Act 2 | Chapter 7

Riley was right. The snow pant's slid on rather easily. They were warm, comfortable, and even pretty cute. The design was very straightforward with them. They looked like your normal everyday snow pants, but they had a single white line down the left pant leg. My winter coat looked drastically different from the snow pants, as it had much brighter colors of red, and blue. As I waited for Riley to finished getting dressed, I tossed a scarf around my neck and threw on a wool hat. Not too long after, she appeared by my side, and the two of us head out.

The walk down the long hotel hallways was rather discomforting. Wearing the several layers of clothing in the heated halls wasn't the best thing ever. I'm not going to lie, it felt good to step out into the cold weather. I was already sweating.

"So, what do you wanna do first?" I asked, looking up and down the bulldozed street.

"Just anything. We could go to the park a few blocks down?" Riley shrugged.

"Alright, sounds good to me." As we held each other's hand down the sidewalk, I couldn't help but notice just how many people were actually out playing. Children were running up and down the street, throwing snowballs and giggling loudly. The park was definitely busier then we both thought. When I said the kid's where running up and down the street, I meant it, but here, it was almost a war zone. Dozens of snowmen had been made, some already knocked over. Kids were screaming and laughing as the parents either joined into the snowball fights, made snow angels with their children, or just simply watched from a wooden park bench layered in snow.

"So?" Riley said slowly, standing back up. She had a large clump of snow in her hand and was munching it together into a ball. It didn't take me long to realize what it was, and quickly, I shifted over to one of the several dead trees.

"Noooooo!"

"What?" Riley teased, "You don't wanna play?" She smirked at me.

"No, I see what your making!" I peeked over the side of the tree to see her.

"What, this?" She tossed it at the tree, making me jump just as the snow hit the bark and exploded. I quickly bent over and grabbed a clump of snow, mushing it together into a snowball. Just as I peeked around the tree again, another snowball was thrown at it. Riley laughed, and I took the opportunity to strike. I threw the ball at her, just as she moved to get behind another tree not too far from her. Snowballs were thrown between the two of us. We both laughed and giggled at each other took attempts at hitting the other. One of my balls managed to it Riley in the arm as she moved from over to cover. She let out a yelp and looked at me with a competitive face.

It didn't take long for her to get back at me, as when I peeked around the tree again, I was met with the cold force of a snowball against my temple. I stumbled back and fell to the ground into a large pile of snow. My arms and leg are sunk into it, making it difficult or impossible to move them. Riley stood over me and chuckled.

"Aww, you suck!" I grinned and managed to get my arm free. Weakly I grabbed a clump of snow and lazily tossed it at her. Riley let out a yelp and giggled as she backed away from me to avoid getting hit. She too stumbled back into the snow and laughed.

"Gotcha!" I laughed and got up, helping her to her feet. The two of us kept going. Eventually, we both built our own snow forts and set up on two opposite sides of the playground. I built mine as more of a single wall, while Riley looked like she was pushing snow to make an almost ramp. She jumped out from behind it to the side, like she was in some kind of spy movie, only Riley didn't look as cool without the slow motion. I took that time there to throw more snowballs at her. It didn't take long for Riley to build up a plan against me. She was making several small snowballs behind her fort and grabbed a small handful of them. Riley would toss them at me like she was shooting a shotgun.

"Oh, you little." I grabbed my own handful of clumped together balls and tossed them back. It didn't take long after that for the two of us to get tired out. A truce was made between Castle Blackmar and Castle Morgan. We took the time to sit down beside each other and look out at all the kids continuing their own fights.

"They're like us, aren't they?" I commented, looking to Riley.

"More like were like them."

"Childish? Immature?"

"Doing dumb things, yeah."

"Should we do something else dumb?"

"Like what?" Riley tilted her head.

"Do you wanna build a snowman?" I started to sing.

"Oh, my, god, no." She stood up and pushed me over back into the snow. "Never sing that!" She chuckled. I laughed and got back to my feet. Not much happened that day after that. Riley and I built our snowman in the center of the park. It looked horrible. We used two broken sticks to give him short stubby hands, and put rocks into where his eyes and mouth would be. For the nose, we pulled out a thick tree branch laying on the ground and shoved it into the poorly rolled up head. It dropped down and almost made a small bridge from the ground to the snowman's head.

***

For the next couple of days, I spent the majority of my time at Riley's house. It was new years eve. The TV in the living room was playing the new year's central time ball drop live from New York City. It was only about a days drive from Bate's County, and I had always wanted to visit the city, but it most likely won't ever happen. My mother prevents me from going too far out from the County line. Riley tapped my shoulder and gestured for me to follow her. We were only a couple minutes to midnight, as she led me out onto her apartment balcony. You could hear people celebrating up and down the street.

"It's cold out here," I commented though I couldn't help but admit that the cold did help wake me up a bit more. I was running on the last bit of coffee and was ready to pretty much pass out. The two of us went quiet for a moment. It was peaceful out here, relaxing even. "It's been fun, this last week." I glanced back behind me to see Miss Blackmar sleeping on the couch.

"Yeah, it has. Thanks for sticking around." Riley smiled, putting an arm around my shoulder.

"Thanks for letting me stay."

Riley gave me a nod, and looked at her phone: "Almost time." She commented.

"Is it? A new year huh."

"Yup. Got any resolutions?"

"Not sure?" I thought about it for a moment before answering. "Might stand up for me a bit more next year. Be a bit more confident about things, and learn to try new things."

"Sounds good." Riley smiled.

"What about you?" I asked in return. She ended up chucking and putting a hand behind her head.

"Might stop drinking as much. The usual. Maybe get a girl to kiss me."

I don't think she could have made that any more obvious if she tried. It was something I was considering doing myself when the clock struck midnight. The only question left was if I had the courage to actually do it. Kiss her. The last-minute to midnight on the TV started going. People from across times square screamed as they counted down each passing second. Riley looked over to me and gave an awkward smile.

10

9

8

I took a deep breath.

7

6

5

"I can do this." I thought to myself, "I can do this, I got this."

3

2

1

Closing my eyes, I leaned in and went to kiss her, pushing my lips together and pressing them up against her own. She kissed me back. It was a short one, and the two of us pulled back and looked at each other. I let out a nervous chuckled and watched as Riley twirled her hair around her finger, looking down at the ground, and trying to hide the blush from her face. My heart was pumping, and my face was red too. I wanted to do it again, do it longer. I took another deep and exaggerated deep breath, and went in again, this time putting one hand around Riley to pull her in closer as our lips met. She stumbled forward as I pulled her in and after a second, kissed back, going through with it. I kept going, holding the kiss for as long as I could, only pulling away when I couldn't breathe anymore.

"I uh." I looked back at her nervously. I could feel my face flushed with embarrassment.

"That um. I guess we kinda fulfilled one of our goals this year." Riley responded with a nervous chuckle, backing away a small bit. The two of us heard another chuckle. We both looked towards the living room where Riley's mother was sitting up on the couch, holding her phone up, and aiming it towards the two of us.

"M- Miss Blackmar, did you?"

"M- Mom!" Riley yelled in embarrassment.

"You two make such a good couple!" She responded with a giddy voice.