Love is a Losing Game

LIALG - Chapter 16

The sight of Jay and Carlos running around and doing kicks and flips outside in excitement had Evie breaking out of her daze. In an instant, she had spun around and enveloped me in a tight hug. As I returned her affection, the sudden trembling of her body startled me.

"Whoa, hey, E; are you okay?" I wondered, pulling back to examine her.

Small teardrops were sliding down her cheeks, but her smile was sweet. She nodded instead of responding, drying her face with her sweatshirt sleeve while she collected herself. "This is – you're – just-" she stuttered, shaking her head and trying to find her words. "Thank you," she decided on, sniffling and leaning in to press a lingering kiss onto my forehead.

My hands found hers and squeezed gently. "Anything for you," I answered without even thinking about it.

Her gaze weighed heavily on me in the moment as she took in the force of what I said.

As soon as her expression changed, I considered my words as well. Although they were loaded, I couldn't find anything dishonest about them. Yes, I was ride-or-die for all of the people that had proved to make a difference in my life. But Evie? She had always been something more – something special. From the moment she saved my life, a connection had been created – one that couldn't be earned through years of loyalty and mutual trust. And because of this unique bond that tied us together, I was certain that I would do anything if the request came from her lips.

The booming of footsteps quickly approaching made my heartbeat increase in alarm, but Evie remained calmly transfixed on me. The interruption was soon revealed to be Jay with Carlos soon behind him. My lungs expelled in relief.

"Hey!" Jay greeted in the doorframe, slightly out of breath. "Do you think you could make it snow harder?" he requested, clearly eager to start some real winter fun.

A grin creeped across my face. "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

As it turns out, getting it to snow harder wasn't that difficult to accomplish. Another quick incantation increased the snowfall, and before long, there was a thin layer of powder on the ground. Always the responsible one in our group, Evie hastily requested four complete outfits of snow clothing from the royal family, claiming that we'd all be too sick to enjoy the rest of our vacation if we didn't wear the proper attire. By the time my friends and I had properly eaten lunch and received the snow clothing Evie had sent for, there was an entire foot of snow covering the campus grounds.

As eager as we were to begin some sort of snow-induced shenanigans, Evie made sure we were all 'bundled up' before we went out. Snow looked harmless enough, and as more and more layers went onto my body, I wondered why we needed to be so careful. Once Evie was done dressing me, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to feel anything besides suffocating heat. At least everyone else looked just as ridiculous as I did. There was a moment before we ran through the doorway where the four of us stood there and giggled in amusement and barely-contained anticipation. On Evie's signal, we all scrambled through the doors, pushing and shoving until we were finally free. The boys made it out first and ran as fast as their snow outfits allowed in the deep snow.

I barely had time to register the frigid air stinging my cheeks and the bright lights shining in my eyes before I got up close and personal with my creation. It took me a half a second to learn that snow...was not always pleasant. The entire left side of my face felt like thousands of needles were stabbing it, and the cold seemed to worsen it rather than numb it, like one would assume using intuition. Little pieces of the substance fell into my gaping mouth and quickly melted into water, which I now had a newfound appreciation for.