Sno Globe

Ch 6: Summer’s Not Hot

The bright rainbow snowflakes glistened as they poured into the cavern. It was... morning? My hands stung for some reason, but I couldn’t see from the blinding colors that filled the once dark confides.
“...Alex?” I moaned, still half asleep. “Alex are you alive?”

Finally my vision adjusts, and I fixate my gaze on the girl in the corner. Still breathing.
“That’s a shame.” I sigh to myself, and then casually glance at my bloody palm before returning to my rest.

...bloody palm?

~~~

It’s been a while since I’d focused on the real world. I’d been so preoccupied with the past; I’ve nearly forgotten what’s been happening the past few days in the real world.
To recap, I messed up Harpers play, went to the arcade, Alex joined my piano keyboarding class, and now we were headed to lunch, in the middle of that class right now.

I receive my trey from the lunch lady, which contained slop with a side of slop. A meal at its finest. All there’s left to do is find a seat next to my friend.
“Oo! Found it!” I announced aloud. That boy from keyboarding was sitting next to her again, bugging the crap out of her. I force him away and take my rightful place.

“What did ya do that for?” Alex asks, slightly annoyed.
“Cause I wanted to sit next to you.” I answer with a pleasant smile.

She looks away uneasy.
“It’s alright. We’re not gonna talk about anything that’s gonna make you uncomfortable. I just thought-”
“That’s the problem!” She starts out of nowhere.

Instead of pouting, I look at her silently for an explanation.

“You just assume I’m not comfortable around you, and now you’re treating me differently and avoiding me at school and-”
“Whoa whoa whoa!” I interrupt. “First off, I’m not avoiding you. I’m avoiding Harper, who just happens to be with you every second of the day now. Secondly,”
She chomps on her food and looks down. Well at least we got that misconception out of the way.

“Secondly...” I continue. “If you have something you wanna talk about then for god sakes say it!”
“I tried damn it!” She snaps, then tones it down a little. “You kept making up excuses.”

Now I just felt bad, watching my friend fight back tears.

“And it’s just so confusing! I can’t, tell if you wanna be friends or if I’ve completely lost your respect at this point.”

“Alex... I do wanna be friends.” I say, gazing into her eyes with sympathy and taking her hands.
“...it doesn’t seem like it sometimes. Like now.” She looks down shyly.

To be completely honesty, I’ve been sending mixed- wait...
“In completely honest with you, I know I’ve been sending mixed messages, I see that now. But it was only because there’s a lot I’m unsure of. I’m sorry it’s confusing you, but I’ve been so confused myself this past week! And to be, absolutely, COMPLETELY honest with you, Alex Russo, I don’t know if I wanna be friends.”

This perks her interest.
“If you wanna be just friends, and go to movies and make fun of your siblings and wreck havoc every day, then I wouldn’t have it any other way! I’m perfectly happy with that.”

She smiles and giggles a little. “If I wanna be just friends?”
She wasn’t near crying now, on the bright side.

“Last Monday, the way I felt...”

“Wait!” She stops me, mid thought. She looks around the room quickly, and at first I didn’t get it. Then I remember we’re in the center of our school cafeteria. “Stevie I don’t wanna talk about this here. There’s been so much confusion and if we continue like this, how can we be sure we’re on the same topic at all?”

“Say no more.” I nod. I pull her behind the kitchen counter and teleport us to my box castle.

“Whoa!” She muses.
“I’ll give you a full tour later, but right now there’s a more pressing matter.”
“Right.” She nods nervously

“The only reason I avoided talking about it so long was because I wasn’t sure how I felt.” I could see her tense. “Because...” She flinches slightly. “I wasn’t sure if you were in your right mind at the time.”
I let my voice trail off, and stare at her intently waiting for any response.

She shifted uncomfortably, but still no answer.

“What it really comes down to. What’s really going on between us that draws the line between an ‘awkward’ and a ‘bashful’ uncomfortable. Were you thinking rationally at that moment?” I prompt. She’s silent at first.

“I was sincere.” She mumbles nervously through her trembling lips, almost looking ashamed of herself.

At first we don’t dare look at each other. My hands shook nervously at what this meant for me. I slowly inch off the glove, covering the wounds from my palm which Alex had carved with razor-sharp ice.

~~~

“I love you...” I breathe in shock at the bloody scratches written on my hand.

I return my sight to the girl shivering in the corner of the cave. She grasped an icicle.
“A-Alex”

My eyes were wide and filled with haze. Never before now had I fathomed that Alex Russo...

She peeked her eye open nervously. We store at each other like this for a moment before...

“Aroooo-ROUR!!!”

