Page 25 of Snowflakes and Ice Skates

I walked to the exit and waited. I didn’t want to hear him try to fix this. He was attracted to me. He was interested, but it wasn’t enough. Or I wasn’t enough.

Vince followed me out and to his car in silence. Neither of us said a word on the drive back to my house. I had nothing to say and I don’t think he wanted to make it worse.

Once he pulled into the drive I opened the door and was out before he had a chance to put it in park. When I got to the door I paused to see if the car was still running. It was. He wasn’t going to follow me.

He wasn’t going to chase me.

I closed the door and hurried to my room before anyone saw me. How would I explain the tears? Spending a few hours with Vince shouldn’t have upset me and I didn’t want any questions.

When I got to my room, I locked the door behind me and walked to the window. He was gone.

Ten

I’d found that there are very few things in life that can’t be remedied, or at least eased, with the help of ice cream.

That’s why I was sitting on the couch in my pajamas when the rest of my family got home that night. Mom and Dad had gone out to dinner with one of his old colleagues that was in town. They came in laughing and in bright spirits. I took an enormous scoop of cookie dough ice cream and shoved it in my mouth. Good for them. Happy. In love. Having a good time. Must be nice.

Great. I was jealous of my parents’ social life.

Steven walking in after them and sat down next to me. “You know, there’s bowls. You don’t have to bring the whole tub out here.”

I glared at him and shoveled in another spoonful.

“Yikes. What crawled up your—”

“Steven.” Mom cut him off just in time. I was two seconds away from attacking him with my spoon. “Leave your sister alone.” She sat next to me, looking a bit concerned with her eyebrows creased. “Honey? What’s wrong?”

I ignored her and focused on the superhero movie on the screen. No love or romance tonight. Oh no. I wanted fighting. Blood. Death.

Yeah.

I took another bite and smiled.

“She looks like she’s losing it.”

I ignored my brother. He was right. I was.

“Did something happen today?” Mom asked in a gentle voice.

I shook my head. “Nope.”

The doorbell rang as I took another enormous bite. Nothing happened. Literally nothing. The opposite of something. Just a whole lot of nada.

Steven walked back into the room with. . . oh. Are you freaking kidding me right now?

Vince looked at me and seemed to hesitate.

Yeah. That’s right, boy. You better be scared.

“Hi, Harlow.”

I glared at him. If only I was like the people in the movie. I’d have laser beams or heat rays shooting out of my eyes right now. Boom. Boom.

Nope. Nothing. Just another let down for the day.

“Dude, come on. She’s in a mood.”

Vince looked at me for a long moment before turning and following Steven out of the room.