“Dannon?”

I poked Dannon’s cheek.  We were in his room, working on the project after school.  It was Friday, so there was no need to worry about what time I needed to be home—thank the Lord.  We’d been in here for over an hour.  You’d think that we wouldn’t get much done, but we actually did.  We taped interviews of each other—even though we both knew that those clips were barely going to be used if at all.  I mean, interviews didn’t really show the real you.  Sure, they told you information but who said you weren’t lying?  Not paying attention while being videotaped really showed who you were.  It was spontaneous.  Unplanned.

And now, Dannon fell asleep.

In the middle of a sentence, too.

“What about chocolate milk with oreos?” I demanded, flicking his cheek.  “Dannon Barone!  We have work to do!”

He sighed deeply, evenly, only proving that he was asleep.  I groaned, letting my head fall back on the wall.  I knew his bed was comfortable, but sheesh.  How were we supposed to get any work done when he was sleeping?

I stretched over Dannon, grabbing the video camera from his hand and aimed it in his direction.  I grinned, forgetting for a moment that I was video-taping him for a grade.  “Look guys, Dannon’s sleeping!” I announced cheerfully.  I zoomed in on his face.  “You see, this is what his face looks like when he’s not smiling.  I know, hard to believe.”

I hopped up from bed, showing off Dannon’s boring room.  “And this is his bedroom.  Ha!  I feel like such a stalker.”  I stopped and zoomed in on random objects in his bedroom before turning my attention back to said sleeping boy.  “You wanna go meet this guy’s daddy?”  I grinned, flipping the camera lens to face me.  I wondered what part of my face you could actually see.  Oh well.  “I think you do!”

I skipped out of the room, closing the door lightly behind me.  “Tommy!” I shouted cheerfully.  Tom and I had grown close since our first meeting—really close, actually. He was swiftly becoming like Kyla’s mom—another parent to me.  I’d been over pretty much every day this week, and Tom had always seemed to like having me there. 

As I walked, I spun the camera slowly in my grip so that viewers could see the assorted pictures of Dannon the walls.  As I exited the hallway, I showed them around the living room, not wanting to miss a single detail.  Ha!  It was like I actually thought this was actually going to be in the video.

Tom sat on the chair flipping through channels.  “Come meet the camera!” I called playfully.

Tom glanced away from the TV to cock an eyebrow at me.  “The camera and I are having a feud,” he said simply, shaking his head.  “Aren’t you and Dannon supposed to be working?”

I gasped in mock-horror.  “Everyone, Tom’s afraid of the camera.  Cameraphobia!”

I aimed the camera in Tom’s direction, laughing as he covered his face with his hands.  “Dannon,” I mused, “fell asleep, so you’re my next victim.”

Tom’s hands fell from his face as his eyebrows furrowed with concern.  “He fell asleep?”

I didn’t really understand why that caused for so much concern, but, then again, I didn’t really know what Tom worried about.  “Yeah.  Did you know that one time I dumped a bottle of water on his head and he still didn’t wake up?”

That was supposed to make him laugh, but it didn’t.  In fact, he only looked more worried.  I tilted my head to the side, wondering if I should have been worried.  My stomach dropped as concern suddenly fluttered about.  “Is everything okay with Dannon?” I asked softly.

Tom smiled reassuringly.  “Of course!  I’ll just go wake him up so you two can continue working.”

I plopped onto the couch as Tom left for Dannon’s room.  The television had been left on, playing some re-runs of Hot in Cleveland.  Usually I enjoyed the show, but for right now, I didn’t pay any attention to it.  The look of anxiety in Tom’s eyes set me on edge.  I didn’t understand what was so upsetting about Dannon being a deep sleeper and him falling asleep in the middle of a conversation.  Though, falling asleep in the middle of a conversation in the afternoon was strange.  On the other hand, couldn’t he have just been really tired and kept quiet about it?