The mountain side shook at the thunderous boom. Something told me that whatever made that noise wasn’t a starving snow woof.
Both Alex and I shook from the fear. As we approached the cave entrance...

A large white ape stood at the base. A yeti?? As the literal beast stomped toward us, hairy fists raised, we figure we better not stick around. Time to make a dive for it, before we and the cave are crushed.

Right as we leap the monster brings his giant fist down and smashes our only shelter in. It begins marching toward us, and I figure we’re just about doomed.

“Aroooo!” The woof’s sharp cry pierces the air. The entire pack circled the beast, and jumped on it at once, sinking their teeth and claws into its hard skin.

“I never thought I’d be so happy to see the wolf pack.” Alex admits, and then looks at me. “How do you think they got here so fast?”
“It’s possible they stalked the yeti here.”

“Or maybe, the yeti stalked it here??” She offers. “There’s a cave on the other side that’s on ground level. I saw it last night.”
“Then this is the time to check it out! While they’re both fighting and distracted!” I reason. With that we rush to the other side of the cave.

We search over the small cavern. There wasn’t much room, and not much to search. It just wasn’t here.
“So much for that...” She sighs. “Leave it up to a dog to lose its favorite toy.”

Dog...
“Alex that’s it!” I realize. She jumps. “What if the wooves’ didn’t lose it?”

“Okay, then, uh, what if?” She questions. “We’d still have no idea where it is.”
“But don’t we?” I smile. She looks at me confused. “Think about it... whenever we played with dragon, he would lose all his things, right?”
“Well yeah but I still don’t follow.”
“But he didn’t actually lose those things, remember? Because after a while we’d find them in the back yard-”
“BURIED!” She exclaims, then starts kicking the snow around the cave.

Sure enough we discover some lose ground just outside the mountain. Could it be...?

We dug as fast as we could, noticing that the woofs were losing their battle. We crammed our frozen fingers into the hard icy ground...
And...

“There!” I rejoice at the sight of the handle of my wand. We carefully pry it out and thankfully it wasn’t broken.

Alex raises it from the dirt and it lights up. She smiles and jumps up and down happily
“Yes!” I laugh in excitement. “We’re saved! We’re-”

Instantaneously I felt Alex’s warm wet lips fall onto mine. It was a spontaneous spark out of nowhere- no, out of our stellar victory! Heat rushed to my face as I hook my arms around her shoulders and pull myself closer into the kiss.

I gasp with anticipation as I stood kissing my best friend in the snow. I smiled against her lips with such incredible pleasure-

Kissing my best friend?!?

Both of us sling back at the immediate thought that crossed our minds.

I shoot my vision in her direction, my eyes wide with wonder. She had her back turned to me now, but I could still see the red in her face when she peeked over her shoulder. Her cheeks burned from the excitement that overtook her. I’d be lying if I claimed my face wasn’t as flush.

“Oh god...” She stresses, her voice cracking terribly.

“Hrrr...” the beast growls, woof fur hanging from its jaw. We both snap out of it as it creeps toward us.

I snatch the wand from Alex and raise it accordingly. We vanish instantly.

~~~

“What about you?” Alex huffs. I take my fingers off my palm, which breaks me from my flashback.

I froze like a deer in headlights.

“From what I understood, you had said you weren’t sure how you felt, because you didn’t know how I felt.” She reminds. “I told you I was sincere, now you tell me what that means for you.”
Still frozen.

“For fuck sake Stevie, I’ve been through hell this past week! I can’t tell if you’re shy or homophobic or if there’s anything in it at all! I’ve been waiting for you to be able to talk about this and finally when we do I spill my guts out and I can’t get one answer from you? Please Stevie!” She begs. “Give me something!”

She was hurting. And it was my fault. But I don’t know how I feel about her! I hate to do this to her, but...

“Will a maybe suffice?” I wince.
“...Maybe what.” She says, trying to keep her patients.

“Maybe... I like you. And... maybe I’d even like exploring these feeling with you.”

I could tell by her smile she didn’t wanna get her hopes up, but couldn’t help feeling a little happy.

“Just, maybe.” I contemplate.
She tries to nod nonchalantly, but it isn’t working.
“I just don’t know what’s going on with me, I’ve never been this close to anyone in my life, and I just transferred here. What I mean to say is, it’s all just happening so fast.”

“It’s alright!” Alex assures me, unable to contain her happiness any longer. She takes my hands.
I store into her eyes.
“I promise you if you give me a chance, we can take things slow. This is all very new to me too, trust me, but that that doesn’t change the fact that I wanna explore these feelings.”

At first I’m stuck again, but slowly nod, cautiously taking in everything she’s saying.

“We’ve had so many adventures together, Stevie. You’ve been by my side through every thrilling moment, so...

Why should it stop here?”