As William walked up to the front door of Michigan State University, the ice crystals crunching underneath his feet, he dusted the snowflakes off of his blonde hair. He was always a good looking kid, medium stature, exuberant blue eyes, strong too, and what people really saw in him was confidence. All of the girls loved him to death, but he was the kind of quiet guy who wanted a solid relationship with someone special and that is exactly what he had.

William opened the door for Kari; it was still dark and very cold out.

“I’m so sorry for making you late, I promise this will be the last time!” she said.

“Don’t worry about it; you know I love giving you rides. Hey I’ll see you after school all right?”

“See you then,” she giggled, and Kari smiled as she watched William walk away.

Kari started to class with her beautiful long hair flowing behind her. Like William she also had blonde hair and blue eyes, some people mistakenly called them twins because they seemed so much alike. She was also special because she knew something about William that no one else at the time did. She knew that he was not everything he looked, that he put on a mask every day to look happy and confident when really he was hurting on the inside. Sometimes she felt as if she couldn’t ever leave his side because she was afraid…afraid that he would give in to the emotions that controlled him and throw away all that he had.

William rushed into U.S. History just before the bell rang and he instantly saw his best friend Austin and ran up to him.

“Hey Aus you up to go skiing later tonight? It dumped like a foot of snow at the resort last night, we gotta go,” said William.

“Of course man, I’m in.”

“I can’t wait. If I start fallin’ asleep during this lecture tap me on the shoulder,” William whispered.

William was the guy who never had to work hard in school and still got straight As. The day went by slowly and by the time school was out, the sun was already headed for the horizon. Austin was already waiting
at William’s black Silverado excited as ever. William was eager to get going too but just before he stepped off of the curb into the parking lot someone grabbed the sleeve of his North Face jacket. It was Kari.

“I was looking everywhere for you!” she said smiling, “So I was wondering if you wanted to go ice skating on the lagoon because it’s so pretty out, the sky looks like heaven!”

“Kari I’m so sorry but I promised Aus I would go skiing with him.” Looking into her eyes he said, “I want to but…I haven’t spent enough time with him lately. You understand right?”

“Sure that’s...yeah I don’t mind.” She hugged him and said into his ear, “I’ll call you later okay? We can see each other this weekend.”

William ran to his car and yelled to Austin, “This is going to be the best powder we’ll ever ride, let’s get going!”

Kari didn’t own a car so she started walking home when the wind started to pick up and the gentle snowfall became a blizzard. She wasn’t angry that William had chosen to go with Austin because she knew it would make him happy. She also knew that he could get through his depression if he just held on since she had been in the same position a few year ago after her parents attempted to disown her at the age of sixteen. These days her heart kept William alive while he struggled to fix his. The problem was that William alone was the one who kept breaking it. It was self-destruction.

Kari was almost home now; she could barely see her house through the white out blizzard. She started to cross the street to reach her drive way, but the wind picked up and walking becoming nearly impossible since the roads were covered in a sheet of ice. Her hair whipped through the air and her hat disappeared into the white sky. Kari saw a light out of the corner of her now grey eyes followed by a large red object billowing at her through the flurry of snow. Her pupils flared open, and then her eyes quickly shut.

“Eh Will, you okay?” asked Austin.

“Yeah I just…I don’t know, my head hurts.”

“Maybe we should head back; you really don’t look so good, man.”

“Huh…all right sounds good.”

William was silent in the car on the way back to his house. He walked in the front door slowly and the air in side was cold. Pulling out his phone he realized Kari hadn’t called like she’d promised. She had never missed the chance of talking to him. William dialed her number, but was hesitant to press talk. He pushed it softly and it went directly to her voicemail. His heart racing now he called Kari’s mom who picked up, but she was crying too hard for William to understand anything besides the word “gone”. The phone dropped from his pale fingers and he ran to the bathroom.

Looking in the mirror he screamed, “This is your fault! You could have listened to her and she would still be here!”

Tears clouded his eyes and he punched the mirror which fractured straight down the middle. Blood dripped from his knuckles. He had to get out of here, he needed to escape and go somewhere where he could forget everything. There was a rope in his room he could use and his parents wouldn’t know about it. William looked under his bed and grabbed it. He tied one end to his bed post; the rest was all set up because he had thought about doing this before. Now he sat on the windowsill ready to be free. His parents would be mad but William didn’t care at this point. Putting the rope around him to make sure it would support him and he would not fall, he took a deep breath which he could see in the cold night sky. Then he slid off of the windowsill into the open world. The rope tightened around William’s neck and knowing he had finally escaped a slight smile remained on his lips.