A Fortunate Blizzard Ch. 02

In my suddenly darkened bedroom, Kelsea nuzzled my ear and whispered, "Neat trick," just as I had started kissing along the nape of her neck. But it was not of my doing. And soon I heard a cry of alarm and then faint thud from down the hallway. Zoey's voice rose up, laced with a bit of pain - "Hey! What happened to zee lights!?"

I broke enough away from Kelsea to make a better survey of what was happening. Not the easiest thing to do when I had a beautiful woman in my arms and her hand down my pants, stroking my rapidly rising erection.

There was little more than inky blackness in my room, and the hallway outside was in deep shadows. But at the far end of the corridor, where the stairway led downward, grayish light came from below. All the lights were out on the top floor. I knew what had happened. An all too common event in this old house with its antiqued wiring.

"A fuse blew."

In the shadowy dark, Kelsea's lips found mine. "No big deal then," she murmured.

Nicole's voice filtered up from the floor below. She sounded irritated and angry. "Hey! What's hell is going on!? A bunch of lights went off down here."

Zoey joined in, "I still can't zee anything!"

Our upstairs bathroom had no windows. With the door closed, it would be in utter blackness. As much as I didn't want to stop with Kelsea, I let go of her. Pulling my hands away from her delightfully shaped ass.

"We blew a fuse! Knocked most of the lights!" I shouted loud enough for everyone in the house to hear. "Give me a few minutes and I can swap it out!"

My eyes had adjusted some to the very dim light still streaming from downstairs. Even so, as Kelsea clung to me, I could only faintly make her out. But I clearly heard the pouting in her voice as she whispered, "Aw, I can think of something else to blow."

Her hand gave my shaft a playful squeeze, and I let out a soft groan. "Zoey can wait a bit," she whispered seductively in my ear. That was all it took to convince me. My hands returned to stroking her backside when my luck took another turn for the worse. The phone rang.

The ring of multiple cordless phones chiming together, echoing throughout the house. Power might be down in part of the old farmhouse. However, clearly, the central base station was still working, and the battery-powered cordless receivers functioned flawlessly.

"Ignore it," commanded Kelsea as she began pulling my pants down.

But then more bad news came. Nicole's still aggravated voice rose up in urgency, she sounded close to the bottom of the stairs. "Josh! The caller ID says it's Ben Olson! Your dad, right?"

Indeed Ben Olson was my father. He was calling to check up on me.

"Shit!" I hissed.

The phone rang again. A loud, insistent noise. I tried to remove Kelsea's hand from my underwear and pull up my pants, but she was making it difficult. She tickled my thigh and giggled like a schoolgirl. "Oh, come on, Josh," she silkily breathed into my ear. "You can call him back."

Tempting as Kelsea's suggestion was, not answering my dad's call would cause my parents to worry about their baby boy. In turn, they would then make calls to neighbors and relatives. Kicking off a wave of attention that I didn't want to deal with. Sometimes it sucked to be the youngest.

"Trust me on this, let me take the call." I managed to extract myself from Kelsea and give her a quick kiss. "I'll make it up to you."

In the dim darkness, Kelsea sat down on the edge of my bed, folded her arms, and offered a pouty reply, "You'd better."

Another ring reverberated around the house. One more and it would head off to voice mail. Buttoning my jeans, I hustled out of my room. The nearest receiver was in my parent's bedroom. I navigated the shadowy hallway to my folks' room with relative ease. Growing up, power outages from the old house's wiring was all too common. I knew how to get around without light. Nonetheless, I still stubbed my toe into my parent's bed as I rushed in to grab the phone.

"Ow, damn it," I grunted as I pressed the call button just as the fourth ring began.

From the speaker, I heard the tinny voice of my dad echo out, "Josh? Josh, are you alright?" He sounded worried.

"No, no," I gasped as I put the receiver up to my ear. "I just banged my foot as I ran to get the phone."

"We tried calling your cell, but couldn't get through," came my dad's still concerned voice. "Is everything alright up there?"

With the pain in my big toe aching along and a still fading hard-on, I forced myself to take a moment to calm down. "Um...Well...The storm is hitting pretty hard; the nearest cell tower is probably down."

"Ah," replied my dad in understanding. "We'd heard that the weather was getting worse. I wanted to make sure you were doing alright. You just stayed at home today?"

"Nowhere for me to go," I answered.

