I wake up to Lucas brushing his fingers through my hair. It feels amazing, and I bask in his touch. When I open my eyes, he's smiling at me.

"Hey, sleeping beauty."

I rub my eyes, thinking he must be crazy. I don't look my best these days.

"How'd you sleep?" he asks.

I nod, wanting to say good, but apparently my brain hasn't caught up with me being awake.

"Still tired?" he chuckles.

I nod again, covering my face because I'm blushing now. This is a first—waking up with Lucas in the same bed, I mean. I have no idea how to act.

"You're so freaking cute, Audi. Sleep. I'll make us breakfast."

He kisses the top of my head and gets out of bed.

Smooth, Claudia.

I pull the bed sheets over my head, wondering if he's always going to affect me like this.

Probably, I conclude.

I drift in and out of consciousness, but as soon as I smell pancakes, I can't resist anymore.

I sleepily pad out of the bedroom, finding Lucas cooking up a storm in the kitchen. I don't know when he changed, but he's wearing jeans and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt. The color accentuates his features. Apart from his unruly hair, he looks like he just stepped out of a catalog.

I, on the other hand, am wearing sweats and an oversized hoodie. I don't know what's going on with my hair either. I stopped trying to fix it days ago. Needless to say, I look like a bum compared to him.

"Perfect timing," he says. "I was just about to come and get you. I hope you're hungry. If not, I'll be forced to eat your pancakes too. Not that I'm complaining."

"I am hungry, actually. I've been thinking about pancakes since I didn't get to have them at IHOP."

He pulls out a chair for me at the breakfast table, and it's set to feed an entire village. Besides the pancakes, there are eggs and bacon, toast, yogurt, granola, and fruit. I'm assuming he's eating most of this because I don't think I can handle more than the pancakes.

I sit back in awe. "I can't believe you made all this, Lucas. When did you learn to cook?"

"With my mom. I helped her around the house after my dad moved out. You could say we became close." He prepares two cups of coffee and sits next to me.

"That's great to hear. I'm glad you have a good relationship with her."

I wish I had a better relationship with either of my parents. Unfortunately, both of them have been strained since the affair.

"She didn't mind you taking off two weeks early?" I ask.

"No, she understood. I told her I had to go see about a girl. She's in la-la land with Boy Toy anyway."

Was that a Good Will Hunting reference? I wonder if he meant it like that. Especially the way he said it so casually.

I start preparing my pancakes, careful not to drown them in maple syrup like I usually do. I can't help pour a little extra after I'm done. I would be doing a disservice to my home state not to.

"She knew I was talking about you, by the way," he says with a wink. "She said it was about time. She also says hi."

God, there he goes again with the winking. It's simply not fair.

I stuff several bites of pancakes into my mouth because it's way too early to be having this conversation.

Lucas chuckles. "Sorry. Too much?"

My first reaction is to nod, but then I shake my head. I like how honest and open he is with me, even if it's a lot to handle. I end up shrugging. "Do you think it's strange that we hadn't seen each after high school until now? I always thought I might run into you when I came home during breaks."

Lucas looks surprised by my question, but it's something I've been wondering about for the last few years. I remember my first winter break when I was a freshman in college. Every time I would leave the house, I would mentally prepare myself in case I saw him, especially because we live on the same block. But it never happened. With each break that came and went without seeing him, I had given up on the possibility.

"To tell you the truth, I kind of avoided coming home. I would visit my mom for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but only for a few days at the most."

Lucas is looking at me cautiously, as if expecting me to be hurt by his answer, but I don't blame him. Every time I've come back, I've always counted the days until I returned to New York.

"I get it," I say. "So you only came for New Year's this time?"

"No, this time I came for the full break. I'd been here for two weeks before I saw you at the bar."

"What made you stay longer?"

He pauses. "I was hoping I'd run into you. I told myself that if it didn't happen, then it wasn't meant to be. Fortunately, we live in a small town. I was counting on the odds."

"What made you want to talk to me again?" I ask.

"I meant what I told you at the bar. Life is too short, and being pre-med just makes me even more aware of it every day. Plus the fact that I never got over you. I had to find out if what we had was real, or misplaced feelings I was still carrying."

