READY FOR LOVE | JENLISA

Chapter 42

Lisa

Twenty minutes later, we're all walking out of lab. As promised, Irene just handed out the quiz and briefly went over next week's material, bidding us a good break. Walking towards the main entrance of the science building, we all stop short when we see a line of people blocking the glass doors, looking outside intently.

"What the hell?" I mutter under my breath, walking ahead and squeezing my way through the small crowd to see what all the fuss is about. I look outside, not seeing much. "What's going on?" I ask some random dude to my right.

"Ice is already coating the roads. A kid from our class is trying to make it out of the parking lot, but his truck is not really going anywhere without fishtailing." he says.

I snap my gaze towards the parking lot, seeing an old, beat up Chevy crawl across the parking lot, the brake lights glowing every few seconds, the truck sliding around, nearly hitting other cars in the lot. This kid is fucking insane. I can appreciate determination, but this is just straight up stupidity. There's no way he or anyone else is making it out of here without hitting something or killing themselves.

"What's going on?" Jennie asks, appearing behind me. She rests her hand on my shoulder, stabilising herself as she stands on her tippy toes to look over my shoulder.

I crane my neck to look at her, my lips dangerously close to hers as I turn my head. I try my best to ignore her breath fanning across my face and her body brushing up against mine. "That dude trying to make it out of the parking lot."

Her face falls, eyes immediately searching the parking lot to find the truck fishtailing, yet again. She sucks in a sharp breath when the truck nearly hits another car, and she quickly glances back at Rosé.

"What's going on?" Rosé asks, immediately detecting her best friend's distress. Jennie falters, struggling to find the words to break it to her gently that she's not going to be heading home for Thanksgiving to see her family anytime soon.

Rosé pushes her way pass us to peek out the window herself, her shoulders immediately sagging when she sees the ice starting to glimmer across the pavement. "No." she whines, looking back at us with utter disappointment.

"I'm sorry, Rosé." Jennie says, her voice dripping with guilt.

Rosé turns back around to look outside, intently observing. "What do we do?"

Jennie glances up at me helplessly. "There's nothing much we can do." I admit honestly. "It's below freezing and the ground temperatures are not going to get much warmer as we approach nightfall. It looks like everyone on campus is stuck here, until at least in the morning."

A few more kids file into the atrium, no one really knowing what to do. Only a few brave souls attempt to leave the building, slipping and sliding around as the trudge towards the dorms. Two guys that I recognise from the hockey team, walking more effortlessly on the icy concrete than some others who are falling on their asses.

"What's going on?" I look over my shoulder to spot Irene all bundled up, bag tossed over her shoulder and keys in hand, looking like she's ready to leave for the day.

"Roads are already covered in ice." I inform her.

She frowns, fighting her way to the front of the doors to look outside for herself. "What the... they said it wasn't supposed to hit for another couple of hours."

"Right?" Rosé grumbles bitterly, arms tightly crossed over her chest as she looks outside with hatred.

Irene does her best to try to compose herself, tucking some of her red hair behind her ears. "Alright, everyone, don't panic." she instructs, despite her voice rising a few octaves. "This should all blow over in a couple of hours. It will probably clear up by morning." she says optimistically, but I can tell deep down even she knows that isn't true.

"We're never getting out of here." rat boy grumbles cynically, walking away and throwing himself down on one of the lounge chairs.

"No, no, that's not true." Irene says, but her voice wavers a bit. "Everything is going to be okay, we just have to wait out the storm for a bit."

Moments later, the lights begin to flicker and everyone looks up, a low murmur of panic starting to ensue.

"Fuck." I mutter under my breath, and I shoot my gaze toward the power lines outside, seeing them already coated with ice. Jennie's hand wraps around my arm and I look down to find her wide, worried eyes looking up at me.

"It's going to be okay." I try to assure her, my arm instinctively circling around her waist.

Just as the words leave my lips, all the lights go out with a low, ominous droning noise.

"You have got to be kidding me." I hear Rosé grumble before everyone breaks out into panic.