Karina awoke the next morning to an empty bed. It took her a few seconds to remember the events of the night before, and when she did, she sat up quickly and scanned the room. Winter was nowhere in sight.
"Winter?" She called, standing up and walking over to the door of her room. There was a rustling noise coming from behind her as soon as she went to open the door. Pausing for a moment, Karina turned around slowly, following the source of the noise and ending up in front of her closet. Cautiously, she opened the closet door, widening her eyes when she saw Winter.
"What are you doing?!" Karina choked. She bent down and snatched her sketchbook out of Winter's hands, glaring at the smaller girl. "Where did you get this?"
"I found it," Winter chirped, climbing to her feet and smiling widely. Karina's eyebrows furrowed when she saw the streaks of marker that stained Winter's hands. Her grip on her sketchbook tightened.
"It's mine," Karina huffed. She walked back over to the bed, sitting down and hesitantly opening to the first page. Her anger boiled when she realized that Winter had covered every single one of her sketches with meaningless scribbles. Hours and hours of her hard work were now ruined.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Karina yelled, standing up and throwing her sketchbook across the room. It hit the wall, scattering her papers all over the floor. Winter instantly flinched and covered her ears.
"Do you know how much time I've spent on these?" Karina continued, crossing her arms and glaring at Winter from across the room.
"They are pretty," Winter nodded, walking over and picking up one of her drawings from where Karina had thrown them.
"They were pretty, Winter, until you ruined them," Karina spat. "Just like the flowers. What did I tell you about leaving pretty things alone?"
Winter just stared at her blankly for a few moments before holding up the drawing and walking over to Karina, extending it for her to see. Karina groaned and pushed the drawing out of her face.
Confused, Winter tilted her head to the side. "Yooji?"
"That's not my name," Karina's voice was low in the back of her throat. "I don't want to talk to you, get out of my room," she growled, pointing to the direction of her door.
Winter took a slow step backwards, still holding onto the drawing. "I am sorry," she held the drawing up and looked at Karina pleadingly.
"I don't care!" Karina snapped, grabbing Winter by the shoulders and shoving her into the hallway. "Leave me alone," she warned, slamming the door in the smaller girl's face and making sure to lock it. She waited until she heard footsteps walking away from her room before collapsing back onto her bed and groaning.
Karina's sketchbook was her prized possession. She never let anyone touch it. Let alone open it and draw in it. Months and months of hard work were now useless. The brown eyed girl sat up and eyed the collection of papers that scattered along the wall. She should've known better than letting Winter into her room.
With a frustrated sigh, Karina dragged herself out of bed and began collecting all the papers that had spilled out of her sketchbook. It all appeared to be meaningless scribbles to her. She began sifting through all of her drawings, making sure Winter hadn't spared one or two of her sketches.
Of course, she hadn't. Every page had marker scribbled over it. One drawing in particular caught her attention, though. Her half-finished daisies from yesterday. It appeared as if Winter had tried to finish drawing them, adding the flowers atop the stems that Karina had sketched in pencil. Karina closed her eyes and sighed, placing the drawings back into her sketchbook and shoving it into her backpack.
Karina ended up falling asleep once more on the end of her bed. She was only asleep for a few minutes, though, before Giselle knocked on the door.
"Where's Winter?" The Japanese girl called through the door. Karina yawned, wiping her eyes and walking over to unlock the door. Giselle stood on the other side, a look of concern on her face when she realized Winter wasn't in the bedroom with Karina. "I thought you said she was with you?"
"She was," Karina shrugged. "Until she trashed my sketchbook, then I yelled at her and made her leave."
Giselle's face contorted through a multitude of emotions. She sympathized with Karina, knowing what Winter had done to her. But at the same time, she was concerned for Winter, and a bit shocked that Karina would just let her wonder off.
"Well great," Giselle threw her hands in the air. "We've lost her for the second time in two days." The younger girl brought her palm to her forehead and sighed in frustration.
"She's not our responsibility," Karina muttered, leaning against the doorframe. Giselle lifted her head and glared at the other girl.
"Look, Rina," she sighed. "I know you're still mad at her for what she did... I am too," Giselle glanced at the floor and then back to Karina. "But something's changed, and I don't want her to wander off on her own and get hurt or worse. You've at least got to admit that this Winter is a hell of a lot different than the girl we knew in high school."
Karina rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Yeah, whatever." She went to close her door once more, but Giselle stuck her foot out to prevent Karina from doing so.
"You need to find her," the Japanese girl said firmly.
Karina opened her mouth to protest but Giselle stared her down with a look of finality. Groaning, Karina turned on her heel and grabbed one of her hoodies from her dresser. She tugged it over her head while retrieving her keys from the nightstand.
"Can't we just drop her off at the pound or something?" Karina muttered, slipping past Giselle and down the stairs.
"You don't mean that," Giselle called after her, and Karina rolled her eyes, but remained silent because she knew the girl was right. Giselle followed her down the stairs, watching to make sure Karina actually left the apartment.
"I don't even know where to look!" Karina huffed, shaking her head in frustration. "For all I know she could be wandering around in the middle of traffic."
"You better hurry up then," Giselle warned, pointing to the door. Sighing, Karina just nodded and slipped out of the door. The thought of Winter being lost in the city was starting to scare her more than she was willing to admit.
