His breath hung in the air like smoke, its weight minimal. Almost transparent. In an instant it was gone. He smiled at her and pulled his scarf tighter against his neck, his eyes a flash of blue that burned into her mind. Its imprint keeping her warm on this cold day.

They had bumped into each other in the library, where Susannah was buying coffee on the first floor, and they fell into conversation the way snow drifts down to ground. That casual. That deliberate. And now he was walking with her to class.

How long had she carried this feather of a hope inside her heart? She couldn’t remember. It was as if the time before didn’t matter, ceased to exist. That old expression, walking on air, well, she felt she really understood it now.

Suddenly a slender, long-haired blond came up and wrapped herself around him. He turned away from Susannah and kissed the blond girl on the mouth.

Susannah felt her heart stop for just a moment before it resumed beating. A little out of rhythm maybe, but still beating.

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Click to View Author Guidance

This started as a one-off on Ficlets, nothing I expected to ever amount to anything, and then Mistress Elsha came and expanded it into something kind of wonderful. Thanks to her for kicking my Muse's lazy butt. ;-D The premise: Susannah is a sophomore in college, shy and unassuming, daydreaming of a certain boy on campus, when she meets the mysterious boy with piercing blue eyes, James. Their pasts seem connected in some inexplicable way, but will Susannah accept the fact that this connection may be unlike anything she's ever known?

updated Jan 9 '09 by AnaCristina