The door swung open, and he seized my hand kissing it.
"Are you ready for our date?" I melted a bit and smiled
"I've been waiting all day for this." I winked, He laughed as he slowly walked me into the room and had me take a seat on the right side of the bed then he walked to the other side and took a seat himself shooting me a giddy smile.
"I have this pocket projector from when we had a blackout at school and thought it would be a good idea to watch a funny movie." He turned on the projector and played the movie. I looked over at Trey and ended up seeing all of the electronics plugged up across the room.
"Why are they charging? Are they dead?" He paused the movie and looked over at the wall.
"No, not all of them, but setting up the date made me remember that having them fully charged while they work might be best."
"That makes sense..." I nodded and laid back.
"You ready?"
"Yeah!" He then laid back with me and continued the movie."
For the remainder of the night, we laughed and watched more and more movies until we both decided to call it a night. He then plugged everything up and smiled crawling back onto the bed.
"Oh, I forgot." He then got out of bed and covered me with the second blanket. Then climbed on top of it.
"It's kind of cold tonight, are you sure you don't want to get under the blanket?" He hesitated but ultimately refused.
"No, I'm alright with being on top…" I smiled and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, are you now?" He turned away and finished his sentence choosing to ignore my comments.
"Look, you are staying under there, I'll stay up here, okay?"
"But what if you catch a cold? Look, no funny business just get under the blanket and sleep, keep each other warm and that's it. ya know?"
He rolled his eyes at me and gave me a seductive look.
"If you wanted me to keep you warm, you should have told me sooner…" he chuckled deeply, "but I don't have to get under the sheets to warm you up." He wiggled his eyebrows and smiled. I just about died, my face and ears heated up.
He got me!
I rolled over and closed my eyes. I felt his arms snake around my waist as I drifted off to sleep.
"..."
"Bax! Bax! Ugh, she's not responding."
"Here let me try... Hey, Freckles... Do me a favor and don't go croaking on me... Please."
"What makes you think that you're whispering, and soft talk is any better than my screaming?!?"
"Brandon... Just shut the hell up and trust me."
"Come on freckles... I'm right here."
Brandon? Why do I hear Brandon?
I opened my eyes only to have fat snowflakes attack them over and over... I was laying on the floor which was covered in snow.
"Babe are you OK?" Brandon pushed Trey out of the way and loomed over me.
"Where... Where are we?" My head was pounding.
"The JCPenney parking lot... As you can tell, it's blizzarding so we didn't see you fall, but we heard you slam into the car and we both ran out to see you out cold... You made us worried. You weren't waking up... We got scared."
"No. He was scared that you wouldn't be able to attend his party and would have to go to the ER instead."
"Fuck off nerd! Get in the damn car!" Trey chuckled and did what he was told, stopping at the door.
"Are you OK to stand?" I nodded and accepted his hand on my way up.
"How? What's... going on?"
"Do you want to sit in the front with me?"
"Of course, I have to drive." I was gritting my teeth. It felt like someone was hammering my brain.
"Babe, I got it, it's like 12 minutes away you can rest."
"Or... do you want to sit with me in the back?" I was confused with how casual everyone was acting.
What's going on here?
"Yeah... I'll get in the back with you." Trey froze and shot a glance at Brandon whose expression melted from surprise to annoyance. Meanwhile, I pushed my hand to my temple, in an effort to keep my brain from squeezing out of my skull.
"Uh... O-okay..." Trey held the door open and I crawled into the back seat, then he crawled in after me and stiffly sat beside me.
I leaned on him, and he awkwardly pushed me away. I looked at him confused and realized… Brandon was glaring through the rearview mirror at us.
"Hey, Brandon... Want me to drive?" Brandon then growled to himself uninterested in Trey's offer.
"Nope." He was not happy, I could tell. I wonder if his cheating and dying was just a dream, while I was knocked out... I didn't know what to expect.
When we pulled up at the resort it was pretty quiet, and the Blizzard was still thick and wild.
This is different...
Brandon pulled out his phone and sat in silence for a moment, when his phone chimed, he checked it then started climbing out of the car. When everyone got out, he armed it and sped off from me and Trey. I shot Trey a confused look and rushed after Brandon who was being hugged and kissed by some random mocha-skinned black-haired woman.
"Brandon?" When he heard his name, he spun around and roughly grabbed my shirt Pushing me to the snow. The frozen water was already nipping at the tips of my fingers.
"What? You can cheat on me with him, but when I do it it's bad and unheard of?"
"Cheating? No I-I wasn't cheating on anyone!" The blizzard was getting worse, and my skin was going numb, especially because I was still on the ground... It's like I couldn't move.
