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Yet, as I locked up the front doors, the biting wind hit me, making my teeth chatter despite my heavy wool coat. “Fuck this bullshit,” I muttered to myself, in an uncharacteristically foul mood.
Early for the season snow had fallen the past three nights, followed by daytime rain, leaving the ground covered in an unpleasant icy sludge. As I turned the key in the lock, frozen droplets of sleet hit my cheeks at a horizontal angle. Just what I needed. If there was one thing I despised in life, it was the cold. My ultimate goal was to become rich enough to travel the globe year round to avoid winter altogether.
Giving the door handle a final shake to ensure it was secure, I made a mad dash to my truck parked in the alley behind the building. I pulled my collar up as high as it would go, hoping for some relief from the howling gusts. The street light in the alley had been broken since before I started working here, so it was difficult to make out more than the outline of my beat-up old truck in the dim lighting.
Most people might hesitate to park in the alley, but personal safety wasn’t much of a concern for me. Given my imposing stature, I never usually worried about physical threats. I’d never had to learn to fight; my appearance alone enough to deter potential troublemakers. If someone lurked in the alley hoping to mug me, they’d likely assume I was there to do the same to them, only with better chances of success.
So, when the sound of rustling reached my ears amidst the rush of the wind, I nearly lept out of my skin. Despite my earlier bravado, the notion of a stranger sneaking up on me in the dark felt unsettling. Taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, I swiveled on the heel of my boot in an attempt to minimize any noise. I held out hope that it was just Pete, our resident dumpster dwelling raccoon, or some other harmless critter, and that I could have a good laugh about being a big baby in the safety of my own home. However, as I scanned my surroundings, nothing stood out as the culprit. Perfect. Now my own imagination was playing tricks on me—a new level of embarrassment, one that surpassed being afraid of a tiny wild animal.
Only when I resumed my trek to my truck, eager to crank the heater and defrost my fingers, did I notice a hunched figure against the bricks at the end of the alley. In the darkness, their face was indiscernible, but from this distance they appeared small and were obviously shivering. The thin jacket and jeans they wore suggested they hadn’t planned to be there, especially not with the intention of robbing me. Meanwhile, my own body trembled from the cold, my skin prickling despite being bundled up in several thick layers.
Admittedly, a small part of me wanted to groan at the inconvenience. If I had to endure the freezing wind while waiting for an ambulance to pick up this idiot for hypothermia, I wouldn’t be thrilled. Just as quickly though, I mentally slapped myself, recognizing the unfairness of such a snap judgment. If someone was huddled in an alley in this weather, there had to be a good reason beyond making a stranger’s night more difficult.
Avoiding any sudden movements so as not to startle them, I walked with deliberate steps to make my approach obvious. As I got closer, I registered that the person had only a sleeping bag and a long black box with them, which only raised more red flags, indicating they planned to stay here tonight. Winter storms in this area were no joke, and if you slept outside, the risk of freezing to death wasn’t small. It concerned me all the more, considering I didn’t know anyone in this town who was both homeless and without someone they could call to crash with for a night or two in this kind of weather. People in this town took care of their own.
“Hey there, can I help you?” I called out as soon as I was within hearing distance, hoping not to frighten them. If they ran away, they might not end up finding another safe place to spend the night.
Lifting their head, the sight of the tousled dark hair and wide eyes was a punch to the gut. No, no, no… Even though my eyes hadn’t fully adjusted to the dimness, they didn’t need to to recognize the man in front of me. Colton. From a distance, I had briefly wondered if I was looking at a child due to his small frame, but I guessed that explained my goosebumps. My body always reacted to Colton’s close proximity.
As I approached, Colton began to scramble to his feet. “Sh-shit. Sorry! I-I’ll go somewhere else. I’m not looking for any trouble,” he stammered, between body-wracking shivers. The darkness seemed to mask my features enough he didn’t recognize me.
Clearly attempting to gather his meager belongings as quickly as frozen fingers allowed, he avoided meeting my eyes, almost as if he feared provoking me if I caught him staring. His hands must have been numb from the prolonged exposure, as he struggled to grasp his bag, dropping it a few times before I stepped in and intervened, taking the handle from him.
“Hey, it’s okay Colton. It’s just Grayson. From school,” I said softly, channeling the calm approach my friend from summer camp had taught me when approaching skittish horses.
