"Thank you so much for calling Kate, I know how much Ian liked you...likes you..."

I blinked back the tears that desperately wanted to fall as Ian's mother spoke to me on the other end of the phone.

"Is it okay if I call you every now and again, just to check up on him? You know I'd be there in a heartbeat if I was allowed."

"I know sweetie, and yes I'll keep you updated on him of course. The doctors just keep saying there's no change, and he's still in his medically induced coma. We're just waiting on the swelling in his brain to go down, and until then it's a waiting game."

"Right, of course. Well if you ever need anything please don't hesitate to call!"

"Oh that's so sweet of you, I wish your parents would've let you come to the wake, there were so many people from school here. There's so many things I wish..."

She trailed off and I didn't have to read between the lines to catch what she was getting at. She figured that if I hadn't ever left then he wouldn't have been in the car with that girl, Leah, the one I could tell she blamed for the accident.

"I have all the faith that Ian will pull through. He's too strong not too."

"Yes, he is a fighter isn't he? Oh, is that a bell? Are you in school?"

"Yeah I'm just in between classes."

"Oh well don't let me keep you, I'll just be sitting here, waiting until my baby wakes up."

"I'll be waiting, too," I said, the force behind my words not lost on her.

We hung up and I caught Evan's eye in the corner, a sweet smile on his face as he waited on me. I had leaned more on him than Vera because...well, I honestly didn't have an answer for that, but when I was drowning, he was the life preserver to keep me above the waves and Vera was there to put me back together when I splintered and cracked apart.

Two completely different support systems, and I had a feeling I was going to need Vera sooner than later.

"Last class of the day, are you good?"

"I'm fine."

