any injuries and just put her hand on her waist saying: "Cute, huh?"

In that moment, I remembered that it was exactly what Pearl had called me the night before, when she told me those things about her.

"Did I say anything wrong?", she asked, as my expression had probably given my thoughts away.

"No...", I tried to disguise it. "I just remembered something not cool, but it's over."

"Anything I did?", she asked, worried.

I didn't know how to answer that. In a way, yes. Something I was told she'd done.

I decided to tell the truth: "That friend of yours yesterday, when she went to my hotel, said that I was too cute to be deceived by you. I remembered that because you just repeated the same word."