[fic] Biking Through Winter 1

[elydesia]

Title: Biking Through Winter
Chapter title: prologue
Author: elydesia
Word count: 729 after first edit
Summery: Katsumi's roommates plan on moving out without her. She leaves for school, and she disappears in a cloud of blue dust.

Biking Through Winter

by kiwa-chou

We woke up late for school that morning, but we did nothing about it. Our routine did not change. In fact, Shirley decided to decorate the tree that morning with what little ornaments we had found. I made crepes and decorated them with blueberries and whipped cream. We ate them with a mug of hot chocolate each, a warm fluttering feeling in our bellies.

Shirley's fiance had left early for work that morning, so no one was around to scold us for being late for school. We giggled in red fleece blankets on the cool leather couch on the floor watching Home Alone. The late morning was dark, our blinds still shut to the icy world outside.

"Katsumi," she mumbled, her lips at the edge of her mug. The hot chocolate was cold by then. It was like the magic was over, and the tone in her voice held a hint of fear.

Everything was suddenly real. We were missing out on important lessons, we probably weren't going to graduate the following June, and we were both jobless in a freezing northern town.

Shirley was staring at the television, not really watching it. Her eyes were seeing something else, her mind was far away from where we sat. "Katsumi," she said again and then turned to me. Her eyes shone in the dim stove light from the kitchen and the ends of her lips pulled down into a frown. But she was trying to hide everything from me.

"Hm?" I sat up from the sofa and set my mug on the low coffee table.

"Masuo and I are moving." This wasn't the blow she was regretting having to tell me.

"Oh? Where are we moving to?" I was anticipating the news since I first moved in.

"We're going to my uncle's farmland in the East."

"All right."

"... Katsumi, it'll be just Masuo and I going." She hid her face behind her hair and dipped her mouth and chin inside her oversized white porcelain mug.

"Oh." We were both silent. Home Alone continued to play in the background. We were about two-thirds through the film now. "Well... we should get dressed. Lunch will be over soon. We'll be late for our afternoon classes." I stood up and walked toward my bedroom, loosely dragging my fleece blanket with me.

"I'm not going to school today," she called after me. I halted and walked back to look at her.

"What?" She didn't look at me, instead staring at the television.

"I'm staying home today. There's no point to just go for the afternoon."

"Fine, but I'm going to history. I'll see you when I get home."

"Okay." I didn't want to bother with her anymore. How was I supposed to feel? Being forced out of my own home. There was no way I could pay full rent. Her guilt was nothing compared to my feeling of betrayal. In fact, I didn't care about how guilty she felt. She knew what her words meant, and she knew what would happen afterwards. I did not care for her at the time.

I left the apartment in a rush. As a result, I left without my winter jacket. The wind chill was frigid and the snow on my hair was cruel. The bag on my right shoulder was red with black nylon straps. Every time I took a step my foot sank knee deep in snow. My toes were angry at me and my thighs were screaming at me, pleading me to not walk into snow any deeper. I agreed with my thighs and apologized to my toes. My boots and pants weren't good enough, and neither was the cardigan I wore. My movements were sluggish and I wasn't going to make it for history class.

At my freezing point, I wondered why the school had not come into view yet. I wondered why the road had disappeared and why the snow was getting deeper. I wondered what was going on, because the situation was definitely not normal.

A blue haze began to set in from above and the whiteness of snow faded away beneath me. Day turned to night and my vision slowly became blurred. A small blue glow appeared in front of me, far away. As my senses slowly left me, my hand reached for the light right before it was extinguished.