The bell rang, and I put my biology book into my bag. I got up and followed the rest of my class out the door.
An arm grabbed me, and I crashed into Blake’s chest.
His hand grabbed mine as he pulled me fast in the exit’s direction. My heart galloped. He was going to get me into so much trouble.
We rushed out the entrance of the door and I found three cars filled with people as Blake led me to the jeep.
“Where are we going?”
“To have fun, stop worrying so much.” He opened the back door of the jeep and I climbed in first.
Blake scooted in next to me. “Elena, guys, guys, you know Elena.”
“Hey, Elena,” the blond from yesterday said.
I waved as the guy with the dark hair sat next to him at the front.
My heart pounded as he followed another car, and we drove out of the school.
I stared at Blake.
“Don’t look at me like that?” He grinned.
“My dad is going to have a field day when he discovered this, Blake.”
“He won’t, trust me.”
“Mmm, I like to know what you are going to spin when it happens.”
“Live a little, Elena,” the blond guy at the front yelled.
I giggled and shook my head.
Blake wrapped his arm around me and pushed me into his chest. He pushed his lips on top of my head and the same buzz rushed through my body. It felt wonderful.
The drive wasn’t that long and was on private property.
We kept driving behind two cars and pulled into a path covered with dirty snow that ran between rows of trees.
It was really beautiful here as part of the green leaves showcased underneath the snow.
The SUV at the front stopped and a guy with red hair climbed out and swung a gate opened.
The SUV at the front drove through and carried on driving. The second car followed. We waited for the guy to close the gate and the door next to me opened.
Freckles dusted his face as he scooted into the seat. An icy breeze followed behind him and caressed my skin.
“Elena, Mike, Mike—”
“Yeah, we all know who Elena is, Blake.”
“Fuck off,” Blake mumbled, and everyone laughed. He made me feel so special.
Mike stared at me. “You really have beautiful green eyes.”
“Excuse me?” Blake asked, and Mike’s gaze flickered to Blake.
“I’m just saying, Blake.”
I sucked my lips as I found Blake glaring at Mike.
“Yeah, it better stay at just saying.”
The guys teased Mike, and Blake winked at me with a grin, making my stomach fluttered again but reposition the grin on his face into a scowl as he looked at Mike again. I didn’t sum him up as a jealous guy.
We stopped on a hill with a steep slope. Trees with snow covering the tops. It was really beautiful here.
A guy was busy loading off giant tubes from the SUV’s trunk.
“We are going tubing?” I looked at Blake.
“A bit of fun?” Blake said and scrunched up his nose, making him look sexy again.
I froze as Chloë and her friends climbed out of the second car.
Crap.
“Relax, you are with me.”
“You better not leave me alone today,” I mumbled.
“I won’t.”
We climbed out of the jeep, and sunlight sparkled off the snow, giving us a glittering display.
I could feel Chloë’s eyes on me as Blake grabbed my hand and led me to the girl from yesterday morning. She wore a brown parka with laced up boots reaching her calves and a skinny jean. A brown beanie covered her hair and a white scarf kept her neck warm.
She turned around as we neared, and her lips formed into a smile. “Oh, hi, Elena.”
“Hi, thank heaven you are here.” I sounded grateful, and they both laughed.
“Yeah, well, I’m with Mark, so.”
“The guy with the red hair?”
“Yeah, what did he do?” She looked at Blake.
I laughed. “Nothing, he seems really friendly.”
Her eyebrows raised. “Too friendly if you ask me.”
I giggled with her.
“I’m going to get a tube.” Blake left.
“Oh, man, she is fuming,” Sandy mumbled as her fingers curled around my arm.
“Yeah, she really doesn’t like me.”
“That song was epic, though. I didn’t know he could sing like that,” Sandy said.
“Me neither. But it was the best humiliation I’d ever experienced.”
Sandy laughed. “I can imagine.”
Chloë said something to Blake, and he waved it off as he walked toward us with the tube.
Sandy laughed with a tight lip. “Prada,” she yelled and got a glare from Chloë and the girl next to her. My eyes skidded to the snow and I could see a smile forming on Blake’s lips.
This is going to be fun.
“You ready?”
“It’s steep, Blake.”
“Come on, it’s going to be fun.”
“We are going to tip.”
“No, we won’t. Come.” He sounded hyper and I could imagine that he lived for sports like this.
I followed him to the edge of the hill, and he sat down on the tube first.
“Blake, you guys are going to tip.”
“Jace, we’ll be fine.”
They all laughed as Sandy took out her phone. I raised my eyes at her and she shook with laughter.
Blake pulled me down on top of him, and I sort of crushed into him.
I laughed as I tried to get a proper position, without crushing important parts.
“You ready?”
“I think so?”
“Let’s do this!”
“You ready?” the dark hair guy from yesterday asked right behind us as he was ready to push the tube.
“Do it,” Blake said.
He pushed us down the slope and a yelp left my lips as Blake hollered his excitement.
Wind burned my cheeks as the crisp air with a slight metallic scent reached my nostrils. My stomach dipped, and I pressed my face into Blake’s chest, fisting his jacket. I had to admit, his grip around my body was quite firm.
My heart pounded as we sped down the slope.
We turned a few times around, and every time I shrieked, making Blake’s excitement grew.
