Moments later the lights flicker, and everyone looks up, a low murmur of panic ensuing.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath, and shoot my gaze to the power lines outside, seeing them already coated with ice.
Olivia’s hand wraps around my arm, and I look down to find her wide, worried eyes looking up at me.
“It’s going to be okay,” I try to reassure her, my arm instinctively circling her waist.
Just as the words leave my lips all the lights go out with a low, ominous droning noise.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I hear Delilah grumble before everyone breaks into a panic.
Twenty-three
Body Heat
“Everyone, stay calm,” Tracy instructs, sounding anything but, her authoritative resolve cracking under the pressure of unforeseen circumstances. “The lights will come back on,” she says optimistically.
We all stand still for a moment, looking up at the lights as if they’ll magically turn back on. With no luck, everyone turns to their phones, typing out frantic texts.
“I guess I should call my parents,” Delilah huffs, looking disappointed.
“I’m sorry, Dee,” Olivia says sympathetically, giving her friend’s arm a reassuring squeeze.
“It’s okay.” Delilah gives a small, halfhearted smile before walking off down the hall for a bit more privacy.
Olivia’s shoulders slump. “I guess I should call my parents too. Hopefully my mom made it home already,” she says, pulling her phone out of her back pocket to check if she has any missed messages. “I’ll be back.” She slips out of my grasp and walks down the hall, opposite to the direction Delilah went.
I take a seat on one of the couches, watching the chaos slowly ensue. There’s about fifty kids loitering around the front entrance of the science building, not knowing what to do or where to go. Then there’s Tracy, sprinting down the hallway to the offices.
I pull out my phone to text Chase and Brennen, seeing if other buildings and the dorms have power. By the sounds of their replies, it seems like there’s a campus-wide power outage.
Olivia reappears, and plops onto the couch beside me, looking bummed.
“Guess we’re not going to English today, huh?” I joke, trying to lighten the mood.
She lets out the tiniest amused huff and pulls out her phone, checking her email. “Professor Hobb just sent out an email thirty minutes ago. Class is canceled for today.”
“Darn.”
She elbows me in the ribs, trying her best to throw me an unamused glare. I grin, slinging my arm around her shoulders and pulling her into my side. She lets out a little shriek of surprise, giggling as she tries to squirm out of my hold.
I feel the couch shift, and Olivia and I both still. Looking down at the opposite end of the couch, I see a pair of beady little eyes staring back at us.
Olivia slips out from under my arm, sitting up straight and fixing her hair. When Delilah appears in front of us, plopping into the armchair across from the couch with a huff, Olivia sits on the edge of her seat, all her attention focused on her distressed best friend.
“Were you able to get a hold of your parents?” Olivia asks.
“Yeah,” Delilah says, dejected. “They told me to stay put and just come home tomorrow whenever the roads are safe again.”
Olivia purses her lips into a remorseful frown. “I’m sorry, Dee. We should have just skipped lab and gone home.”
Delilah shakes her head. “It’s not your fault. I decided to stay too. Maybe it’s better that we did. Who knows what we would have gotten caught in if we’d left a little earlier? At least we’re spending the night in a building instead of in a car on the side of the road somewhere,” she says, trying to be a little optimistic.
My stomach twists uncomfortably at the thought of them driving in this weather, possibly getting stranded on the side of the road. Or worse. Much worse.
“Honestly, these chairs are probably more comfortable than my car seats. So there’s that,” Delilah says, trying to ease some of Olivia’s obvious guilt.
“We’re not spending the night here,” Rat Boy grumbles irritably.
