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"Madeline, you are fucking shivering," He said, his voice threateningly tight. Out of spite, I was determined not to make eye contact with him, but I could still see the muscle in his jaw tick from my peripheral vision.

"I'm fine, thank you," I responded bitterly, hugging my arms tighter around my body in a vain attempt to stop my teeth from chattering. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms to ease the goosebumps. 

"For fuck's sake," I heard him mutter, followed by a scoff. 

I bounced on my feet, determined to spur up whatever thermal energy I could. Another gust of wind surged by, almost knocking me off balance.

"How much longer?" I asked, turning to Dylan.

He lifted his wrist, checking his watch, before shrugging and shoving his hands into the pockets of his navy parka. "They didn't say." He looked away, his eyes returning to vacantly watching the motionless road. 

I heard feet crushing the wet gravel as Carson stomped toward me. I felt something heavy and warm being draped over my shoulders. I looked down at the coat with disdain, then out of the corner of my eye to Carson. I whipped around to face him, glaring up at his impassive expression. 

"I said I was fine, Carson." I yanked the coat off of me and held it out for him to take back. 

"You're going to get hypothermia," He grit out through clenched teeth, an eyebrow raised as if to say don't test me. His lips pressed into a straight line. "Keep it on."

I did my best to scowl at him, trying to be angry despite his kind gesture. He was now coatless, in just a black sweater and long pants. However, if he was suffering at all from the loss of heat and protection the coat had provided for him, he was certainly making a point of not showing it. 

"Take it back, Carson," I said. "You're going to get hypothermia."

He shrugged, "Better me than you."

"This is sexism," I muttered, rolling my eyes as I attempted to force the coat back on him, but he held out his arms, pushing me away. 

"No, this is not sexism. This is you being stubborn."

"Carson, seriously, take it back. I don't want it."

"I don't care if you don't want it. Put it on."

"No. They'll be here any minute."

"Madeline. Put it on."

"No."

His eyes darkened and his voice dropped a few octaves to match, "I was not asking."

I threw the jacket at him, and he caught it right before it hit the white layer blanketing the ground. He glared at me as the arm of the coat fell loose, dangling just a few centimeters above the ground. 

He didn't break the menacing stare as he shoved his arms through the holes of his jacket and tugged it over his back before angrily stuffing his hands in the pockets. The wrinkles at the corner of his eyes were still present, and his mouth seemed to be frozen into a scowl. 

"Come here," He said.

"I don't want to."

"Again, I'm not asking. Come here."

I rolled my eyes and slowly closed the small amount of space between us. I lifted my chin defiantly and matched his glare with one of my own. Without another word, he pulled his arms away from his sides, his jacket stretching like wings with him. 

I walked into him, pressing my head against his chest and wrapping my arms around his torso. His arms came back down to his sides, and he pulled the jacket over the both of us. I felt him kiss the top of my head. 

As I turned my head, trying to make myself more comfortable against him, I saw Dylan, whose eyes were flickering between me and Carson. His brows were knitted above his squinted eyes, and his lips were parted as if he had refrained from saying something. He settled on, "You two are the strangest couple."

Neither Carson, nor I had the chance to respond before the squealing sound of a car braking took our attention. The white car rolled to a stop right in front of us, and Jason hopped out of the passenger seat, looking absolutely ridiculous, bundled in multiple layers of jackets, scarves, and at least three hats. 

Luna jumped out of the driver's side, an extra coat in her hand, which she tossed haphazardly at me. Carson let me out of his hold so that I could put the jacket on. 

"Dylan, it's like four in the morning," Luna groaned. "I have an exam first thing later today."

"Too bad," He replied. "A promise is a promise."

"It isn't so much a promise as it is a pact," I reasoned.

Jason shrugged, "I'd call it a tradition more than that."

"Fine, it's a tradition," Dylan agreed. "Either way, you're here now. There's no point in complaining, Luna."

The sound of another car's engine became more pronounced, and Zach's car turned onto the street. He pulled to the side of the road, right behind Luna's car. 

As he stepped out, he pulled a beanie over his hair. "I see no one's forgotten about the tradition."

"First snowfall of the season," Carson said, looking up at the sky. I looked up as well, studying the way the snow fell, twirling in the air like little white dancers, moving in graceful swirls against the dark night sky. It had begun piling up now, at least four inches had stuck to the ground. "Tradition is tradition."

"Now that we're all here, we can go," Dylan spoke, his tone level and his calamity matching the snowfall.

We moved slowly, stomping through the cold snow as we walked further into the park. Everything was quiet this late at night; I was more than certain we were the only people awake. All we could hear was the squishing of our boots against the ground and the sporadic whistle of the wind. 

Jason had bent down, gathering up a scoop of snow between his gloved hands. He stood up straight and began attempting to pack it. 

"Not bad for fresh snow," He said after managing to make a decently-sized snowball. He threw it at the back of Dylan's head and subsequently received the middle finger. 

We stopped a bit later in front of the large white gazebo in the center of the small park. The yellow lights decorating the rim of the gazebo's roof seemed a bright contrast to the dark night. It was the only illumination other than the streetlights, but those were tiny and far in the distance now. 

Like usual, Jason was the first to break the silence. "My belly button is cold."

"You have thirteen layers on, J," Carson responded. 

"I wish I had a fourteenth."

"Jason, you can barely walk as is," Dylan said, pinching the bridge of the nose. "Another layer and we'd have to roll you around."

Jason shrugged as he pulled the hood of his coat over his pile of hats, "Sounds fine to me."

Giving up on reasoning with Jason, we moved on and all sat down outside the gazebo, leaning our backs against the railing. For a while, we all just sat in silence, listening to the wind and watching the snow fall faster and heavier. 

The world felt good like this. 

