The Summer I Met Her (GirlxGirl)

14- The Way I Love You

I made it to my house first, climbing up my porch steps. Even from the deck under the protection of the tin roof overhead I got a taste of the rain's cool spray on my face.

"That wasn't that bad." Jaycee wiped the water droplets off her arms as she stepped onto the deck as well.

"Yeah," I held out my flowy sleeves, glancing down at my jeans, wet with dark blue splotches. "I'm still pretty dry for the most part."

Jay held up a closed fist. "I'll see ya 'round Fi?" She stared with the slightest smile, waiting for me to finish the farewell gesture.

Lightning flashed behind a row of trees a few acres out. Thunder soon followed. As the sun set with the thickening clouds, I noticed how drastically the natural light had faded. The rain poured on, showing no sign of it letting up anytime soon.

I turned back to Jaycee and showed my teeth in an asymmetrical grin. "Yeah. See ya around." I completed her fist bump.

Lingering with one last smile at me, Jay jumped off the deck, running for her house across the fields.

As soon as she disappeared from my view of the horizon, the world around me regained my attention. I spun around, face to face with my sister.

My eyes widened in fear. "Isa. You scared me." I breathed with a hand to my chest.

She watched me closely with a weird look. "You coming inside or what?"

"Yeah." I nodded in confirmation, swallowing. I went past her and slipped through the screen door.

Night came almost as soon as Jay went. I picked at my nails on the couch. My family, ignorant of my nerves, did their own thing about the barn. My dad was likely in the garage, my grandmother already in bed, with Isabella taking residency in the bathroom for an absurd amount of time. Five minutes passed. Maybe ten.

Did Jay leave half an hour ago?

Lightning lit the otherwise black sky for a split second; thunder matching its intensity in sound.

I wasn't sure how long it'd been. Jaycee hasn't texted or called. My stomach turned. Maybe irrationally so, but it turned nonetheless.

The couch vibrated, scaring the shit out of me. I blindly stuck my hand in the cushion beside me, pulling out a cracked iPhone 8, covered by a black case with a Texas flag popsocket.

Fuck.

I sighed frustratedly.

Diane gave us their home number at dinner, I remembered. I jumped up and desperately rummaged the counter drawers beside the landline in the wall for the sticky note. Receipts, twist ties, batteries...

I pulled out the highly sought after yellow scrap of paper and smoothed it out, placing it on the countertop. In a moment of panic I couldn't find my own phone.

I shot a look at the wall. The landline.

I grabbed the telephone and started punching numbers in. With two hands, I held it to my ear, my anxiety growing with each ring that passed.

Thunder boomed. I clenched my jaw and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Hello?" A quiet voice said into my ear.

"Hi! Hello! Yes, this is Fianna, is this Diane?" I breathed out.

"Yes it is! Hello Fianna! How's the family?"

"Yeah, we're all good, everything's fine." I gripped the phone tighter as she continued to talk.

"Well I just about to check in on Shawn- he's sleeping over at a friend's down the road. I was just about to call you, but you beat me to it. Everything alright over there?"

I twisted the wire between my fingers. "Yeah we're alright. We still have power. But that storm's getting pretty bad, Ms Claiborne. I was just calling to see if Jaycee made it back okay, she left her phone here."

"I thought she was staying at your place?"

My stomach dropped. That was the last thing I heard before the farmhouse went dark.

My body froze in the pitch black. I dropped the silent phone, leaving it to dangle just above the floor as I threw open the door, running past my dad and his many calls straight into the raging downpour.

My sense of sight proved to be useless. I was only feeling what was happening around me- the wind thrashing me left and right, the needles of hard rain stabbing into my skin as I ran. The fields were flooded with mini lakes and rushing rivers, each step of mine squishing into the muddied ground, my feet growing heavier and heavier. It felt as if Mother Nature herself was screaming at me to get out of her storm.

There was no sign of Jay anywhere across the landscape. I wasn't sure whether that was good or bad.

The Claiborne's porch lights came into view, then the barn, fully lit on the inside. I ran harder; but not for the house.

I didn't slow until I reached my destination. Breathing heavily, hands on my head, I entered the dimly lit barn. "Jay?" I cried out with the fear of a lost child.

Busy drying off Blue inside a stable, Jaycee turned, equally as soaking wet as I was. Her eyes widened. "Fianna?! What're you doing here-"

I rammed into her, forcing her in a hug. Jay quit talking and wrapped her comforting arms around my waist. We didn't budge for a long while.

"Fi...?" She questioned when I hadn't let go.

Looking up into her eyes, I quickly pulled back to ramble, my arms outstretched so I could still hold her. "You weren't answering your phone and your mom thought you with me and then the power went out so I got worried and-"

"Hey hey." Jaycee released me, gently pushing my shoulders back to force eye contact. I found nothing but solace in her calming eyes. "I'm okay. I'm right here, alive as you can see." Her voice came out in a soothing, low tone. "It's all good."

She dropped her arms and gestured to my clothes, heavy with rainwater. "But look at you, Fianna, you're soaking wet!"

I did look pretty ridiculous with so much wet hair stuck to my glistening face. "I know."

"You must be freezing, let's go inside. Think we still have some power, at the very least some towels." Jaycee wrapped her arms around my shoulders, leading me out of the barn and in toward the house.