Amber waited in the woods, rubbing her mittened hands together and bouncing on her toes as she waited for Krystal to appear. She hoped the girl’s parents hadn’t come home early. It’s not like the surprise couldn’t wait, but she knew Krystal was feeling down. She wanted to try to cheer her up before school break started and Krystal would be surrounded by only her judgmental parents and the church ‘family’ until the youth group trip. 

Amber shook her head. She still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to go on a trip that would most likely be hell for her. 

Nearly twenty minutes had passed before she heard the crunch of a branch and a cold hand s up and touched her cheek from behind. She shouted and jumped nearly a foot in the air before bursting into a laugh and rounding on the younger girl. 

“Ugh! You scared me,” She said happily, giving Krystal a little shove. “I nearly had a heart attack.” 

“Don’t exaggerate,” Krystal grinned, rolling her eyes. “You shouldn’t be such a scaredy cat.” 

“I can’t help it,” Amber pouted. “I’m all soft and squishy on the inside.” 

She got a firm swat to the shoulder for that. They grinned, looking into each other’s eyes before Krystal glanced down and cleared .

“So, what’s this surprise you got for me?” Krystal asked, flicking her eyes back up from the ground.

She wasn’t going to get it that easily though.

“Where’s your cute outfit?” Amber asked, scanning her up and down. “I’m not giving you your gift while you look like a lumberjack.” 

The slender girl could hardly look like a lumberjack in her stylish trench coat and thick wool scarf, but Amber liked to to see that little line form between her brows. 

Krystal bit her lip, then ed her long jacket, feeling a little self-conscious as if she were doing something she shouldn’t. Her cheeks flushed when she realized it felt like she was getting undressed for the other girl. She tried to shake the thought away as she opened her jacket so Amber could see the outfit she had on underneath. 

The reaction only caused her blush to deepen.

“Ooh.” The sound came out Amber like a startled whisper. 

Krystal looked up at Amber drinking her in and felt the heat in her face flood to other parts of her body and quickly wrapped her jacket back around her body to hide the tight red sweater she’d snagged from and old set of clothes she’d gotten from her sister three years ago and the tight black jeans stuffed into boots laced up to her knee. She’d only convinced her parents to get her the boots when she told them how practical they would be when the snow got really high further into winter. 

Am I trying to seduce her or something? Krystal asked herself, running her fingers through the hair she’d given a slight curl to before she’d rushed out to meet Amber. Why did I put on such a scandalous outfit?

She felt Amber’s fingers brush lightly against her cheek, causing her eyelids to flutter close before she startled them open again and took a step back, her foot sliding a little on the ice hidden between the dead branches and fallen leaves blanketing the ground. 

Amber felt go dry as she watched Krystal’s face flash through a myriad of emotions. She was so beautiful and sweet. Amber’s lips twitched slightly at a thought. Like a mango. 

She let her hand fall from the air, knowing that even if either of them felt more for the other than friendship, it would be stupid for them to pursue any sort of relationship for a number of reasons. She hadn’t even expected to make friends with someone in this backwards town after her first day, but Krystal had become her everything in Green Valley. She’d experienced a little loneliness back in California as a nerdy, Asian tomboy, but the school was so large she’d inevitably found a friend group. 

Green Valley was nothing like that. It was all conform or go home. 

Amber turned her hand palm up and Krystal hesitantly slipped her hand against hers,