Distractions.

Part 1.

“You throw that at me and I swear it will be the last thing you ever do,” I threatened, holding a hand out in front of me.

“Oh really?” Frank taunted.

“Yes, really, you ass. Don’t. Throw. The. Snow.” I backed away slowly. He followed.

“But you’d look so cute covered in snow,” he reasoned in the fakest sweet voice I had ever heard.

“Fuck off.”

People milled around me but it seemed that only Frank and I existed in that moment. Predator and prey. His arm arched back and before I could rattle off any more threats I had a face full of snow.

“Frank! You bastard,” I shouted.

“Catch me if you can,” he laughed back at me, running off. I started to chase him but soon stopped. He looked hilarious; his big snow boots were weighing his feet down as he ran and it made him look so peculiar. All I could do was double over with laughter. He looked like a retarded penguin or something.

He didn’t seem to impressed when he realised I wasn’t chasing him anymore so he jogged back over to me which made me laugh even harder.

“What? Why are you laughing?” he asked, confused.

Between gasps I tried to explain but I couldn’t.

“You…running…” I clutched at my stomach, tyring unsuccessfully to stop laughing.

“What? Gerard, what about me running?”

His confusion just made it funnier and I started laughing harder, bending over so I wouldn’t fall. When I looked up Frank was laughing too. I didn’t know how to stop and it looked like he didn’t know either. It was ages before we could stop laughing and when we did there were still big grins on our faces.

“Want to go up the chairlift again?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. We made our way over to the chairlift thingy after collecting our snowboards. The line moved pretty quickly so we were in one within minutes.

“So…what exactly were we laughing about?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle slightly, remembering the image. “You looked like a retarded penguin with your snow boots weighing you down so much,” I explained. I watched the grin on Frank’s face widen.

“You are really odd, you know that?”

I just laughed along with him. We sat for a few moments in silence before he broke it again.

“I was sexy though, right? When I was running?”

The weird look I gave him made him start laughing again. “And you say I’m odd.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he gasped.

Looking down at the snow, I quickly sobered up. We were so high off the ground. It didn’t bother me at all, but it gave me a sense of…well, I don’t know, euphoria? Insignificant-ness?

“I feel so small up here,” Frank murmured.

“Same.”

We didn’t speak until we got off the chairlift at the top of the mountain, which proved to be quite a feat.

“Gerard, don’t you dare hold onto me! Let go! You’ll make me fall over too. Let go! Gerard!”

Clutching at his arm, I made us both collapse and slide down the icy snow. I grinned the whole time, while Frank pouted.

“Ass,” he muttered, fake glaring at me. I poked out my tongue at him playfully.

“Race you down the hill?”

“You’re on.”

When we both somehow managed to get ourselves over onto the track that would lead us down the hill we pulled our gloves tighter and got ready to race.

“Ready?” I taunted, smiling as I got into a racing stance.

Frank shouted out ‘go’ and took off. I would have hit him if I could. Racing down the hill after Frank was tiring, but somehow I managed to catch him up. We both kept fighting for the lead, both of us extremely determined to beat the other.

Other skiers and snowboarders on the track usually got out of the way once they realised we were coming down after them at top speed, others who didn’t were narrowly missed or were sprayed with snow.

We were nearing the bottom of the hill when I took the lead for what seemed the millionth time, but it didn’t last long. Frank somehow got in right front of me and I freaked out and I fell straight down onto the hard snow. Snow’s meant to be soft but on the track it was just as hard as normal ground.

“Ouch!” I cried as I went down.

A few yards ahead Frank came to a halt, spraying snow everywhere behind him.

“Are you okay?” he called out, looking like he was going to come back up and see for himself.

“Yeah, just give me a moment.” Somehow I got myself sitting on my butt and I cradled both knees for a moment. They were throbbing from hitting the ground so hard. I didn’t stay sitting for long though because the cold was beginning to seep through my pants and numb my ass cheeks.

Pulling myself up, I brushed the snow from my pants and starting boarding down to where Frank was waiting.

“You okay? How’re your knees?”

“They’re fine, a bit sore though. This snow is hard as cement!” I frowned down at the snow.

