Falling Crystals

Snowflakes slowly down from the cloudy gray sky. The bleak landscape was covered with white, and black trees were scattered here and there across the horizon. The snow drifted in big clumps, the fragile crystals entertwining their arms around others. The only sounds heard were silence and the soft falling of the snow.

A figure sat huddled in their clothes, only their face peering out of the thick cloth. Their knees were pulled up to their chest as blue eyes peered out over the white landscape. Pale blond hair fell out of the hood that covered her hair, head, and ears. The wisps of hair fell over her face, forming slightly messy bangs.

The girl was young, maybe fourteen or so. She didn't look like much, but her body was also curled into a ball. Her face was flushed with cold, her nose and cheeks turning a pinkish-red color. She was silent, her pale pink lips pressed together slightly. Her eyes were also narrowed slightly, the gray sky reflecting in her blue eyes and turning them into a gray-blue color.

She was still, not moving even when snow started to fall on her head and body. She would blink every once in a while, shedding the snowflakes that fell on her long eyelashes. She looked like she was thinking, or that she was studying the landscape intensely. She would sparatically shiver, the cold getting to her even through her thick clothes.

She frowned, her face scrunching up. She was thinking about something, and ignoring the cold as it sought to bite into her face and warm body. She shifted, moving herself into a more comfortable position on the frozen surface of the roof that she was sitting on. She often went to the spot where she was now when she either needed to think or get away. Some days she couldn't deal with the pressure that had been place upon her shoulders by other people.

She wondered in her mind why she bothered. She wondered why she let people keep coming to her with their problems and heaping more worry and concern on her already over-burdened shoulders. She didn't get any satisfaction from knowing the secret thought of people around her. She also didn't get any pleasure from knowing that she had the power to ruin many lives around her with a few carefully placed words.

She wished that she had someone to talk to, someone who she could tell her secrets and problems to. She felt all alone, no matter how many people were around her. She never fully seemed to be there, always partially in her own world. She never seemed to stay in reality, she was always off somewhere in her head.

When she did visit reality she spent time observing people as they went by. She had gotten good at recognizing people's habits. She noticed what made people do things, why they did some of the things that they did. She could also see things about people that others couldn't. People could see that in her, and could tell that she was a good listener. That was something that annoyed her, being a good listener. She would listen, and there weren't many people that would anymore, and it took a while for her to tune out a person's voice if she really didn't care.

She shivered in the cold, realizing that she had been sitting out in the snow for over an hour. She shrugged and moved a little, bringing feeling and warmth back into her limbs. She sighed and leaned back, her waterproof coat making it so that she didn't get wet from all of the snow that she was sitting in.

Her eyes reflected the gray sky above her as she looked up. It wasn't often that she looked up, most people don't, but when she did it was nice. She never really remembered seeing snow falling down from the sky and looking up to watch it, she only remembered looking ahead and seeing it fall in front of her face, never from the source. Her lips turned up at the corners into a small smile as she watched, her hand coming up to make sure that her nose wasn't running everywhere every once in a while.

A loud bang caught her attention, startling her and causing her so sit up She blinked as she saw a head pop up from the roof, soon followed by the rest of a body. The bang had been the door that opened upwards onto the roof. It was heavy, and had a tend to stick when someone pushed on it, so it had to be pushed upwards pretty hard to get it open, resulting in the bang every time it was flung open and hit the rest of the roof.

The new figure was bundled up almost as tightly as she was against the cold, only their face showing skin. Once they were totally on top of the roof they shut the door again, but this time there was almost no sound against the quiet roof.

The blond watched as the new person walked carefully on the slick roof, their feet angled so that they wouldn't slide off. When they got closer the girl could see that the other person was a boy of about her age, of maybe a year older. A few stiff strands of dark blond hair fell over his forehead, gelled into place. His eyes were big and brown, looking darker against the light landscape behind him.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked the girl as he sat down next to her, pulling his knees up to his chest as she had done once again.

"No," the girl answered, turning away from the boy to look out over the landscape once again. It was getting darker outside, adding dark gray shadows against the white snow that hadn't been there before. The clouds overhead darkened, starting to turn a darker black-gray color.

She looked back over at the boy sitting next to her on the cold roof. He wind had started to pick up, sending little eddies of snow up around them as it tried to tug at their warm clothing. She could see his nose starting to turn red from the freezing weather, just as hers had done a while ago. She smiled softly to herself as she watched him for a minute.

She then turned back to the white landscape. Snow danced in front of her, coming down in bigger clumps of snowy crystal that earlier. That was one thing that she liked about her grandparents' house, if you looked out behind it it seemed like you could see forever. Her eyes searched out the dent in the snow that was the pond, sitting frozen under the layer of snow and ice that covered it.

The boy looked over at her, watching the girl's profile as she looked out over the bleak landscape. He knew she generally came out here to think, but after she had been outside for over an hour he had been starting to worry about her. He knew that it bothered her sometimes when people told her all of their problems and worries. He almost shook his head at the girl with a lighter shade of blond hair. He didn't know what was good for herself sometimes.

