I had successfully talked Danny out of exactly one idea. I'm not sure I could even give full credit to myself, but I liked to think he listened to me one time. It was the beginning of junior year and we were sitting in the enclosed courtyard outside during morning break. The sun was hanging on to its summer heat despite fall approaching and a cluster of students surrounded Danny and me at our wooden picnic table, chattering excitedly about the rumor of our break-in to the mental hospital.

Though I had been there that night, most of the attention was focused on Danny who was answering questions with a broad smile on his face. He was already gathering a reputation for himself and had gained footing with most of the senior class for his spontaneous acts of adrenaline. The thing about Danny though, he didn't chase the seemingly impossible and stupid because it would make him 'cool' and even though it had made him such by default, he wasn't an ass about it. Others just simply seemed to be drawn to him in the hopes that whatever made him so fearless would rub off on them.

Jimmy Parker, who seemed to have a perpetual and unexplained thorn in his side when it came to Danny, had wandered over to listen. A sneer marred his already unfortunate face and he was sporting a new, wispy beard he seemed to think made him older and more impressive of which it did neither. He voiced loudly his unwanted opinion of how it was easy to break into an abandoned building and told anyone who would listen that he had climbed to the third floor of the Caraway House, a condemned building on the other side of town that was one bad thunderstorm away from collapsing.

He had done no such thing—but he was trying to get a rise out of Danny. Danny usually ignored people like Jimmy, but for some reason, this time he seemed to be rising to the bait. I felt rather than saw his shift in attitude. There was a challenge in his eye when he addressed Jimmy, boasting about how he didn't need to prove anything to anybody but he had been planning on checking out the house for scraps anyway. The problem was, Danny never boasted.

After the crowd dispersed, I turned to him.

"What the hell was that?"

"What?" he asked, crushing the tinfoil from his breakfast sandwich in one hand and lobbing it into the nearest trashcan.

"Since when do you accept crap like that from people like Jimmy?"

Danny shrugged and got to his feet. "He was just pissing me off."

I stepped in front of him and put a hand to his chest. Muscles tightened beneath my fingers. "You and I both know that what he was saying about that house isn't even possible and that trying it would be beyond dangerous."

Danny rolled his eyes and for the first time I wanted to smack him. "It's just a shaky old building, Dash."

"Yeah, a shaky old building that will bury you alive."

"You're overreacting." He sidestepped me and started walking towards the door that led back to the school hallway. The low keening of the bell signaled the end of break.

"Will you please just listen to me for once in your life?" I snapped. Something in my tone made him stop; I never spoke to him like that. He turned back to face me. Surprise flooded his eyes like his nonchalance had sprung a leak. "I'm telling you this is a bad idea. You're doing it because someone goaded you into it, not because you want to. Once you start down that path you can't come back. And it's going to get you killed."

I shouldered past him, hard, and let myself be carried off in the current of students. He called me later that night to apologize.

"I'm sorry for being a dick," he said. "And you're right. It's a really stupid idea."

"So you're not going to do it?"

"No."

"Good."

"We friends again?" he asked.

This time I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see it. "We never stopped being friends."

"Great, see you tomorrow."

I hung up the phone with a smile. Danny was crazy, but he wasn't stupid.

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Tyler led me through the little crowd of people playing flip-cup on the beer soaked kitchen table. So engrossed in the game were they that no one even glanced at us as we shrugged on coats and slipped out the back door.

Outside the gray of twilight feathered the edges of everything while a swirl of cream and silver clouds above swallowed what was left of the sunlight. Snowflakes fell hesitantly, sticking to my hair and fleece gloves. The hush that only comes with snowfalls cushioned the air around us.

A makeshift ice rink had been constructed in the cramped backyard out of nothing more than a tarp and frozen water from a nearby hose. Kiddie soccer goals had been placed at either end.

Beside me, Tyler was pulling on a pair of battered hockey skates. Practiced fingers laced them up as quickly as I would tie a regular pair of shoes.

"Here," he said, offering me a pair of equally worn skates. "They might be a little big, but they should work." A boyish grin lit up his face; his breath crystallized, smoky between us.

"You don't mess around," I said gesturing to the rink.

Ice skating was not like riding a bike. I was a little stiff-legged and wobbly as I stepped on the ice, afraid my lack of practice would send me pitching forwards or flat on my butt. Especially on crude ice full of bumps and ridges from freezing unevenly. But after a few loops of the rink, I settled into a comfortable rhythm of gliding forwards and even backwards, remembering my lessons all those years ago and relishing in the cold air and snowflakes swirling past me.

Tyler joined me and the ease with which he moved put me to shame. He seemed to know intuitively where the ice ended as he skated effortlessly backwards, keeping his eyes, still bright with laughter, on me. It was like comparing a newborn colt to a champion Thoroughbred—you couldn't. He turned lazy circles around me while I kept moving clockwise to keep him in sight.

"I forgot how much I liked to skate," I said.

"You're welcome over anytime. Maybe you can join the real hockey tournament next time," he said with a wink.

"My skills don't translate well from TV to reality," I laughed.

Suddenly, he sprinted at me and stopped just as quickly, spraying me with ice shavings. "Hey!" I complained good-naturedly. I was coated in powder from the waist down.

He held out both his hands. "Trust me," he said. I placed my hands in his and he began skating backwards, quickly, in tighter and tighter circles until the world blurred around us and we were the only two solid things in it.

Tears slipped from the corner of my eyes with the rush of wind and froze instantaneously on my face. I laughed out loud, unable to keep the feeling of overwhelming joy inside, swallowing snowflakes and transforming them back into clouds with my expelled breath.

Tyler counted down from three and released me. Instinctively, I pulled my arms in close, still turning in dizzying circles on the spot like I had as a kid. My momentum slowed and I spread my arms out wide, head tipped backwards, eyes closed, until finally I came to a stop. I opened my eyes, breathing hard, my cold cheeks stinging from smiling so big. In that moment, I could almost forget that anything bad had ever happened.

My phone rang in my pocket, interrupting thoughts that were still spinning round and round in my head, and even though I was tempted to ignore it, I fished it out. I nearly did a double-take when I saw Amber's name on the screen.

"Hello?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Your boyfriend is here and he won't leave the room," she snapped.

"Ex-boyfriend," I replied automatically. But then her words sunk in and quickly deflated the moment of bliss I had been floating on.

"Whatever. He said he's not leaving until he talks to you."

I looked at Tyler, whose smile had melted off his face when mine had. Our eyes locked, and what I saw there chased away the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I snatched back the tendrils of happiness that had begun to drift away, holding them close, feeling them heat me from the inside out.

I grinned broadly at Tyler as I answered Amber. "Tell him I can't talk right now. Tell him I'm flying."

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Soooo what do you guys think? Predictions about what will happen next? Let me know your thoughts!!

Thanks for reading! :)