Sophie rubbed her red fingers together and puffed a little bit of warm air into her palms. The cold wind whipped her blonde, messy, layered hair back from her face, exposing her rosy cheeks and red nose. Her striped, light green hat with a fluffy puff ball on the top kept her ears warm. She wore skinny Levi's and a pale pink sweater under her mint blue, puffy winter coat. I let the snowflakes fall on her long eyelashes, but made sure they didn't catch in her big, emerald-green eyes. Her eyes were the same. Big and innocent and always noticing everything. I hadn't seen her since she was a toddler, but she was at least sixteen now. She was...beautiful. I gulped. I was never nervous around little kids..but..girls my own age? Beautiful ones? I was almost glad she couldn't see me anymore.

I floated beside her, watching her sniffle with the cold. I backed up a little bit. She still looked freezing. "Sophie?" My voice came out shaky, hoarse and anxious. I didn't expect her to hear me. I just...I needed to try.

Suddenly, she froze. I dropped from my floating position and hit the pavement in surprise. She glanced around, spinning. "Hello?"

I scrambled up. "Sophie?"

"Yes? Who's there?" She asked. I could see fear entering her heart. "Where are you?"

"Come on, Soph, believe...just for a second..." I grabbed her shoulders. She shivered violently, but I didn't care. She might see me! She might, actually, see me. Her eyes darted around, then locked on the spot where I was. "Soph?"

"J-j-jack?" She spluttered.

"Sophie! You can see me?"

Sophie's stared at me with her wide, green eyes. She nodded slowly, her breath coming out in white puffs. I grinned crookedly, but no smile crossed her lips. She held out her hand towards my chest, but stopped, like she was afraid she'd go right through me. I glanced at her poised hand, then back into her terrified eyes. I wrapped both of my hands around hers and held her warm palms to my chest for her.

She gasped, then a big grin spread across her face. "You came back?"

"Did you really think I left?"

"We haven't had a snow day since Jamie...you know..." Sophie's eyes fell downcast, but I could see the hot tears collecting on her dark eyelashes.

I gulped. I remembered. Jamie died when he was sixteen, right after he got his driver's license. He was so excited to drive, and it was so icy that day. He wasn't thinking when he sped down that hill, right towards the traffic light. I tried to stop it. I really did. But his brakes didn't work fast enough, and the semi just ran his red light...It all happened so fast. "Sophie...I really tried..."

Sophie searched my eyes, but I didn't know what she was looking for. "I know. It's not your fault. You were just trying to...have fun, right?"

Sophie's words sliced through me, guilt seeping through the cuts. It was my fault. Everything. But I didn't want to talk about it. I wanted to have fun, like she said. I almost wished she were still a forgiving little girl, but I knew she was more complicated now. She didn't show everything she felt like a little kid. I chose my words carefully.

"You know I care more than that."

Sophie nodded and wiped the runny black eye makeup under her eyes away with trembling fingertips. "I know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that...of course you didn't want to hurt Jamie."

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into a hug I'd been waiting for ever since Jamie died. Sophie's arms were tight around my neck, and she buried her wet face into my chest. She felt perfect in my arms, with her hair tickling the side of my face like soft, lapping waves on cool, dark ice. Her body language told me more than she could say. Sophie's breath was slow, but shaky. She missed me, even though I was responsible for her brother's death. She squeezed her eyes shut and murmured, "Please, please, stay with me."

"I can't, Soph. People can't see me," I said softly.

"Then get me out of here."

I realized that even though I knew Sophie since she was a little girl, she barely knew me. She must have been too young to really remember me, but Jamie probably told her all about me. At least, what he could remember. Pangs of regret hit my heart hard. I wished I could have come back before Jamie's accident. Time felt different now, years felt like days.

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yes. I hate it. I hate being...grown up," Sophie rested her chin on my shoulder. "It's so much harder than I thought it would be."

I sighed. "I know, Soph." I willed the winter wind to slowly start lifting us off the ground. Sophie clung to me tighter, and her body tensed. I smirked at her fear and whispered reassuringly, "I'm not going to let go."

"You better not," Sophie teased.

I shot up quickly, taking Sophie with me, high above the clouds. She grinned at me, then glanced down at the ground. She gasped, "Oh. We're...high up."

I laughed, "Don't tell me you're afraid of heights."

"Only when the only thing saving me from falling is a flying boy!" Sophie almost fell as she tried to use her hands to talk, even though I couldn't even see what she was doing with her hands behind my head. She yelped, but I dropped my hands to her waist to hold her out at arms length. I cocked a curious eyebrow at her.

Sophie's eyes widened as she stared down at the tiny cars driving by on the little street. She scrambled back to me, holding on to me for dear life. She was behind me now, hanging from my shoulders. I laughed. "Yeah, you're not scared of heights at all, Soph."

