That other exception

Part 29

I'd only had this dream maybe two or three times a year but to be honest even that was too often for my liking.  I was lucky enough on the couple of occasions that Evan was with me and he was able to calm me down fairly quickly but when I woke up alone it would take a long time to get my breath and the feeling of loss and heartache would follow me around until I could spend a few hours talking with Evan. But even then it was still a shadow in the back of my mind that haunted me, maybe it was my fear of losing him, that one day I just won't be good enough or be able to get to him when he needs me and he'll be gone from my life forever.

"hey" He murmured into my ear, I turned my head so that my cheek pressed against his, I wanted him to know I was listening but still had a massive lump stuck in my throat, I didn't trust my voice not to break and sound like I was sobbing in his ear. "Do you remember when we got snowed in by that blizzard?" he coo'ed, he was obviously trying to distract me and to be honest I was glad, I felt a tickle of amusement at the back of my brain and tried to think about that night to bring my anxiety down. 

(Delirious' Memory of being snowed in)

It had been the first time I'd been to Canada, Evan and I had met before at a convention but this was the first time I'd traveled to see anyone and it would be just the two of us.  This was either going to be a complete failure and we would never talk again or we would be best of friends.  I had traveled for days and crossed the boarder into Canada, again something I'd never done, just to spend a couple of days playing games with this guy.  I hoped it wasn't going to be a waste of time for both of us, we had been playing games most of the afternoon and hadn't noticed that it had gotten dark or that it had started snowing.  We finished a game and shut everything down, I was hungry and thought it would be a good time to go eat.  

"Uh...Hey Ev'...you know anywhere good to eat around here I'm starving" I asked as I stretched out my arms, shoulders and back, I wasn't use to sitting on the floor to play for long periods of time.  I was kinda hoping that he would take the hint and join me for food, I was really enjoying his company.

"Yeah there is a diner down the road that has good food" he grunted as he stretched out too.

"You gonna come with?" I asked as I started to put on the layers of clothing I'd learned that I  would need to go out side in Canada at this time of year.  Evan checked his watch and sighed.

"Sorry I need to get back...I'm late as it is and my room mates won't be impressed"  There was a nervousness that flashed somewhere in the back of his eyes but it was gone just as fast. "Meet you for breakfast though yeah?"

"Yeah man...Then I will have all day to kick your ass again" I grumbled which made him laugh

"you mean like you did today?" He chuckled

"Hey I won a lot of those matches" I protested as I walked him to the door of my Motel room.  The lights flickered which made us both pause.  "is that normal?"

"Uh...dunno, I have never stayed at a motel" He replied as he frowned at the light fitting in the middle of the room.  The lights flickered again, this time going out for a few seconds.

"Are we in a horror film or something?" I asked as we both stared at the light which promptly turned off. "Well shit"

"we'll be fine if it's a horror film...we haven't had sex so we won't die" he sounded like he was serious but he seemed to be trying not to laugh towards the end of that sentence which made me chuckle.  He has one of those laughs you can't help but join in with, it made hanging out with him a blast.

"if you had wanted to get laid you just had to say man" I chuckled in a joke flirty tone.

"yeah that would be just our luck...get laid then find out we're in a horror film and going to die horribly" he chuckled, we both stood in a comfortable silence, it felt like he didn't want to leave but knew that he had to.

"That is going to come back on right?"

"Yeah I'm sure the emergency back up with kick in in a minute" he sighed and I heard him move towards the door "I wonder if it's just the motel"  He opened the door and froze "well fuck"

"What?" I asked bracing myself against the cold blast of air

"It's not just the motel....and I think I'm screwed, do you think they have another room I can have?"

"I thought you were going home?"

"I'm not going anywhere in this weather" he sighed and closed the door "We're snowed in"

"oh...Uh....what does that mean?"

"We are both stuck here until the snowplows come through"

"It can't be that bad" I moved over to where he was standing so that I could open the door and see for myself, I bounced off his shoulder and into the wall beside the door.   Opening the door I was surprised at how much snow had fallen since we got in earlier, it was actually starting to drift against the door to my room. "holy shit...uh...ok" I closed the door to stop the cold coming in "Uh hey Ev'...if you want to save on cash you can crash in here with me"

"it's ok" he stepped outside, making sure to kick the snow out so that it didn't fall into the room "I'll find out what the power thing is too" he walked off in the direction of the office sticking close to the building.  I felt a sudden twinge of guilt, I shouldn't let him do this on his own in this weather but I knew what he'd say if I tried to go with him and the last thing I wanted to do was piss this guy off in case we had to share a room for the night.  I watch him as he headed towards the office, which luckily wasn't too far away, I needed to make sure he got there ok.  I don't know why I felt so protective of him I mean we'd only been friends a few months, maybe he was going to be as close a friend as Luke.  He ducked into the office and I felt relaxed enough to close the door, but instantly moved to the window to keep an eye out for him coming back.  He must have been in there for about fifteen minutes, which actually felt like hours but finally I saw his outline heading back with what looked like half the hotels supply of blankets.  I opened the door and let him in.

"how'd it go?"I asked as I took the blankets off him and watched as he shook off his jacket.

"fully booked...they are working on the power they don't know why it went off the emergency generator should have started...they gave us some blankets because the temperature is going to drop without the heating system working" he seemed distracted and worried, I couldn't work out why.

"You know the invitation to sleep here is still open...it'll be like having a sleep over when we were kids"I chuckled trying to lighten his mood.

"Oh...here" He muttered and pulled a flash light out of his jacket pocket "they didn't know how much battery was left though so we might want to use it sparingly"