When Winter Comes

Chapter 5: Winter Lies

IGNORE ALL ERRORS AND TYPOS!

Chapter 5: Winter Lies

I got into my room immediately after my encounter with Taylor. The one thing I needed to do was to call Carl. I promised myself that I would never cry again, but I was on the verge of doing that. Carl promised me one thing before he went back to school. He promised me that he wouldn't tell. Now, I needed to know why the hell Taylor knew?

"What the hell, Carl?" I yelled into my phone as soon as I heard the click.

"Why hello, Winter. It's so nice to hear from you too. It's been what, six, seven months?" Carl's low and stern voice said. There was nothing more I wanted to do then smack the cockiness out of him.

"Taylor said she talked to you," I said simply.

"Taylor said this? Please, that bitch is just trying to get under your skin."

"Carl, this is serious. If Taylor finds out." My voice wavered. If Taylor found out, my life would be ruined. My life would seize to exist.

"Finds out what, Winter? The truth?" Carl let out a short laugh. More than anything, I wanted to reach through the phone and slap that smirk off him.

"Carl, stop," I gritted through my teeth. Blood was beginning to boil under my skin.

"The truth, Winter, is that-"

I hung up.

. . .

Thankfully, when I walked out of my room Austin wasn't there. I hid in my room for the rest of the night yesterday. My body was too weak to go down to dinner. My body was too weak to hold my soul.

The hallway was cold as I walked down in my black flats. The tops of my feet were already becoming numb; I cursed myself for not wearing thicker tights. At least I chose to wear the blue sweater today. It hugged my skin like a soft blanket.

Footsteps sounded behind me and immediately my heart stopped. I prayed it wasn't Austin; I didn't want to see him. He clearly changed after my year absent, but that didn't give him the right to publicly humiliate. Sure, he truly appeared to be awestruck when I yelled about Taylor, but shouldn't he have known? Taylor was not a part of my life anymore, and I didn't want her to be either. We couldn't "mend" our relationship. That just wasn't possible anymore. She dug too deep into the past, and because of that I'll be ever afraid. Of course, I wouldn't show it, but it would be true. If she truly did call Carl, then my life could actually end at any second.

The shadow came closer and I soon realized it was only Jace. My breathing slowed finally.

"Is Her Highness alright?" Jace snickered. I flashed him a narrowed stare, but it didn't do much good because his grin only grew at my anger. My urge for slapping him had never been so strong. He got me so anger. How could this possible be the boy I shared my first kiss with?

"Horrible because my stance is in front of a peasant," I snorted, followed by an eye roll and a fold of my arms.

His eyes looked me up and down with hunched eyebrows. My fingers fumbled and quickly tugged my skirt farther down.

"You seem different," Jace sighed with a shaking head. "Is everything okay?" He acted as if saying that was in inconvenience to his life.

I scoffed. "Just peachy, Jace." It bothered me that clearly he didn't care about the way I was. We were friends for years; didn't that mean something to him? But then I remembered, it didn't mean anything to me for the past six years.

"Jace," he chuckled at the name. "It's weird hearing that name again." He smiled, but it seemed distant.

"Why? Does nobody call you that anymore?" As long as I've known him Jace was the only name I called him. When he introduced himself to me, he said his name was Jason, but Jace just seemed to fit him so much better.