Abruptly, a rectangle of white light flared into existence in the hallway outside. To my light-starved eyes, it was a brilliant beacon, forcing the darkness away. Zoey was revealed as the source of the light. She was holding up a cell phone, it's screen facing away from her, providing the illumination. Giving me a questioning look, she was about to speak when I silently shook my head and pointed to the phone. Trying to explain about Nicole, her friends, and what I was about ready to do with one of those said friends was not something I wanted to get into with my father.

From the receiver, my dad joked, "Your mom was worried you'd try to take her car to get out of the house."

"Not in this weather. Nobody is going anywhere. Even the highway is shut down," I replied as Zoey entered the room. She lowered the cell phone, and it's beam lit up the floor. Moving nearly silently, she came up to me as my dad recalled a similar storm when he was my age. Stopping before me, Zoey began to snicker as she pointed at my crotch.

"I think you were having zome fun with Kelsea," she whispered with a light laugh.

I looked down and saw my fly was open. In my rush to get here, I had not zipped up. With the zipper open, a view of my boxers twisted about from Kelsea's handiwork was more than enough to let Zoey figure out what we'd been up to.

"What was that?" asked my dad.

"Nothing, nothing," I hurriedly replied as I fixed my mistake with the zipper. This only encouraged further laughter from Zoey. I retreated to keep the sound of her amusement away from the phone and get a little bit of my dignity back. Changing topics, hopefully, to distract my father, I asked how things were going with Chet's family.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and I began to worry my dad was growing suspicious. But then he said, "They're...fine."

It seemed to me there was a lot of weight in those two words. I sought a bit of enlightenment in a one-word question. "Problems?"

Now it was my dad's voice that lowered, becoming almost a whisper. "Between you and me, Chet's parents are two of the most prissy assholes I've ever met. Do nothing but talk down to your mom and me. Think you had it right to stay home."

"Sorry," I offered apologetically. Not that I was even remotely surprised. "You still planning to be back Sunday?"

"Yes," sighed my father. Obviously not pleased with spending another day with Chet's stuck up family.

A length of silence stretched out between my dad and me. I deiced it was best to wrap the phone call up before something else went wrong, or Zoey decided she wanted to cause me further embarrassment. "Hey, dad, a fuse blew out just before you called. I was going to take care of it."

"Oh, is it bad?"

"Just the lights in some of the rooms, no big deal."

"Well, I'll let you go then," my dad replied. "Remember if you run into problems, there's old Joe down the road. He can help you out."

"Right, right," I said quickly. Desperately wanting to get this call finished.

"Okay, take care, Josh."

"Bye, Dad," I offered, and the line dropped to dial tone.

Returning the phone to its charging station, Zoey came over to me. With only the cell phone for light, she was just a shadowy silhouette in the room.

"You're family es gone till Sunday?" she asked.

"Umm, yeah, down in Chicago with my sister's fiancé's family."

"Ah," breathed Zoey as she stood mere inches from me. Her flora perfume tickled my nose. "That ez nice of them. You didn't want to go?"

"It's a long story. What it comes down to, I don't think much of Lisa's fiancé. His name is Chet." I paused for a moment, thinking of how my sister's life might sound to someone outside my family and from another country. "My sister hasn't had the best luck with men. She's had her heartbroken. All through high school, she had a boyfriend. Tom and she were inseparable. Everyone figured they were going to get married. Then Lisa went off to college, and Tom decided to stay here. They were doing the whole long-distance thing and seemed like it was working for them. But then when she came home for spring break, she caught him cheating on her. Lisa was utterly devastated. I was just a freshman in high school, and I never saw her so upset."

"It took time, but Lisa moved on. She had a few relationships in college, but nothing stuck. After graduation, Lisa threw herself into her job. That's how she met Chet. He's the big advertising exec at her firm. He swooped in and has been all suave and romantic. It's like a dream come true for Lisa. But to me, Chet is a..." I stopped and asked Zoey, "My French isn't all that great. What's the word for douche-bag in your country?"

"Connard," answered Zoey with a firm nod.

"Yeah, he's a real connard."

In the dim light, Zoey's face grew pensive. "Have you talked to your sister about et? Tried to help her zee the truth? Or your parents?"

"I've tried. But Lisa doesn't want to listen. I think my dad also sees Chet in the same way. But he just wants Lisa to be happy, and unfortunately, Chet makes her happy."