“I’m up, I’m up!” I heard Dannon call, sounding anything but awake.  He emerged from his room, rubbing his eyes.  “Gosh, why do I feel like it’s only six in the morning?”

“Because you decided to fall asleep in the middle of the day,” I retorted, sitting up on the couch as I watched him drag his feet down the hall and into the living room.

“Naps are looked highly upon in most cultures,” Dannon murmured with a yawn, plopping onto the couch beside me.  He sighed, leaning his head on my shoulder.

“Isn’t the girl supposed to be doing the leaning?” I teased, ruffling his hair playfully.

Dannon yawned again.  “I’m too tired for this banter!” he whined, his voice thick with sleep—only proving his point.

“You were asleep for like five minutes,” I mused.  “You couldn’t possibly be that tired.”

“You’d be surprised,” Dannon replied.

I sighed, letting my hand drop.  It fell across his shoulders, and before I even knew what I was doing, I rubbed his arm like my mom used to do when I was little.  I turned my attention the show, almost forgetting that I was rubbing Dannon’s arm.  Betty White—her character being Elka, a totally kick-ass elderly woman—had converted to being Amish to avoid being put in jail, and the other three girls that she lived with we searching for her.  Dannon didn’t talk much through the episode—actually, he didn’t talk at all.  I had a feeling that he’d fallen back asleep.  “Dannon?” I whispered.

“Hmm?” he mumbled, sounding barely conscious.

“Just checking to see if you were awake.”

Dannon gave a lame laugh, seeming more like a body spasm than anything else.  I smiled slightly amused that someone could be so tired when they had such an uneventful day.  Well, at least my day was uneventful.  Who knew what Dannon’s day was like?  Maybe he got abducted by cows who wanted to eat him because they thought he might taste like candy canes.  We’d never know, would we? 

My smile slipped off my face as Dannon’s head dropped from my shoulder and onto my lap.  I stared down at his head, biting my lip.  Part of me didn’t mind his head being there—I mean, it was probably a hormonal thing.  But the rest of me, the sarcastic, insane part of me, rolled my eyes.  “Shoulder’s the limit, Barone.”

Then I realized that he wasn’t fooling around; he was actually asleep.

“Tom!” I called, exasperated that he fell asleep on me.  I mean, what if I had to go to the bathroom?  It was kind of hard when someone was sleeping on my lap.  “He fell asleep again!”

Tom appeared, sighing as he spotted Dannon’s head on my lap.  “Sorry, hon.  I guess he just needs some rest.”

There was something in his tone that made me nervous.  I couldn’t quite place what it was exactly about the tone that made me nervous.  There was just something . . . .something there.  The look in his eye—was it just me or did he look sad?—and the tone—maybe sad too?—combined just didn’t mix very well with me.

I nodded, turning my attention back to the television.  My fingers automatically, like instinct, went through his hair.  Like his skin, it was really soft.  I swear, I needed to know what the hell this family used for bathroom products.  I brought a hand through my own hair, irritated when I found that Dannon’s hair was softer.  There was something wrong with that.

My hand collided with my hair band tying my hair back in a ponytail.  I grinned, pulling the hair band out and allowing my hair to cascade down my shoulders.  I took no notice of this, however.  My hand went straight for Dannon’s hair, pulling whatever little hair that I could into a tiny ponytail.  Stupid boys and their lack of hair.  Though, if Dannon dared to try and grow his hair out, I’d have to dump him.

Kidding.

After my work was complete, I carefully lifted Dannon’s head up so that I could move out from underneath him.  Now that I thought about it, I probably didn’t even need to be careful.  The deep sleeper probably wouldn’t even notice.  With an amused snort at the thought, I grabbed my video camera from the otherwise bare cushion and aimed it at Dannon’s face.  “Look at this!” I called cheerfully, zooming in on the ponytail.  “That’s what he gets for falling asleep on me—literally.”

That probably sounded weird, but I really didn’t care.

