Staccato Bursts

Part Eight: My Hurricane

It was dark. I couldn’t see anything but I could hear Dave’s breath. I felt around the bed and grabbed his hand by accident and he grabbed mine back. I could feel his pulse on my fingers. When Eric left the room, we heard the storm roaring. The room lit up for a split second because of the lightning and we found each other in the dark.

"Hey, I’m pretty sure there’s a lighter in my memory box from the first time I tried a cigarette.", Dave laughed.

“Cigarettes, huh? How’d it taste like?”, I laughed and tried feeling for a lighter in the box.

“Like necrosed lungs.”, he said.

I felt a rectangular steel and I was pretty sure it was the lighter. I flicked up the lid and a tiny flame emerged from the tip. I could see Dave’s face in the dim light. His eyes were glistening, looking at me.

"Come on, it’s no fun here. Let’s go to the living room.", he stood up.

He placed his arm around my shoulder while we walked down to the living room as if he was guiding my unfamiliarity around his house in the dark.

Eric was in the dining room, looking through cupboards for candles. He found a few fancy scented ones and placed it on each table in the house. I turned off the lighter because everything was easier to see now.

"Well, we can’t cook while the power’s out so, all we have is Oreos and some milk,", Eric said, grabbing a carton of milk and a box of Oreo cookies from the fridge.

“I like Oreos.”, I told him.

Dave and I grabbed the milk and cookies and walked to the living room. We sat down on the floor, just in front of the coffee table surrounded by three couches. We placed the food on the short-legged table and started twisting and licking our Oreos. After a few bites, Eric walked in with a battery-operated radio, an emergency light, and a bottle of beer for himself. He sat on the other corner of the coffee table.

"We are advising everyone to stay indoors until we confirm that the storm has passed.", a female reporter said over the radio. I felt my phone vibrating from my back pocket. It was my mom calling me.

"Kim, where are you? If you are under a roof, stay there.", she was worried.

“Mom, I’m fine. I’m at a friend’s house.”, I told her.

“Call me if anything happens. But stay safe okay? Your father and I-“, she got cut off.

I looked at my phone and it said “You are low on battery”. I can’t think of a worse possible time to run out of battery.

"Don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe here.", Dave told me.

“How about that? It’s your first slumber party in the Emmett residence!”, Eric said.

It was getting late. The storm wasn’t leaving until at least dawn. We were getting bored. We’ve finished twisting, licking, and dunking our Oreos and had nothing else to do. Eric took the last gulp from his beer and held his bottle up in the air. “I have an idea!”, he exclaimed.

He poked around the little bookshelf on one side of the living room where the family photo albums and kiddie board games were found and he pulled out a tiny box of cards. Too big of a box to be playing cards, though. It was definitely something else. He placed the box on the coffee table and cleared it from the milk and Oreos. Dave and I read the box and it said “Ice Breaker: Frisky edition. 18+ Only”.

"Eric, what the hell?", Dave was annoyed.

“What? My buddies and I used to play this in freshman year of college.”, Eric said.