I want to ask him what his findings were so badly, but I don't think he would be sitting in front of me right now if he didn't think it was real. Unless he felt obligated after I ended up in the hospital.

"Turns out it was the first one," he says. "I knew within seconds of talking to you."

My heart swells in my chest at his words, and I'm thankful that he saved me from having to ask him.

"I knew within seconds too," I say, and suddenly we're both smiling at each other as if we were fourteen again.

"I thought about contacting you so many times," I end up confessing. "Well, it was more like I would start rambling off to my roommate about you whenever I had a few drinks. She had to hide my phone from me once."

"I know the feeling exactly," he chuckles. "I think my roommate has considered throwing me out a few times."

We finish eating breakfast, which is more like a brunch since it's the afternoon. I start cleaning up the table, but Lucas immediately stops me, saying he'll take care of it.

"I guess I'll go shower then—and don't worry. I'll take my medication afterwards this time," I tell him, in case he goes full doctor on me again.

"Okay. Just don't lock the door," he says.

"Why? You want to join me?"

I blush, realizing what I said. I honestly don't know why I said that. Lucas watches me with hooded eyes behind the kitchen counter.

"Audi ..." he starts, but then stops to clear his throat. "I don't think I can do that again, without ..." he looks away from me and shakes his head. "Just, please be careful."

I turn around before I embarrass myself further. I head straight to my room. I still can't believe we showered together, or that I managed to handle that situation. Just thinking about it makes me shiver.

Luckily, I'm able to shower without any incidents, except for thinking about Lucas the entire time, of course. I manage to change my dressing on my own this time. When I finish, I head back to the living room and find him dressed in workout clothes.

"You okay?" he asks.

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna go for a quick run," he says.

"Sounds good," I tell him, although I think it's crazy for him to go running in this weather. I would freeze to death.

He brushes past me and leaves the cabin.

I stand in the same place for a moment, somewhat perplexed at his departure. Maybe he needed some space. I look around the cabin, deciding what to do. I have to admit—it feels very quiet without him.

I circle the living room to get my daily dose of exercise and snoop around in the process. I remember we used to have a bunch of board games somewhere, and I smile when I come across an old jigsaw puzzle sitting on a shelf. My dad and I used to spend hours putting it together when I was younger. It was my favorite thing to do with him.

I take it with me to the sofa and pour out the pieces on top of the coffee table. The puzzle is a picture of a forest, and I remember the trees were the hardest part since they all look similar. My dad taught me to separate the pieces with edges first, then group them by color. So that's exactly what I do.

Lucas walks in some time later, and after asking me if I'm okay again, he goes to take a shower. He joins me once he's done, and we hardly say a word to each other while we work on the puzzle together. He seems relaxed, but I don't know why things are tense between us. I don't know if it's him or me, or both of us, but I wish we could go back to how we were before.

Our fingers touch as we reach towards the same piece. There are two thousand pieces in this puzzle, yet we reach for the same one at the same time. Lucas takes my hand and pulls it towards him. I turn to meet his eyes.

"I want to watch a movie with you," he says.

I would find it strange if I didn't understand the meaning behind his words. When we were friends, the only time we were physical with each other was when we watched movies. It was our way of being close without crossing any boundaries.

I nod, and he leads me to his room. I settle down next to him on the bed, and after flipping on the TV and selecting the first movie he comes across, he pulls me against him, just like he used to. I rest my head on his chest. He wraps his arm around me, and I close my eyes at the feeling overcoming me, as if everything in the world is right. When I open them again, I notice that it's snowing outside the window. It's coming down softly, swirling gently in the wind. It reminds me of the night I lost Lucas, and I hug him tighter now that I've found him again.

Author's Note: Claudia and Lucas are struggling with their feelings towards each other. It's new, yet familiar, and kind of overwhelming.

Have you ever gotten back together with someone from your past?

Fun fact: Whenever it snows in this story, it signals a significant moment :)

The song of the chapter is "Sons and Daughters" by Allman Brown & Liz Lawrence.