“Don’t you think he looks pretty?” I mused.  “Hmm, I should give him a girl name.  Diana.  Yes, I think that’s perfect.”

Tom stepped into the living room, shooting a weird glance at me as he spotted me with the camera in my hands.  “Are you playing with my son’s hair?”

I whipped the camera in Tom’s direction.  “Oh dear!” I shrieked playfully.  “We’ve been caught!”

Tom shook his head, laughing heartily.  “You really are something, Brianne.”

I smiled, deciding it was time to pocket the camera for a while.  I flopped onto the couch, making sure to sit far enough away from Dannon so I wouldn’t accidentally fall on him during the flop (I wasn’t exactly the graceful of sorts) and grinned at Tom.  “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

Tom smiled back.  He glanced down at Dannon for a moment before returning his gaze to me.  “So, I hear you guys are going on a skiing trip tomorrow.”

I sighed deeply.  Dammit.  I’d completely forgotten about that!  Well, for the moment I had anyway.  Kyla had been going on and on about it all week long.  “Yeah, we are.  I refuse to ski though,” I said with a small sniff.  I wasn’t going to plunge down a hill to my death.  No thank you!

Tom chuckled.  “I bet you’d have fun.  Though, I doubt Dannon’s going to ski either.  The only sport I ever convinced him to play was football.  I haven’t been able to convince him to do anything else since.”

I tilted my head slightly to the side.  “Dannon had to be convinced to play football?”

The thought in itself seemed insane.  Dannon always looked so happy while he played football.  If he genuinely enjoyed it, why did he have to be convinced to play?  Not once had I ever seen him hesitate to chuck a ball around with Garrett or go to practice.  It just . . . it just didn’t make much sense.

“Yeah,” Tom murmured, seeming to have regretted saying it now.  “It wasn’t until he began playing it that he realized he was good; and then he loved it.”

Oh.  Well, I guess that made sense.

Dannon sighed, causing us both to turn to him.  He was still sleeping, his hair strewn in his face brushing his eyelashes.  Why was it that, when sleeping, everyone looked so innocent?  Though, even when Dannon’s eyes were open, he looked innocent.  I bit my lip, looking away.  How was it that someone in high school could be so kind-hearted?  Weren’t teenagers known for being selfish?

Not that I was selfish or anything.  Well, I didn’t think I was anyway.  Okay, maybe a bit. 

Tom sighed deeply, and for a moment I thought he was irritated.  My mom sighed that way when she struggled to do something by herself and refused to request assistance—she expected us to offer ourselves up on our own.  But, he wasn’t, because he smiled.  “There isn’t any homework you have while you wait for him to wake up?” he asked.

I grinned, shaking my head.  Dannon and I completed all our regular homework before finally turning to the project at hand.  There was nothing left to do, really.  I told him that much, flicking my eyes toward the clock hanging on the wall.  It was already almost time to go home.

“If he doesn’t wake up by the time we set, I’ll bring you home and leave a note,” Tom offered.  “Dannon won’t mind.”

I nodded despite my apprehension.  I’d ridden in the car with Dannon plenty of times, but not with Tom.  Riding with new people always made me nervous; I wasn’t really sure why, I just was.  Heck, I still wasn’t comfortable with Kyla’s parents in the car.  Maybe it was a parent thing.

Ten minutes later, however, Dannon’s eyes fluttered open and I was saved from discomfort.  I looked up from the nails I was picking at in surprise.  I was beginning to think that Tom was going to have to drive me home.  Dannon smiled, giving a small wave as he stretched his arms out.  “Hello,” he murmured, sounding a lot more awake than he had fifteen minutes before.

“Took you long enough,” I said simply, standing up and patting my pants.  “Let’s go, Sleeping Beauty.  You have to bring me home.”

Dannon turned, glancing at the clock.  He pursed his lips before standing up, stretching his arms out again.  “Sorry about that,” he apologized, letting his arms fall to his sides.  “I was exhausted.”

