A Photograph of You & I

My feet lifted higher and higher as I became entrenched in deeper and deeper snow. I wasn't really running anymore, I was lifting my knees to my chest and attempting a fast walk.

Bam was closing in on me and I could only hope that he would be faced with this same ordeal so that I might have a chance to get away. I really wasn't relishing the fact that I would probably receive a rather nasty whitewash or that snow might be shoved down my shirt.

As soon as I reached the area where the bare trees became a little denser, the amount of snow on the ground was little enough so that I could run again, despite the needles stabbing my lungs.

"Aina!" Bam screamed after me, annoyance in his voice at having to chase me. His annoyance would eventually become my downfall.

My emerald gaze scanned my surroundings for any place I might take cover, regain my breath, and double back toward the house. To my intense dismay I realized that my footprints the snow would give away any hiding place I might find among the brush and dead trees.

Leaping over a fallen log, I ducked behind a large pine tree. I prayed that it would take a few minutes for Bam to notice I was no where in sight and then start to turn back.

I panted heavily as my body adjusted to not having to move as much as I had been pushing it to. My heart was beating so hard I was afraid, for a moment, that it might burst free of my body. I shuddered at the gruesome mental image I had provided myself with.

Suddenly, Bam's form came sailing over the fallen log and I ceased my breathing. As I had expected, he went right past me and continued on, his feet barely making a sound in the untouched powder.

I grinned at my good fortune and got up, prepared now to run back to the house and seek refuge under Ville's bed. My body warmed at the memory of the kiss I'd just planted on Ville's lips. My mind immediately stopped the temporary euphoria that had taken over.

I really shouldn't have kissed him.

My jogging slowed as I began to think. My subconscious screamed at me to keep going and that Bam would realize my trick any minute.

"God damnit." I cursed at myself as I realized what had transpired between Ville and I. Those small gestures that would eventually prove our demise seemed so perfect. They had been. In that moment there had been nothing but Ville and me. That's all I really wanted there to be.

Mentally, I slapped myself for brooding on the subject and I kept jogging, searching through the trees to catch a sight of my friends that had been left waiting.

Oh, who was I kidding?

I was searching for Ville to be waiting for me and I knew it.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Bam screamed with a smile as he jumped at me from out of nowhere.

I hadn't had time to scream.

Or time to react.

I saw the look of absolute horror on his face as he sailed toward me, seemingly in slow motion.

As his body collided with mine I was vaguely aware of two things, one was that I was about to be thrown into a tree.

The second was Ville screaming my name from where he stood, so very far away.

And then, there was black.

Bam's P.O.V

I had been pacing now for too long.

I knew my friends were all watching my every move, wishing they could do something to soothe the burning guilt that now consumed me.

I had thrown one of my best friends, nearly headfirst into a tree. She smacked her head pretty good.

As soon as I heard the 'THUD' of her head against that tree, I knew I had fucked up far worse than I could have imagined.

She was just lying there, in the snow, where she had fallen after the bounce off of the tree. She looked as though she had fallen asleep, but the small trickle of blood that escaped the side of her forehead told a different story.

Ryan and Raab had to hold Ville back from either throttling me or doing something that might accidentally hurt Aina more that she already was.

"Bam, will you please just sit down?" Ape asked, her tone carefully masked as calm. I knew what secret emotions were toiling away inside her.

"I can't," I replied simply, unwilling to speak more than was absolutely necessary. I could feel a rather distinct gaze on my back as I looked at my mother.

I couldn't bring myself to look at Ville, so I continued pacing.

"Bam, listen to your mom," Ville said quietly, his voice too; held hidden emotions he would only share with one person. And I had put that one person in a hospital bed.

"Can't anyone leave me alone!?" I bellowed causing a few disapproving stares from a couple of nurses who were immersed in their paperwork.

Everyone looked down, complying with the demand I hadn't truly wanted to make. I needed these people now and all I could do was shove them away in my moment of self-loathing.

"April!" A voice sounded accompanied the quick clicking noise of heels.

I turned toward the voice, knowing full well whom it belonged to. Another person I had wronged.

Mrs. Mariani raced toward April, tears in her wise, jade eyes. I felt the incredible urge to go and hug her, and beg forgiveness but I also felt as though I didn't deserve any.

She made that decision for me as she separated from my mother's embrace and turned to look at me for a long moment. Her gaze wasn't hard but it wasn't full of overwhelming kindness. It was contemplative.

"Brandon, come here." She said finally, opening her warm arms to me. I resisted the surge of emotion that swelled within me as I went into her arms and laid my head on her shoulder.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean any harm," She said, all at once easing my guilt and forgiving me.

I could only nod at her as she released me and left to go speak with Ville as tears escaped his eyes. I heard her muttering something to him in Finnish but I couldn't catch the gist of it.

With a heavy sigh, I took one of the empty chairs and sat on it in a similar fashion to those around me. With my face in my hands and hunched over.

"Bam?" Ape whispered softly beside me as she rubbed small circles on my back like she used to when I was little and scared because of some terrifying dream.

"Hmm?" I grunted, not wanting to respond.

"Stop worrying alright? She's going to be fine, she was just knocked out for a bit." She was doing a good job at hiding that worry.

I relinquished the hold my hands had on my head and stared at my mother, my cerulean gaze seeming dead in the reflection of myself I saw in her glasses.

"I really hope you're right."