I figured it out
I figured it out from black and white
Seconds and hours
Maybe they had to take some time
- You and I, One Direction

A little while later, Quinn's friends came to pick her up. Quinn passionately kissed Dash before waving Ellie goodbye and leaving her alone with Pasta.

The silence in the house gave her time to reflect on the events of this morning and sort out her feelings. First of all, Quinn had apologized for her behavior. Secondly, Ellie believed her. Maybe it was foolish of her to be so naive and trusting but she thought that Quinn had seemed remorseful and truly sorry. And if she really thought about it, Quinn's last snarky remark had been over a week ago. That was not a long time in itself but maybe it was proof that she took some time to think about this.

Also, Ellie did not want to be the on to ruin this. If Quinn offered her a second chance and a new start, it would be stupid not to take that chance. If her host wanted to make peace, she was all in. For weeks, she had wished for them to live in peaceful coexistence and now Quinn was not only offering that to her but also apologized and said she wanted to be friends.

Still, for the whole month of January, she had insulted Ellie whenever she had the chance and treated her like an intruder. And even though she had explained her actions, Ellie could not forget that all these things happened. "Forgiven but never forgotten"; right?

But while she normally used to dread Quinn's return home, Ellie now found herself calmly awaiting it. She was interested in learning more about the blonde girl and talking to her. Quinn had been so open and honest with her this morning, Ellie felt bad thinking about rejecting her.

She shouldn't, she knew that. But she had always been a very forgiving person. Her dislike for fights and bad blood made her desperate for peace. So when someone apologized to her, she always accepted the apology and tried to fix things between them. Sometimes, this trait got the better of her and was the reason why she kept in touch with toxic people. But she had a good feeling about this. Besides, there was no way out of this, she would not be able to avoid Quinn even if she tried. It was probably best to at least give her this one chance.

The blonde girl returned earlier that day, already around two. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold and there was snow in her hair, melting into tiny droplets and she got out of her skiing clothes.
"I'm just going to take a quick shower if that's okay," she announced, "you can wait in my room."

Before Ellie could give a response other than nod her head, Quinn had already disappeared. Ellie slowly went up the stairs after her and opened the door to Quinn's room. Pasta, who Quinn had carried upstairs and then left in her room, came wobbling to the door when he saw it open. He was a little less excited once he noticed it was not his owner who entered but nevertheless happy to see Ellie. She petted the small dog carefully and then awkwardly looked around the room.

She had caught glimpses of the room every now and then but had never entered it. And most of the times when the door was open, it was because Quinn was entering or leaving the room at the same time as Ellie — which was why Ellie would usually drop her gaze and try not to stare.

The room was comfortable and screamed 'Quinn' in every way possible. From the choice of furniture, to the color scheme and the carefully picked out decorations, everything fit perfectly to the girl. And — Ellie inhaled discreetly — it also smelled like her and the perfume she used.

Next to the door, the right side against the wall under the sloping roof, stood a big bed with lots of pillows and thick blankets. Next to that was a desk made out of light wood and a cozy white chair. On the left side of the door stood a shelf that almost touched the ceiling and was stuffed with all kinds of things. Books, jewelry and makeup, a camera and two open boxes full of printed photographs, a volleyball and dog toys and treats. On the left wall there was a built-in closet very similar to the one in Ellie's room. Clothes spilled out of the right door, most of them being skiing clothes. There were polaroids all over the walls, most of them showing Quinn with her friends, Pasta, the landscape outside or aesthetic shots like skis leaning against a wall. There was a small coffee table next to a huge armchair in front of the big glass doors (which led to a small balcony) and Ellie chuckled when she saw that the chair was covered in clothes as well.

In the bathroom next door, the water turned off and Ellie snapped out of her little moment.

Should she sit down? But where? Sitting on Quinn's bed seemed a little too invasive and the armchair was occupied otherwise. Maybe the chair at the desk? But what if Quinn wanted to sit on that one?