 I nodded, my lips twitching.  “It’s all right.  Just, next time, don’t fall asleep on me.”

Dannon brought a hand through his hair.  It was ponytail free now because Tom had to be a party-pooper and made me take it out five minutes before.  Apparently it wasn’t nice to prank people while they slept.  And—also apparently—Dannon didn’t appreciate having his hair up.  How Tom knew that, I wasn’t really sure.  But I didn’t want to ask.

“I fell asleep on you?” Dannon inquiring, his eyebrows rising.

I nodded again.  “Yeah.  I was fine with the whole shoulder thing, but then your head fell on my lap.”

Dannon chuckled, sauntering to the front door and shoving his shoes onto his feet.  “I’ll be right back, Dad!” he called.  “I’m just going to drop Bri off.”

“Okay!” Tom shouted, not sounding at all surprised that Dannon was up.  “Bye, Brianne.”

“Bye!”

I hurried after Dannon as he pushed the door open and stepped outside.  I padded down the porch after him, following him to his car.  As I opened the passenger’s door and hopped into the seat, I glanced at Dannon as he settled into his own seat.  My eyebrows drew together.  How was it possible to look so wide awake now when fifteen minutes ago he couldn’t keep his eyes open?  I wasn’t an expert or anything, but I doubted that was even possible.

“Sorry I fell asleep,” Dannon said as he pulled out of the driveway.

I laughed softly.  “It’s okay.  But if you keep falling asleep we may not get the project finished in time.”

Dannon chuckled and reached his hand out.  I stared at it for a short moment before taking his hand in mine.  His hand was smooth and warm in mine.  I wondered how my hand felt to him.  If his hand was warm to me, did that mean mine was cold?  Or was it warm?  Oh gosh, was my hand sweaty?  I really hoped not.  It didn’t feel sweaty, so I doubted it was.  But, still.

That got me wondering about my mom and dad and how their hands felt when they held hands.  And then, all of a sudden, I was thinking about Dannon’s parents.  When his mom was alive, had she and Tom constantly been holding hands?  Probably. 

I bit my lip as my thoughts suddenly drifted away from intertwined hands and to Dannon’s mother.  I couldn’t help but wonder, how had she died?  She’d been so young when she’d passed, leaving Tom alone with Dannon.  It wasn’t normal, at least not to me, that someone so young died. 

“Hey, Dannon,” I murmured hesitantly, “can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

Even though his smile was welcoming I still paused before replying.  “How did your mom die?”

Dannon’s eyebrows rose and an emotion that I couldn’t translate flashed across his face.  I instantly regretted opening my mouth.  He probably wasn’t going to answer the question anyhow.  I mean, what was I thinking?  That was such a personal question that I had no right to ask.  If Dannon was ready to tell me, wouldn’t he have told me already?

“She got sick,” Dannon answered finally, head turning back to the road.

I didn’t say anything at first, shocked that he’d actually answered the question.  But then I bit my lip, nodding.  “Oh,” I said softly.  “Was it contagious?”

Dannon laughed slightly.  “If it were, wouldn’t my dad and I be dead by now?”

An embarrassed blush heated my cheeks.  I was seriously stupid sometimes.  “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.  What kind of sickness was it then?”

Dannon winked at me.  “A non-contagious one.”

Smartass.

I rolled my eyes, leaning back in my seat.  I looked at him from the corner of my eye as I said, “Asshole.”

“Hmm, haven’t heard that in a while,” Dannon murmured thoughtfully.

I would have slapped his shoulder (playfully of course), but the hand that would be most useful wasn’t available at the moment.

It was silent for a little while as I glanced out the window.  There wasn’t much to see.  There were trees.  And trees.  And more trees!  Though, there was this one tree that had a branch covered in what suspiciously looked like undergarments.  Blinked, I turned forward, trying to brush away the disturbing-ness of the sight.

