"You usually wait for me to do the laundry."
"Oh, sorry did you say something?"
"Why do I bother talking when you're reading?"
She smiled as she put down her book. "Well Nick, if it makes you feel better this is only the first load." Rachel jumped down from the dryer so now she was standing in front of me in the crammed space. There was something different in her green eyes when I stared down into them. Something I don't even remember seeing in them ever. Her lips opened like they wanted to say something, but couldn't. The same lips that haven't touched mine since the time she came back to me when she was at Holly's house after I turned on her. Too long.
Knowing her, she was going to say something about last night. Also knowing her I wasn't going to like what she was going to say. So I had to find something, anything to get away from this. I had to pretend to have a Rachel moment. I had to change the subject.
"Nick-"
"We should find out what's behind this door."
There was a door that Rachel and I haven't been through. No one we knew had been through the doors, and only some of the homes seemed to have an extra room. Just like only some homes had a washer and dryer set. I hadn't wanted to see what was in it without her and she always seemed preoccupied. That and she would not go somewhere colder.
I took Rachel's small hand and dragged her through the door. Rachel found the light switch on the side of the wall, a dangling light came on. What was in the room wasn't what I had been expecting.
There in front of us was a small baby crib and a few boxes. There were a few other baby things I remembered my cousins using, but I forgot the names of what they were. I could feel Rachel let go of my hand to walk over to the boxes. She tried to start to rip some open frantically, but she couldn't get them open. I made my way to Rachel and ripped it open for her.
In the box were baby clothes. The tiny clothes seemed to tease Rachel as she backed up until she hit the crib. She let out a small scream when she realized it was the crib. I put my arms around Rachel and she had her head against my chest while shaking a little. Rachel just shook her head and pushed herself away from me and ran up the stairs.
I turned to scan around the room. The baby stuff had been and would forever be collecting dust. This was the final coffin nail that would kill the chances of Rachel and I ever getting close again. I gradually closed the door, knowing deep down the stuff would probably never need to be used.
The days passed by and the weather was getting worse, even though it was this late in winter. Bad snow storms were threatening our area. Being Rachel, she didn't believe the weather people. Yet, they proved they were right for once that night.
The wind was blowing so hard even before it started to snow so harshly that I couldn't see out of the windows. The TV went fuzzy on and off when Rachel was in the shower. The lights in the house started to flicker. The power blinked before completely turning off. All the power in the house was dead and I heard Rachel scream.
A minute later I heard Rachel stomping by mumbling and the sink in the kitchen being turned on. I stumbled in to the kitchen trying not to walk into anything so I had my hands feeling around the furniture and walls in an attempt to not go head first into one again. It was too dark so I couldn't see what she was doing.
"Rachel what are you doing?"
"I'm finishing getting the conditioner out of my hair. There, good enough."
"Do you have any idea where any candles are or a flashlight is?"
"Nope, do you?"
"Take my hand and we'll look together."
"Um, where's your hand, Nick?"
I could faintly see Rachel's small frame in the dark so I put my hand on her shoulder. The fuzziness of her sweater brushed beneath my finger tips. I trailed my hand down her arm until I was about to find her hand. When I felt her hand in mine we made our way into the living room and stopped.
"What should we do Nick?"
"We could start a fire in this thing they call a fire place until we find something else to use."
"So at least we have warmth along with light. What are we going to start a fire with?"
I remembered Rachel had left one of her notebooks on the couch that she had left out from earlier. I felt around till I found it. I started to rip pages out of the back and put them into the fire place. I hoped I hadn’t ripped any of the pages she had her homework on because she would kill me, literally too knowing my luck.
"Now what, genius, we don't have matches."
I turned to glare at her, but remembered we couldn't see each other.
"I have a lighter alright."
"Why do you have a lighter?"
I let go of her hand. I got down and knelt in front of the fireplace to start a fire.
"Dill and Mark told us you should always have a lighter in case the chick smokes. Amanda and her friends smoked around me and they relied on me for the lighter. I guess I've never really stopped carrying it around out of habit."
"We're girls, not chicks," Rachel whispered
I smiled as the wind hit the house harder. Rachel jumped down to be sitting on the floor next to me. "It's alright, Rachel, everything will be alright and we'll be fine."
27
Rachel
It was extremely cold outside and almost as icy inside the house with snow pounding against the window frames
