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DELETED CHAPTER: Snowstorms

AUTHOR'S NOTE: since the response to the first deleted chapter was so lovely and you guys said you wanted to see more of these drafts, here is number #2 :) 

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DELETED CHAPTER: SNOWSTORMS

FIRST WRITTEN: FEBRUARY 15, 2015

TIME IN STORY: AFTER ELLIOT AND VIENNA DRIVE BACK FROM SEEING VIENNA'S FATHER, AND DURING THE MASSIVE SNOWSTORM THAT CAUSED THEM TO PULL OVER AND SPEND A FEW HOURS IN THE CAR TOGETHER. 

PLEASE NOTE: ERRORS ARE NUMEROUS.

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     ELLIOT'S POV 

     THERE WERE PARTS OF ME THAT I DIDN'T KNOW COULD FREEZE THIS BADLY. I was still lying down in the back of the Navigator, my arm stretched out and being used as a pillow by Vienna. Her hair was in a mess in front of her face, and whenever she breathed, tufts of hair in front of her lips would puff up. I brushed her hair away from her face with my free hand, pausing as she shifted and stirred in her sleep but didn't wake.

Even if we had both blankets on top of us and even if we were molded against each other so tight there were no longer spaces between us, the cold had seeped into the car and stayed there as we slept. I checked underneath the blankets real quick. Do we even have our clothes back on? 

We did. I don't know why my mind is hazy about that, because, well, it wasn't a blur at all. Needless to say, this Lincoln will live down in our memories for a long time. 

Vienna's head was seriously heavy. My arm was turning numb and I completely lost feeling in it. I squinted in the darkness, feeling around for my phone beside me. Turning it on, it was already six in the evening.

Crap. Uncle T would be looking for us soon.

Sure enough, there were three missed calls from Unce Terrence, and twenty-three from Tess. I was about to call them both back when my phone shut off and turned to black instantly. Shite. I didn't even think to bring my charger.

I shrugged, knowing they'd understand when we explained later. Silently and gently, I lifted Vienna's head with one hand and slipped out my arm from under her, replacing it with the soft side of her backpack. I was about to start the car but before I did, I looked back at Vienna. She was snoring like a bulldozer, and her mouth was slightly left open, but she looked peaceful with her eyes sealed shut. 

When you're lying beside someone as close as we were, beside someone who's fully lost in sleep and you're the only one watching them, there's something so great about it. You become so attentive, so immersed, so focused beyond belief. Because this, this is the person you love. And you realize you're one of the luckiest people in the whole universe if the person you love, decides to love you back. You realize things that you never would have if this moment didn't exist. Like, how long her eyelashes were, how she had more freckles underneath her left eye than her right, how her lips barely ever get chapped even if it felt like the frozen Arctic in this car. 

My heart surged with something I couldn't identify. I didn't want to lose her after today. God, that pain of losing her, again, would be enough to crush me. A self-crushing love is what I felt, because right now, this was killing me. 

A self-crushing love. I've felt it once before, and I'm feeling it again now. 

I know I should've been driving home by now, considering that the snow had stopped and salt was already sprayed on the roads, but all I wanted was to sleep with Vienna again. No, not like that. But I just wanted to wrap my arms around her to keep her from going to the airport and leaving again. It was always there, this feeling for her. It was just misplaced, buried, and hidden over time. Without thinking, I bent down and pressed my lips against her forehead quickly before grabbing the keys, but she instantly opened her eyes and yawned the second I did it. I pulled back.