At my words, Colton’s head snapped up, his brows furrowing in confusion. His expression seemed to convey uncertainty about how I, of all people, had found him in this vulnerable state.
He didn’t respond, only his brows morphing into his usual scowl betraying he’d heard me. Silence lingered, but now Colton deliberately avoided making eye contact, fixating on his feet. While he never hesitated to hurl insults my way even in the best of times, his current silence unsettled me. Either he was contemplating some creepy serial killer plan to make me vanish, or he felt so thoroughly defeated that he lacked the energy for his usual coping mechanisms. The slump in his hunched figure hinted at the latter.
“Here, let me take you back to my place and get you warmed up. We can talk, not talk, whatever you want. Just get in the truck.”
His personality reemerged at my suggestion. “I don’t need your help! You can just go and pretend like you never saw me here,” he spat back.
“Woah, little spitfire. Actually, I can’t just leave you here. I know you’re not from around here, but you don’t strike me as your everyday idiot either. You can’t stay out here. You know as well as I do that if you fall asleep outside in this weather, you won’t wake up. So if you don’t want to stay with me, I can drop you off at someone else’s house, but I’m not leaving until you get in the damn truck.” I briefly pondered whether a gentler tone might have been more appropriate, but my patience had worn thin in the bitter cold. With the numbness settling in my extremities, including my well, you know, I wasn’t exactly feeling charitable about his pointless hesitation. Plus, based on my understanding of Colton, he appreciated directness.
He persisted in glaring at me, a resolute quiet hanging between us as if my very presence offended him. Sure, I probably had offended him by bluntly acknowledging the fact that he wouldn’t be out here in the freezing cold if he had a better place to stay. Oh well, we could mend our non-existent friendship later, basking in the warmth of my fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate.
“That’s what I thought. Now get in.” I abandoned any pretense that he had a say in the matter. Collecting his sleeping bag and the other bag—which I now recognized as his guitar case—I tossed them into the bed of my truck without bothering to check if he followed me. Sliding into the driver’s seat, I cranked the heat as high as it would go, setting a mental timer for ninety seconds. If he hadn’t sat his ass in the passenger seat by then, I had no qualms about going back and fireman-carrying him here.
Fortunately, Colton spared us both that spectacle of my inner caveman. He opened the door, hopped into the passenger seat, and quickly buckled himself in, sending me a sheepish, shy glance. “Thank you,” he mumbled, his teeth still chattering from the cold outside.
3. “Left Outside Alone”
Colton
Fuck my fucking life. My entire life was amounting to nothing short of a damned mess. Leaning my head against the plush headrest of Grayson Scott’s ancient pickup truck, I peered through the window and once again marveled at the isolation of this town. Less than a minute from the main street, and it was nothing but darkness stretching as far as the eye could see.
I closed my eyes, attempting to erase the last eight hours from my mind. A feat made all the more difficult by the pains shooting up my limbs as the warmth from the air vents thawed my frozen extremities. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, a waft of Grayson’s cologne reached me, and I had to stifle a groan.
It was the same reaction I had the first time he bounded right into me with that infectious smile, radiating a joyfulness I’d only witnessed on people under the influence. Being that happy while sober shouldn’t be possible.
For the first time ever, gazing at another person had triggered a jolt of electricity in my groin. Not only was Grayson objectively attractive, he also happened to be a nice person.
A nice person who managed to make my traitorous dick perk up at the mere sight of him, turning my brain into mush every time we found ourselves in close proximity. Like right fucking now.
It wasn’t fair. Hot, popular teens who excelled at sports were supposed to be assholes. That was the way of the world.
That is, until Mr. Tall, Handsome, and Won’t Take No for an Answer showed up. From the moment I laid eyes on Grayson my first day of school, I was taken aback by how attractive I found him. Before him, I had a general awareness of when people around me were attractive. However, I’d never personally felt that physical magnetic pull towards another person. Grayson was far from perfect, so freakishly tall that he had to duck under ridiculous things like normal, human-sized doors. His front tooth was slightly crooked, and his light brown curls resembled an unkempt mop more than sexy bed hair. His ocean blue eyes were almost too big for his face, giving him a perpetual innocent expression. Yet, all those quirks made him that much hotter to me. Perfect was overrated.