"Sad," replied Zoey with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry, Josh. All I can zay is don't give up. Keep trying to zell Lisa who Chet really ez."

She gave me a gentle squeeze on my arm. It was not flirtatious, merely comforting. Appreciating the gesture, I lightly touched Zoey's hand in return. It wasn't lost on me that I was once again in a darkened room with a beautiful and charming woman on my arm. But talking to my dad and then Zoey about Chet had left me feeling a little deflated. My luck seemed to keep flip-flopping back and forth. One moment I'm with Kelsea, ready to jump into bed, the next I'm on the phone listening to my dad complain about the future in-laws.

"I should probably take care of the lights." I hesitated. "Umm, Kelsea is in my room. I'll be back here in just a few minutes," I added, a bit lamely.

Yet Zoey was back to the all too friendly smiles that made me blush. "Don't worry about et, Josh. We'll be waiting."

I headed out, making my way towards the stairs. I was nearly down the first flight when Zoey's words finally settled in mind - 'We'll be waiting.' What did she exactly mean by that? Kelsea and Zoey together. In my bedroom. Was she really suggesting they would both be there waiting for me? As in a threesome? Stuff like that didn't really happen. At least not to me.

Racing to the end of the steps, I headed towards the basement. The main fuse box for the house was located there. The old cellar was split into two halves, one half was full of junk from years and years of storage. My dad always claimed he was going to clean it up one day. So far, it had never happened. The storage half full of aging furniture, dusty camping gear, some yellowing old newspapers, and toys that Lisa and I hadn't touched in over a decade. The other half was the furnace. A massive tomb of pipes and duct-works laced into a huge boiler.

My destination was next to the furnace. I had to weave my way around the rumbling behemoth to get to it. As I went, I considered Kelsea and Zoey. Kelsea was fun and carefree, and she already made it abundantly clear she wanted me. And Zoey was french, exotic and beautiful. A hook up with her would be more than pleasant.

I popped open the cover to the fuse box. Power outage due to the house's antiquated wiring was a common occurrence. We had a stockpile of fuses here for replacement. Everyone in the family knew the routine. I could practically do it in my sleep. A quick survey of the round metal and glass fuses revealed the offending circuit. Removing it, I screwed the new fuse into the socket, I heard an audible click from floorboards above me. Confirming the lights were back on. I closed the fuse box, and the lid snapped shut.

Fantasies of both Kelsea and Zoey - either entwined together on my bed or separate as they waited to take turns with me, filled my head. I realized I was getting ahead of myself, but I didn't really care. In a hurry, I quickly retraced the path around the noisy furnace as I made my way back towards the basement door. I climbed the steps two at time. I couldn't help but wonder how my luck would turn out.

As it were, my luck was fated to take a bit of a detour. Back on the main floor, I headed towards the stairway up to my bedroom, up to Zoey and Kelsea. As I did, I passed the living room and caught sight of Nicole sitting on the couch. It was her face that drew my attention. She was so sad. And then I noticed her eyes, and that stopped me cold. She was near tears, and I knew Nicole Booker was not one to cry so easily. I had seen she had been upset over the prospect of calling her parents. Just how bad had it been?

Thoughts of the two ladies upstairs warred with my concern for Nicole. From the couch, Nicole looked up and saw me standing in the hallway. She made a quick motion with the back of the hand at her eyes to hide the tears. But I had seen them, and I found I couldn't ignore it. Kelsea and Zoey would have to wait.

"You okay?" I asked as I entered the living room.

"Yeah..." began Nicole with a fake cheery smile, but she could not commit to the lie. Her face fell back into downcast misery. "No," she finished faintly.

I sat down beside her, not entirely sure what to say. I decided to go with a more direct path. "You want to talk about it?"

Nicole let out a long breath, which came almost out like a groan. "Oh, not much to talk about, you know. Just my parents are probably going to get divorced."

Her admission nearly floored me. I had assumed Nicole was upset from getting chewed out by her father over wreaking her car. Not that her parents' marriage was ending. Not able to keep the surprise out of my voice, I blurted out, "Just because you crashed into a ditch?"