And I was.

~~~

Monotonous schoolwork and my favorite symphonies of bleak and tortured artists coming through the speakers in my headphones filled the space in my head where my own torture would have normally resided.

I was so lost in my own world of synth and breathy vocals that I almost forgot about the family dinner I was supposed to attend in less than an hour.

Ignoring Jenna's curious stare as she lounged on her bed across from my own, I picked up the shambles of my ragged attire, slipping into a dark long sleeved sheath dress with knee high black boots while leaving my lackluster hair down but first ran a brush through it to make it seem just a bit more put together than I felt.

One step outside and I was greeted with an all too familiar sight: snow. Thick clumps fell in a hazardous disarray, the cold leeching into my skin and proving my choice in overcoats correctly.

The snow fell from the fluffy grey clouds that hadn't been there earlier in the day, a thick coating already padding my steps as I strode out of the dorm hall and pulled my phone out to call my sister to pick me up, but in the distance her boyfriend's car squealed out of the parking lot, no doubt forgetting that they were supposed to pick me up as well.

Rolling my eyes, I crossed the deserted parking lot and huffed out a puff of air with each annoyed sigh that escaped me, cursing my mother for these weekly dinners that I was subjected to. I had half a mind to skip it and stay back in my dorm, to punish her for not allowing me to go and visit Ian in California, but I needed her on my side if I was going to persuade her to let me go that weekend.

I was going to put on my most pitiful display in front of her, charm her, convince her, do anything to get her to say yes. I needed to be at his side, if not to assuage my own guilt then to ensure that he was in the same shape as his mother had described.

He deserved that much from me, at least. After what I did...

I reeled in the self loathing and focused on stomping my boot clad feet through the growing snow, hoping my sister's boyfriend had enough sense to put snow tires on his brand new SUV his parents had gifted him, the large vehicle a trend that every lacrosse player seemed to ascribe to as the parking lot to the athletic building was overflowing with expensive Range Rovers, Lincolns and Escalades far too big for a single teenager to need.

It was there in the parking lot where I spied Lachlan emptying his own extra large vehicle of the sports equipment he was lugging through the spitting snow, his attire not fit for exercising as he was still dressed in his school uniform and a large black overcoat.

I sucked in a breath of air before asking where our mutual friend was, the coldness seeming to freeze my lungs and throat upon impact.

"Have you seen Evan?"

His head flicked up and he had to squint through the snow to recognize who had spoken to him, and he had to move even closer to me until he was at the edge of his shiny black vehicle to realize who I was.

"Coach has him inside running drills for the freshmen. What do you need?"

"You're not practicing today?"

"I quit."

His words were frank and dull, and explained why he was getting rid of all the lacrosse sticks and equipment that barely fit in the back of his car, even with all of the back seats leaned all the way down.

"Oh. Well, I was going to ask him for a ride to my mother's house, Sloane ditched me."

"You don't have a car?"

"No," I said evenly, even thought the words wanted to come out hot and irritated.

"Get in. I'm headed that way anyway."

My eyes widened as I took in his car, and the lack of snow tires on them. My heart skipped in my chest for a moment as I contemplated my options. I needed to make it to this dinner, and while I could have ordered a ride share company, it would have made me late and in this weather there was no telling if they'd even send someone.

"Is it four wheel drive?"

He pinned me with a stare that told me the clock on his offer was about to run out, so I shook the wet clumps of hair and snow out of my eyes and gratefully slid myself into the front seat of the giant vehicle, blowing hot air out of my mouth onto my hands in order to warm them up even just a bit.

This was only because I was desperate to make it to the dinner, nothing else.

He slammed the trunk closed once he had unloaded everything onto the side of the building as a few lacrosse players ran out in their shorts and jerseys, cursing as they had to collect them and bring them back inside. I was thankful Evan wasn't one of them, knowing that I'd be getting more questions about why I'd accepted an offer of a ride from Lachlan.

Our friends had thankfully kept quiet the entire lunch, most of them ignoring me and the spectacle I'd made the day before, Blythe and Vera's quiet concern for me shining in their eyes but I didn't have it in me to meet their stare, to reassure them that I was okay.

I wasn't okay, I was fine. Fine, fine, fine.

Not okay.

I was tracing the paths of the swirling snowflakes on the tinted glass of the window to my right, leaning on my elbow in wistful silence, as Lachlan opened the door and slid inside himself, fracturing the careful silence and insulated peace that I'd created in his absence.

His presence brought crackling electricity and an uncomfortable atmosphere of spine tingling awareness, and a feeling I used to stomp down into the recessed corners of my mind attempted to rear its ugly head once more, but again, I pushed it down where it belonged, reigned in and forbidden to come to the surface.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said gruffly as the engine turned over and he carefully pulled out of his parking space, the tires barely finding purchase on the slippery asphalt underneath us coated with freshly fallen snow that didn't seem like it would ever stop.

I chewed nervously on my lip as he crawled along the roads, driving more carefully than I assumed he was capable of.

He filled every inch of the car with his scent, pine and expensive cologne brushing against my senses and I looked away from the oasis of the white flecked window to peer slightly at his hands clutching the steering wheel, those veins popping out as he took a quick turn, his sleeves pushed up on his forearms to expose the corded muscles that usually laid hidden underneath his clothes.

We passed wreck after wreck, people who'd been driving too quickly without precautions in the precarious weather, and after the third set of blue lights we'd passed, the snow started coming down even harder, with a vengeance.

Maybe even the universe didn't want me making it to this dinner with my mother.

The car started sliding, even at Lachlan's crawling speed of fifteen miles per hour in a forty five speed limit zone, and I clutched the handles tightly, desperate for us to finally reach our destination even though we'd only been driving for three minutes it seemed.

"Hold on," he said, concentration thick in his voice.

He maneuvered us to the parking lot of a recreational center that had already closed down for the day just as the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the world in an inky darkness only illuminated by the headlights as the thick snow clouds blotted out the starlight and moon.

