Fireside secrets

Lights out.

I took a breath and let it out in a whoosh.

After ending the call with April, I tried to find a memory of the last time her and I had been close. It had been a very long time.

She went off to Europe instead of going to college. My parents fully supported her decision.

What I didn't know was that my ex Adam Wilson was living abroad as well.

He never spoke to me again after my second year of college. When we broke up, we lost all contact.

Apparently...he took a fellowship in Greece where he worked on his doctorate in climate change.

April was traveling through Greece at the same time Adam was. It must be fate, though I knew it was planned.

I suspected Adam liked my sister even back in the early days when we were together.

But truthfully, to say we were together as a couple, it was a farce.

I could never seem to let myself relax enough to have s*x with him, or anyone.

It was a big area of contention for us. He stormed out of my room that night and hooked right up with my only sister April.

My friend Amanda sent me a few pictures of them making out in a bar. They weren't secretive about it.

I had confronted her at the time, but she swore she wasn't interested in my ex.

My my how the truth comes out when it's presented in picture form.

My heart broke twice that day.

Now they were engaged, boy that was a slap in the face.

I took a hot bath and a couple tylenol, my head was splitting open.

When dinner time rolled around, I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed to care about food.

Now I was starting to settle into a pity party of depression thinking about dumb Adam.

I fell asleep for a while, then the power went out. I woke up with a start. It was getting very cold now.

I guess I better get up and try the generator or something.

I put on several layers of clothing to keep warm and heard the men talking down in the commons as I walked towards them.

Walking down the wide staircase, I was eager to see what we were doing about the black out.

" I can't get ahold of any of the maintenance crew. Lines are down." The Coach said.

The Jock replied,"Well let's pull the fire alarm, then someone will come for sure."

They both chuckled at this and the coach slapped the jock on his broad shoulders. "Good plan."

I referred to them in simple terms of coach and Jock as they were deep in these roles that men play.

Hugging myself I contradicted them with what I knew about this school.

" Bad idea boys, see the fire department won't prioritize the alarm because this school is supposedly empty, and number two the alarms have a horrible history of being faulty.

I'm on the school safety committee. We have been working on this issue."

They both looked up at me now and seemed surprised that I would know anything.

" Well let's try it anyway." Jock said reaching for the pull alarm on the wall.

" Wait! Please. Once you pull that we won't be able to easily reset it. The alarm is faulty, I told you!"

He pulled it anyway. The loud shrill alarm sounded, emergency lights blinking like strobe lights. The sound was deafening.

I shook my head and made my way towards the basement.

The generator was in there.

I didn't know how to start it, but I would try.

Neither one of the boys followed me, a useless girl down to the dark basement.

The only light came from the fire alarm strobes, it was creepy as f**k.

I pulled an emergency flashlight from the wall. The safety commitee installed them last year so I knew where most of them were.

I found the generator and read the old, dusty instructions.

Push button and hold until the motor turns over, then release.

I followed the instructions, surprisingly the damn thing started right up.

The emergency lights clicked on.

Then I reset the fire alarm. It was still activated, but silently now. Not sure how long the battery would last.

After I made my way back into the commons, I found the boys gathering food from the coffee shop, my work place.

"Whoah! what are you doing?" I put my hands on my hips to stop them from looting.

" We are surviving. We need to eat Jan." Coach said as he opened a bag of chips.

I grabbed the chips from his hands. " No!"

He grabbed them back.

" Yes." He said with a growl to his stomach.

I could see that they were both starving.

"Fine, just keep a tally of everything you take so we can pay for it. And...the name is January, not Jan."

He munched on his chips and nodded in agreement.

I left them to check on the water pump. If the power goes out, so does the water unless you override the system to the back up.

I also knew I had to go outside to turn off the natural gas. It was protocol. If the pilot lights go out, we have leaking gas in the building.

The boys watched me put on my coat and head out the front door, flashlight in hand.

Coach crumpled his empty chip bag as he threw it at Jock.

" I think she is trying to escape without us." He grinned.

They went to the door, looking out into the white flurry.

Just as they began to worry about me, I came running in. My hands were frozen and my face beat red.

" Whoa, did you decide not to escape from this frozen jail?" coach teased as he grabbed me and began to rub my arms and legs vigorously.

" Turned...off...the...gas..." I said as my teeth chattered.

Jock wasn't to be left out as he placed his coat over my shoulders.

" Here Jan, you should let us take care of things around here."

He put his strong arms around me, pulling me away from his coach.

Coach wasn't ready to let me go, he yanked me back towards him and gave me what felt like a TSA pat down.

I was plenty warm now, but I bit my bottom lip and played the female in distress, finding this macho tug of war interesting.

I leaned back into the Jock's chest and put my head down onto the coaches shoulder.

Oh Lord, he smelled like Armani.

The other one...

Calvin Klien obsession....wow.

I finally stopped sniffing them and looked up. They were both staring at me.

" What? Did one of you go into the laundry room or something?" I worried.

Coach shook his head. His wavy brown hair moving in slow motion.

The Jock wrapped his arm around my waist.

He whispered in my ear.

" What are you hiding down there Jan?"

I quickly changed the subject and tried to move away.

" Anyone like barbecue? We have frozen burgers in the walk in. Should I make us some real food. I'll pay for it of course."

The Jock let me go admitting that he was starving.

The Coach offered to help me.

Between the two of them, I was pretty entertained. It was nice to feel wanted.

I turned to go into the kitchen, bumping directly into the hard back of the coach. He turned and looked down at me apologizing.

" Sorry, I didn't want to slip on the floor like you did earlier."

I blushed remembering my embarrassing fall.

I put my head down and scooted past him.

" It's all cleaned up, no worries now." I said, then tripped on the floor mat.

Fuck!

Of course I had to look like the clutz in front of coach sexy pants.