One Shots

Alice In Winter [Straight]

Alice in Winter

Cold. Cold, cold, cold.

Alice Varghese jumped out of the freezing shower and grabbed the fluffy towel nearby. Jesus. Jesus. She'd literally been in the shower for 3 minutes. She frowned for a second, irrational as it may be, she has a flash of thought that maybe she'd been wrong.
Alice tests the water again.
Nope.
Definitely freezing cold. Her hand reaches out for the radiator to find it also stone cold, which is odd because at this time the heating should be on. Slipping on her pair of carpet slippers, she thunders down the stairs to where the boiler is in the kitchen. The whole thing is off.
Alice is no engineer. She can quote Shakesphere and discuss the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird, but fixing a boiler? Nope. No way. It was only when she went to Uni she learnt to change a lightbulb. Pitiful, true but her Dad's always been a handyman and having an older brother has meant she could well and truly indulge being a girly-girl. Still, she can read and bang a few knobes and nodes. None of it helps. Not at all. But at least she tried.

With a sigh, Alice pushes back her soaking wet, henna reddish-brown hair. It's the 26th December. No one is coming out to fix the boiler on the 26th. Especially not in England and not in the thick snow that's surrounding the rural area she lives in.

Great. Just great.

Picking up her phone she goes to call her go-to-guy. Her dad. But then glancing at the phone she puts it back. She can't call him; he'd probably still be on the flight to the Bahama's. Her parents flew out early in the morning in an impromptu romantic getaway, which, after 24 years is about time. Not that they haven't gone on holidays. They have. It's just they've all been family ones. Now, with her brother working in London and her in final year of her course, they'd finally given in to pressure from their kids and booked the trip.

A part of Alice certainly regrets that now. Just like she also regrets John, her brother, dropping them off at the airport and going back to his apartment in the big city. But that does mean she could call him. It's 6 and he might be at the gym but it's worth a try.

"Ally? What's up?" he surprisingly answers.
Alice jumps on her toes, trying to keep warm and failing.
"The boiler's broken."
He sighs, "are you sure it's not just off?"
Trying to hold it together she grits out, "yes, John it's on. I was in the shower when it was on."
"Alright, what does it say? Does it say anything?"
Alice tries flicking it off and back on again and there's a moment of hope when the small rectangle monitor flickers alight. That hope is quickly crushed though when the whole things shudders to a halt, releasing a few groans along the way.

"Nothing. It's just...halted."

"I don't know what to say to that Al. There's not much I can do."
Alice sighs, "I was afraid you'd say that."
"Sorry Ally. Listen do you really need me to come out?"
"No. No, it's fine. I'll...I'll figure something out. Do we still have those electric heaters in the loft?"
"Uh...no. They started given off that weird smell remember? So Dad threw them out."
Alice groans in despair. Okay, so she could just live inside a mound of duvets but that doesn't solve her shower problem. She cannot even fathom spending the next few days taking cold showers, just like she can't fathom not taking showers. Particularly if she's going to be living in her duvet fort.
"Oh but I heard Derrick's home. You could bum some stuff off him."
"Yeah, yeah, I guess I'll just have to do that. Alright, bye J."
"Later Ally."

Derrick Cross. Neighbour, divorcee and major DILF. He moved in 4 years ago when Alice started her A-levels and for the subsequent 2 years did some babysitting jigs for his adorable then 3-year-old son. Sure she finds him attractive, even more attractive that he has a child but she would never admit that to him or act at all upon it. She is not the type to do anything about her crushes. In high-school she actually actively avoided her crushes. All her 'boyfriends' were guys who approached her, asked her out and ones she hadn't ever been initially attracted to.
Argh. But why is she thinking about all that?
Right now, she needs to make sure she doesn't get phenomena at worst or a cold at best. Also, completing her shower would be great.