Snowed In | Short Story

Snowed In

"It's no use," Sal declares, slamming the phone down onto the small table beside the door. The glass vase wiggles along with the table at the force of his fist hitting the wooden frame. "They can't get anyone up here until late tomorrow morning or even after."

Everyone groans when the words come out of Sal's mouth. It's not his fault, it's no ones fault specifically, no one knew this would happen. The snow just happened to pick up heavily as we stayed in-doors. We (Sal, Joe, James, Chris, Brian, and I) came up North to a small cabin Chris' father owns to celebrate her uncle Joe's birthday. We were supposed to go back home today, but a snow storm picked up, which was why we were going to leave so we could get out of here before it hit, and the snow has unfortunately blocked most roadways and has blocked our entire door. We were snowed in, and there's no way for us to get out until the ranger can come help us, which will be tomorrow.

Brian looks down at me and smiles. "Think you can make it another night?"

I smile back and laugh. "Yeah, I think I can."

He shoots me a small wink and walks over to the fireplace.

Joe and James take a seat on the burgundy colored couch and stare at the fireplace. "Turn it on," James mutters to Joe, and Joe silently stands and grabs lighter fluid and the box of matches, and after a few seconds of tampering with the objects, the room lights up in an orange glow. I attempt to look out the visible portion of the window, which was the upper corner, and stand on my tip-toes trying to see through. The sun was just now going down and it was beginning to get dark. Luckily, we won't have to wait so long for tomorrow to come around so we can get out of here, but even then, it's still another night in this frozen getaway.

The air is cold as we all sit down somewhere in the small area that is the living room. I pull my sweater sleeves over my frozen fingertips and sit at the base of the couch on the patterned carpet. My feet are stretched in front of me near the open flame to heat my body up. I glance around the room at everyone; no one was talking. The room is so quiet, the only sound is the sound of the wood cracking and crunching. I see Chris sitting on the other couch near Sal, and Brian sits just a few inches away from me on the carpet as well. He has one leg brought up near his chest and the other stretched in front of him. I look him over for a few mere seconds, taking in his features. 'He looks so handsome', I think to myself, but then I focus on the orange flames and push the thought aside.

The quietness is rather awkward, and I can see the anxious look on Sal's face. Sal was always anxious when activities didn't go as planned, especially since Sal doesn't like going to places he doesn't think are all too clean or hasn't been before. This cabin is one of those places.

"Fart noise," Joe's voice ignites the room the same way the orange glow did earlier. And it's those two simple words that erupt the entire room into laughter. My stomach aches by the time I stop laughing and Sal is on the ground when the laughing stops. Joe broke the silence so easily, and suddenly we were all talking. We told jokes and stories for a few hours until eventually Chris fell asleep on the couch wrapped in her oversized sweater. James fell asleep sitting upright with pillows in his hands.

There are two other bedrooms in this cabin, and I'm going to take one of them. I can hear small snores coming from behind me, and I see Joe asleep on the ground with a large pillow underneath his head. Sal, Brian, and I are all still awake, but I just want to sleep at this point. The room has gotten even colder, and the fireplace has done nothing to heat up the room.

"I'm getting that other bedroom, sorry Brian," Sal laughs and Brian chuckles.

"Take my bedroom," I offer to him. "I'll sleep out here, you need a comfy bed." I smile genuinely. Although I wanted the room, my kindness seeps out to offer it to Brian instead.