Beautiful Tiger

Chapter 8.

Friday, I was beginning to feel lonely with no roommate, no irritably over protective mom calling or texting, no surprise pop ups from my only friend Alex, no mysterious show ups from Hunter, and with classes having been cancelled for the last few days for safety reasons. Even the hiding of the sun behind thick grey clouds made me feel lonely.

It rained harder this day, more than it had any of the other days. The thunder was strong and horrifying, and the lightning was so frequent. Another person had been killed. Then my mom had finally text me to ask if I was okay in this harsh weather. I reassured her that classes were cancelled and that I was hanging out inside for the time being, being a couch potato.

You would have thought it was eight in the evening, when it was really three o'clock in the afternoon. The day was dark and gloomy. Then it just so happens when my phone was on four percent, on my way to go grab my charger, the electricity went out. The lamp blew out, the TV went blank, and the digital clock as well. And what was even worse news was when I realized that my laptop was dead, so that wasn't even an option to charge my phone.

I peered out the front door, into the corridor to see a completely dark hall except for the window at the very end. People were starting to open their doors too, making me close mine. This was bad luck, because now I was powerless, phone-less, food-less, perplexed, and nervous from being in the complete darkness and alone. Of course, it was like this at night before I went to sleep, but now I had not even my phone for some comfort.

What if there was an emergency?

Then I remembered my mom had given me candles and a lighter incase of an emergency like having the power go out.

I burned my finger when I tried to light the candle without the guidance of light. I lit only one, because I remembered when our house burned down on Christmas Eve when I was ten with too many candles lit. It wasn't a great memory. That was one of the many worst days of my life. I was a kid without a home or a Christmas. We started the new year homeless too.

I sat in the half darkness, lost in my thoughts for what seemed like an hour.

It was hardly audible through the harsh storm as the campus intercoms sounded, "We're aware that power has gone out in many parts of the school. Please stop calling the main office. We are currently trying to figure out the technically difficulties." They repeated that a few times just incase some hadn't quite heard. "For those without power, please hang in there for a couple hours, or please make your way to the auditorium for lunch and a movie." Boy did I wish I was one of those few with electricity.

The voice in the intercom was repeating the second half for the third time when the voice sizzled, then stopped mid sentence. The weather was ridiculously, ridiculous. Not even the intercoms worked anymore.

The knock at my door was inaudible to me until the person got the memo that I could not hear them, and started banging on my door so harshly as if they were the FBI.

I swung open the door, holding the candle, and the person seemed to be shining their phone's flash light in my face. I was squinting, until the person held their phone flashlight between us so that I could see him and he could see me.

"Hey, Alex. What are you doing here?" I decently smiled.

He smirked, wet hair drooping into his eye. It was a change from seeing his hair gelled into spikes. "Well, I was in my dorm that happens to have power, getting ready to leave when I heard that this building didn't have power."

"And you automatically thought of me?"

"No... Well, yeah."

"Well... Okay," I smiled, slightly flattered. Someone cared about me.