Cold as Ice

I woke up to the smell of pancakes, and became confused.

Nobody in my family ever made breakfast but me. It was something my Mom and I had always done together.

Curious, I stood up, jumping as the N64 controller that was on my lap clattered noisily to the floor. I had probably fallen asleep racing against Bailey. And speaking of, Bailey wasn't anywhere in sight.

The honey-coloured hardwood was cold under my bare feet as I padded toward the basement stairs. I looked up, and noticed the basement door was open. She was probably upstairs in the kitchen eating pancakes - and I had to figure out who had made them.

I walked up the stairs, pausing for a moment to look at the picture of my Mom that was hanging on the wall. It still felt weird not having her around, not being able to talk to her about my high school problems, my boy problems... anything, and everything.

Sometimes I just missed her smile. Looking at it, I noticed the colour of her lipstick matched the wine red colour on the wall. I remembered that she had always wanted Dad to finish the basement - but he had never got around to it. The car accident threw everything out of whack for he, Ash and I. Dad didn't want to do anything for months after Mom died. Sure, he kept it together for my brother and I, but we could tell his heart was completely broken.

On the Mother's Day after the crash, Johnny came over at the crack of dawn and ran down to the basement with a bunch of stuff in his arms. Ash didn't know what was going on, so he followed him into the basement and they both stayed down there until it was late at night. I went down to check on them at some point during the day, and saw them putting insulation in. Johnny and my brother had finished the basement by themselves.

It was the first time I'd ever seen Johnny Frost do something relatively nice.

I blew a kiss to the picture of Mom and continued upstairs. I found Bailey sitting at my kitchen table in her pajamas with a glass of apple juice to her lips, smiling at my brother, who was sitting across from her. Johnny was nowhere to be seen.

Ash smiled at me. "Morning, Sleeping Beauty."

Bailey also smiled at me. "Happy Monday."

"Hey, guys." I put some pancakes on a plate, drizzling syrup on them. Taking a bite, I marvelled at their taste. "Who made the pancakes?

Ash raised his eyebrows. "Actually, Johnny made them."

"What?" I almost choked. "He can cook? I didn't even think he could read."

"Apparently he can do both." said Bailey, shrugging. "Who knew?"

"I sure as hell didn't, and I'm his best friend." said my brother.

I shook my head. "Wow. You learn something new every day. Where is Tweedle Dumbass, anyway?"

Ash shrugged. "In the shower, I think."

"Oh, it's time for his annual scrub, is it? It's about time!" I yelled, loud enough for Johnny to hear.

Bailey giggled. "You're mean to him, you know."

"I hardly think so." I said. She gave me a look. "Well... he's worse."

"It's true, Bailey," said Ash, "Johnny can be a real dick when he wants to be."

I glared at him. "Yeah. Way to go, big brother, you're doing a great job of sticking up for your little sister. Why don't you ever tell him to leave me alone?"

"You have seen how large and muscular he is, haven't you?" He asked.

"That's no excuse."

"I see our precious little tyrant is finally awake." said the voice of the Devil.

I turned around and pointed my fork at Johnny. "Watch it, buddy."

"Whoa, hey," He laughed. "I made you those pancakes, Kiddo."

"Yes, and they're surprisingly delicious. Did you poison them or something?" I asked.

Johnny's eyes sparkled as the corner of his mouth raised. My gaze fell, from his sparkling eyes that peeked out from behind his damp black hair, down his body. He only wore a pair of faded blue distressed jeans with a black belt and a silver belt buckle that said TREKKIE. On my way back up to his face, I stopped abruptly at his chest. Johnny had a disturbingly hot body. His smooth, light skin had no flaws, not a single freckle or scratch. His collar bones were masculine and portruded only slightly from under his sloping delts, enough to take note of. And his abs. He had a six pack that was just nice enough to make me bite my lip, and his hips sloped inward with those muscle lines that only models have.

"Quit checking me out, little girl." Johnny's voice brought my eyes back up to his face. He raised one of his eyebrows and flashed his pearly white teeth in a smile.

I stopped biting my lower lip, and narrowed my eyes at him. "You wish. I was just distracted by your belt buckle. Trekkie? You're living in the wrong decade."

He crossed his muscular arms, leaning against the doorway. "I'd rather be a Trekkie than a dork like you."

"I am most certainly not a dork."

"Yes, you are. You're dorkalicious." He moved past me.

"Am not," I said, whirling around.

"A rare species of Dorkasaurus Rex." He took an open can of Pepsi from the counter, gulped some, and let out a long, loud belch as he left the kitchen again.

"I am not!" I swung out of the kitchen, hanging onto the door frame.

Johnny walked down the hallway making locomotive-type motions with his arms, pumping one of his fists. "Choo-choo! All aboard the Dork Express!"

I growled in my throat and returned to my plate of pancakes, stabbing at them viciously. "I hate him so much."

With a sigh, Bailey rinsed off her plate and glass, and patted my shoulder. "We know you do, Avery." She left the kitchen.

"I'm sorry." Ash said as Bailey disappeared into the basement to get dressed. "I wish I could tame him."

"Disown him as a friend." I swallowed the last bit of pancake. To be honest, I was sad to see them go so quickly. Even if Johnny was a total jerk, he made better pancakes than I did.

"I would, but he's like a freaking tumor." He stood beside me at the sink. "And besides, even if he and I weren't friends anymore, he'd still come after you because you're his favourite person to agitate. "

"Yeah, but at least I wouldn't have to look at his stupid face as much." I put my plate in the sink.

