The Boy in the Gray Hoodie

20...

20…

Something cold brushed against my back. I shivered, my eyes still closed. I knew it was morning, thanks to the obnoxiously bright light detectable through my shut eyelids, but I wasn’t ready to wake up yet. I wanted to stay in bed a little longer. With Roy.

            But when I reached back to touch him, he wasn’t there. My hands found something damp and cold instead. I immediately turned over to see what it was, my eyes fluttering open in confusion. That’s when I realized I wasn’t in my bedroom any longer.

            Trees. I was surrounded by bald, dead trees in the middle of the freaking woods. How I got there, I had no idea. But that wasn’t what was bothering me.

            “Roy!” I called, scrambling to my knees. My clothes were soaked through with morning dew. I was lucky it hadn’t rained that night otherwise I’d probably have caught pneumonia. My t-shirt and shorts did nothing to block the cold from turning my skin into gooseflesh. Roy was nowhere to be seen. I called out for him again as I got to my feet, stumbling on wet, uneven ground. Mud and rotten leaves soaked into my socks. I cringed, disgusted.

            “Lisa?”

            I whirled around to see Roy shivering next to the trunk of an aspen. His posture was stiff, and not just from the cold. He looked scared. Of me?

            “What happened?” I asked, coming closer.

            “I don’t know,” he grimaced, shaking his head. “I think I—I think I did something bad…”

            I frowned and reached for his hand. His fingers were ice cold. “Are you okay?” I asked softly, my voice tinged with concern.

            He jerked his chin and looked down, unable to meet my eyes. “I don’t know where we are,” he whispered.

            “We can’t be that far from the house. I’m sure we can find our way back.” I told him reassuringly. I didn’t want him to worry, or be afraid. He had nothing to fear. I wouldn’t let anything happen to him. “It’ll be alright,” I said, bringing his hands closer so that I could breathe on them. The warm air exited my lungs in gentle, white swirls. Roy watched me pensively as I attempted to thaw his frozen fingers.

            “What are you doing?” he wondered aloud.

            “Preventing frostbite,” I answered.

            “What’s that?” he asked.

            “It’s when your skin gets so cold that the tissue cells start to die. Eventually the exposed areas deteriorate enough to cause nerve damage. Sometimes things fall off.” I answered matter-of-factly.

            The look on Roy’s face made me wish I’d bitten my tongue. Until then, I had never realized just how enormous a person’s eyes could get.

            “You’ll be okay, though. Only people in movies actually lose their fingers and toes,” I said, trying to laugh. It came out as more of a cough than the reassuring chuckle I’d meant for it to be.

            “W-what’s a movie?” he stuttered, partly from his chattering teeth, but mostly because he was anxious.

            “Oh. Right.” I let my chin fall against my chest, heaving a sigh. Drawing my head back up to look at him, I smiled weakly. “Your bucket list has got to be really long, Roy.”