Chapter 33
33
OLIVIA
“ S now day!”
Summer’s excited squeal wakes me before my alarm has the chance. I sit up in bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Then, my mind absorbs what I just heard.
Snow day.
I throw off my blankets and hurry to my window. I look down on our street coated in fluffy white, with thick clumps of snow still tumbling languidly from the cloudy sky.
My breath catches at how beautiful it is. The snow’s already piled up so high that it’s just a flat, rolling plane of white, eliminating the distinction between the road and the sidewalks. The skeletal frames of the trees are fringed with pristine white snow. The streetlights are still on, throwing off a soft, golden-amber hue that only makes the scene even more picturesque.
Weather forecasts were predicting maybe an inch or two of snow, but for once it looks like they actually underestimated.
My door flies open, and Summer bounds into my room. “Snow day!” she exclaims again, girlish excitement animating her. “They just sent out the alert!”
Excitement tugs at my chest. I love the snow, and when the day comes that I don’t feel a little childish giddiness at a snow day, then I’ll know I’ve really been worn down too much by life.
In the living room, Summer and I make some tea and pull back the curtains of the big living room window, gazing out as the flat level of the snow mounts higher and higher.
We chat, letting the hot tea suffuse us with warmth, mesmerized by the beauty outside our window and feeling the simmering excitement of what we’re going to do with today.
Obviously, a snowman is called for at some point.
Once the tea’s finished and the streetlights have been switched off, our stomachs start to growl. We decide to bundle up and see which stores in Cedar Shade are open.
I pull on my boots, zip up my jacket, tug on my pink beanie, and wrap a scarf around my neck. Summer and I take a moment in front of the mirror before we step outside, admiring our cute winter outfits.
The weather is great. No wind. No sharp bite to the air. Just a mellow chill that’s perfect for walking around bundled up.
Flakes continue to fall from the fat, heavy clouds above us as we trudge through the snow, lifting our knees high with each step and leaving a pair of tracks in our wake.
Lots of other students are out, too. There’s a buzzing, jubilant feeling in the air. A group of guys are horsing around, throwing and slamming each other into big piles of snow, excitedly shouting “Snow day!” at everyone passing them by, and getting shouts and cheers back in response.
A little bit further up the street, some girls are making snowmen, and on the other side of the road, people are riding sleds down the slope of a hill. Through the still, snowy air, the sound of a gaggle of young children squealing and giggling carries from a distance.
The convenience store a couple blocks from our place ends up being open. We buy pancake mix and maple syrup, and two big cups of coffee to sip on to keep warm as we walk back home. After stuffing ourselves on pancakes, we decide to go walk around campus.
Campus is almost as busy as it is during a school day, with people making snow angels, drawing in the snow, building snowmen, or just strolling around with coffees in their hands.
I yelp as I feel something soft smash into the back of my beanie.
Turning around with my brow lowered, I see Tuck in the distance, his face beaming with a roguish grin. “Ten points!” he yells.
My heart bounds against my chest at the sight of him. He’s wearing a pair of jeans tucked into loosely-laced boots that give him a rugged look. He’s got a hood pulled up from underneath his jacket, his thick, tussled hair spilling out of it as he jogs towards us.
Summer is a blur in my peripheral vision as she rushes past me to Hudson, who’s right behind Tuck. A couple paces behind both of them are Rhys and a girl I don’t recognize. She’s really cute, with beautiful black hair spilling from an olive-green knitted hat and dark-rimmed eyeglasses.
I gather up a snowball from the ground and launch it at Tuck, but he easily ducks it, shooting me a wink.
“You’ll have to try harder than that,” he says, coming to an abrupt stop right in front of me, clearly exerting effort to keep himself from wrapping his arms around me in front of everyone else.
Disappointment gnaws at my own chest, because I’d love nothing more right now than to press into him as he curls his arms around me, rubbing my face into his neck to warm up my cheeks and nose which are starting to sting from the chill.
Summer and Hudson saunter up to us, her slung under his massive arm.
“Hi, I’m Olivia,” I introduce myself to the girl next to Rhys.
She beams a smile at me. “Maddie,” she returns the introduction. “I’m Lane’s sister. Nice to meet you.”
She seems super nice. I don’t miss the way Rhys can’t keep his gaze from hovering on her, and the way his cheeks color every time their eyes lock.
“Where’s Lane?” Summer asks.
Maddie sticks the tip of her tongue out and blows a raspberry. “He wanted to sleep in .”
“Who could sleep in on a day like this?” Tuck exclaims, flaring his arms at his side and spinning around demonstratively. “That guy’s gotta learn to wake up and smell the roses.”
Maddie tut-tuts and shakes her head. “That’s what I’m always telling him.”
