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Chapter 1 - Winter Surprises

Ch. 1

 Taylor:

I was sitting on my bench watching the snow, that had started to flurry down. It was the perfect weather for the first day of winter break. This was my senior year and I was excited for a break from school. All I wanted to do was hang out with my best guy friend, Joe.

“Taylor”, he called loudly.

I turned around to see Joe standing out in the snow. He motioned for me to come over. As I skipped over towards him, I almost slipped on the polished ice. Joe hovered over me, he was about five inches taller then I was, standing next to him made me feel small. I was 5'5". I stood on the tips of my toes I may be taller.

He chuckled, “Taylor, you're cheating".

I just smiled. He shook his brown curls, that were covered in snow, onto my head.

“Hey! That’s not nice”, I said backing up. I started to brush the snow off my shoulders and hair.

“You missed some”, Joe said. He went to wipe some off my head, but instead ruffled my hair.

“Hey!”, I squealed, hitting him in the arm.

We had a relaxed friendship. I have been told several times that it made many think we were dating. We were not dating.

“So what do you want to do over winter break?” Joe said as we walked over to his front yard. We sat down on his slightly snow covered bench.

“I’m not sure, I just want to relax. What about you?”

“Well...”, he said looking at me, “honestly anything as long as I get to spend time with this girl right here.”

I glanced behind me, jokingly, to see if another girl was behind me.

He started laughing,“I mean you.”

“I know.”

We both became silent and all you could hear was the distant sound of children down the street playing in the snow. It was a cold December day. The sun was hiding behind clouds. the light layer of snow glistened when the sun peeked out. It was really beautiful. I could not help but smile and think of all the times Joe and I had snow ball fights growing up. I looked over at Joe to see him sad, deep in thought possibly.

“What's the matter?”

He sighed, “I don’t know how to tell you, Tay.” 

"Joe, you know you can tell me anything. Right?”, I said rubbing his back. The sparkles in his brown eyes were dull; each were full of sadness. It was a little nerve wracking seeing him sad, it was not normal. “Come on tell me.”

“It’s too much, I can’t even…I do not know how to tell you.” He said quietly. What ever was bugging him must be important.

“Well try harder", I paused, waiting for a response, but he said nothing. “I’m just going to think the worse possible scenario.” I stopped, but again he said nothing. Maybe if I think of ridiculous scenarios he will stop me and tell me what is really wrong. “Fine, I’ll guess then. Hmmm…did you run over someone’s cat? Did you get an STD?” It did not seem to be working, he did not stop me. “Come on Joe. Um, did you find out you are being held back? Did you get a girl pregnant..?”

“No!” He blurted out.

“Then tell me! Maybe I can help you.”

He sighed and grabbed my hand, “Tay, you know how much you mean to me.” 

“Mhm”, I said softly. It is true we were best friends, but what did he mean? He said it in such a serious tone, It made me worry something was seriously wrong. I did not want anything to ruin our friendship.