1If nothing lasts forever…

11/24/o6 fri. TGIF!

She waited for him there, like she always did, on the corner of Second Street. She bounced on her heels, trying to stay warm as the cold of winter bit through her black, knee length coat and made her breath freeze in her throat. Even though her hair was set loose this time and pooled around her shoulders in thick, fluffy tresses, it did nothing to keep the tips of her ears from turning red and growing numb. Damn – how she hated the cold of this season…

She sighed, looking off to her left, then her right. As she skewed the street, she noticed him out of the corner of her eye. She smiled then, excited and bubbling with joy. The freezing weather was put to the back of her mind for now.

He approached her slowly, casually, with a small smile on his face as he neared her. He had his hands shoved in his coat pockets, like she had her own, and paused a moment when he finally reached her. A strange thought suddenly came to her in that moment. Here they were, two teenagers dressed completely in black, and she figured that they must have stood out like sore thumbs when compared to the dull and misty grey skies of Allentown in winter.

They shared the smile and turned, walking down the small alley of Chestnut Street side by side.

"Did practice go well?" she asked, being the first to break their shared silence.

"Yeah, actually. We came up with a few new notes, and we were trying to figure out what we should do with them," he answered smoothly, moving closer to her as a car drove by and disappeared behind the corner.

"Oh, well that's good," she said conversationally.

As they passed by her old house, she spared it a glance before sliding her gaze over to him. He looked down at her expectantly, and as the silence stretched on, she couldn't help the embarrassed little smile that curved her lips. His own lips quirked in amusement, and she looked down to the slick asphalt beneath their moving feet. Her cheeks were turning red, and it had nothing to do with the biting weather. She then purposefully bumped into him and looked up to catch his gaze.

"What?" he asked, managing to make out the word through his chuckles.

"What do you want for Christmas?" was what she asked, the smile on her face growing bigger.

"For Christmas?" he repeated, and then looked ahead of him as if he suddenly just remembered where he was. "Nothing, really."

She pouted here. "Oh come /on/!" she prodded, hitting him with her side again.

"No, really. I don't want anything," he insisted, looking down at her and smiling in slight embarrassment. It was an awkward smile. She loved his smile.

She looked ahead of her as well, blushing a bit more.

They continued their walk in compatible, comfortable silence as they made their small trek over to his house. Only a few minutes had passed, before his deep voice interrupted her thoughts.

"What would you like for Christmas?"

"Me?" she fairly squeaked, looking up at him with a semi-surprised expression on her face.

"Yes you!" he laughed, finding it endearing that the thought of him getting her something seemed to startle her, even when she was already thinking of him.

"Well…" she mumbled, looking down to the salt rocks she kept stepping on. A moment passed, before she spoke again. "Nothing," she replied happily as they turned a corner, and his house was just in view.

He turned towards her and gave her a look that said something akin to 'now don't be that way', but she just smiled brightly up at him and hooked her arm underneath his. She walked closer to him and almost seemed to cuddle up to his arm, and he was torn between sighing in exasperation, and smiling down at her head of blue black hair.