If it Keeps On Raining

2: if you're gonna scream, scream with me

the house had a distinct smell. at first i was terrified by the news i'd just received and was barely able to process. which resulted in me being instantly convinced that the smell was from dead bodies. it was probably just from the four boys that inhabited the house. the smell wasn't necessarily terrible, once you got used to it. but i knew i was gonna be buying some candles as soon as possible anyway.

i walked in the door after lars and james, who held both my bags. i was greeted first by a black and white spotted dog, who is briefly heard barking excitedly from the inside of the house. he jumped on me and whined. i was practically frozen in shock, unable to do anything beyond patting his head softly and whimpering along with him, careful to not think too much about whoever it was that died in the house i was now standing in.

"that's jonsey. jonsey, quit it." lars snapped, catching the dog's attention, and summoning him to walk away. "he's a good dog, just got lotsa energy."

He's nice." I breathed, eyes retreating from the floor to meet the eyes of the two boys. James broke the quietness that lingered in the front room, where the three of us stood awkwardly.

"Dave, cliff, get your asses over here, would you?" he turned his head away to yell, and then back into the circle we'd created. From the hallway behind James, a figure appeared from one of the doors, shutting it behind him. He must've been even taller than James, his hair was longer and darker too, but not as dark as Lars'. There was a faint cloud of smoke that spilled from the door he'd exited before he closed it.

"Hey Cliff, this is louise." Cliff's eyes slowly shifted from James to me, and he gave me a polite smile and small wave. I waved back.

"Hi, cliff." Over my quiet voice, a loud one cut in, and another tall boy came almost stumbling down the stairway and into the room the rest of us stood in, yelling at James about something I didn't quite pick up on.

"Hey James, aren't you bringing that chick here today or somethi-" my face flushed, and I assumed he was referring to me. He silenced himself once he saw me, his eyes instantly meeting mine, and I immediately returned my gaze to the floor, face still hot.

"Dave, could ya act a little more like a civilized human and a little less like a fucking dog? Fucking hell." James muttered to him, hitting him on the arm with the back of his hand. Dave glared at him, whipping his head around to face him. "This is louise. She's staying' with us.'' Dave's focus shifted back to me, I kept my eyes glued to the floor and everyone's shoes and the dog, who was still panting happily. But I could still feel Dave looking me up and down somehow, which made me nearly explode, as I was feeling shy. Thankfully, lars butted in,

"What are we doing? Some hosts we are." he threw his hands in the air, "let's show her the house!" I picked my head up, and Lars started walking further from the front room, where there was a coat rack, a shelf with keys and miscellaneous items piled up, and another pile of shoes on the floor. The walls in the room were covered by faded brown and green wallpaper. I followed lars away from where I'd been planted to the floorboard for what felt like hours.

"This is the kitchen and that's like, the..." Lars pointed to two rooms divided by the wallpaper, the kitchen was painted green and the other room consisting of a tv, a coffee table and a couch was covered by the same wallpaper in the front room. "...What actually is this room guys?" The other boys dispersed away from the contained small room by the front door, wandering around their own house. They started to talk over each other.

"I think we just call it the living room-"

"It's called the tv room dumbass"

"That's the dining room, stupid!"

They continued arguing over each other, and the only answer that i was able to come up with was that it was where they watched tv and ate food. Very simple, but they fought over it nevertheless.