Time Passes. Snow Falls. I Miss You.

Delany yelped in shock when she entered her room.

“Shh!” Ryan said, putting a hand over her mouth and pulling her fully into her room.

“How the hell did you guys get in here?!”

“Well Jon said that you always snuck out through your window, so we just snuck in!”

“You can’t just come into my room! For all you could have known, I might have been changing,” she scolded the two boys.

“Well Jon said he always did…” Spencer muttered.

“Well, that’s different…”

“Not really,” Ryan blurted out.

“Whatever, so why are guys here again?” She dumped herself down the old elegant quilt that covered her bed.

“We’re bored!” They both said at once.

“Oh, well let’s do something!”

“Like what?”

“Well is Bill or Mike home?” Delany asked.

“Psh, yeah. They both are. Hence the reason we are here.”

Delany’s mouth broke into a devilish smile.

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“Get out of this damn house!”

“Fuck you, Delany!” Jon’s older brothers, Bill and Mike, bellowed as Delany ran out the door.

Delany was in a fit of laughter as she sprinted down the Walker’s sidewalk and through yard back to her house. She jumped in her window and slammed it shut, just incase one of the boys were following her.

“Faze one,” she panted, “complete.” Spencer and Ryan high fived. Spencer quickly jumped up on the ledge that was under the window and climbed out the window that Delany jumped in and ran quickly, but sneakily, back over to Jon’s house.

A few impatiently anticipated moments, Spencer returned, out of breath just like Delany had been. “Done.”

“Awesome!” Ryan jumped up and down on her bed. “Ryan, finish her off!” Ryan nodded excitedly and excited out the bedroom window one last time.

About five minutes later, Ryan still hadn’t returned and Delany was starting to worry. “You think they got him?” Spencer asked nervously.

Delany paused, “I don’t know, Spence.” Delany padded over to the window and lifted herself up on the ledge so she could peer out the window. Her eyes grew wide as Ryan’s figure was barreling towards her.

“Run!” Ryan yelled as he was being chased after by Jon’s brothers. Delany scrambled off and pushed Spencer out of the way. Ryan went flying through the window, landing on his hands and knees. He didn’t waste time to check for scrapes or bruises though; he got up as quickly as he could and followed Delany and Spencer running upstairs.

They dashed through the kitchen, scaring Delany’s parents. They ran through the living room and out the front door. Mike and Bill were not far behind. They also jumped through Delany’s window, ran up the stairs, through the kitchen and the living room. Delany’s parents sat at the kitchen table in shock. One minute they were sitting quietly doing the bills, the next, they were almost trampled by a heard of people.

“Mariah!!” Mr. Rydell boomed, but Delany was already two streets down and one street over.

“I *gasp* think *gasp* we lost *gasp* them *gasp*” Ryan panted. Delany nodded and slouched against someone’s green power box in their yard.

“I’d say that was a success, boys!” They all high fived.

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“Mariah Rydell, would you like to explain why I got a call from Bill saying there were some problems at his house today?”

The little girl shrugged and started to head down to her room. She got into her room and turned on her light switch and screamed as she was dowsed with ice cold water.

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“Jon!” Jon heard from outside and ran down the stairs. “Jon! Open up!” He opened the front door to relieve himself of the loud knocking.

“Hey Dee wh--”

“Where are they?!”

“What?”

“Where is Bill?” Delany asked, shoving past her best friend.

“Uh, in his room?”

“Billiam!!!” The young man emerged from his room with a smirk on his face.

“Yes Delany?”

“I hate you!” she yelled up the steps.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Care to explain what is going on?” Jon interjected.

“Yeah, well Bill here, taped cups full of water to the ceiling fan in my room!” Jon looked at Delany’s hair. Her auburn hair was unusually darker from the water.

“I only did it because your immature little girlfriend here put spray cheese in my hand while I was sleeping!”

Jon burst out laughing, “And then tickled your face with a feather?!” He continued laughing. Delany laughed too. “That’s such a classic!” Jon said high fiving Delany.

“Yeah, well that’s not all. Somehow she got a million fucking ping pong balls and filled the towel cupboard with them!” Bill was getting even more irritated, now that Jon was laughing hysterically at him.

Jon clutched his stomach, “Oh Dee! That was so amazing! So simple!” He laughed at the contrast from all the other complex and carefully planned pranks that he and Delany used to do.

“That’s not even all,” she smiled and patted Jon’s head. “You know how they used to chase us in the car? Well I got Ryan to unscrew his tires, so when he tried to come after us, his tires came off!”

Jon high fived the girl again, hitting himself in the head because he never thought of that as a solution to that problem before. Bill got irritated and walked away, angry Jon always laughed and took Delany’s side.

Bill was too old to tattle now. But he cursed himself, letting Delany get away with another one of her stupid little pranks. He remembered when she was little, her and Jon would play countless pranks on him. Most of them were very complex and got him into a lot of trouble.

Not only Bill, but everyone else in the neighborhood was victims of Jon and Delany’s deceptions.

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“Well hello,” Jon greeted as he crawled up into the squished tree house.

“Hey.”

“Uh-oh. Something’s wrong.” He sat cross legged, facing Delany’s back as she lay on her side. He just saw her shoulders shrug up and down.

“What’s up Dee-Dee?”

“Nothing, Jon. Let’s go do something!” Suddenly her voice changed from glum to happy, trying to get Jon to change the subject.

Instead of pressing her, he agreed. The both made their way down the rickety steps and into the blizzard weather.

“Maybe we should stick to watching a movie inside as an alternative…”

“Are you kidding?” Delany yelled so Jon could hear her through the wind, “This is a perfect night to do something ‘cause people won’t see us!”

“Delany,” Jon hesitated. He had to be the adult. He had to tell her that he needed to grow up. Yeah, the break from the mature life, full of responsibilities, was great, but sooner or later (sooner rather than later) he had to go back. “I uh, I actually. I have to go Dee-Dee. It’s um. Late.” He quickly spun on his heels and ran towards his house.

Delany was left standing with her feet sunken in the snow as the biting flakes frosted around her head. Suddenly the hollow air found its way into her chest and a shiver of wintry atmosphere crept down her back, or was it emptiness. It was unknown how long she stood there, but she finally made it back into her house with her cheeks frostbitten and her nose red and running.

She shuffled in her wet jeans down to her room and slipped on grey sweatpants with a loose black T-shirt and pulled her wavy, wet hair into a messy bun up high on her head. She went over to her purse and dug out her phone.

Did i do something?

It took a while for Jon to text back and when he did, Delany had almost fallen asleep on the floor.

--No…i just was tired.--

Delany rolled her eyes at the response.

Yeah ok. Just tell me this. When are you leaving?

Jon took his time again in responding. Over in his room, he laid in his bed just starring at the message. He read it over and over and over. And over. Delany knew and he didn’t even have to tell her. He texted out his lie slowly.

--Not really sure… :P--

Her response came back right away

Youre going to leave just like brendon arent you. And just like brendon. i wont see you again.

The truthful words stung at Jon’s heart. He had to force his eyes shut and try to fall asleep, leaving Delany without a response.