Okay, here's another attempt at a short story. My other one was kind of a disaster but I've tried again and hopefully this ones better. Harsh criticism is welcome for that is the only way I will improve.

Enjoy!

___________________________________________________________________________

Snowflakes float down from the dark void that is the sky. They paint my cheeks and nose a cool wet sheer and I open my mouth to steal one that has landed on my lips. I smile, the snowflake melting on my tongue. I drift backwards, carving into the barely frozen frost, my silhouette imprinting the earth. Another's silhouette imprints the night sky and my voice calls out to it.

"What are you thinking about?" My voice is loose and flowing, tumbling from my lips like discarded words, lucky enough to form a sentence.

"Nothing in particular." Comes a strong British accent from the shadows. I shiver deliciously at his voice. Never did his voice cease to excite me.

"How boring!" I roll over on my side, closer to him. His face becomes more defined as he leans closer. His cheeks gaining shape, his nose sharper, his eyes piercing through the blackness like silver pools of light.

"What are you thinking about?" He challenges with a slight grin to his voice.

"Everything. School. Work. You." The last word is whisper of a sound. It floats between us like a stranded soul, not knowing which way to turn. He leans away, his face dissolving into a shapeless form once again. Anger bubbles just beneath my skin. "You do not think of me?"

"I never said that." He breathes deeply. I hear the shuddering in his chest along with the constriction of his heart. I roll back onto my spine, my eyes reaching out into the stars, seeking some sort of guidance. I am bewildered, lost as if I was being pulled in all different directions. And there is only one person to solve my problems. Only three words need to be spoken to ease my suffering.

I love you.

They are so simple, yet the heavy weight of them can weigh even the strongest people down. These words are not to be spoken lightly though I've held no burden when I have said them in the past.

Now, I long to hear them spoken by him but he seems so desperate to hide them from me like some sick game. I sigh, letting my eyes slip closed. The wind picks up and snowflakes entangle in my hair. I hear him shift, the snow cracking beneath his body but I dare not open my eyes. I feel him descend beside me and still, I keep them closed. I open them only when I feel his lips at my ear.

"I do think of you." He whispers, the wind carrying his voice to my ear.

"But it isn't enough is it." I sniff, my nose starting to run from the cold. He sighs, deep and clear and I clamp my eyes shut, knowing the answer I dread to hear.

"No. It's not enough." He says, his voice a knife that pierces my heart.

I choke back a sob. "Because you're leaving tomorrow?"

"Yes." He collapses beside me, his body lost in the mountain of white.

"But, we can call each other." I try desperately to cling to the thought of us together. "We can write. Email." But it is like clutching smoke with your bare hands.

"You know it won't be the same." His words are taking on a sharper edge with each syllable and I feel it in my heart like pricks of needles.

But I know he is right. We will be worlds away by tomorrow afternoon. Never to see each other again. And I feel the trickle of tears welling just beyond my vision. He hears the soft hiccups from me, the effect of holding back my tears. "Oh, Lori." He gathers me into his arms. "Let's not think about tomorrow." I bury my face into the warmth of his coat and his lips flutter through my hair, kissing the strands.

I wish to stay here like this forever, protected in his strong arms. I forget that he is leaving tomorrow. I forget that we might not see each other again. I forget everything but him. I only smell his cologne and feel only the soft fur strands that line the inside of his coat. And I embrace him closer, looking up at the midnight sky speckled with stars.

~ ~ ~ ~

The airport is filled with boisterous noise. People shove and shake me as they run to catch their flight. I feel numb and don't notice the many apologies thrown in my general direction after another person pushes me aside. All that is in my mind is the fact that James is leaving today.

He's leaving me.

The thought is so bizarre but I know that it is true. He is leaving for good. Never to visit or call again. The thought sounds odd on my tongue and I swallow it down my throat, leaving a burning, bitter taste to my mouth.

I reach the terminal where he will departure, my mother leading the way. She points to where James is standing with his American family. He embraces them both and last hugs Adam.

I smile weakly when they spot me and wave me over. My mother gives me a slight shove when I don't move and I stumble forward. James is staring at his feet, his hands in his pockets. I wish he would embrace me. Tell me he will write or call every night. To whisper in my ear that everything will be okay and that he'll visit as soon as he can. But I know those will be false promises made to keep me happy.

He won't write or call. It won't be okay and he'll never visit. I swallow the lump in my throat as he looks up, his silver eyes filled with regret. "Well, I guess this is good-bye then." I stutter, tears welling in my eyes. He doesn't answer but he scoops me up into his arms and squeezes the air from my lungs. But I don't protest and just hang on for dear life. His cologne floats across my nose and I file it away in my memory. I pull back and stare at his face, trying to memorize every little detail to the dimple of his cheeks to the mole dotting the corner of his mouth.

He smiles sadly when his plane is called out. I start to tremble as I release him. "Good-bye, Lori." His voice breaks at the end and he has to look away. Tears burst from the dam I tried to create and pour down my face. I watch him walk through the door to his plane.

Even after he disappears, I stay and watch, hoping for some miracle that he'll walk right back through the door and say it was all some cruel joke. But he doesn't come. He is gone. And he's taken my heart with him.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Come on, honey. It'll be all right." My mother assures me, rubbing my back soothingly before placing a pot of coffee on the stove. I hunch over the table and place my chin on the table. It has been three hours since James left for London but it feels like forever ago.

My mother flicks on the small TV and the news blasts from the speakers. I stare at the screen but don't really see anything. My mind is on James. On his bronze-colored skin and silver eyes. I think about his thick accent that always made me smile and his adorable dimples. I also think of how I'll never see his face again. How I'll never hear his British slang. Never again will he embrace me or tell me how much-

I cut this thought off. Thinking about him was too painful. Instead, I turn my attention to the television.

The news lady appears and drones for a while as her voice pushes through the numbness of my body and I hear with unbelieving ears what she says. "In other news, we have just received word of a devastating plane crash." My ears perk up and I sit straighter in my chair.

"Rescuers are arriving at the scene at this moment." Across the screen flashed a plane, snapped in half like a broken child's toy, smoke billowing from the crack in the middle. My mind clouds over and everything goes numb when I hear her next words.

"This planes destination was for the UK and went down only hours after lift off in a field near Parkinson Valley."

I left my body than and crawled closer to the TV. I watch as they show more pictures of the plane, nose first into the each. A huge wrinkled prune in a cornfield. My eyes widen as they lady continues to talk. "This crash was very destructive. There are no survivors."

I return to my body then. My world flips upside down and I spin into a void of darkness