Page 58 of Late Nights

“Oh, is that how you want to play this?” I asked, bending down to make a snowball.

I cupped the snow in my hand, packing it into a nice ball.

“Yes,” she yelled, ramming into my side, taking advantage of my kneeling position in the snow. She only took me down because she’d caught me off-guard. I laughed until snow went down the back of my jacket, the cold tensing my muscles. She knelt next to me, pushing more and more snow into my jacket.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I growled.

I lunged for her, but she was too quick. She ran away from me. I scooped up more snow and ran after her, throwing the snow at her back, hitting my mark. She yelped and hurried to get another snowball, chucking it at me, but it barely hit my leg.

We went back and forth, throwing snow and running after each other. Between laughing so hard and running through the deep snow, my breath came out in short spurts.

“You know,” she said, her breath coming out in white clouds. “You’re not so innocent.”

We circled each other as if we were both predators and the other was the prey.

“I never claimed to be,” I said with a wicked grin. “But what are you referring to?”

“If I had to guess, you’ve lied more than once to West about me,” she taunted.

I stopped circling, and she paused as well.

“Have I?” I took a step toward her. “I’ve never lied about him not needing to worry about you with me. I’ve made sure to keep you safe.” I took another step forward, keeping my eyes locked on hers. “I’ve never lied about there not being anything going on between us. We haven’t crossed any physical lines.” My next step put her within my reach. “And I’ve never lied about my feelings for you. I’ve just conveniently omitted them.”

“Omission is just another form of lying,” she pointed out, focused more on our conversation than the space I’d erased between us.

“And pouncing is just another form of tackling.” I struck before she had a second to process what I was doing. I knocked her off her feet, being careful to help catch her fall, while also making sure I didn’t land on her.

We landed in a puff of snow, her face full of shock as she looked up at me. Propping myself up on my elbow, I looked down at her with a smug grin. “Gotcha.”

“Okay, fine. You may not be a liar, but you are a cheater,” she said, clearly exasperated that I’d bested her.

I laughed. “I’m not a cheater. I’m a strategist.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbled, halfheartedly pushing at my chest.

I made no effort to move off of her, needing to finish my objective. “Now, wait a minute. There is one more thing we need to talk about.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And what is that?”

“How revenge is best served cold.” I moved fast, pushing snow into the back of her coat.

“Cannon,” she squealed as the cold touched her skin.

I scrambled to get off her and escape whatever retaliation she would try, but I wasn’t quick enough. She rolled us with more strength than I thought possible, considering how much smaller she was than me, quickly sitting on top of me and grabbing a fist full of snow before shoving it in my face.

We made it back to the house, where the rest of our group waited for us. Our little detour had taken longer than I had anticipated, but I’d had way too much fun to regret it, not even with how West’s brows pulled down as he watched us get off the snowmobile.

“Where did you two go?” Halle asked before West could say anything.

Demi walked to join the group in front of one of the garages while I put away our helmets. “Well, usually when we go on that trail, we take a right when you get to the fork, and there is this beautiful clearing, so when West didn’t go down that path, we still wanted to go see it. It really is so beautiful and peaceful.”

“Why is your hair wet?” West asked, eyeing his sister’s hair after checking her up and down.

“Oh.” She reached up to touch the back of her hair, the braid she had put it in having come loose. “We got into a snowball fight.” She glanced over her shoulder as I walked over to join them, as if asking me to confirm.

“Yeah, your sister is ruthless,” I added, keeping my face neutral.

West looked between Demi and me but didn’t say anything.

---