"I'm only scared of fall-"

I took off flying before she could finish her sentence. She screamed as she held on tighter to my neck. She felt weightless on my back as I dodged through the clouds. I laughed as she yelped when I jerked away from an airplane.

"Don't tell me you forgot how to have fun, Soph?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, shut up, Frosty."

I grinned at the nickname. The misty vapor would envelope us for a few moments, then we would break through the fluffy clouds to clear sky. Sophie eventually relaxed when she realized I wouldn't let her fall, and I slowed down a little bit.

"Where are we going?" Sophie asked, her voice steady and trusting.

"Honestly? No idea."

"Well, where are we now?"

I turned my head up to face her and said, "No idea."

She smiled. "Three hundred years and you don't know where you are just by the cloud formations? I'm disappointed."

"Watch it, Soph. I could always drop you."

"If you do, I swear I will haunt the crap out of you," Sophie warned. But I saw something in her eyes, something that said she didn't really mind if I dropped her. She'd be with Jamie. I gulped. Then, I'd be responsible for the death of both of my first believers. My smile vanished as I continued to stare ahead. Keep it together, Jack, you can't change anything now.

We continued to fly in silence, and I was starting to think Sophie had fallen asleep. Occasionally she'd shift her legs or something, but other than those small movements I had no way of telling if she was still alive up there. It was possible I'd gone too far up for her to breath anymore. Hopefully, she would kick or yell at me if I did that.

After an hour of dreary, dreamy flying, I heard Sophie gasp.

"What?"

"The...sunset," Sophie sighed. I glanced around at the setting sun. I was so used to seeing the extraordinary beauty of the sunset, I didn't think much of it anymore. The sky was a bright pink, which faded to a light orange towards the sun. The clouds looked purple with the reflections off the sun, but were bright pink on the bottom. Sophie stared, transfixed, on the sight before her. "It's...amazing."

"Yeah...I guess it is," I murmured.

Sophie rested her head on my shoulder, still staring in awe at the setting sun. I smiled to myself at her easy distraction. I felt her mouth open and close again like she was yawning. I drew my hands up to hers and made sure they were firmly resting on my shoulders, and then swooped down on the snowy ground next to a small pond. Sophie's fuzzy, light brown, short suede boots with little buttons on the side graced the ground gently as she released her arms from my shoulders. She swayed on the spot tiredly. I suddenly remembered trying to put her to bed when she was just a little girl, and how she wouldn't let go of me. A smile tugged at the side of my mouth.

"Tired?"

Sophie nodded, her hair falling in front of her face. She leaned against a tree trunk, slowly sliding down. She suddenly slipped on a bit of ice and fell on her butt on the snowbank. "Ow!"

I chuckled, "So you're still a bit clumsy, Soph?"

She rolled her sleepy eyes at me. "No, I'm as graceful as a ballerina."

"Hey, I think it's sort of cute," I said as I held up my hands in surrender.

Sophie's eyebrows furrowed as she muttered, "I don't. It's not like I'm gonna get a ton of dudes chasing after me because I tripped on their shoes."

I plopped down next to her, glancing over in her emerald eyes as I lay my staff across my knees. "I wouldn't care about that if I were you."

Sophie laughed, "If you were me, you'd care a hell of a lot about that."

I smirked, "Well, you've always got me."

Sophie cocked an eyebrow at me in surprise. "What do you mean?"

I blushed in embarrassment, and I don't do that easily. "Y'know...I'm always here if you want to talk."

"Oh," Sophie said, almost sounding disappointed.

I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Are you cold? Do you want me to make a fire?"

Sophie shot me a weird look and asked, "Is that even possible? Won't you...melt?"

"Melt? You're joking, right?" I laughed.

Sophie giggled, "Hey, you're Jack Frost! You might be made of snow for all I know!"

I sighed as I shook my head.

"I'm okay, by the way. Don't worry about it," Sophie said as she curled up in her snowbank, her knitted, polka dot mittens tucked under her head like a little pillow. She glanced up at me, "I'm not a bomb, Frosty. You can move a little closer."

I eyed her up and down cautiously, then curled up beside her. She stared deeply into my bright blue eyes, and I gazed back in her electric green ones. The corner of her mouth tugged up in a shy smile as she whispered, "Thanks, Jack. Flying's pretty awesome."

I grinned cheekily. "Well, I'm glad you think so. You're welcome."

Sophie's heavy eyelids drooped shut, just as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. She let out a final sigh of content sleepiness, and relaxed into a deep sleep with her right mitten stretched out just far enough for me to wrap my pale hand around it. I almost did so, too, but the memory of Jamie dead and lifeless and bloody in that broken car stopped me. I watched her for a little while, just the way her hair swept over her eyes and into the snow and how her mouth formed a little "o" as she slept. Eventually, even my bones began to feel weary, and before I knew it, I was sleeping, too.

Thank you so much for reading! I would really appreciate any reviews or thoughts you have about the story.:)