wild ↣ p. lahote

xix. against the wind

A LITTLE WHILE LATER, Sam's truck finally pulled into the driveway of his house. Aurora peered out of the windshield at the cabin, but it was barely visible due to the rain all but obscuring it from view. "Who all is here right now?" She asked Sam, who was unbuckling himself.

"Umm.. everyone, I think. Emily invited them all over after school to hang out," Sam replied. "Including Paul."

Aurora cocked her head. "Why's he special?" She asked. Wasn't it obvious that he was included when Sam had said 'everyone?' Why'd he have to mention Paul specifically?

Sam smiled a I-know-something-you-don't smile. "Oh, he's not." He said in a he-definitely-is tone.

"Then why—"

"Time to go in!" Sam interrupted Aurora. "Come on."

Aurora sighed as she unbuckled her seatbelt. She obviously wasn't going to get a straight answer out of Sam about why he was acting so weird about Paul, so she decided to just forget about it. It was probably because Paul most likely had a personality disorder and Sam was just mocking him for it. Opening her new, cheetah-print umbrella, Aurora stepped out of Sam's pickup and made her way up to the porch. Sam opened the door and held it for Aurora while she shook out her umbrella. Closing her umbrella, Aurora stepped inside behind Sam and was hit with the smell of muffins and a wave of warm, central heating. Immediately, Aurora felt warm, cozy, and comforted.

"Big guy is in da house!" Aurora heard someone exclaim. It was obvious that no one could see Aurora just yet.

Aurora stepped out from behind Sam and cocked her head, meeting Jared's gaze. "I'm a girl, for your information," she stated, pretending to be offended.

Jared—shirtless, as per usual— grinned when he saw Aurora. He was sat at the table with Emily, and they were both eating a muffin. Emily's plate held one muffin, whereas Jared's held one muffin and several muffin wrappers. "Hey, look! You got a haircut!" Jared exclaimed, throwing his arms out widely. Aurora grinned back at him— it'd only been a few days and she'd already missed Jared.

"You like it? Sam didn't even say anything about it," Aurora asked, stepping towards Jared.

"It looks good on you, penis girl," Jared replied. Aurora gasped in offense.

"You get a special whack just for that." She exclaimed, pulling her umbrella behind her and swinging it around, whacking Jared on his arm like she'd done with Sam just a little bit ago. Jared leant back, laughing.

"That was weak," he teased.

"That was my warmup round," Aurora shot back, pulling the umbrella behind her again. However, before she could swing it forward, it was taken out of her grasp by Sam, who was walking behind her towards Emily.

"No hitting people with umbrellas in the house," Sam said before leaning down to kiss Emily. When he pulled back, he looked down at the umbrella and back at Aurora's shirt. "Hey, these match."

"Obviously Aurora matched her shirt and her umbrella. She's a fashion icon," Emily stated matter-of-factly before she popped a bite of her muffin into her mouth. Aurora grinned at Emily.

"Thank you, Emily," Aurora said, curtsying. "Now, Sam, give me back my umbrella so I can hit Jared for being mean to me."

"As long as you do it outside," Sam reasoned. Aurora nodded, and Sam handed her the umbrella back. Aurora turned to Jared with a grin on her face, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him outside with her amid his protests.

"I'm sorry! I take it back! You're very strong! You're not weak!" Jared was exclaiming in a half-joking tone.

"Too late," Aurora said, dragging him out into the rain. She turned around and started beating the living daylights out of Jared with her umbrella. He erupted in laughter and tried swatting her away as he bent over to try to hide.