“So I’m going to pick you up tomorrow, right?” Dannon asked, bringing me out of my reverie.

I nodded, smiling.  “Yeah.  Eight o’clock, right?”

Shelley wanted to have a full day of skiing tomorrow and Sunday, so we all had to get up bright and early in order to head out for the lifts.  Hopefully I’d be able to get out of skiing Sunday—I planned on asking Dannon to leave early.  Of course if he really wanted to stay I’d suck it up, but I didn’t really feel comfortable skiing—ahem, no watching people ski—in front of a crowd of complete strangers for two days.  No sir. 

“Yep!” He paused, letting go of my hand for a moment to scratch an itch under his eye.  I left my hand outstretched, knowing that he’d return it in just a second.  Proving my point, Dannon’s hand fell back to mine, our fingers intertwining once again.  “Sorry,” he said cheerfully.  “I would have used the other hand, but that would kill us.  If I killed us your mom would kill me.”

I grinned.  “She’d probably kill me first for letting you get away with only having one hand on the wheel.”

Dannon chuckled, shaking his head back and forth slowly, amusement clear on his face.  “True, true.”

| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |

I was going to die. 

Not in the theoretical sense.  I wasn’t talking about how everyone was going to die sooner or later and how it was only a matter of time before our breathing stopped.  No, it was my time.  I was going to die today.  I would stop breathing and my eyes would close—well, hopefully they’d be closed when I died; having them open was beyond creepy—for the last time.  Forever.  Done.  And then, once I was dead, I was going to kill Shelley.

I opened my mouth to screech at Shelley as she cruised down the hill with ease, but nothing came out.  I snapped my mouth back shut.  I struggled to keep my balance, to keep from toppling down the hill.  Why did they let me up here?  Weren’t they supposed to make me try on the tiny hills first?

Veronica Horizons had been intimidating from the start with its huge slopes and majestic-looking lodge.  Walking into the lodge to sign in had been difficult all in itself.  If Dannon and the others hadn’t been there with reassuring smiles, then I probably would have taken one look at the huge crowd clumped together in the wide space and bucketed it out of there.  It’s not like the place hadn’t been welcoming with its sofas and rocking chairs set in front of a fire.  Even the front desk had been deked out to look like a kitchen counter—including pans hanging from over their heads.  But the vastness of the place—I just, I couldn’t take it. 

And that was just the entry place.  Shelley promised that our cabin would be bigger.  Yeah, bigger.

I cried out as one of my stick-things (another reason why I shouldn’t be on the huge slope: I didn’t even have the right vocabulary) I’d been gripping tightly in my hand suddenly slipped from my grasp.  How the stupid stick-thing fell out of my hand while I was holding it with the death grip, I’d never know.  I tried not to panic, but how could I not?  I was just forced to go up a ski lift and go down a humongous hill without any practice what-so-ever.  Couldn’t I have just watched—you know, safe on the ground?  No, of course not!

Completely distracted by my inner thoughts, I didn’t take notice of my surroundings.  My other stick-thing stabbed a rock—why were there rocks on a slope?  That beyond dangerous—and then got lost in the snow as it jerked out of my hand.  I let out a shriek of surprise.  Great.  Now I was speeding down the hill without any balance-helpers at all.  Shelley, I thought darkly, I swear to God, if I live through this I’m going to kill you. 

As though in an afterthought, I apologized to God for saying His name in vain.  If I was going to die, I shouldn’t waste my last moments sinning.

My hands dropped to my knees as I tried to keep myself steady.  I scrunched my nose, biting the inside of my cheek and narrowing my eyes in concentration.  Surprisingly, it worked.  Well, sort of.  I wasn’t the most balance-inclined of people.

“There she is!” I heard someone call.  I narrowed my eyes even further, trying to figure out who exactly spoke.  It sounded like Garner.  And, when I saw his figure pointing up at me, I knew I’d guessed right.

