Chapter 15: Ski Apache, Part 3

"We're here," Tristan suddenly announced, skidding to a halt and taking his warm hand quickly away from me.

"Um...thank you." I said, stepping off of the board.

He leaned back faster than the speed of sound. "You're welcome," he said with that strained voice. Had I made him feel uncomfortable?

I turned to look at him. He was undoing the straps on his boots. "It wasn't that bad." I smiled nervously.

He put the snowboard under his arm and looked at me. "I told you I wouldn't let you fall," he told me with a half smile, a gold sheen of light stroking his beautiful face, casting that mesmeric chestnut glow around his hair.

I bit my bottom lip and lowered my eyes. From the corner of my eye, I saw his lips twisting into a full smile.

"Tristan?" called someone behind me. I followed the voice and saw a man from the ski patrol standing a few feet away. "I thought you'd left already. I saw you getting into your car, like, half an hour ago," the man told him confused.

I drew back my head to look at him, confused as well.

Tristan's expression was stiff like a rock. "I decided to stay for a while," he said flatly, ignoring my eyes.

"To do what? All the lifts stopped a long time ago." The man seemed puzzled.

Tristan lowered his eyes, no words coming from his mouth.

"Oh, I see," the man said, eyeing me, surely deducing the wrong answer. "I'll leave you two alone." He headed toward the Elk Lodge.

I knew it. The lift had stopped, and there'd been no one else behind us. So how did he get where I was? He certainly didn't climb up the hill. It would've taken him too much time. And how did he find me? That side of the hill was vast, with slopes snaking down everywhere like a bowl of spaghetti.

Something wasn't right. He was hiding something. "So I'm a space cadet, huh?" I stared at him in disbelief, gulping back anger.

"There you are!" Dean shouted suddenly, speeding up towards us from the blue terminal. I smiled one of those fake smiles, trying to show him that I was fine, and turned my head to face Tristan again. He hadn't moved, but he was gazing at me, his face masking new pain in his eyes.

"I've been looking for you everywhere." Dean stopped next to me, struggling for breath. "I even left the sled to go and look for you."

I looked back at Dean. "I lost my sled too, sorry." I brushed my hair behind my ear. It twirled around like frosty Twizzlers.

"What happened?" Dean looked at my split open lip concerned, stroking my blushing cheek.

Tristan snorted a harsh sound.

Dean removed his hand and spun his head, following my glance. "Tristan," he said, a dark tone in his voice.

Tristan nodded, not taking his eyes away from mine.

"Snowboarding, huh?" Dean asked, spotting Tristan's board under his arm.

"Yes," he said, still looking at me.

Dean shook his head, puzzled. "Didn't you have a heart condition or something like that? I thought you could only swim at RAC."

This time, Tristan glared at Dean.

"I mean, you're not supposed to do extreme stuff like this." Dean continued.

"Yes," Tristan said, breaking his stiffness. "I thought you weren't supposed to do illicit stuff either."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean snapped.

"You know what I mean."

"Hell, I don't."

"Then I gave you more credit than you really need."

Dean glared his disapproval. "Like you haven't done things you shouldn't do."

"Exactly," Tristan said, squelching Dean's words as if they were a bug.

I wasn't an expert on guy discussions or anything, but it looked like Tristan had won. And the way he looked so...unaffected, was incredibly attractive.

Still, I hated liars, especially guys that lied, and he was unquestionably in my "disgust category" at the moment. He proved my dad's theory about men: they couldn't be trusted.

"We have to go," I urged, tugging Dean's sleeve. I turned, avoiding Tristan's eyes, and strode to the parking lot. But in that flash of a second, his face had seemed tormented by something.

"Yeah, let's go." Dean said, looking at him longer than needed, and then joined me.

I snatched the towel to wrap it up around me. My hands were still sore and my lower body was covered in a pinkish shade. I guessed the bulbous jacket had lessened my fall after all. I could notice the difference between the two parts of my body. I looked like a strawberry-milk lollipop, with two distinct layers.

I put on some cotton pajamas, sat at my desk and turned on my laptop. It had been a while since I'd checked my email. After deleting all the trashy messages, excruciating forwards-telling how bad my luck was going to be in the next few days if I refused to pass on the chain-the only thing left was two single messages. Two startling messages.

What the-? They were from Steve. One week old.

I opened the first one.

Hey Kal,

Whazzup? It's been a long time, I know.

Just wanted to check how you were. My mom spoke with Peter the other day and, well, I thought about you. So, do you like your new place? Must be different as hell. What about school? Friends?

All the same for me, nothing new. Hope to hear soon from you.

Take care.

Steve.

Looking at his name at the end, I couldn't stop the grin stretching across my face. I continued with the other one.

Sorry, it's me again.

I forgot to tell you that, well, I miss you.

Knowing him as I did, I was sure that last message had been hard for him to write. "I miss you" wasn't something he would normally say. Not even to his mother. He wasn't the cheesy type of person who would give his girlfriend a poem or a rose. That wouldn't even cross his mind. And Valentine's Day was a foolish commercial holiday where they used people's feelings to generate profit.

Still, he had a huge heart and was the best friend someone could ever have.

Perhaps our friendship had a chance after all, and there was nothing more valuable than that. I'd truly understood once and for all that we weren't meant to be together in that way. His rejection had hurt like hell, but losing him as a friend...well, that'd been too much. But now there was another chance for us to get back our friendship.

"Steve," I typed...

Yeah, it's been a long time, but I'm glad you wrote.

School is fine. I've made up some really nice friends. Owen and Dean are in the football team, and Valerie, Owen's girlfriend, is the nicest girl you can imagine.

Ruidoso is really small, but the landscape is beautiful. You should come and see it.

Today I went to do some tubing with Dean. I know what you're thinking but I wanted to try something new, and ended up liking it.

Surprising, I know.

Take care and I miss you, too.

Kalista.

I turned off the computer, feeling a lot better, flipped the light off and slipped into bed, still wearing a smile.