He came to a stop underneath an awning towards the back of the building and made a phone call.

"Hey, I'm stuck."

He waited a few seconds before continuing.

"Shit. They're already calling it a blizzard? Yeah, okay. I'll send you a pin to my location, but can you hurry? I'm almost out of gas. Seriously? How hard can it be to find a snow plow and a gas can? Fine. Thanks."

He turned to me and there wasn't good news in those eyes.

"You'd better get comfortable."

"What do you mean? Who was that?"

"That was my brother. We're stuck in a blizzard and the soonest they can get to us with a plow is in a few hours. We can't go any further without being in a wreck ourselves, so like I said, you'd better get comfortable."

Stuck in a car with Lachlan for a few hours. What a turn of events.

I pulled my phone out and called my mother to inform her of my current predicament, hearing Sloane and Holden laughing in the background the second she answered.

"I can't make it to family dinner tonight. I don't know if you noticed but there's a blizzard out here."

Her sigh on the other end of the line came through and I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her.

"Well Sloane and Holden waited on you for as long as they could before the roads became impassable. I mean honestly, how do you expect to succeed in life if you're always tardy or absent?"

I ground my teeth together.

"They never even texted or called, they just left. They didn't wait on me."

"That's not what Sloane tells me. Honestly Katrina, making up lies to make yourself look better isn't any better than your tardiness, it just makes you look desperate. We'll have another family dinner next week, maybe then you can bother to show up."

Sloane's laughter was the last thing that I heard as she hung up and I didn't even bother locking my phone as I chucked it on the floor by my feet, a growl threatening to erupt from my throat.

I massaged my temples with my fingers as I avoided Lachlan's curious glance, his presence both overwhelming and intriguing at the exact same time, almost like my body couldn't decide whether or not it was excited to be with him. With my completely screwed up mental state, I didn't know if I wanted the answer to that question or not.

We sat in silence for a few moments, letting the soft patter of large flakes hitting the ground be the soundtrack to our boredom and unfortunate situation, until he flicked on the radio and a soft lilting melody floated through the speakers, the undulating sounds immediately calming and relaxing me, my shoulders lowering as the tension escaped me in a rush.

"You like this song?" His question surprised me, as I didn't think he would try to talk to me for a while.

It was a new pop ballad, a duet with a popular rapper that had assaulted the airwaves for the past few weeks.

"Love it. You?"

"It's alright. I don't really listen to too much pop music."

"You definitely don't strike me as a pop lover."

He smirked, that cocky smile melting away the distress at being stuck isolated and waiting for help.

"You look like one though."

"Like what? A pop lover?"

"Yeah."

"I actually have a pretty diverse taste in music, thank you."

He snorted like he didn't believe me. I only fetched my discarded phone on the floor of the car by my feet and pulled up my playlists for him to peruse.

His eyebrows rose in amusement at some of the more NSFW songs that I'd placed on a raunchy playlist but for the most part he nodded his head in agreement.

"I'm no music snob or anything like that, but I definitely don't stick to the same genres."

"That's obvious. You do listen to a lot of sad shit though," he observed and I only nodded in agreement. It wasn't like I could disagree with that fact.

"Why?"

"Why do I listen to a lot of sad shit?"

"Yeah. Before you left for California, your sister and your ex was messed up, but it didn't seem like it affected you all that much. Then you came back and you just seemed different, not happy I guess."

When had he become so observant of me? And could I even begin to explain the truth, did I want to tell him the truth in the first place?

I was careful as I walked on eggshells and danced around the actual reason, hoping that my half assed excuse would be enough for him.

"I was just sad that I had to leave California I guess. I had to leave...Ian, and I had to come back here to my sister who hates me and it wasn't easy to leave all of that behind. The only good thing about coming home was getting to see Vera again."

His eyes flicked down at the mention of Ian, and I didn't bring that subject up on purpose, but maybe it was for the best if it kept him from asking any more questions about what had happened in California.

"This guy...do you love him?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at the direction of his question, but answered it nonetheless.

"I love him like I love Evan and Vera and Blythe. Like my friend, not romantically. We dated because it was convenient, it was easy. We wouldn't have lasted as a couple even if I had stayed there but it still hurt to have to leave, and the fact that my mother won't let me go back there to see him...that was the real reason I wanted to go to this stupid family dinner in the first place, because she holds my ticket to freedom to go and see him this weekend, but considering how that phone call went, I doubt I'll be able to leave here until I graduate."

"So you have to play nice to get her to do what you want? You didn't actually just want to go to this dinner just because she's your mom?"

"She stopped being my mother a long time ago, she just doesn't know that yet."

I'd said too much, in my rage and fervor of emotions that bubbled at the surface wanting desperately to spill over, to tell someone the truth, anyone. But not Lachlan, not the person who would use the damning information and hold it over my head in a threat.

Lachlan let out a long whistle, resting his head against the back headrest of his seat and I watched him as he leaned his seat back, taking in the scene before him through his windshield.

"Sounds like there's a lot of anger there, Kat. Want to unpack that? I've got a pretty solid shoulder that you can cry on?"

"Shut up," I said, his mocking tone grating on my last nerve, even though the sight of him all leaned back exposed a sliver of skin on his abdomen, the cut muscles hiding under there just begging to invade my mind.

I shivered and he immediately went to turn the heat up but the moment his fingers touched the dial, the car stuttered and coughed and puttered out, the engine dying from the lack of gasoline.

I shivered once more as Lachlan cast me a worried glance.

"You really didn't stop to think about driving in a snow storm with your gas tank on empty?!"

"I can usually drive fifty miles with it on E and I didn't feel like stopping at a gas station."

My blood was boiling but I tried my hardest to stamp down my irritation.

"How many hours did you say they would be?"

"A few."

A few hours trapped in a freezing vehicle with Lachlan Brooks. What could go wrong?

An easier question would be to ask what could possibly go right? I knew the answer to that one, though.

Nothing, absolutely nothing.