He tried to stop at the bottom, the out-of-control feeling of not being able to stop followed. We tipped and thank heavens for the squishy soft snow that I fell on. The cold shock of ice skidded into my jacket, took my breath away as I laid on my side, laughing.
Blake chuckled as everyone cheered at the top.
“You okay?” One guy yelled from the top. I couldn’t stop laughing as Blake lifted his arm laying on his back.
More cheers came as I got up.
“I told you we are going to tip.” I reached out my hand to him.
“I don’t care, it was fun,” he said and pulled me down.
I shrieked as I landed on top of him. We both laughed, and then his lips found mine.
I could kiss him forever.
The rest of the morning, we took turns going down.
A headache from the snow’s glare formed, but I had too much fun to care. The tip of my nose, fingers and toes were frozen as I sat next to Sandy on a blanket that was slightly getting damp.
Blake went a few times alone, as I had a great chat with Sandy. She was really nice and, like Blake said, the captain of the girl’s basketball team.
“So what is your deal with Chloë and them?” I asked.
“We used to be best friends a year ago, but a lot of things changed. I guess I saw her true colors. Everything always revolves around her, and I got fed up, so we split.”
“Wait, she was one of your best friends.”
“Sort off, but she only thinks about herself. I’m not that hard up for being popular.”
She cheered and applauded as Mike and Blake’s tubes crashed into each others at the bottom. They laughed as Blake shoved him down the ground.
Sandy screamed her laughter. “He makes everything look so effortless.”
“He does, it’s so wrong.”
She laughed. “He really is a great guy, not like all the other idiots at our school. You are really lucky, Elena.”
“Yeah, I still don’t know why me. I mean, Chloë is gorgeous.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I guess he saw straight through her.”
“Probably.”
Blake and Mark came back up. Blake’s face was flushed, giving his sun-kissed skin that reddish look.
He came over and buried his icy nose in the nape of my neck and I shrieked again, making him chuckle.
“Blake, let’s go,” Jace yelled, and he grunted, making me and Sandy grinned.
He got up and grabbed the tube he chucked down on the ground and got ready to go down the slopes with Jace.
“That is so dangerous,” I said.
“Boys will be boys,” Sandy replied as Mike was speaking to Carlos. I discovered their names really fast.
We watched how they went down and I loved Blake’s excitement leaving his lips.
Blake eventually got the skidding to a stop thing right and everyone cheered as he jumped from the tube and slapped Jace’s hand, finally succeeding.
We all applauded at the top as Chloë and Jessica got ready to go down.
Blake bowed and then made their way back up the slopes.
Sandy and I carried on speaking about last year, and what happened for her to not be friends with Chloë anymore.
I gasped and drew in my breath as a snowball hit my back and the ice splattered slightly on my face.
Sandy got one too, and she was up in a record time. “Oh, it’s on,” she yelled at Jace.
Everyone threw each other with snowballs as I made mine. The squish of snow pressed against my glove as I formed a big one. Blake would come again to steal a kiss, then it was payback.
But I took part in feeding snowballs to Sandy, crouching behind her.
When the snow fight ended, Blake sat down next to me.
Snow covered Sandy’s Beanie and scarf as I hid the snowball on the other side of me.
Blake pulled on my jacket for a kiss and as our lips touched, I dropped the snowball into his neck. He gasped into the kiss.
“You little—”
“That was payback,” I yelled, but knew I had to run. It was useless to run in snow as my feet kept squishing snow, making it harder to get away. He caught me fast, and we both went down as he grabbed snow and pushed it against my neck. But he got his kiss.
The kiss broke.
“You have fun?”
“It will be worth the skinning,” I said, and he laughed.
He pulled me up, and we got ready to go down the slopes again.
“I got this. Sandy, roll that camera.” Blake pointed at Sandy.
“On it, boss,” she yelled.
“Boss?” Mark yelled and everyone laughed.
“Seriously, I only have eyes for Elena,” Blake said.
More laughter came as I blushed. Thank heaven my cheeks were already red from the cold.
We went down again, and I muffled my shrieks against his chest.
Blake got the turn and the stop. Snow skidded over us, pelting me in the face, and everyone cheered at the top, as Blake hollered with his arms in the air.
I laughed as clumps of snow sticking to his knitted beanie and eyelashes. I brushed it away. “Well done. You did it.”
Our lips touched, and the kiss was amazing, tingling down my body and warming my limbs.
I hated when we went back to school around one.
It was Friday, and I did not know how I was going to fare an entire weekend without him.
Everything could change in a weekend.
But he kissed me as we waited for the bell to ring.
I slipped into the last class, and I couldn’t help the smile on my face. Today was really fun.
When the school bell rang, Blake was nowhere to be seen. I found Dad in the parking lot and I rushed to the pickup.
“Your spirit seems high?”
“Yeah, I had a good day.” Lie, Elena. Not that Dad would buy it.
“So, share.”
“Art, always art.”
“What did you get?”
“A+ for the last project.”
It wasn’t a lie, just a wrong day.
“I’m proud, Bear.”
I tried not to look around the parking lot for Blake, but my eyes skidded over the students in the parking lot. He probably went home after Jace brought us back.
Sometimes, winter doesn’t suck.
