People, Places, and Things

3. Camel Lights For The Lady In Red

3. Camel Lights For The Lady In Red

Over the days, the rain turned back into snow, though that didn’t make my walking any easier. At least something was right with the world, I guess. My days were extremely monotonous as I got up, walked to school, walked to the hospital, walked home, did my homework, and went to bed. It was horrible, but I had no other options. Every once in awhile I turned on a movie, but I never watched it. 

Finn hadn’t spoken to me since I told him I didn’t love him. I was really missing him. I hadn’t realized how good of a friend he was to me until he wasn’t my friend anymore. 

But it was better this way. I mean, he knew the whole time that I wasn’t ready for a relationship. And over the last eight years or so, it was pretty obvious that he liked me and I didn’t like him back. Not in the same way, that is. Why did boys have to be so complicated?

Cecelia texted me to remind me to come over this weekend. I was really hoping that she’d forget so I didn’t have to make up an excuse, but it seemed that Cecelia was desperate to have people over. I was pretty sure the crowd that was going to be there were not going to be big fans of mine. I told her that I wasn’t sure, since I might have to stay with Jamie at the hospital and she replied that he was seventeen years old and didn’t need a babysitter. Just the fact that she couldn’t comprehend what I was dealing with made me so angry that I never texted her back. I really wanted to express my feelings by yelling at her and telling her that she had never had to live such a life like Jamie and me, but instead I was passive aggressive as usual. True, Jamie didn’t need a babysitter, and yeah, he didn’t want to talk to me at all, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want my company. She just didn’t understand.

On Thursday, the snow was heavy. The weatherman had talked about the snowpocalypse that would be arriving over the evening, and I groaned internally. I called Mom to let her know I wouldn’t be able to visit Jamie tonight and someone had to keep an eye on the house.

When I got home, the house was freezing. I turned the heat up and the television on, even though I knew I wouldn’t be watching it. Though I didn’t have much homework, I had all of my books sitting on my lap anyway. I felt wrong if I didn’t have something to work on. I flipped through the channels, but I never found anything to watch. I settled on a home makeover show on TLC that I hated, but let play anyway. I started working on a paper that wasn’t due for another week, but I had the time to work on it, so I figured I might as well start on it. I had written about half of a page when the power went out. 

“Great,” I mumbled, ready to burst into tears. 

It was like nothing could go right in our lives.

I had nowhere to go, except to Finn. I could only hope that he wouldn’t turn me away. I more than half expected him to after what I did to him. I threw my coat and boots on and trudged through the blizzard to Finn’s. As per usual, I went straight to the back of the house to his window and knocked. The light was on, warming and comforting. It seemed that it was just a stretch of houses had lost power, including mine. Finn came to the window immediately, knowing that it could only be me. He opened it up, but didn’t say anything.

“I really don’t mean to be a bother, but the power went out at my house and I’m all alone and I don’t know what to do,” I said, trying to keep it together.

“Come on in,” he said, heading to the back door to let me in. 

The rest of the house was pitch black. It seemed no one was home. I took my wet boots and coat off and left them by the door and headed to Finn’s room in my socks. 

“My parents are out of town for the weekend. They left yesterday to beat the storm. I’ve been here all alone as well. I can’t imagine what I would do if--”