There Will Be Blood (not mine)

32. The Revolutionary

 sat on the sofa in front of the window in the family room that I used to do my homework in.

The snow was falling around the Thorp landscape, making it feel like I was in a movie. There were only a couple houses on Freddie's street so there was basically nothing but woods around us. Each tree was slowly being blanketed in white. I used to like all of the powdered covered forests but now, those tall trees turned into the giant skyscrapers of Chicago in my mind.

I missed Justin. I missed the city. I missed everyone.

I was happy to be home, that was for sure, but I could only take Thorp for so long. This place was boring the hell out of me. Angie and Ben had gone on a trip with their families to California and Freddie suddenly had a rush of work over the holidays, so I basically only saw him on Christmas. Only Jimmy had been around, and I was avoiding him like the plague.

He was calling almost twice a day and even knocked on the door a couple of days ago. After that first initial meeting to tell him that whatever we had was ending, I stopped talking to him completely. He was one of those guys who could get kind of obsessive. I just never noticed it before. He was starting to give up, though, and I told him if we couldn't just be friends, then I was going to have to cut him off completely.

So, without my friends and my father and my Justin, I was sitting here on the couch. Thankfully, I had books, lots of books that I received for Christmas. They were entertaining me as well as the new laptop that I was beginning to fall in love with.

That being said, I was still bored. I was sitting here in this house like an old spinster. It was a wonder that I hadn't befriended a cat by now and claimed him as my child.

Yesterday was New Years, and it was my first one with an actual boyfriend that I loved. Where was my kiss? Hell, where was my iChat message? Justin hadn't called me all day. I was okay with that because I knew he was probably busy trying to conquer surfing again, but I would have hoped that he at least left me some kind of sign that he was thinking about me.

I called him on several occasions and his icon was illuminated on the computer, so I knew it was powered up. He just didn't answer. That slightly worried me, but I didn't let my strange feelings get into my head.

I sighed again as I looked out of the window at the falling snow and squinted into the distance at the car across the street. A small smile crept onto my face when I saw Benny sitting there bobbing his head to some music.

"Always watching out," I said to myself. I took a long gulp of the hot chocolate I was drinking, and then put it on the windowsill.

I quickly got up from my seat, letting my blanket fall to the floor and went into the kitchen. I pulled out a couple packets of hot chocolate and decided to make it the old fashioned way. I put a pot of water on the old stove and poured five packets of chocolate powder into five separate thermoses that we had in the cabinet. I had to stand on the counter to get the milk chocolate chips from the top shelf so that I could put a few in each cup as well.

When the water was boiling, I poured the appropriate amount into the thermoses, melting the powder and chips at the same time. I stirred them until they were all dissolved.

I smiled at the thought of Rebecca doing the same thing for me every Christmas break. Freddie even had his own version that consisted of scalding hot water and too much chocolate. God bless him.

I added some cream to the steaming concoctions and did a final stir before putting the five cups into a lunchbox. I stuffed my feet in some boots and threw on a jacket. I was almost out of the door before I remembered how Freddie took his hot chocolate and wondered if the bodyguards would like theirs the same way. I guessed yes.