I mentally glared at them.  They were so lucky, being able to stay on the ground.  My eyes searched, and they latched onto Dannon’s figure, seemingly shielding his face from the sun.  If I could remember correctly, he was standing next to Oliver.  Dannon, unlike really anyone else, didn’t have to go skiing.  Because, apparently, he was the favorite and even Shelley wasn’t immune.  It was sad, really.  And, because of the fact he was exempted from this activity, I was going to kill him too when I got down there.

My plotting of my friends’ demises was suddenly cut short as my foot suddenly dug into the snow.  How I managed that, no one would ever know.  Let’s just say, when I was deep in thought I lost sight of everything.  So, because I was me, I dug me foot into the ground, causing me to fall face first into the snow.

I crashed, sliding down the remaining of the hill.  Pain was everywhere.  I scrunched up my facial features, struggling to keep my head from touching the ground.  I’d seen enough movies to know that keeping my head on the ground would only cause damaged.  I mean, I could hit a rock.  Or, knowing me, a tree.

As though from a distance I could hear people screaming.  I couldn’t tell if it was everyone or not.  They’re cries were blended into one single scream.

You’d think that I’d be terrified—you know, since I was already predicting my death before I fell.  But, oddly, I wasn’t.  All I could think throughout the duration of my fall was this: how the hell did I manage to trip when I had all this heavy-ass equipment meant to keep me steady?

What was up with me and near-death experiences?

After what felt like forever, I slowed to a stop.  I groaned in pain.  I knew that nothing was broken, or even sprained.  I’d sprained enough parts of my body and broken enough bones to know what the pain felt like.  Yep, I was just going to be bruised.  Very bruised.  My eyes, which I hadn’t even realized I closed, popped open.  I struggled to sit up, wincing with every move I made.  Between the pain in my back and the weight of my clothes, getting up proved rather difficult.  I felt like a turtle that was just hit by a truck and was knocked upside down.

“Brianne!”

A second later arms were around me, pulling me gently from the ground.  I bit my lip, looking up at Dannon.  His eyes devoured my face, searching for any hint of pain.  Then his hands were on my cheeks, massaging them with his thumbs.  “Are you okay?” he whispered, his voice deep with concern.

I nodded slightly.  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I assured him.  I gestured to Shelley, who, unlike me, reached the ground safely.  “Remind me to kill Shelley later.”

Dannon chuckled.  “Sure thing.”

The girls in the crew—and Garner—cried out in delight as Dannon brought his arms around me.  I rolled my eyes, hugging him back lightly.  “They act like they’re watching a chick flick,” I muttered into his ear. 

“They do, very much so.”  Dannon pulled back, smiling.  He held out his hand.  “Wouldn’t want you tripping over your own feet again, would we?”

I grimaced.  So he noticed that, huh?

Together, we made our way back to the crew.  My eyes flicked to Kyla, who had her hands over her mouth, her eyes still wide.  She’d gone skiing already, and after one trip down the hill, she proclaimed that she refused to go down again.  I could see why.  Skiing sucked!

“Bri, what did I tell you about making me think you’re going to die?” Kyla hissed as we reached them.  After bringing a hand through her windswept locks—which seemed especially white today in the sun—she let her hands migrate to her hips, glaring. 

“I sighed.  “Sorry.  You can join me when I kill Shelley later if you want.”

Kyla and I both turned to face Shelley, our eyes glinting threateningly.  Shelley held her hands up innocently, laughing at us.  Her hair, unlike mine and Kyla’s, stayed perfectly intact despite the speed in which she cruised down the hill.  Her hair remained crimped to perfection.  How unfair was that?  “Whoa, whoa chickies!” Shelley exclaimed, her voice light.  “Calm yourselves.”

“I think it would be better for us all,” Garner drawled, “if we called it a day and went inside.”

Well, that was all right with me.