"Another year," she said looking at her reflection in the water, "still tough," she looked over her shoulder, "right?"
A lady with big, expressive eyes and long curly hair emerged. "Right." She came to sit beside her. "How did you know I was here?"
Jasmine glanced up at her face. "I felt it."
She threw her head back. "Ahh, the feeling. I should have known."
Jasmine brought up her knees to her chest and looked back into the water.
"But what are you doing here, Aya?"
She lay on the snow, not feeling cold in the least, and looked up at the sky.
"The feelings. The feelings brought me here." She looked at Jasmine. "Jasmine." Jasmine looked down at her and held her gaze. In the end, Aya squeezed her eyes shut and stretched as far as she could, to avoid slipping.
When she opened her eyes, Jasmine had looked away and stretched out her legs again.
"It's quite surprising you still have those." She said looking into the water again.
Aya chose not to say anything to that, she looked up at the sky again and folded her hands under her head. She chose her next words carefully and said them slowly. "Don't you think it's time? You've been..." Jasmine got up, making her cut her words short.
She dusted the cool snow off her butt and walked away, her feet dipping into the snow and sending chills into her body from her legs. She had not gone far, when she felt Aya grab her hands and spin her so they were facing each other.
"Jasmine, it's high time you understood. You're wasting precious time!"
Jasmine slapped her hands off her. "How does that concern you? It's my life not yours, so fuck off." She turned again, but she hadn't taken a step when Aya grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Her eyes were blazing.
"Was." Jasmine gazed at her, then shook her head as she took a step back, but she was pulled back. Aya held her firmly by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. "It was your life."
-----
Anthony got up on instinct when he saw Jasmine coming out. It had started to rain heavily and he was not with an umbrella. Immediately he stepped out from the car, his vision was blurred by the rain beating down heavily on him and he couldn't drive closer, the trees were weirdly shaped. He persevered, pulled his jacket and when he got closer to her, he raised it above her head to shield her from the rain.
But she raised her hand and gently pushed it aside, giving way to the rain to drench her slowly, completely.
"Let's go." It was through her tone that he noticed her down-cast appearance.
She was walking with her hands barely moving, her eyes were dull and she looked... broken. He had never seen her like that before.
Throughout the drive, she lay down, staring at the ceiling and shivering from the cold. She was wet and he could see the water dripping from her hair. Left to him, he could have wanted to get home and see her get some warmth, but the weather had different plans. At a time, he had to pull over. The rain had gotten so bad, he could barely see outside the windscreen.
-----
"Why are you so mad at your Friends?" Dara stopped, her heart plummetting to her stomach for a second, then she turned around to see who was talking.
She couldn't see her face. They were in a dark alley, not everywhere was lighted and the person who was talking had her arms and legs crossed as the silhouette she made out was leaning on a wall.
She stepped back, cautiously. "What are you talking about?"
The lady uncrossed her arms and walked forward, the light casting a shadow on a side of her face. "The real enemy here are not your Friends." Dara couldn't help but notice the sweetness of her voice. "You were Okay until she came along, right?" Dara could see a part of her mouth kicking up.
But there was a part she didn't get. She looked the lady up and down and eyed her with suspicion. "Who?"
The lady smiled fully, now. "Jasmine Reign."
Dara shook her head then. This person was probably crazy. "You know nothing of what you're talking about." She started walking away, but her voice stopped her.
"Don't I?" Dara looked at her. In the first place, how did she's know about...
"Jasmine Reign started all this." She cocked her head to one side. "Is that a lie?" After some minutes of silence and Dara didn't respond, her smile turned victorious and she walked away. Dara could only see the shadow cast on the side of her face.
-----
It didn't look like they were going home any time soon. The rain was only getting worse and her mood seemed to be darkening the more.
"Let's get out of here, Anthony." She repeated almost the same thing she said the last time she talked.
Anthony hesitated. "But it's still raining."
Jasmine sighed. "You really can't drive?"
He looked up at the windscreen. "I can't even see anything outside this screen."
Jasmine drew her gaze from the ceiling and rolled to her side. She curled her toes under her dress to save them from the cold and put a hand beneath her head.
They had been there for over 2 hours and the rain didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. The cold was getting worse.