First and Last (Love and Hate Book 1)

Chapter 22

Beth has been weird and Landon has been even weirder. Landon has spent the past few days doting over her like she was dying.

Things have been weird between Hayden and I too. I planned on talking about our relationship on our ice skating date, but between my epic fall and dealing with Beth, the moment just never happened.

Then there's Christmas. It's 20 days away and none of us have acknowledged it. The four of us decided months ago we were going to do a gift exchange. We draw names and get the person we draw a gift. Then we get each person a small gift under $20 and put them in our stockings.

We have it all planned, but we haven't talked about it. Things have been so tense since Halloween that we can barely stand to all be in a room together, let alone sit around and draw names out of a hat.

We need to get our shit dealt with before it's too late.

I was sitting on the couch with Hayden deep in thought when there was a pounding on the front door. I jumped up and answered the door.

Standing at the door were Bridget and Josie. They were both shivering and wet.

"What's with the wet dog look?" Bridget shoved past me and took her coat off and then preceded to throw it on the kitchen counter.

"Have you looked outside?" I shook my head, "Well, go look out the window." I went to the window and frowned.

"Holy shit!" There was a full-on blizzard outside. I grabbed my phone and checked the weather. It's -4° F. I honestly don't remember the last time we had a blizzard like this. It's bad.

"Yeah, Bridg and I were at lunch and on the way back that happened. We couldn't see a foot in front of us. It was terrifying and we were basically right in front of your apartment, so can we stay here until it clears up?"

"Of course, I'll go get you guys some dry clothes." I ran to my room and grabbed two pairs of sweats and two t-shirts.

"So, since we are all trapped in here, why don't we watch a movie?" Josie suggested.

"Sounds good to me, let me go get Beth and Landon," Hayden said before running off. Soon all six of us were on the couch watching Pitch Perfect. Six people on our couch were kind of a lot.

We were just getting to the final performance when suddenly we were thrust into darkness. Then suddenly there was a deafening scream.

"Jesus, Josie get it together." I heard Bridget groan.

"Beth, do we have any flashlights?" I asked knowing the power wasn't going to be coming back anytime soon. This happens sometimes when the weather gets intense. The power tends to go out when there is heavy rain, lots of wind, or crazy snow. When it goes out, it's usually out for 6 to 12 hours.

In other words, we are in for the long haul.

"The linen closet next to Hayden's room has a couple. There's a whole bunch of candles." I nodded, grabbing my phone and turning the flashlight on.

"Come on Hayden, help me grab them." We got to the closet and sure enough, there were two big flashlights and a dozen bath and body works candles, "Beth, why do you have so many candles?" She shrugged sheepishly.

"There was a sale." I rolled my eyes and grabbed the lighter I keep in my bedroom desk. Then I lit the candles and started setting them around the house.

Three in the bathroom, two in the kitchen, two in each bedroom. Then I took the flashlights and set them up in the living room so the light spread all around. I finished it off by setting the remaining candle on the living room table.