Tuck’s eyes sparkle with inspiration. “Snowman competition!”
“Huh?” Rhys asks, a bemused tone in his voice that he probably often uses around Tuck.
“We need to have a snowman competition,” Tuck says, animatedly. “Two on two on two.” He steps next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulders, tugging me close. “I call Olivia on my team.”
Summer looks at me with a raised brow. I know she’s just waiting for me to protest.
Her head tilts, and a questioning gleam lights in her eyes when I don’t.
“How do you have a snowman competition?” Hudson asks.
Tuck looks at him like he’s stupid. “Uh, by who builds the best snowman, duh.”
“And who decides whose snowman is best?” Rhys asks.
Tuck keeps looking at him the same way. “Uh, me, duh.”
Maddie purses her lips at Tuck. “Seems like a conflict of interest.”
Tuck’s expression pinches. “I don’t see how.”
Summer rolls her eyes. “Let’s just build the best snowmen we can and then worry about how we’ll decide a winner.”
Hudson nuzzles his face into the crown of Summer’s head. “Mmm, my girl’s so smart.”
For some reason, seeing Hudson and Summer all lovey-dovey warms my heart in a way that it just hasn’t before. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been incredibly happy for my friend, and I’ve always loved seeing her happy with Hudson. But with things going well with Tuck—even if we’re keeping it quiet for now—seeing them affectionate with each other strikes a different chord.
When Summer giggles and turns her head for a kiss, I can’t help but let my over-curious gaze flit to Rhys and Maddie. Rhys watches Summer and Hudson before dipping his eyes to Maddie when she isn’t looking, and an unmissable longing suffuses through his hazel eyes.
“Alright,” Tuck claps his gloved hands, “half-hour time limit! Go!”
We all get busy trying to construct the biggest, best snowmen of our lives.
While we’re rolling a giant snowball to serve as the base, Tuck gasps with inspiration. “Our snowman should be a hockey player!” he whispers to me. “You keep working on rolling the balls, I’m going to run back to my place and get some supplies.”
Hudson throws a crooked expression at Tuck as he dashes off campus at a full sprint. “Where is he going?” he shouts to me from where he and Summer are constructing their snowman.
I just shrug, a glib look on my face. “Trade secret.”
I have three perfectly proportioned spheres of snow stacked on top of each other by the time Tuck comes racing back, his arms loaded with a chest protector, helmet, hockey stick, and skates.
“Hey!” Maddie protests. “I didn’t know we were allowed to use props!”
Tuck grins from ear to ear. “Never said we couldn’t!”
I lift the head of the snowman for Tuck to position the chest protector. He shapes the top snowball so that the helmet fits over it, then props the hockey stick against the snowman and shoves the skates into the base.
We stand back to survey our competition. Hudson’s and Summer’s is pretty frumpy and basic. From the way his arms are wrapped around her waist while he’s standing behind her and taking a whiff of her hair, I think they spent more time kissing and flirting than constructing their snowman. Fair enough.
Maddie’s and Rhys’ is definitely a step above, but it lacks the accoutrements of ours.
“Fine, you win,” Rhys says as the four of them wander over to our snowman.
“Yes!” Tuck shouts. When he holds up his palm, I don’t hesitate to slap it, and when lifts me up and spins me around, I just let out a bouncing laugh, not even pretending to object to how he’s manhandling me.
“Let’s get a coffee to celebrate,” Tuck proposes after setting me down. His arm is still slung over me. “My treat, as the magnanimous victor.”
“Thanks,” Maddie says, “but me and Rhys are gonna go try to wake Lane up.”
“We’re in,” Summer says, her gaze sizing us up.
I know there’s a lot of analysis going on in that brain of hers as she looks at me snug in the crook of Tuck’s shoulder without trying to take a step away.
I also know I should be resisting this physical touch, trying to keep up the fa?ade that there’s nothing going on between me and Tuck, but I just can’t summon the will to resist my urge to be close to him.
As the four of us set off to Last Word to see if it’s open, giggles reach us from where we left Maddie and Rhys. I turn around to see them lobbing snowballs at each other.
That certainly seems like something to keep an eye on.
A sudden breeze whips down the street once we step off campus, out of the protection of the huddled buildings. Tuck tugs me closer against his side, and I let him, nuzzling my head against the edge of his chest, seeking his warmth.
That warmth isn’t hard to seek. It’s like his body heat leaps off his chest and spreads through me. Other things spread through me, too. Feelings.
Feelings I said that I wouldn’t let myself catch, at least not this soon.
But the more time I spend with him, the more I realize that trying to keep myself from catching feelings for Tuck is like trying to keep the snow on the ground from piling up while big, heavy flakes are coming down from the sky.