To Be

Chapter Seventeen

My footprints are imprinted into the freshly fallen snow, my breaths wisp of air floating before my face. A snowball hits me square in the chest and I look up to see Adrian already forming his next ball of snow. Oh no, he better not.

Moving fast, I scoop up some snow resting at my feet and quickly turn it into a ball. I now smile at Adrian. He lets out a whoop when my snowball hits him in the leg.

"You're so dead," he calls to me.

"You started it," I shout back, already making my next snowball.

His hits me in the shoulder, causing me to grimace.

Frustrated, I pull my arm back, and with all the force that I can muster, I throw, hitting him right in the face. He curses a lot of foul words. Bleep, bleep, bleep.

"Sorry," I say.

He glares at me. "Now you asked for it." Before I have the chance to blink 1 time, 2 times... he's tackling me to the ground, the snow cushioning our fall. His face is inches from mine, his breath warming my cold cheeks.

"Oh, hi there." I wipe away some of the slush dripping down his chin.

His evergreen eyes are locked on mine, his warm breaths quickening. "Hi."

My arms wrap around his neck, drawing him closer. "Now what did I ask for?" I ask softly.

"To be tackled and shushed."

"Oh, did I?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yes."

"Ok so you've tackled me, but you haven't shushed me yet."

His lips curl up on the sides into a smile. "I was getting right to that part."

"Reall..."

He shushes me by pressing his 2 lips to mine, while his 2 hands cup my head pulling me up from the snow bed. My own 2 hands cling to him, 2 sets of 5 fingers digging into his hair, his scalp. 2, 2, 2. Couple, couple, couple. I'm his. He's mine. We are 2 together.

And I'm never going to let go.

***

We get to school soaking, snow dripping off our fuzzy coats. I pull my soggy, wet hat off of my head, tossing it into my locker to dry off.

"Ugh, my clothes are so wet," I pout, shaking the snow off of my coat before placing it into my locker too.

"I feel ya," Adrian says, pushing the wet hair plastered to my forehead away.

I smile. "But totally worth it."

"You can say that again."

The bell rings announcing the beginning of the first period.

"Catch you later?" His warm lips brush against my cheek.

"You betcha."

I watch him skip off to class and I can't help myself from smiling like a fool. He's so adorable.

Stuffing my books into the crook of my arm, I head off to class, the memory of his touch warming me up.

***

1 hand, 5 fingers curled around the wooden brush. That 1 brush being dipped into a variety of colors, painting the canvas--- bringing life into it.

"Today we are going to paint whatever is on our mind," Mr. Pike has just instructed us.

'To be, or not to be, that is the question,' is what's on the top of my thought box at the moment. Those 10 words, and 30 letters I just read before in Hamlet and it struck me. Life or death. Something that has crossed my mind after grandma died. Something that still crosses my mind from time to time. And what I realized is, even with grandma gone, I still have loved ones worth living for.