Trey came close enough to see what was happening and pushed Brandon to the ground and the random woman backed away until she was completely gone. The two men were screaming at each other… I could hear whining and wheezing in the Blizzard… we weren't alone… which made my blood run cold.
What the hell is going on?!
I felt like a cornered animal. My attention was everywhere. I was shuffling closer to Trey when he came sliding over spitting blood to the side.
"You can keep her! You wanted her so damn bad then you can take care of that useless bitch!" Trey growled in response and stood up.
Seconds later a hand Yanked Brandon out of sight and into the Blizzard, I reached for Trey but as soon as I did, he too was yanked away…
"No! Freckles run! Go!!"
"Bax! Help me!"
Then the Blizzard leveled out all at once, the snow settling in a single wave. Brandon was pinned by one zombie and Trey was currently fending off three. I ran to help Trey.
"Bax! No! Help me please! Arrraaaagggghhh!!!"
When I spun and kicked one of the zombies it caught me by my ankle and slammed me on the snow-covered ground. As soon as my back collided with the ground all of the air in my lungs rushed out. Tears welled up in my eyes as my chest screamed for air. Moments later the zombies and Brandon disappeared, and Trey came running over.
Brandon, mangled and bleeding, hobbled close to us and stopped a foot away. Trey stood in the way to protect me while I relearned how to breathe, he then took hold of Trey's hoodie and threw him, then looked at me.
You made your choice… and I made mine." Then he lunged at me.
I jolted awake.
"No!"
"I'm right here Bax… I'm right here."
I hyperventilated and cried, I don't know if I should be happy or scared… I just wanted this nightmare to end.
"Are you alright? Is everything OK?" I cleared my throat and shed a few more tears.
"I'm… It's fine. I just made my decision..." he furrowed his eyebrows at my comment.
"What are you talking about?" I relaxed a bit and gave him a weak smile.
"A bad dream that's all."
"Oh… do-do you want to talk about it? Is there anything you need?"
"… A hug please." He walked around the bed and wrapped me up in his warm embrace taking a seat on the edge of the bed while he did so. His touch melted my stress away or most of it at least.
"Whatever happened in your nightmare won't ever happen to you while I'm alive. Okay?" We stick together." He chuckled deeply "You're stuck with me."
I sunk into my own thoughts while we sat together.
I chose Trey.
So hopefully I can start healing now… I shot a gaze at tray who was in the process of standing up, when he finished, he turned to me and offered his hand...
At least I know he will give me the time I need to do so.
I smiled and took his hand pulling the blanket off of me as I stood up from the bed.
"Let's go eat." I nodded my head and smiled as we quietly made our way to the kitchen. We made it a routine to eat together but that much hasn't changed since we were on campus.
Trey and I live together off-campus, one of us drives the other to school and we both eat breakfast until class, or we are joined by Brandon.
Now that I know the truth about Brandon stealing me from Trey, I felt bad. Brandon hates PDA, but always did it in front of Trey when he felt like being a dick, but I never saw it that way. Even so… Trey stayed around, he stuck with me through it all. I really am lucky to have him.
I was heating the food and Trey was flicking through channels on the TV when everything went dark. We both looked up at the lights and looked at each other. Carefully I pulled out the warm food from the microwave and quietly tiptoed over.
"Remember the explosion yesterday?" I nodded, "Something must have happened to the electricity, and we were on the backup energy up until now."
"I see. Well, now we know "what" it was, now all we need is "why" or "how" although I don't know we will ever get those."
"Yeah, I don't think so either." Something sent a chill up my spine and I shivered. It reminded me that it will start getting cold now that the heaters aren't getting any power.
"That means no heat or microwave. What about gas?" We got up and made our way to the stove and he shook his head.
"This oven's gonna beep." He turned the knob and we heard tiny clicks and a woosh of gas, but no flame.
"So, no oven warming the house, but we can use the stovetop if we need it. And the flashlights will need to be kept closer too."
"...and the fridge is also a problem. It's gonna grow warm soon... I guess it's a good thing it's always cold on this mountain. The fridge might stay cold for longer."
"Yeah, damn it… There's never a dull moment here huh?"
"Nope. Never."
We made our way to the second floor and took turns taking showers. While Trey took his shower after I got out. I placed the solar-powered computer charger on the roof outside of the window to charge along with the heavy-duty solar power charger Brandon bought Trey earlier this week. Trey came out of the bathroom drying his hair fully clothed.
"I think the boiler is gas-powered."
"How do you know that?"
"Well, the water is still warm after both showers... but then again it might just be a good boiler."
"Hmm… if it is… we might have a good way to warm up if we really need it." I fell silent for a second. "Oh, and I put the solar-powered things on the roof while we still have sunlight."
Trey nodded and smiled. For the remainder of the day, we used his computer and pocket projector to watch videos.