Frank laughed. “Yeah, it is. It has to be. We’ll take it easy for the rest of the way, it’s not too far now. Maybe we can go and get a warm drink when we get back, yeah?”

“Okay. I totally feel like something mocha-ee,” I replied, licking my lips at the thought.

“Come on then.” He extended his hand to me.

“Do you seriously think I’m going to take your hand?” I stared at him in disbelief.

He took back his hand sheepishly. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Obviously.”

“Shut up. You’re being a bitch,” he whined, poking his tongue out.

I laughed, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Do you want me to call you a whambulance?”

“Just hurry up,” he grumbled under his breath, tyring to conceal a smile.

We boarded down the rest of the hill quite quickly, stacking the boards in the rack as soon as we came to a stop. Heading over to the café, we didn’t talk at all. It was a comfortable silence between friends. Once that thought ran through my head I felt slightly uneasy. I remember, all too clearly, telling Frank that I liked him as more than a friend.

He didn’t really react, to be honest. But he did say he wouldn’t tell me that he saw me as only a friend. That had to mean something, right? I’d have to ask him later.

“I didn’t get to show you how to do the ‘fancy stop’.”

“Oh, yeah. Maybe we can go back out after we get our hot drinks?” I suggested, pushing the door open to the small café. A breeze of hot air engulfed Frank and I as we walked in, warming us.

We waited in line for about half an hour as the line was extremely long. Not only were there students but there were tourists as well. Jess was in the line ahead of us, which made me slightly anxious. Frank must have noticed because he smiled softly at me and discreetly rubbed my arm.

Once we had paid and gotten our mochas, Jess walked up to me and I started shaking. I was so scared; I wasn’t cut out for confrontations with best friends.

“I need to talk to you,” she said quietly, her gaze downcast.

“S-sure,” I mumbled. I glanced up at Frank with wide eyes, showing just how frightened I was.

He leaned over to me, and whispered in my ear, “You’ll be fine. I promise. If you need me to get her away from you just click your fingers three times. I’ll be watching you.”

I nodded before turning back to Jess. “Um…”

“Over there…?” she said, pointing to a deserted corner of the café. I nodded and followed her. When she stopped and turned to me, I quickly stopped biting my lip.

“Look…Gerard,” she started, “I’m sorry for being so…well, you know, lately.”

After a few moments of silence from me I spoke up, “Why are you apologising? Why were you even acting like that?”

“I…I, well, you had to expect me to find out someday. Why didn’t you just tell me, Gee? I thought we were best friends,” she replied, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“What are you talking about?” I cried. I had no idea what she was on about.

“Well, for starters, you’re fucking loaded! You’re rich, Gerard. Why didn’t you tell me? And, you’re gay. You could have told me that. You must have been sitting back and laughing at me all those times when I tried to hook you up with girls, must have thought I was a right idiot,” she ranted, tears now flowing down her cheeks.

“Jess, stop. Just…just stop, alright?! You know me; can’t you see why I wouldn’t have told you?” I was crying now. “I didn’t want to be treated differently. People get teased and bashed for being the gay, rich kid, mummy’s boy. If people knew all of that, they’d automatically stick me in that category.”

“You could have told me.”

“No, I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell anyone,” I said quietly, staring straight into her eyes. We were both crying, but I didn’t care at that moment.

“I wish you could have,” she whimpered, wiping desperately at the tears that were still falling down her cheeks.

“So do I, Jess! Don’t think for a second I wasn’t telling you because I thought I couldn’t trust you. I know I can trust you. I had to keep it from everyone. You know now though, so no more secrets, yeah? I’m really sorry. Truly.”

“No, no, don’t apologise. I should be doing that, not you. I’ve been a right bitch and I should have just come and talked to you about this first. I feel like such an idiot. I’m sorry, Gee,” she sobbed.

“It’s okay,” I said, gathering her in my arms. I hugged her tightly, both of us still crying. We were a pair of wimps…

I looked up from Jess’s shoulder, searching for Frank. When my eyes fell on him, I smiled through my tears.

He gave me a thumbs-up.