Snow Day
Betty/Bruce
Betty takes Bruce out during what he calls an ‘insane blizzard’.
Betty knocks on the boy’s dorm labeled 309 and waits patiently. She has her ski cap on along with a purple sweater covered over with a puffy black jacket. She knocks on the door again a little impatient this morning. She hears shuffling and some squeaking sounds come from behind the door. She raises an eyebrow as the door open and laughs seeing the man covered head to toe in various layers of warmth.
“Really Bruce,” she laughs, “you look like an overweight brown bear. How many layers do you even have on?”
Bruce pulls the mittens from his stuffed pocket and speaks through the red scarf covering his face. “I get cold easily.”
“Bruce it’s not even that cold out and you’ll warm up too fast with all those layers,” she chuckles as he sighs waddling out the door. He locks the apartment behind him before looking down at her.
“Ok I’m out of my room now where are we going?”
“Ugh you make it sound like I’m taking you out to torture you,” she says grabbing his mitten covered hand leading him towards the stairs.
“This is torture,” he squeaks, or it might just be the layers of clothing chaffing against each other. “It’s below 10 degrees outside with a windchill that makes it feel like -15 degrees. We should be staying inside not outside,” he says worried as they approach the side doors to his dorm building.
Betty turns around and stares up at him glaring. “I’m in only three layers and I’m fine. It’s not going to be that bad. Plus, afterwards we can get something hot to eat or drink. You know they have dollar hot chocolates at the library.”
“You mean the library covered in snow and icicles and looks more like an igloo ice castle? Their hot chocolate is probably ice by now,” he grumbles.
Betty looks up at the grey sky and lets out a loud sigh before her eyes land on Bruce’s eyes hidden behind his glasses and the enormous red scarf covering half his face. “Bruce come on stop whining and just enjoy the adventure.”
She snatches his hand and begins to pull him along campus.
“Enjoy the cold she says,” he grumbles allowing her to pull him along. It’s not as if he has a choice. Betty is just trying to help. Really winter time is not his favorite time of year. It’s around Christmas time and his birthday is in December something he hates. He doesn’t hate it just because most people forget and focus on Christmas though that is part of it, he just only has a few memories of his mother and most of them are during winter. It’s more bittersweet than anything when he thinks of her and what she would be like or if she would be proud of him now.
He feels Betty pinch his hand as he complains again and sighs. She is a very head strong woman and he enjoys that about her. She gets her work done and is not afraid to go up against anyone. Maybe it’s because she was a military child? He’s not sure but he does enjoy her company a lot.
“Ok there’s snow everywhere now what,” he asks looking at the area Betty had brought him,
It’s not that far from the dorms maybe half a mile or more. It’s over the lake where the rowing team use to practice before the whole lake froze over. Now it’s just a huge chunk of solid ice covered in snow. Well maybe not all the way covered in snow he can still see the bottom of the lake if he looks deep enough.
He edges over towards the bank of the lake and can see almost all the way down below. It looks like a solid black mass and some fish are still swimming under the ice? Or well he hopes they are fish and not some other creature.
He feels a tug on his arm and see Betty smiling up at him her cheeks already a bright red from the cold.
“Bruce we can get to the lake in a minute. First, we got to make snow angels,” she shouts at him arms raised in delight.
“What? Betty I’ll freeze.” He says moving away from her almost losing his balance on the snow. “Snow is cold and wet.”
She laughs smirking at him, “not through the six layers you have on polar bear.” She pokes him in the middle like the dough boy and smiles. “Please Bruce. Fun for just a few hours and then you can become the abdominal polar bear.”
He sighs tying the scarf tighter over his face and giving her a solid nod. “I guess- “he starts before Betty is pushing him down in the snow with a plop. He can’t get up. It’s too much weight holding him down and he feels like the girl that turned into a blueberry from Willy Wonka.
From his side he hears Betty’s soft laughter. He looks at her through the corner of his eyes as he begins to wave his arms and legs to his side to make an angel. Gosh she’s beautiful. He feels his face warm not turning red from the cold.
He watches he stand up and look at her snow angel with approval before helping him get out of his plopped mess. She nearly tumbles over with Bruce but keep her balance as she looks at the “snow angel” and lets out an undignified snort of amusement.
“Hey don’t laugh,” Bruce bristles. “It’s a snow angel…well sort of,” he says before laughing along with her.
“I can’t help it, it looks like a huge blob,” she laughs before slowly stopping taking in a deep breath. Her lips are chapped he notices as her blue eyes land on his own brown ones.
“Hmm seem to be getting hot under those layers you want to start taking them off,” she teases as his face turns redder.
“No…I mean no I’m fine nice and toasty,” he laughs nervously. He is beginning to sweat under the layers, but he’d rather be like a furnace than admit that he is getting too hot.
“Sure ok,” she smirks looking out at the frozen lake. She sees a group of students up ahead and beams walking towards them Bruce waddling behind her.
“Oh, we have to try this,” she tells him pointing at the five-dollar ice skate rental for an hour. It’s for the latest sorority sisters who seem to be freezing standing behind the plastic table and metal chairs.
Bruce takes one look at the sign and the people and shakes his head.
“What no way. Betty I can’t skate,” he protests as she drags him towards the line bouncing on her feet.
“That’s ok I’ll teach you,” she smiles seeing his pout. “Bruce, I promise it won’t be that bad. Plus, you have a ton of layers on if you fall you won’t even feel it.”
She’s wrong about that.
He feels it the first through the tenth time when he falls on the ice. He can’t keep his balance. He’s never worn skates in his life not to mention ice skates which are more like in line skating wheels he thinks. Either way it’s over the tenth time he has tried to just stand in place and has fallen over like an uncoordinated turtle on his back. It’s embarrassing and frankly he’s getting sick of being looked at as a grown man who can’t even balance himself on ice.
“Betty this is stupid. I look like an idiot,” he whispers harshly as she pulls him up again. Or tries to he just topples over landing on his butt the coldness seeping right through his layers.
“Only cause you look like a marshmallow on small skates. Bruce take some layers off,” she says as he just sits there looking up at her. He’s about to protest when she gives him The Look tm. He knows better by now and really, it’s just a few layers. It’s not like she asked him to take them all off and he is getting a little overheated.
He sighs and begins to undo the first layer and then the second and third all the way to the forth layer. He tucks his scarf under his sweater and makes sure it covers his mouth before looking up at her as if this is enough layers to shed.
She only smiles and moves his numerous jackets and sweaters to the nearest bench and helps him stand.
“If I get sick, I’m blaming you,” he says wobbling on his skates. He feels a bit better the cold isn’t so bad now.
Betty just rolls her eyes and just helps him stay standing. She tells him not to look at his skates at all as she distracts him with their latest assignment. She gently pulls him across the ice slowly still talking as he continues to speak to her before gasping.
“I did it,” he says looking at the bench which is only a few feet away. He didn’t travel far but still it’s an accomplishment. He beams at her still holding onto both her hands.
“Yeah see it’s not so bad,” she says skating backwards holding his hand as he tries to skate with her. “Now going backwards is something else but I’ll teach you that one later,” she smiles.
He can do nothing more than letting out a soft yeah at her statement. “Can we still get some hot chocolate afterwards?”
Betty just smiles as she leads Bruce down the lake, “sure.”