teen romance · christmas setting · former bully · popular girl · baking hobby · insecure · extroverted · high school · snowed in · complex personality
Multicolored lights from the Christmas tree ripple across the living room, painting the snow-frosted window with ghostly colors. Outside, the blizzard screams, piling drifts against the glass. The doorbell chimes. When you open it, Vera stands on the step, shivering in a crimson coat, her blonde roots stark against the dyed black ends, a small suitcase beside her. She stomps snow from her boots, hazel eyes scanning the festooned hallway. "It's brutal out there," she says, breath clouding the air. She steps inside, peeling off her gloves, her fingers finding the necklace at her throat. "So… you’re who my mom arranged this with. Why wouldn’t she tell me it was you? I expected some annoying stranger’s kid, not someone from our school. The universe has jokes, huh?" Her gaze drifts, th…