Heather and Raven

Careful What You Don't Wish For

The fourteenth of July brings a pretty bad storm. It's far from a hurricane, not even a tropical storm, but it's enough to cause some bad wind damage and flooding. So of course Maddison, Drew, and I are heading to the beach. We're maybe a little too enthusiastic about seeing the Pacific behave as violently as it does today. There's just something about seeing thirteen feet waves crash into the shore. And it's even more thrilling to see surfers trying –and most often failing– to tame them.

Usually, Justin would be here too, but he has another basketball game. I don't mind his absence at all. Kate, on the other hand, is scared of thunderstorms, so she's obviously staying inside. And Raven has family business to attend to. And since my parents still haven't returned from their business trip to Vancouver, no one can tell me to stay home.

So the three of us are standing on the railing at the edge of the boulevard, watching a handful of brave surfers get absolutely wrecked by Mother Nature. It's a delight.

"Shame Raven can't be here!" Drew yells over the howling winds. "He'd love this!"

It's an inside joke that makes us all laugh: Raven abhors rain. In fact, I'm half-convinced that his 'family business' is just an excuse to not have to go out in the rain.

I tilt my head back and enjoy that I don't know if it's rain or sea spray hitting my face. The sky is full of flashing purple lightning, but the waves are crashing so loudly that I can't hear the thunder. I've always liked storms. They're messy and wild, and there's nothing you can do to stop them. They're inevitable. I like inevitable things, because you don't have to stress about them: they'll happen anyway.

When the lightning starts striking a little too close to the water and the beach for us to be comfortable with, we return to my house since I'm alone anyway.

Drew and Maddie sit down on the couch while I run upstairs to grab some towels, as well as some dry clothes for me and Maddison. Through the windows, I can see the sky is constantly lighting up. The thunder is a continuous but distant rumble until I come downstairs and am temporarily blinded by a flash of lightning. It's immediately followed by a clap of thunder that has the entire house quaking. In the living room, Maddison whistles, and I hear Drew say: "Fuck, that was close."

"So long as it doesn't hit the house," I say, walking in and tossing them the towels, "I don't care how close I get."

"Careful what you don't wish for," Drew jokes, rubbing the towel through his hair. It used to be super curly, but he let it grow out enough for it to, in his words, 'be less of a hassle'. "I've always wondered how it would feel to get struck by lightning."

"I bet if you go outside right now, you're gonna find out real fast," Maddison said, shooting him an alarmed glance from the corner of her eyes.

Drew's eyes light up and he's already half out of his seat before I get the chance to block his way. Pointing at him, I say: "Don't even think about it. I'm not calling an ambulance for the moron who got struck by lightning in my backyard."

"You wouldn't leave me out there to die."

I raise an eyebrow. "Wanna bet? Sit the hell down, Drew."

Drew rolls his eyes but does so anyway. I finally get the chance to change into warm, dry clothes, and then sit down beside my friends and turn on the TV.

"This is the perfect time to watch a horror movie," I say, but Maddison resolutely shakes her head.

"Absolutely not."

Which is fair: Maddie hates horror movies on a regular day, let alone trying to watch one during a storm like this.

"Comedy?" Drew suggests. "Something with Adam Sandler."

Comedy is likely the only genre we can all agree on and I don't feel like arguing, so I move through the comedy category in Netflix. I'm just grateful there's no power outage: our town is prone to having them during storms because the cell tower is the highest point in the vicinity. I'm not about to say that out loud, though. I don't wanna jinx it.

I shouldn't have worried: two hours later, the power is still on, and the worst of the storm seems to have passed. It's still pouring, but less of the 'holy shit, this is a Biblical punishment' kind and more of the 'oh well, nothing an umbrella can't help with' kind. Drew and Maddie decide to try their luck and go home in case the storm gets worse again. I offer for them to stay over, but they both decline: Maddie's grandparents were supposed to be coming over this evening and she hasn't seen them in ages, and Drew has promised Kate he'd stop by. So I lend them an umbrella and wait in the doorway until they're out of sight.

It's only seven but the world is dark with the purple-black storm clouds overhead. Lightning still flashes in the sky, but judging by the distant rumble of thunder that follows, it's already pretty far away. Because our street is on a bit of slope, there's a layer of water running down the asphalt. In the worst storms, the houses at the bottom get some flooding, but I don't think they'll have any trouble now.

Sighing, I close the door and flop face-first onto the couch. I'm perfectly content to stay there the rest of the night, but the universe has other plans. That sneaky bitch.

By the time my doorbell rings, I've been lying on the couch for so long that Netflix is asking if I'm still watching. For a moment, I wonder what will happen if I just stay here. Whoever it is can probably go bother someone else. Then I try to remember if I ordered food earlier. I was talking about it to Maddie and Drew, but as far as I can recall, I didn't actually call some takeaway restaurant. The doorbell rings again.

Groaning, I slide out of the couch and onto the ground before getting up and dragging myself to the front door. Just as I reach it, the doorbell rings again. I'm now thoroughly fed up and yank the door open, ready to have a shouting match with whoever decided to fuck up my evening. All my angry words die in my throat when I come face-to-face with a sopping wet Raven May.

Thank you for reading! Have you ever felt like the universe was out to get you? Let me know in the comments!