She decided to take the stairs, hoping they'd get her to her car faster. Jogging out of the building, she scanned the area around the apartment building for any signs of where Winter had gone. There was a construction worker sitting on the bench outside the building, and she approached him quickly.
"Have you seen a girl about my height, braided hair, in her pajamas?" She asked, biting her lip nervously. The cars whizzed past on the street and she started becoming more and more concerned.
"A while ago, yeah," he motioned down in the street in the opposite direction of the park. Karina nodded quickly in thanks, not saying another word before jogging over to her car and sliding into the driver's seat. Moments later, she was driving quickly in the direction the man had shown her.
She drove for a few minutes or so without any signs of Winter. Just as she was about to turn around, a flash of black caught her eye against the grass. She quickly pulled her car over, looking both ways and crossing the road.
Winter was sitting cross legged in the median of the busy street, surrounded by only a few feet of grass on each side. Karina shivered, wondering how Winter had managed to make it across the street safely.
"Winter? What the hell are you doing?" Karina snapped, keeping an eye out for cars once she reached the median. Winter whipped her head around, tilting her head to the side when she saw Karina. She didn't smile widely like she usually did, though, and Karina tried to act like it didn't bother her as much as it had.
Winter stared at Karina for a few seconds but didn't say anything, instead she just turned back to what she was looking at. Karina furrowed her eyebrows and circled around in front of the girl, and Winter quickly held her hand out to make Karina back up.
"Careful," she mumbled, making sure Karina wouldn't step forwards. The brown eyed girl looked down at the ground, realizing what Winter was looking at. Two tulips had grown in the small patch of grass in the median.
"What are you doing?" Karina repeated, crossing her arms and trying to be intimidating. Winter glanced up at her and then back down at the flowers.
"What you told me to do," Winter pointed to the flowers. "I am looking at pretty things, and not killing them." She reached out and patted the flowers gently, with a look of concern on her face.
"That's not what I meant," Karina sighed, giving in and sitting down across from Winter.
"Then what did you mean?" Winter asked. She tilted her head to the side and looked up at Karina. "I made you yell," she added, biting her lip. Karina grew confused when she saw fear flicker in her eyes.
"I just don't like when people touch my drawings," Karina nodded. "I meant sometimes you just have to admire pretty things from a distance, instead of trying to keep them. Love isn't about possession, it's about appreciation."
Winter looked at Karina, furrowing her eyebrows together.
"Nevermind," Karina sighed, standing up and brushing grass off of her pants. "C'mon, it's not safe here. We have to go home." She held her hand out to help Winter up from the ground.
"Home?" Winter asked curiously. She studied Karina's hand before taking it in her own, allowing the girl to help her up to her feet.
Karina went to draw her hand back, but Winter didn't let go. Instead, the smaller girl interlocked their fingers and skipped forwards. Karina grabbed her and pulled her backwards, just as a car whizzed by.
"You have to look both ways to make sure there are no cars," Karina said after she caught her breath, Winter had almost run straight into heavy traffic. Maybe holding hands would be a good safety precaution.
Karina held tightly onto Winter while she waited for the traffic to clear. Once it did, she tugged the girl's hand and led her across the street. Halfway across, Winter planted her feet in the ground and bent down to study something on the pavement.
"No, Winter," Karina said sternly, pulling the girl up and guiding them quickly over to the car. Winter looked intently at the penny she'd picked up, turning it back and forth in front of her face.
Growing frustrated, Karina took the penny out of Winter's hand and tossed it onto the sidewalk, pulling her towards the car and opening the passenger side. Winter gasped, looking at Karina as if she'd just murdered someone.
"You hurt him!" She huffed, pulling away from Karina and scrambling over to pick up the penny. Sighing in defeat, Karina crossed her arms and waited for Winter to return to her, penny in tow. "Say sorry," Winter held the penny in front of Karina's face and wiggled it back and forth.
Karina raised an eyebrow at Winter. "Sorry," she muttered, motioning for Winter to get in the car. The small girl ignored her and shoved the penny even closer to Karina's face.
"Say it like you mean it," she nodded once.
"I'm sorry for throwing you, Mr. Penny," Karina laughed at her situation. Winter, satisfied with Karina's apology, crawled into the passenger seat. Karina quickly crossed over to the driver's side, making sure to lock the doors in case Winter would try and get out.
"I am sorry for making you yell," Winter mumbled. Karina looked over at her in confusion. "Stupid, stupid," Winter whispered under her breath, knocking on her forehead and shaking her head.
Karina suddenly grew concerned and reached over to move Winter's hand away from her head. "It's okay," she sighed, studying the small girl's response. "They're just drawings. They can always be replaced, right?"
Winter nodded softly and clasped her hands in her lap. "Are you mad?"
"No, it's fine, I told you I forgave you," Karina reaffirmed. Winter smiled widely and clapped her hands.
"I'm hungry," Winter announced, drumming her fingers on her lap as they drove. Karina sighed, thinking for a moment.
"What do you want to eat?" Karina asked, taking her eyes off the road for a moment to look at Winter, who already appeared to be deep in thought.
"Ice cream," Winter chirped. The small girl clapped her hands together eagerly. Karina opened her mouth to protest that ice cream wasn't an actual meal, but she stopped when she saw the pleading look on Winter's face.
"Ice cream it is, then," she laughed, passing their apartment building and heading to the frozen yogurt shop down the street. Winter giggled happily. Karina realized that she really liked that sound.
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