“Stop!” I laughed, throwing my head back. The sound of my laughter was quickly cut off when I got a mouthful of snow.

“Daniel!” I shrieked. The inside of my cheeks were cold. I reached down and felt my fingers freeze as they grasped the frozen crystals.

Daniel grinned. He was getting cocky. A mischievous smile made its way onto my face, and I quickly pulled the snowball out from behind me.

“Catch!” I yelled, throwing it towards him.

The snowball hit him square in the chest. Playful as always, Daniel clutched over his heart and staggered back.

“Nooooooo...” He trailed, smiling as he went down.

I turned around, trying to grab more snow to fling at him.

I should have expected it. When I spun back towards him, Daniel was right in front of me.

He looked at me seriously. His blue eyes darted back and forth to look at mine. I watched them move. I couldn’t pretend like I hadn’t paid close attention to his eyes before. Framed by his brown curls and accented by his flushed cheeks, they stood out more than usual.

“What?” I asked, cocking my head to the side and folding my arms across my chest. The silence went on too long to be comfortable.

“Just looking” Daniel responded. I reached up, and he tensed noticeably. Then I smushed the snow into his face.

“Thanks Mel.” Daniel laughed, wiping the cold off of his cheeks. He relaxed. Then he looked at me again.

“Stop it.” I was a little nervous. What did this mean? I pushed him back, admittedly flirtatiously.

But that’s what we’d been doing, right? Flirting all this time, just waiting for the other to come out with it.

Feeling my cheeks heat up despite the frozen air, I turned around again. I scooped snow into my hands, barely feeling the cold. Daniel touched my arm, and twisted me towards him.

He leaned in, smiling. I felt something stir in my stomach.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” Daniel said.

I sucked in a breath. He closed his eyes, and when my eyelids shut, his lips greeted mine.

“About time.” I said, looking up at him in a way I couldn’t even describe.

Daniel laughed, and threw snow in my face.