Ash hugged me from behind, setting his chin on my shoulder. He was silent for a moment, then sighed. "I miss Mom a lot today, Avery."

I leaned my head against his, squeezing his arms. "I miss her a lot every day, Ashley."

We sighed together, and then went to our rooms to get ready for school.

My first period, and absolute favourite class was Advanced English. I ran happily into the classroom and sat down at the back. My teacher, Miss Sullivan, laughed at me. "Somebody's in a good mood."

"I am in a great mood." I replied. "I pushed Johnny Frost into a snowbank, and now he's cold and wet and miserable."

"Why would you push Johnny Frost into a snowbank?" She asked. She knew Johnny. Everybody knew Johnny.

"Because he's awful." I said. "You should know, you've had him in your class before."

She shook her head. "I see your point."

The whole hour of class was spent reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I was the only one that had already read it, so I enjoyed the silence and doodled on a piece of paper until the bell rang. I had two tests in my next two periods, Math and Physics, and then it was lunch. I met up with Bailey outside of her classroom door and we headed for the cafeteria. "So, apparently somebody has a crush on you." She informed me.

"Who is it? And who told you?" I asked, fishing in my pocket for a five dollar bill.

"Lexi Bate. She texted me last period, and she knows everything. She didn't specify who, but I guess he's really popular." Bailey shrugged, then nudged me, waggling her eyebrows. "He's probably cute."

I smiled. "I don't care whether he's cute or not, I'd rather him be nice. I mean, if he's not nice..." We rounded a corner, sticking to the wall as to try not to bump into anyone coming around the other side, I of course slammed directly into someone. "Damn it! Sorry!" I rubbed my forehead and looked back to see a tall figure striding down the hallway, facing me with his hands cupped around his mouth. Johnny.

"Watch where you're going, Shithead!" He called.

"Quit taking up the hallway, Fatass!" I yelled.

In a whiny voice, he replied, "Ouch, baby, why you gotta be so mean to me?"

I turned around. "Ignore him." I told Bailey. "You see what I mean about not nice?"

She snickered and tucked a strand of her partially bleached hair behind her ear, showing off her stretched earlobe and industrial bar. "All-righty."

"What's so funny?" We entered the cafeteria and stood in line.

"Nothing," said Bailey. She bought a slice of pizza and a chocolate milk, and I bought garlic fingers and white milk. "You and Johnny are far more entertaining than cable television." We walked together to the set of stairs where we usually sat at lunch with our friends Kyle -Bailey's boyfriend of nearly a year and a half, and Jen.

Kyle smiled at Bailey and I as we sat down. "Hola!" He said.

"Buenos dias." I replied, biting into a garlic finger.

"So about this guy?" Jen asked as she braided her shiny auburn hair and snapped her bubble gum. "He's got a crush on our Avery?"

"Yeah," said Bailey after she kissed Kyle a multitude of times on his face. "Apparently so. Lexi told me that he's completely A-list."

"Good for you." Kyle said to me, his cheeks pink with embarrassment. "I told you that there are quite a few guys that like you."

I sipped on my milk. "I don't think so. And besides, almost all of the guys around here are either taken, gay, or cocky like Johnny."

"I bet England's full of nice guys." Jen said.

I chuckled. "Why England?"

"I've been there." She said. "They're all just so... nice. The whole place is nice. It's beautiful scenery for picture-taking."

"I wish I could move there."

"But you can't move. Your boyfriend would miss you too much." said Kyle.

I raised my eyebrows. "Who exactly is this boyfriend?"

"Johnny Frost." He replied. I widened my eyes at him, and he raised his hands defensively. "Hey, I'm just saying. As a guy, I'll tell you that we do tend to tease the girls we like. It gives us some odd sort of satisfaction knowing that we bug them. Knowing that they think about us, even though it may not be in the best of terms." He smiled at Bailey. "I still tease Bailey. It's fun."

"See!" Bailey said. "I told you Johnny had a crush on you. Maybe that's who Lexi was talking about."

"Well, I don't believe you. And anyway, I don't have a crush on him, so you guys can just drop this crush subject before I throw up." I crossed my arms. "Jen, please tell me you're on my side?"

Jen blinked at me from behind her slim glasses. "Um..." She chewed on her lip. "Sorry, Avery. I'll have to agree with those two on this one."

I made a frustrated noise and put my face in my hands. Nobody understood. Nobody but me, and Johnny. And that was probably the only thing he and I would ever agree on.

My fourth period class was French, which was spent conjugating verbs. It passed quickly, and unfortunately so did fifth period. And there I was in sixth, my most hated class of the day. Study block with him.

I walked into the classroom and took a seat in the very back corner, opening my binder and pretending to work. Study block was only a thirty minute period that was built into our schedule to give us time to complete homework assignments or study before we went home, so kids wouldn't have any excuse to not pass something in.

I didn't have to look up to tell that it was Johnny who walked into the room next. I felt the whole atmosphere change - darken, almost. I hoped to God that he wouldn't sit next to me, but he did, like he did every day.

A paper ball hit my shoulder. I ignored it. But when three more hit me, I turned around. "What the hell do you want?"

Johnny chuckled. "Smooth move out there in the hallway today."

"That's all you wanted to say?" I blinked slowly.

"No, actually. Ash went home sick, so I'm driving you home."

"What?"

"I am going to take you home." He repeated.

"No, I heard you. But seriously? My brother is trusting you of all people to drive me home?"

Johnny smirked. "Why wouldn't he trust me? What could I possibly do to you?"

"Shut up, Johnny." I turned around and hoped he would just disappear completely off of the face of the Earth.