Just then, the door behind Ellie opened and an almost naked Quinn walked in, with only a towel wrapped around herself like a strapless dress. Ellie immediately averted her eyes and stared at the — suddenly very interesting — floor.

"Forgot to bring clothes," Quinn announced and walked over to her closet while her feet and her hair left a trail of water droplets and footprints behind her. Quinn quickly pulled some clothes out of the pile on the chair and then turned to leave the room again. Slowly, Ellie lifted her head. Right before leaving, she turned around once more — Ellie jerked her head down.

"Oh, you can sit down, of course," Quinn said, "you can take the armchair, just throw the clothes on the floor."

Ellie nodded and waited until the door was closed before she carefully gathered all the clothes in her arms and gently put them on the floor in front of the closet. She said down on the edge of the seat, bending down to pet Pasta some more. The little dog was wagging his tail tiredly and curled up at her feet, licking her toe a few times.

It was quiet for a little while before Quinn went downstairs audibly. Ellie heard the clinking of porcelain dishes, then the steps traveled back up the stairs. The door opened and Quinn came in, holding a tray with two steaming mugs of tea, two small bowls and a big plastic container.

She set the tray down on her desk and handed Ellie one of the mugs before taking a sip out of the second one.

"The lemon-ginger tea was empty so I made you some peppermint tea — I hope that's okay."

"Yeah, that's fine," Ellie smelled the cup and took a small sip, careful not to burn her tongue, "it tastes good."

"I'm glad," Quinn motioned to the plastic container, "would you like some pistachio ice cream?"

"It's way to cold for ice cream," Ellie replied in slight disbelief, even though her mouth was salivating at the idea of pistachio ice cream. It was her favorite flavor.

"It's never too cold for ice cream."

Quinn filled the two bowls and handed one to Ellie before digging into her serving. For a couple of minutes, the only sounds were the clinking of the spoons against the bowl and an occasional quiet sound of slurping from the two girls. Ellie slowly shifted back on the chair a little once she was done eating and folded her feet underneath her. As soon as Quinn had entered the room, Pasta was all over her and so Ellie's foot-heater was gone, leaving her toes getting cold despite the warm socks.

"So, how was skiing?" Ellie finally asked. She did not know what else to talk about. The weather? Absolutely not!

"It was awesome!" Quinn replied and the look in her eyes spoke of sincerity, "We mostly skied on the right one of the Pine Twins. A lot less people come there because it's very steep at the top. And Collin tumbled down the entire bottom bit because he was trying to jump over a bump while looking back."

"Oh, I hope he didn't hurt himself."

"Don't worry, he's fine. The only thing that got hurt is his ego."

"Does he ski as well? Or snowboard?"

"He snowboards," explained Quinn, "Fiona and Lillian do as well. Dash and I are the only ones in our group who ski."

"I don't know why but snowboarding seems kind of scary to me," Ellie confessed, "when I imagine having my feet stuck on that board, unable to move them independently of each other... I think that if I ever learn how to use one of the two, I'll choose the skis."

"That's the right choice," Quinn chuckled and nodded, "I tried snowboarding, too, but I'm not very good at it."

"But you must be an amazing skier," Ellie assumed, making Quinn blush.

"I wouldn't call myself amazing," she humbled herself, "I learnt it when I was a little kid and I've gone skiing pretty much every day since I was able to go on my own. A lot of it is just practice."

"Would you ever want to compete?"

"I don't think so. I like it for fun and I don't think I could go for longer than a year without it but competing... no. But enough about me; tell me something about yourself."

"What would you like to know?"

"Maybe tell me something about your friends," Quinn suggested, "you've met mine already but I know nothing about yours."

"I always had a small group of friends," Ellie shrugged, "but we're pretty close. My two best friends are both in Melbourne right now doing work-and-travel together. It gets a bit tricky to call and talk on the phone because of the time difference."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

"I don't like traveling that much — or change, for that matter."

"Oh, why is that?"

"I don't really know," Ellie shrugged, "I've never been good at coping with change in my life. I like things to be a certain way. If I could, I'd also stay in Jacksonville my entire life."

