Cold

Dreams scream louder than your heartbeat

A/N I went pretty Emo with that title didn't I? And i'm switching to 1st person because I like it better. Deal with it.

Belle

I slipped out from behind the counter as my Grandmother walked in. She smiled at me and I nodded, walking upstairs.

My room in New York had been bigger, but here I had the large bay window that made up for the space. I could sit on my bed and look out across the lake out building backed up to and see Pikes Peak, clear as day. Bedrooms had always been a private piece of art to me. In Florida I had jersey's tacked up on the walls and running shoes piled in the corner. In Texas it had been costumes and stage make up spilled across the desk and Broadway posters haphazardly tacked up. New York, that had been scholarships and history books. Here in Colorado, I had photographs.

The walls here were prints of everything from Mountain Lions to the Denver skyline on my way in. The mountain tops peaking there way out of every photo. The newest addition though, a mound of Black Curls and a smooth, flawless chocolate skin stretched over taught thighs as she ran away. River, running back toward the tree line that represented the edge of Sightmoores campus.

I felt that she belonged out there.

And so do I.

* * *

Valencia

Ryan picked up a chili cheese fry and pointed it at me, "Look Val, you're not getting it. You are hopelessly crushing on-"

"In l-o-v-e, lets face it." Micah interrupted.

"Yes, exactly!" Ryan continued, I sighed and waved down the waiter to order another milkshake, "you, are in LOVE with River, Chica. But you've never said a word to her!"

Micah took a huge bite of his burger, and held up a finger,"wait! Remember You're Quinceañera, Val?"he asked.

Ryan snorted, and smirked, "That doesn't count, Micah! All she did was repeatedly yell sorry after her Tío spilled rum and coke all over Rivers dress!"

The Waiter arrived with my Strawberry milkshake, and I hid my shame by promptly drinking half of it. As my friends went into the grisly details of my quinceañera and why my extended family should never be approached I could feel my cheeks turning the colour of the cherry.

"I'm just saying, she's going back to New Orleans for Christmas break, Talk to her before then!" Ryan smiled, her bleached hair fell into her face as she picked up more fries, "In other news, Did you hear about those chickens?"

"Since when did chickens concern me?" I laughed, twisting the cherry around the rim of the glass.

"Since a bunch of them just up an died. Like no reason, they weren't attacked, no chupacabra shit. They just died." She grinned. Ryan had a fascination with mysterious deaths, weather they be human or animal.

"Well, the temperature dropped pretty low last night, could have froze to death," Micah shrugged.

"Well that's what they thought, but the guy who owns them put 'em in their coop lat night, and turned on a heater. Maintained a steady warmth all night." Ryan smiled, her blue eyes glossing over as she stared out the window where snow clouds were tumbling over pikes peak.

"Weird," Micah breathed.

Ryan shrugged and pulled out her notebook, taking down notes and details about the conversation, My thoughts flew back to when we first met.

She had her hair the natural brown then, her lip ring was new and pink as she sucked on it, notebook clutched in her hands.

"Hi." She had said, sliding into the booth across from me, "can I like, study you for a bit? I need a new character for my story and you seem cool" I had simply stared at her, sipping my milkshake. It was the first semester of the sixth grade, and We were both attending Sightmores middle school on the other side of campus.

Since then, she would always join me at Fords Diner after school. Ryan with her notebook and Chili cheese fries, myself with my milkshake and iPod. It wasn't more than a month later that Micah and I had been paired up for an English project, and thus the terrible Threesome was born.

I left Fords a little later, waving goodbye and tossing a couple of fries at Micah for good measure. It was only 6:30 but the sun had been long set by then, and to cut time in the bitter cold of November in the Rocky mountains I decided to take a short cut through the woods to the dorm.

The pine trees were like skeletons reaching up to grip the moon, and the path was riddled with their needles. The ever present wind whipped around my jacket and I pulled it closer, shoving my nose into the folds of my hoodie.

"Of all the days to leave your coat at home you chose today Val, real smart" I hissed at myself.

And then it growled. I halted, freezing in place. Forget jacket, why didn't I bring my pepper spray, I thought to myself. Mountain lions were prevalent in Colorado, but this didn't sound like a lion.

Another growl, this one sounded like a deeper version of my old husky's, guttural and like dragging shoes across gravel. Then there were eyes, two blood orange orbs appeared in the bushes. They should have been menacing, yet they gave off the feeling of comfort and screamed human.

I stepped off the trail, feet falling into small piles of fresh snow and freezing through my converse. I didn't care. I got closer to the eyes and the smell of pine sap got stronger, what concerned me was what lay underneath. The smell of what I could only describe as life. Honeysuckle and blood seemingly mixed together, it was off putting and terrifying.

I stapled back onto the trail and collided with what felt like a brick wall, sending it and myself backward.

"Shit, you okay?" A familiar voice sounded underneath me. The brick wall could talk. I groaned in response and stood up, stealing a glance back at the eyes.

They were gone, and so was the smell.

"I'll take that as a yes," The wall said, using my hand to hoist themselves up.

I ran my hand through my hair and turned around, "i'm really sorry, I thought I saw something in the woods and didn't look when I came back onto the trail," I reached out to shake their hand, before glancing up to her face.

"No its fine, " she laughed, "I should be looking where I was running. It's Valencia right? You're in my chemistry class?"

I froze, lord kill me now l, and forced myself to smile, "Yeah! You're River right? My Tío Marco spilled booze all over your dress at my Quinceañera last year." I now wanted to just crawl into a hole, even in the darkness I could see the look of discomfort on her face.

Great, now i've embarrassed her.

"Look, it's cold we should get back to the dorms..." She said, I nodded in agreement and started walking, her in step next to me. We walked in silence the rest of the way, I became tense. Not just because of the close proximity to River but because every so often I caught a whiff of that scent. It was both comforting and unnerving. 

By the time we reached the dorm I was sure no massage could remove the tension from my back, so I hurried out of the brightly lit foyer towards my room, opening my History book to study the French-Indian war until Ryan got back, so she could mock me for my awkwardness and tell me about the local wildlife that I ran into earlier in the evening. 

A/N The girl in this pic would Be simmilar to Val. So leave me feedback in the comments, vote, send me suggestions, etc.