The snowflakes hit my face sporadically; first the tip of my nose, then my eye, and another on my lip. 

"Luna, did you bring the carrot?" Someone asked. 

She nodded and pulled a long, vibrantly orange carrot from her pocket, holding it up for everyone to see. 

"I picked up some rocks on the way," Zach added, straightening out one of his fists to reveal a collection of rocks. 

"Jason, will you able to part with one of your fifty scarves?"

"I suppose so," He replied with a dramatic sigh, making a show of unraveling one of the scarves from his neck. 

"Alright then," Dylan said. "Let's get to work."

He was the first to stand up, walking away from the gazebo. I stood next and held my hands out for Carson, pulling him up with me. 

"Yeah, you guys start," Jason said, pulling his knees up to his chest. "I'll keep an eye on all the little decoration pieces. Make sure they don't blow away in the wind."

"Jason, it's gonna be you blowing away if you don't get your ass up and help." 

He sprung up, wiping the snow off of his pants, "Alright, alright!"

Dylan and Zach had already managed to roll a decent sized ball of snow for the base of the snowman. Carson and I went to help them roll it around. 

"Do we have a name for this one yet?" I asked. 

"No," Dylan responded. "Any ideas?"

"Can't go wrong with Frosty," Zach said.

"Frosty lost its appeal after we gave the name to the first four snowmen," Carson argued. 

We continued to toss around name ideas, most of which were contributed by Zach and Jason (all of which were sexual innuendos), as we rolled the ball of snow. Once the ball was almost half of my height, we moved on to the midsection, rolling a slightly smaller ball. 

"We could name it, like, Barry or something."

"That sounds like the name of a forty-year-old accountant who's going bald."

"Ok, so, not Barry."

"Definitely not."

"Mr. Snow?"

"No."

"What about Sprinkles?"

"Why the fuck would we name it Sprinkles?"

"It's not like you've come up with anything better!"

Luna made a smaller ball to be the head of the Snowman, and handed it to Carson to place on the Snowman. It was now at least two inches taller than me. 

"What about Slushy?" I suggested. 

"That seems sort of morbid. I like it."

Dylan sighed, "Slushy it is then."

Luna grabbed the carrot and Jason's extra scarf to put on the snowman, and Zach started arranging his rocks in a line up Slushy's body before moving on to his face. Dylan grabbed some sticks fallen from a nearby tree to serve as arms and Jason knelt down in the snow, using his finger to carve out "Here Lies Slushy."

"Jason, it's not a dead body."

"Says the one that named the snowman Slushy."

"He's done!" Luna cheered. 

We all stepped back to look at our work. His smile was crooked and the dampness of the sticks caused them to droop. Still, Slushy was kind of charming in a 'I froze my ass off for this, so he better be charming' kind of way.

"Another one for the books."

"He's definitely better than last year's."

"First snow of the season is a success."

"Worth the frost bite."

"Tradition officially upheld."

"I still think we should've named him Sprinkles."

* * *

Another yawn escaped me as I poured out a cup of coffee into a travel mug. We had managed to stay out in the snow until the sun rose, right around when the plows started down the main roads. Jason was the first to start complaining that he was tired and cold, and it wasn't long after that Zach and Luna had joined in with complaints– it became insufferable really quickly. 

My eyelids closed for just a second too long and I over poured. I hissed as a small drop of the scalding liquid fell onto my hand. At least I was certainly awake now. 

I turned around at the soft sound of feet shuffling against the floorboard. Carson was walking into the kitchen, his eyes screwed shut as he yawned. His flannel pajama pants lung low around his hips, and his shirt was lifted, revealing some of his lower stomach, as he stretched his arms, folding them behind his head.

"Morning," He mumbled out as he leaned down on the island, resting on his elbows. He had dark bags under his eyes, and his wavy hair was completely disheveled.

"Morning," I said, turning fully to face him. "Why're you up? I thought you didn't have classes today."

"I don't, but I'm going to drive you to school. The weather is still really crappy and some of the roads haven't been plowed yet."

"That's silly, I can drive myself."

"You can hardly keep your eyes open."

"I'm fine, babe. I promise."

"I'd feel much better if you let me drive you," He continued.

"Don't do that. Don't treat me like I'm fragile."

"Maddie, I'm not treating you like you're fragile."

"Yes, you are. That's exactly what you're doing. And it's gross and sexist."

He let out a tired sigh and slid away from the counter. He came up to me, placing one hand on my shoulder, the other cupping my right cheek. "My love, I mean this in the nicest way: you are a horrible driver."

"Excuse me?"

"You're awful, honestly. I don't want you driving in this."

I knew I wasn't a good driver. Did Carson need to make it an established fact? No. 

"You know, I might have let you drive me if you didn't choose to insult me. But now-"

"You can argue with you me all you wish, but I'm driving you."

I turned and looked out the window. The snow was still falling pretty heavily, and a thin layer coated the road even though the plow truck had just driven down no more than ten minutes ago. In honesty, I was surprised school hadn't been canceled; I was definitely hoping it would be when I agreed to stay in the park until well past dawn. 

"What if no one drives?" I suggested.

"What do you mean?"

I shrugged, "This weather is just horrible, and I think I'm started to come down with something." I placed a hand on my chest and winced while I took an overdramatic swallow followed by the fakest cough. 

I moved closer to Carson, who was looking down at me like I had grown two heads. I wrapped an arm around his waist. "Today seems like a perfect day to stay at home. In bed."

I watched as the gears started turning in Carson's head. His eyes went wide when it finally clicked, a small smirk slowly curling up his lips. He placed the back of his hand against my forehead, "You're hot. I think you're definitely coming down with something. I think you should stay home and rest. In bed. All day."

"Glad we agree."

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