A shadow seemed to flow across Quinn's face but then she smiled again and raised the mug of tea to her lips.

"What is life like over there? In the States?"

Ellie and Quinn ended up sitting in Quinn's room and talking for hours. Now that they both took the time to get to know each other, Ellie noticed that they had a lot of similarities when it came to their views and opinions on things. Both liked to be creative, though that meant drawing and writing for Ellie and photography for Quinn. Quinn told her more gossip about the people who lived in Frostfields and in return, Ellie shared funny stories from her time in High School. Talking to Quinn was easier than Ellie had anticipated. The conversation seemed to flow on its own, not one moment of uncomfortable silence interrupted the chemistry between the two girls. In fact, they were so into their conversation that once their second mug of tea was empty, Ellie accompanied Quinn downstairs so they did not have to stop talking. Afterwards, they sat down on the couch, conversing about books they had read and outrageous things teachers had told them.

It was only when Quinn's parents came back from work almost at the same time that Quinn locked at the clock with shock, telling everyone she had completely forgotten the time and had to be at the restaurant in a bit. Before leaving though, she invited Ellie to visit Lone Pine again the next day.

"What are you planning on doing there?" Ellie asked curiously, "Go to the cinema again?"

"No, I was planning on either showing you the city along with some shopping or just do one of the two."

"Sounds good."

Quinn gave Ellie a quick thumbs up and kissed Pasta on the head, then she left the house.

"How come your not going to the café anymore, by the way?"

Quinn and Ellie were sitting in the bus on seats opposite to each other, on their way to Lone Pine. Contrary to their first ride together, they were talking a lot this time and enjoying the ride.

"The owner is on vacation right now," Ellie hesitated for a few seconds before adding: "with her girlfriend."

She was interested to see how Quinn would react to that. Since the incident where Ellie had come out to Quinn spontaneously, they had not talked about anything love related, neither about Ellie's sexuality nor about Jodie's. Quinn had not seemed like it was bothering her in any way but Ellie just could not forget about what she had said: 'we just kinda stopped going there after we found out the owner was a lesbian'.

Quinn's cheeks turned a pink color and she looked around secretly before leaning close to Ellie.

"Please don't talk about that here — and not so loud."

"Why not?" Ellie asked stubbornly, even though she did drop her voice a little. Quinn sighed and checked their surroundings again, leaning even closer.

"You know how it is," she whispered, "village life. Most people around here are... let's just say that if this was America, they would've voted red."

"You mean they're homophobic?" Ellie did not care if someone heard her, she had never been keen on beating around the bush.

"Yes," Quinn replied, "please don't get this the wrong way, I'm not one of them."

"You could stand up for the community, you know," Ellie whispered back, "someone has to take the first step."

"I know," Quinn said and now she looked like she was going to cry, "it's just... difficult. Especially when it's not only strangers who think like that but also people who you interact with daily. In fact, I..."

Quinn seemed to hesitate for a moment and closed her mouth, nervously biting her lip.

"I want to," she murmured, "I really want to. I'm just... scared."

Ellie decided to let it go as she could see that Quinn was uncomfortable talking about this in such a public space. To show her that she was not angry, Ellie smiled encouragingly at Quinn and briefly squeezed her knee.

It was only when they got off the bus twenty minutes and a more pleasant conversation later that Ellie noticed she had never asked Quinn who she had meant when she had talked about homophobic people in her social circle. Maybe her friends? If Ellie's friends would tell her they were homophobic, Ellie would dump them immediately and get new friends. But then again, her life was nothing like Quinn's and the other girl was most likely right when she said that living in such a small village was difficult in this regard.

"Okay, where do you want to go first? What would you like me to show you?"

"I don't even know what my options are!"

"Good point," Quinn chuckled, "I would suggest we go to the city center — don't expect too much though, this isn't much more than a village after all. But there are some shops and also a fast food restaurant if you'd like to grab some food."

