"Thanks," He said, grabbing his cousin's oustretched hand and pulling himself to his feet. Charlie had slipped on a patch of ice hidden under the recent light snowfall. He brushed the bits of snow stuck to his jeans and hoody. It was a frosty November evening, and the tips of his fingers and nose were numb from the wind.
Milo watched his cousin silently from under his many layers of winter clothes. He wore a heavy brown ski jacket with a fur hood, and a navy blue matching knitted scarf and hat that he'd made the previous year.
Charlie hated wearing winter clothing, he thought he looked silly all bundled up in so many layers. Even though it was freezing cold, he often left the house with just his fingerless gloves, and an oversized hoody. He regretted it in the bitter wind, and he swore to Milo that he'd take his jacket the next day. They both knew he wouldn't keep this promise. He never did.
"C - Can I borrow your scarf?" Charlie pleaded with Milo, his teeth chattering as they walked down the busy downtown street. Milo unwrapped the scarf from around his neck, and stepped forward. He quickly wrapped it around Charlie, and smiled as Charlie quickly burrowed his frozen face into the thick wool.
"Better?" he asked.
There was a muffled response.
They kept walking, heading to Ace Diner. Walking in, both boys carefully kicked the snow off their sneakers, and lowered their hoods. The diner was nearly full up, but they managed to snag a booth near the back. The heat was cranked really high, so Charlie and Milo pulled off their mitts and tossed them beside the condiment tray on the table.
The radio was blasting christmas music, and Milo started humming along to the familiar tune of "Jingle Bell Rock" as he watched the busy diner. Charlie pulled his wallet out, and dumped the small pile of coinage on the table. He started counting it out. They had enough money to get a drink each, and a sandwich if they split it.
"It's a cold one," Charlie told the waitress as she stopped by their table to get their order. She was a young, college student with pink streaks in her hair.
"What'll it be, Charlie?" She asked him, pen ready to write down his order. They were regulars at the diner. He ordered, and smiled cheekily up at her.
"Got any plans for the weekend?"
"Not with you." She retorted, rolling her eyes dramatically.
It was a running gag between them, since Charlie was only fourteen and Cara was nearly twenty.
"Ask me again in five years." Cara smirked at him, as she took the menus and walked back into the kitchen.
They stayed for half an hour, before bundling back up and walking home to their apartment building. They lived on the third floor, in apartment 302, with Milo's mom, Karen, and her two tabby cats.
Charlie had previously lived with his mom a few hours away, in a small rural town, where he'd lived all his life, until his mom had died suddenly last year. Karen and Milo were the only family that he had left, after his grandma had died when he was ten.
The move had been pretty hard on Charlie at first, because he'd had to switch schools halfway through grade eight, and moved into his aunt's tiny two bedroom apartment. He was used to living in a smaller, rural town where everyone knew him by name walking down the street, and downtown was really just a single main street with a few shops on either side. The transition to a much larger town took some getting used to.
His aunt Karen, was in his opinion, a bit strict. She demanded that they were home every night by eight PM, which was when she was done her shifts, giving them time to do their homework every night. Milo had no problem with the curfew, but Charlie found it ridiculous that they had to be home so early, when they could be outside playing soccer or hanging out at the mall.
When he first arrived, there were a few times he'd convinced his cousin to break curfew and stay out late, but Karen had been waiting for them in the living room when they'd returned. She yelled at them, and grounded the boys for a week. So as much as Charlie hated the enforced curfew, he tried to stick to it as much as possible. Home by eight, homework checks, watch a bit of TV, then bed by 10:30 PM.
