Ice Princess

The night was long for Chuck, the ex-groom. Danielle had heard about it later as she picked up her personal items and was heading out the door toward home. Chuck had to admit he'd fallen for the princess, but he couldn't remember who the princess was. His bride had fled the party in tears. All communication had creased between them. She smiled. It always turned out this way. Perhaps, she'd helped the bride. At least she wouldn't be marrying him. He'd been a lion in sheep's clothing, all men were like that.

She opened her car door and climbed in. He'd never be the same now. People would wonder what happened to him. In a few days he'd either kill himself for want of her or he'd be put into the nut house with dreams of his princess dancing around in his head. Either way he'd deserved what he got. He was just the same as those boys back in high school. They'd deserved everything they'd gotten too.

Memories crowded her mind. They drifted easily back to those free days when she was a teenager and grossly overweight...

"Hey Danielle, do you think you could 'waddle' just a bit faster?" A male's voice yelled not too far behind her.

"Do you think yours will be enough, or would you like mine too?" laughed another voice- making reference to his candy bar and hers.

"Piggy, piggy!! It's Halloween, aren't you the biggest porker we've ever seen?" The third voice yelled in her ear at the top of his lungs. The merry bunch shoved each other around completely enjoying the laugh at her expense, and then ran down the hall towards the lunchroom.

Danielle just kept walking at her normal slow-pace with her head down.

Jack, a good natured student in the same grade as Danielle followed the group of boys, but he always stayed just a few steps behind. He was a fullback on the football team. He was large and well built for his height. Everyone loved him. He was kind. The image of his face danced in her mind.

"Danielle," a soft voice whispered into her ear. She looked up into the face of a Twix candy bar.

"Hi, Bill." she smiled, and dusted off her jeans. He put it in the pocket of her shirt, and kept talking.

"You did a nice job in there tonight. I was proud of you." His smile was genuine.

"Thank you," she replied, and slammed her car door shut after tossed her hand bag inside. They stood looking at each other for a few minutes more. There was an attraction between the two of them, but they never spoke about it, and there were times Danielle found it difficult not to feed.

"Look," he said, shyly..."Would you like to go see a movie with me tonight?"

A smile crossed her face. What did he have in mind she wondered?

"Who's showing a movie after mid-night?" she asked and leaned against the door of her car waiting for his reply.

"I know of an all night drive-in," he answered, winking at her, "and the popcorn is free."

She lifted her left leg up bent it at the knee and pressed her foot against the side of her car thus forming the letter v with her leg."Where would this all night drive-in be?" she asked in the same mysterious, sexy voice. Her aunt and uncle knew she'd be out late tonight so it wasn't so important that she go right home...

"Where else?" he replied and pulled a case containing DVD's from his pocket.

She looked at him with suspicion.

"Honest," he said, "I've got it all set up in my garage." He put the DVD's back into the inside pocket of his jacket, and looked at her with begging eyes.

"Won't we look really silly in the car sleeping?" She asked him, "What if it rains?" She yawned just realizing that she really was tired.

Bill gave her a reassuring smile; it was one like Jack use to give her just before one of the big games, in high school, during their senior year.

She weakened. "Oh alright," she replied and twisted a piece of her long black hair between her fingers. One long and one long curly loop appeared and she let it go. He was just impossible for her to resist.

Bill looked at her with longing in his eyes. She could consume him, but that was out of the question. That bothered her, and puzzled her all at the same time, as it always had. There was something about Bill that she needed. She just didn't know what it was. The only thing that she knew was that she'd 'hurt' anyone who tried to hurt Bill.

"Do you want to ride with me?" he asked, motioning toward the passenger side of his bright red wrangler jeep. "I've got candy in the glove compartment," he teased.

He chuckled as he walked toward the driver's door. She watched his backside shake as he walked away. Bill wasn't a skinny man. He wasn't even attractive if you thought much about looks. What made him attractive to her was his heart. He had a heart of gold. She had remained in this God forsaken town too long, and he was the basic reason she'd done that. She'd even traveled to the big city of Columbus for food just so she could stay around him. Every good thing had to come to an end somewhere; thus, this situation was also coming to an end, soon. The drive to Columbus simply took up too much of her time.

Josie's laughter floated to them from the back door of the building. They watched as she left the club from its back entrance. Over confidents was one of Josie's traits, and tonight she was wearing it proudly.

Danielle watched her approach.

"You look all tired out tonight," said Josie in a disarming voice, "did breaking up the bride and groom do that for you?" She never stopped walking, her hips continued to dance back and forth, back and forth as she moved along.

"She looks like grandfather clock stuck on rewind," said Bill, trying to hold back his laughter. "Look at those hips swing."

Danielle made no reply. None was really required. They chucked as they watched Josie climbed into her sporty, shiny, silver sports car and drive away.

Danielle moved away from her two door blue sports car and slide into Bill's Wrangler. Josie was something she didn't need just now. She was always trying to cause trouble and trouble was just something Danielle didn't need. She never needed trouble. She'd handle the problem tomorrow. Tonight, she was spending with Bill.

Bill slid into the seat beside her, and started the engine. "Ignore her, you know how she is," he advised. Like Jake he always had a tender spot for people. He always gave them the benefit of the thought.

Danielle adjusted the seat so that she could lay her head on the headrest. It was nice to be home. Well, close to home anyway. She remembered spending most of her summers here in the little town of Somerset, Ohio. Her dad had been in the military and every summer they'd move to another base somewhere overseas, somewhere, so that he could work on some top secret project or another. She never wanted to go. So her Aunt Marie and Uncle Ben had been more than happy to take her for the summers; they had never had any children of their own.

She'd made lots of friends here as a summer child. But, things had changed. Now, twelve years later, most of those people had moved away. She'd moved away too. Ha, and she kept moving away. It was all in the way you interpreted it. All it took were a few deaths, some nut cases reported to being in the area and boom she was moving toward a new town in a different part of the world. Her family found it difficult to keep up with her, and they often complained because she was always on the move. They just didn't understand, but they'd never understand. Even she didn't understand what had changed in her. All she knew was move, hunt and feed. Always, appear to be normal.

Bill tapped her on the shoulder.

"We've arrived."

She sat up and looked around. They were parked just outside the garage. Inside, where Bill normally parked his wrangler for the night was his big screen TV. Alongside the TV sat a popcorn making machine. Beside that was a tub of ice filled with a scattered amount of Pepsi products.

"If you want any candy," said Bill jokingly, "I've got candy bars buried in that ice. There's nothing like frozen candy bars."

She had to laugh. Bill climbed out of the jeep, his bulk did not slow him down, and switched on the TV, an announcer's voice filled the air immediately.

"Because of the mysterious death of Deputy Ben, area officials have begun an in depth search to find his killer. Do you know what happened? Officials will be interviewing local residents about the events of that night...

Bill turned the channel and popped in his favorite DVD. "I've been hearing about that all day at work. I've had enough," he complained and picked up a bowl filled it with popcorn and took a couple of bites. Then he grabbed two cans of Pepsi out of the ice.

"LET'S EAT!" he said merrily as he walked back toward the jeep, holding both the drinks and food above his head. Danielle only smiled. She wasn't worried about the killer. She felt perfectly safe and well fed.