Ellie nodded and walked beside Quinn as the taller girl turned to the left. She would rather discover the city than go shopping but decided not to speak up. Also, she definitely was not going to try on new clothes in front of Quinn. First of all, she did not need any new clothes and second of all, she did not want to give Quinn access to another weak spot of hers. On their way to the center of town, Ellie held back a little and let Quinn talk for the majority of the time. She intently listened as the other girl told her things about the houses they walked past and introduced some of the stores they passed to her.

Quinn was right. The center of town was not much more than two or three streets crossing each other with a few stores and small restaurants. Ellie spotted a few people going in and out of the houses, some carrying shopping bags but it was nothing compared to what she was used to. She liked it though. The streets and trees that were planted next to the road were covered in snow, as small flakes fell down from the clouded sky. It looked peaceful and quiet, the polar opposite of the busy roads of her hometown.

"Well, here we are — where would you like to go?" Quinn asked and adjusted the beanie that covered her blonde hair.

"I don't know," Ellie shrugged, "I don't really need anything. What about you?"

"I want to buy some new photo films for my polaroid camera," Quinn pointed to a house with green posters in the windows, "we can get those over there."

A sign over the door read 'books & crafts' and trough the big windows, Ellie could see that it sold everything from books to pens and pencils, cardboard and stickers to acrylic paint and paint brushes as well as paper for school and photography accessories. While Quinn occupied herself with the later category (which consisted of a small section of an even smaller shelf), Ellie went over to the bookshelves. The shop was well organized and had a large assortment of different books but it did not feel half as homely and nice as Mister Bishop's little store.

Gently, she took a book from the shelf and read the back but put it back with a little head shake. Boring. The next few books received the same judgement until Ellie finally found one she liked, an autobiography about and written by a lesbian soccer player. Quickly, she checked the price and decided to ask Mister Bishop if he sold that one as well. If she had the choice to support either of the stores, it was an easy decision to make.

"Found anything you like?"

Ellie flinched a little, Quinn's sudden appearance next to her had startled her.

"Not really," Ellie quickly put the book back without showing it to Quinn, "did they have your films?"

Quinn nodded with a smile and held them up to Ellie's face.

"I'm going to go ahead and pay for those," she said, "but you can stay here if you'd like."

"No, I'm basically done," Ellie followed Quinn to the register and held the photo films for her while Quinn searched for her wallet in the backpack she had brought. Afterwards, the blonde girl led her to a shop that sold clothing items.

"I'm in desperate need of new T-Shirts for summer," Quinn sighed, "I think I outgrew half of my old ones."

"Does it get hot here in summer?"

"For me, yes," Quinn nodded, "it's probably cold compared to where you're from, though. The average in summer is round about 20°C."

"Uh..."

Quinn chuckled at Ellie's confused face.

"I think that's 65°F."

"That's our average temperature in April," Ellie chuckled, "I don't think you would survive the summer there."

"Me neither," Quinn giggled, too, "I don't like hot temperatures too much. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the cold."

"I prefer moderate temperatures," said Ellie, "our summers are a bit too hot for my liking, too. But I think your climate up here would be too cold for me in the long run."

"I wouldn't suggest living here either way," Quinn shrugged.

"Don't you like it here?" Ellie asked — now she was intrigued to know more, "Your friends are here, you can ski all day... isn't that perfect?"

"I don't want to stay in Frostfields," Quinn confessed, "for a multitude of reasons. You don't have that many opportunities here and I'd like to see the world a bit."

"Work and Travel?"

"Maybe, I haven't decided yet. But as soon as I'm 19, I'm out of here."

She sounded very firm, like she had decided this a long time ago and would not change her opinion if her life depended on it. Not that Ellie would've tried to change her mind, though. Quinn's life had nothing to do with her own.

"Do your parents know yet?"

"No... so please don't mention this around them. Or around anyone else," Quinn looked Ellie right in the eyes and waited until the latter nodded before she broke off the eye contact, "Alright, where would you like to go now?"