As the Snow Falls

Chapter 3

When I wake in the morning, I can just tell that things are worse outside. The fact that its colder in our room is a give away as well. I sit up, stretching my sore body. These couches were comfortable to sit on, but not to sleep on. I glance to Cassie's couch and see her still fast asleep. She lays curled up with her knees bent, and a pillow held in her arms. Her mouth is slightly open, and she breathes deeply, her chest rising and falling with each breath. Long lashes brush the light dusting of freckles on her cheeks, and her hair sits in a messy halo around her head. I try not to think about how beautiful she looks.

I kneel on the couch and peek out the window, gasping when I see the view. It's still snowing, just as hard as it was last night, but it's so much deeper. The bushes beside the sidewalk are completely covered, and the snow reaches halfway up the trunks of trees and light poles. From up here, I can tell it's over six feet.

"That's not good." I mumble quietly, but I think Cassie hears. She takes a breath as she stretches onto her back, slowly blinking her eyes open.

"What time is it?" She asks sleepily.

"A little after 8:00."

"We slept almost nine hours? Geez."

"Yeah," I say with a laugh. "I guess we did. It felt good though."

"You can say that again. I'm guessing it's not good news outside, though?"

"Nope. I want to go downstairs to get a good look, but I think there's at least six feet out there now."

"Shit. That's a lot." She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand, yawning. "But I'm guessing that's why we weren't woken up by the weirdos who come in early."

I laugh, knowing exactly who she's talking about. I stop laughing when I see Cassie shiver. "You okay? Here, you can borrow my coat. I'm pretty warm."

"No, that's okay. I'm fine." Her voice takes on a harder tone, and I back off.

"I'm gonna go downstairs and plug in my phone, and then check out the snow. Wanna come?"

"Nah, I still need to wake up a bit."

"Okay." I stand, stretching once more before putting on my shoes and slipping out the door. The hallway is colder than our room and I pull my coat tighter around me. Once at my desk, I plug in my phone. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure how much longer the power will last. Which reminds me... "Ah-ha!" In my desk drawer, I found my brick portable charger. It will most definitely come in handy if the power goes out. Especially since it can recharge my phone up to six or seven times.

My coworkers always made fun of me for carrying such a big battery pack with me everywhere, but it saved their butts more than once, so eventually they stopped making fun and thanked me instead.

I slip the battery in my pocket before heading downstairs. It drops another ten degrees or so and I shiver as I walk to the window. My eyes only widen as I get closer. I'm average height, 5 foot 6, and the snow was about at my eye level. I could barley see over it when I went on my tip toes, and I knew this was one of the lower spots. Some places were definitely over 6 feet. And it was still coming down, as hard as ever.

Shaking my head, I back away and head into the café. I grab two blueberry bagels, two bananas, and two small containers of oatmeal. I fit all the items in my arms, and manage to grab two water bottles on my way out before heading back upstairs. This time I take the elevator. As I step out though, I realize that that's a bad idea. If the power could go out at any time, I wouldn't want to be trapped in the elevator with no way out...

I shake the terrifying thought from my mind and open the door to our room. Cassie's eyes meet mine before sliding down to my armload of food.

"I didn't know if you were hungry, but I brought you some food..." I tell her hesitantly.