for "mini_nanowrimo" hence no friends lock 16
took long enough but i'm getting back into the swing of things.
It is their first date. She wears her hair down, a black ribbon holds it in place. When he comes to pick her up, he says nothing until he is opening the car door for her. He tells her she looks like Alice from Wonderland and they both look at the ground. She is blushing deeply. As they drive, her favourite song comes on the radio and he turns it up without a word spoken. She gives him a quizzical look.
"I remembered. . .from class-" then stops because her smile makes his throat close. He tries to focuses on the road, the way to the restaurant, instead.
"I really like Chinese food," she says as he helps her out of the car in the nearly empty parking lot.
"I know."
"Oh yeah," she smirks, pushing her shoulder into his chest. "You remember from class." They laugh together, fingers almost touching.
+ + +
He's sitting on the couch watching his two best friends play video games. He glances at the clock and starts to wonder where his girlfriend is. Another flash of lightning streaks across the darkened sky. A loud crack of thunder is lost in the rattle of machine guns from the television.
The front door opens and his girlfriend appears. He can't see her eyes under her soaked and flattened hair but he knows he's in trouble, she's in a dangerous mood. She is dripping wet. She pulls her feet out of squelching boots and stomps over to his cell phone sitting on the coffee table in front of him. She says nothing. His friends pause the game to watch her. She picks it up, flips it open and lays it back down. The three young men lean forward to look at the screen. There are eight missed messages. He looks up, sheepishly, and smiles at her. She huffs and walks away. The bedroom door slams behind her. It sounds like the storms has made it inside the apartment.
"Oh Dude! Not cool! You are so busted," says one friend as he restarts the game.
"Totally," supplies the other.
"Shut up," she says, sinking low into his end of the couch.
+ + +
The wind is a wild thing as it whips blindly through the trees. The tops bend under the force. She is standing at the window, facing the front yard. Her son isn't home from school yet. The light is already dwindling. This time of year it gets dark early anyway, it's worse with a storm coming. Dinner is in the oven, roasting away slowly. She folds her arms against her chest. She tells herself, again, that she is being silly. He already told her that he was going to play at the park after school. She had been so tired she just gave him a wave of her hand. It meant 'Sure, fine. Just don't bug me right now.' There, beneath the calming logic, is panic. 'What if' after 'what if'. She isn't sure she knows what to do next in this situation. She tells herself not to be scared. Ten more minutes, she tells herself, give him ten more minutes.
She distracts herself in the brightly lit kitchen, pulling out all the silverware and supper plates. A yell just outside the front porch almost stops her heart. She hangs onto the counter.
"Yo mom!" the door swings open and her not-so-little guy is pushing it closed with his foot.
"Here," she croaks.
"Did you see the wind?" he has rosy cheeks, a runny nose and leaves stuck in his hair. She picks out an Oak from behind his ear.
"Jumping in the leaf piles?"
"Yeah!" She impulsively kisses the top of his messy head and hugs him close.
"Eww. Gross, mom! Stop," he whines at her, not struggling as hard as he protests.
"Dinner's almost ready. Go wash your hands, please." He walks out of the room as she is contemplating locking him inside the house until he's thirty.