I had to laugh at Evelyn's mother trying to set us up. Yes, I liked Evelyn. From what I could tell she was pretty cool. But despite us having been meeting together for her weekly tutoring sessions for nearly a month now, I didn't know her that well. Hell, we weren't even really friends. More like I was being paid to help her with school.
Evelyn seemed unamused by my outburst of laughter, and I calmed down.
"So, it looks like you're gonna be stuck here a while." I commented, attempting to fill the silence.
"Yeah," she said, her nose twisting up.
"It's almost six, do you want some dinner?" I asked, feeling hungry myself.
"I guess." She said nonchalantly, following me to the kitchen.
She sat down on a bar stool, leaning against the counter. "So where's your family?" She asked almost pointedly, raising her eyebrows.
"Out of town, visiting some relatives. I had a cold the day they left, so I didn't go."
She immediately leaned back, off the counter and away from me.
I laughed. "Don't worry, I'm fine now, and I disinfected everything."
She nodded, but was still hesitant to put her hands back on the counter. I chuckled to myself, digging through the pantry for something to eat.
"How's chicken noodle soup sound?" I asked, finding two cans of Campbell's soup.
She nodded, staring at her hands. She looked solemn.
"You okay over there?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowed. While Evelyn never struck me as anything close to an extrovert, she always talked. In fact, she talked a lot. She was just awkward and shy about it.
"Yeah, just, like. . . I don't know. I've never really been away from my family a whole night before." She admitted, scrunching up her face.
"Really? Like, you've never had a sleepover or something before?" I asked. I thought sleepovers were a key event in every child's life.
She looked up and glared at me.
"Oh, oh, sorry. I meant to say, um, well you'll probably not have to spend a night here. It'll just be pretty late when you get home." I offered, trying to think of something comforting to say.
"Yeah," she croaked.
I sighed, getting out a pot to make the soup in. I wished the storm would just hurry up and end. I couldn't deal with crying girls, it made me feel all awkward, and Evelyn looked on the verge of it.
*
I took up Evelyn's empty bowl and my own, placing them in the dishwasher. It was seven o' clock, and neither of us had spoken for a while.
"I'm gonna go check the news," I mumbled, going to the living room. News reports are known to change, and I held on to the small hope that the blizzard warning had been shortened
It was the opposite.
Evelyn wandered in, sitting on the other end of the couch. "Bad news." I said, running my fingers through my hair.
"What- oh. Oh." Evelyn stared at the screen as the weather man told us that the warnings had been extended to ten pm.
I looked at her, trying to read her expression. Her eyebrows were knit together, and she looked very distressed. "God damnit," she muttered.
I turned the volume down, listening to the wind howl outside. It was dark out, too dark to see what I knew to be buckets of snow pouring down from the sky.
"Okay. Okay. We'll be fine. You'll be fine. Do you wanna watch a movie or something? To pass the time and whatever."
"Um, yeah. That'd be fine."
"Any preferences?"
She just shrugged.
I did not feel like looking through all the various movies we had (my parents were big believers in movie night) so I grabbed the nearest one and popped it in the dvd player.
The film started to roll and I took my seat on the couch next to Evelyn, who was curled up into the corner of the cushions. Her black hair was coming loose of the braid she had it tied in, falling on her back awkwardly. Out of impulse, I reached over and touched the end of her braid. She immediately spun her head around.
"What are you doing?"
"I don't know."
"Are you playing with my hair?"
"Maybe?"
"Okay."
I could not suppress a smile as I turned my attention back to the movie which appeared to be. . .
It's a Wonderful Life.
"Holy shit I love this movie!" I exclaimed excitedly, reaching to turn the volume up. Evelyn just shook her head.
"Oh come on, haven't you ever seen this before? This is a classic!"
"No, I've never seen it." She said curtly.
I turned to her. "Evelyn, something's the matter."
"Ashton, a lot of things are matter."
"Glad to know you've been paying attention in science class."
"I'm sure."
"No, but seriously. You aren't usually this moody. You're usually so happy and chirpy and giggly and now you just seem like an angst ridden teen and I don't like it."
"It's not really your business though, is it?"
"No," I said slowly. "Not really. But I have a feeling we may be stuck with each other for a while, in which case it would suck if we were both just in a bad mood the whole time. C'mon, tell me what's wrong."
She pursed her lips. "Well, Ashton, the problem is that I'm stuck here with you in this stupid blizzard when I could be at home in my bed watching the Cosby Show reruns and eating ice cream with my cat."
"I'm offended."
"Oh, come on Ashton, we're not even really friends. Don't flatter yourself."
"You know what I sense? I sense that you're not telling me the full story here."
"Oh? And do you have a hypothesis?"
"I bet you're really nervous about spending the night here since you've never been away from your family that long before."
She sighed. "Fine. Okay, yeah. I'm really nervous about that too."
"Too?"
"Look, I have had this massively large and irrational fear of storms since I was like eight. Okay? Are you happy now?"
"Aw, you don't have to be scared. We'll be fine."
And then.
The power went out.
(And Evelyn screamed.)