He watched as her eyes shifted, taking in the landscape and snow around her. His brown eyes lightened a little as he also looked over the darkening landscape. While he was more of a summer person, she loved winter. He vaguely had the idea that she liked it because of the concealing clothes, but he also knew that she loved snow, either watching it or playing in it.

He smiled as she looked over, her gray-blue eyes looking into his. She smiled back, one hand leaving their protective circle around her knees to try and brush some of her bangs out of her face. She was beautiful, even if she didn't realize it. He didn't know whether she didn't know, or just didn't care.

"You're probably wondering why I've been out here so long, freezing my butt off," she said, her soft voice carrying the few inches to his ears. She wasn't looking at him anymore, just staring straight ahead.

"The question had crossed my mind," he admitted. He wasn't going to tell her he was also out in the cold because he wanted to be near her, although she probably already knew.

The girl sighed and closed her eyes, letting her shoulders sag forward onto her knees. The boy looked at her for a minute before moving closer to her and wrapping his arms around her smaller frame. He was amazed at how thin she was, even with the thick clothing on. She wasn't too thin, but she was still thin enough. He didn't like it when she forgot meals, that wasn't good for her, especially with her like this.

"I really don't know what to do," she whispered, leaning into the warmth that he offered. She knew that he cared, and appreciated it. She didn't know what she would do with out him sometimes. She was content to be in the circle of his arms, to draw strength from him. He was her favorite person, the person she trusted most in the world. She didn't know what she would do if she ever lost him, and didn't think about it, not wanting to make herself sadder than she already seemed to be.

"About what?" he asked, hugging her tighter as he heard her utter those words. He knew that she was having a hard time. There had been more than one time when she had just called him to make sure that he was still there, to make sure that he wasn't going to leave her. She was insecure that way, always looking for a way to please him, even if he didn't know it. She was so afraid of failing him in some way or another.

"Everything, I guess. It all seems so jumbled, so hard. I don't really know what to do anymore. I can't stand people coming to me with all of their problems. Its like I don't have any of my own, so they tell me all of theirs because I'm the only one that'll listen. There aren't many people that listen anymore," she said, her voice still quiet, although it had a slightly sad edge to it now. She hadn't talked about any of this in a long time, she usually kept her feelings bottled up. That was just how she was, she would hold in her fears and concerns and worries until she reached a breaking point and couldn't hold any more.

"It just seems all pointless, like I'm wasting my life away doing nothing. I just don’t know what to do anymore, and it scares me. I feel like I'm small and forgotten sometimes, like I'm the only one ever where I am, where ever that happens to be. I don’t see myself like other people do. I don't know what I need to do about it. It scares me when I feel like this, like I'm helpless," her voice was still steady, but it wasn't calm. It held a wealth of emotion that needed to get out. Her hands had clasped themselves into fists as she leaned into the boy, her knees leaning against him.

"I can't help half of them either, I can't tell them what will help. It hurts when its one of my best friends that has the problems. She's going to be going away for a week, and I don't want that to happen, I don't want to lose her, even if its only for a little while. I guess I get to the point where I need people, and she's one of them. I'm really afraid of her leaving me like so many other people have. I'm afraid of never seeing her again, them saying that she won't be able to come back, and me being able to do nothing about it. I hate feeling helpless! I hate it!" her voice had cracked now, and her eyes had filled with tears. Glassy crystals of light fell down her cheeks, turning cold once they reached the outside air. She couldn't help it. All of her hurt, fear, frustration, and anger was welling up inside of her, begging to be released. She sobbed and buried her head into the boy's chest, the black material of his coat muffling her sobs.

He rubbed her back and shoulders, hoping to try to comfort her in some way. He hated to see her like this. He knew that it took a lot for her to break down in front of anyone, even just him alone. It was her pride that held her back, kept her from breaking down and looking weak. She didn't like so show weakness to anyone, not even him. She had thoughts that it would come back to hurt her some day, come back and corner her where she didn't want to be trapped. She hated to feel weak, to feel overwhelmed.

He held her in his arms until she had calmed down and her sobs had stopped. She looked up at him, still sniffing as her nose decided that it needed to run. She wiped her face off quietly with the sleeved of her jacket, her hands drawn into their warmth. She leaned against him in silence. They both sat there and watched day turn into night and the landscape go from white to dark gray, but still stand out against the darkness of the horizon.

"Thanks," she whispered, looking up and meeting his eyes with her own so that he would know that she really meant it.

"No problem," he said, hugging her tightly before letting her go. She smiled up at him warmly, radiating her trust and love. He smiled back, their eyes meeting.

"Let's go in and eat something, you've been out here for a long time," he said, carefully getting to his feet and helping her to her own. She smiled and took his hand as they made their way along the darkened roof towards the door.

"I hope it'll open for us," she muttered, her mind wondering to a time when it hadn't. She had been stuck outside until someone went looking for her hours later. He turned to look back at her and squeezed her hand.

"It should. I don't think that they'd let us freeze out here too long anyway. Hopefully."