She looked at me for a moment with a puzzled frown. Shaking her head, Nicole explained. "No, not that. Of course, my dad was mad, but that's nothing new. He did a lot of screaming about how I should have known better, and the cost of repairs would be coming out of my savings. Honestly, I think he was more concerned about the car than me. His own daughter!" She spat out the last two words with a particular amount of venom. Then letting out another sigh, she bit back some of her anger. "It's just while he was yelling at me on the phone, I can hear my mom screaming at him in background. Pretty soon, it's the two of them shouting at each other, they're completely ignoring me. I hung up, and I don't think they'll be calling me back."

"Damn, Nicole, I'm really sorry," I offered a bit lamely, uncertain of what else to say. "Is it...I don't know... maybe just stress from the holidays?"

Nicole made a little shrug of her shoulders. "It's been going on for a while now. Really ever since I went off to college. Every time I would come home, it would get a little bit worse. More fighting. Longer uncomfortable silences when they wouldn't speak to each other. Then last month, they flew me home for Thanksgiving. Their way of making it up to me. My mom giving lots of promises about how they had patched things up. It didn't take long for me to realize that was all bullshit."

"I'm surprised you'd want to come back for winter break."

"I didn't," replied Nicole in a small voice. "But dad insisted. Cause he always has to be right." She let out another plaintive sigh. "I dreaded the idea of being home alone with them. That's why I talked Kelsea and Zoey into coming home with me." She let out a bitter laugh, "Misery loves company."

I still really didn't know what to say to Nicole. I had no idea her family life had gotten so bad. But then again, I had not made much effort to stay in contact since graduation. As we sat there, both silent with our thoughts, I started to come to a conclusion there likely was not much I could say. Not sure if it was the right thing to do, I put my arm around Nicole and held her close. At first, she stiffened in surprise, but then when she realized I wasn't doing anything more than giving her a comforting hug, she relaxed and leaned against me, pressing the side of her face into my shoulder,

"This supposed to be big strong Josh taking care of pathetic little Nicole?" she asked into my shirt. There wasn't any irritation in her voice. If anything, she sounded curious about my action.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Truthfully, I figured it was better than saying sorry a bunch of times. Or blubbering about how it will all work out in the end."

"It is," she confirmed, and in turn, she snaked her arm behind my back to hold on to me. We sat there on the couch, hugging each other for a while. Neither one of us speaking at all. A small part of me still wanted to go upstairs and check in on Kelsea and Zoey, but mostly I just wanted to comfort Nicole. Yet, even as I was playing mister-nice-guy, I could help but notice the pressure of one of Nicole's big boobs against my arm. So soft and warm.

With her face still partially obscured by my t-shirt, I felt a little hint of laughter come from Nicole. "What?" I asked.

"Jimmy Brenner," she chuckled lightly. "All this started because I wanted to get out of my house and away from my parents." Lifting her head up from my shoulder, she fixed me with a more serious gaze. "Yeah, I know he's a prick. And his party would just be the losers he now hangs out with. But I wanted to feel like I was back in high school. Back when things were happy and normal."

"We're only two years out, already feeling nostalgic?"

Her eyes searched my face, seemingly seeking if I was serious as she was. "Don't you miss it?"

"Yeah, somethings," I agreed. "My friends and family stuff. Things were easier when we were there. But at the same time, I'm kinda glad it's over. There's..." I hesitated, trying to get the right words. Nothing really came to me. "...Just so much more to the world, you know, than high school."

Nicole's face fell. "Figures, I guess. You got the more hellish version. You were glad when it was over. I mean, you had to go through four years of trying to find your place in a bunch of cliché cliques all the while putting up with stupid jocks like Jimmy or pretentious bitches like me."

Surprised by Nicole's account of our time in school, I pulled away from her to directly face her. "You weren't like that."

"Yes, I was," she insisted. "I was the elite of our little social pyramid. I landed at the top without any real effort. Parents' had money, and I had my looks, and everything fell into place for me. I didn't realize how easy I had it until it had gone away." Her eyes cast downward, and she began staring a hole into the living room floor. "I looked down on everyone else. Even you."

"Hey," I started a bit awkwardly, "You were never that mean to me."

"No, I was worse. I ignored you. I've been thinking about it tonight since I told everyone about you helping me find Buster. When we were kids, you were my friend." She sniffed miserably. "Then, we got older, and I pushed you away." Sniffling again, Nicole managed to look up, and I could see the tears were beginning to form anew. "Remember when you tried to ask me out when we were freshmen? How awful I was to you? And I only did it because my so-called friends were telling me to."