2. Marie
MARIE
A voice crashes like thunder.
Where the fuck have you been?
And all of a sudden, I'm back in the apartment, and Ryan is there standing over me, glaring down at me.
I can still smell the fireplace, and I look around, wondering, in horror, where the cabin has gone.
But there is nothing, nobody, no sigh that I even made it out at all. I lift my hands up to defend myself, but I know it is already too late. He glares down at me, eyes nearly back with fury, raises his hand, and?—
“Hey.”
“Oh, God!”
I sit bolt-upright, snapped out of that horrifying nightmare by the sound of a voice.
I look around, and it takes me a moment to realize that I'm not back in the apartment again.
I'm in that cabin, in the middle of the woods, and, judging by the blazing whiteness pouring in through the windows, I would say that the blizzard has hardly let up yet, either.
I sink back against the couch, hand on my chest, trying to bring myself back down to earth. Behind me, I can feel someone watching me, and I finally turn once I have gathered myself enough to see Gavin standing over me, expression unreadable.
“Sorry, I–I didn’t mean to sleep so late,” I blurt out, and he furrows his brow at me as I spring to my feet, hastily re-arranging the covers as if I can apologize for my very presence there.
“I didn’t say you had to leave at a certain time,” he reminds me. “Besides, you're not going anywhere right now. Not with the way it is out there.”
I peer out of the window, and raise my eyebrows when I see just what he is talking about. Snow has piled up in heaps as far as I can see, tree boughs bowed low with the weight of the blizzard, which looks as though it is still ongoing. I bite my lip, trying to figure out what to say.
“I should go check on my car,” I offer finally. “I?—”
“I already did. It’s fucked.”
I groan, slumping back on to the couch. Last thing I fucking need.
I thought I would at least make it to Louisville, where my sister lives, but now, I don’t know how the hell I'm going to manage. I have no money, no job, no contacts, my phone is barely hanging on as it is. Maybe I shouldn’t have left the apartment in the first place.
No, I can’t think like that. If I had stayed, I knew I would never have been able to forgive myself. I need to get on with my life. And I can’t do that with Ryan hanging over me, controlling every aspect of my damn life.
“Is there a bus or something that runs through here?” I ask hopefully. “I–I was hoping to get to Louisville by the end of the week.”
He shakes his head again.
“Not in this weather,” he replies curtly. “Won’t be until the roads are cleared.”
“And when’s that going to be?”
“Could be a few days, could be a couple of weeks.”
I rub my hand over my face, trying to take it all in. It’s not exactly what I wanted to hear, but then, it feels like nothing has gone my damn way.
I can feel him watching me, and, when I open my eyes, I sit up straight, suddenly feeling a little too exposed under his gaze.
“Thank you for last night,” I tell him, rising to my feet, fussing with my bag to keep myself busy. “I don’t want to bother you anymore. My sister, she lives in Louisville, and if I can just give her a call?—”
“No cell service out here.”
“Yeah, I figured,” I reply, glancing towards my phone. “But there must be somewhere I can get signal, right?”
“Maybe. I don’t use that kind of thing.”
I stare at him for a moment, sure that I have heard him wrong.
“You don’t use a phone?”
He shakes his head.
“Don’t have anyone who’d want to contact me. Or anyone I’d want to hear from, for that matter.”
“Not even your family? Your friends?”
He shakes his head again. I expect to see at least some sadness on his face at the revelation, but to my surprise, there is none.
“Oh, okay,” I murmur. “Well, maybe when the storm eases, I can take the phone out, see if I can get any signal?”
“Sure,” he replies, and he pauses, crossing his arms over his chest. “You want something to eat?”
I nod, and peer up over the back of the couch as he heads back to the kitchen.
I just can't get over how kind he is being to me.
And for what? What does he expect to get out of this?
I watch him carefully, trying to parse what is really going on here, and he looks back over his shoulder to catch me staring.
“What is it?”
He is blunt with his words, clearly seeing no reason to dance around the point. I take a deep breath. If we are going to be stuck here a little longer, I guess I should be honest with him. Not sure if I even have much of a choice, to be honest.
“I just don’t understand why you’re being so nice to me.”
It sounds stupid, now I’ve said it out loud. He lets out a slight chuckle.
“You expected me to kick you out into the snow?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I just...”
I trail off. I don’t want to dump all my baggage on to him, he has already put up with enough from me as it is. He sets about cooking some eggs, and, with his eyes fixed on the stove in front of him, he replies.
“I figure some girl out here in the middle of a blizzard probably isn’t doing it because she’s having an easy time,” he remarks. “And God knows, we could all use a little help when times are hard, huh?”
I smile. The way he says it sounds simple, but I like the sound of it.
Maybe that’s all I can rely on, these little snatches of kindness from people as I try to make my way through this new life of mine.
And, as I watch him finish cooking breakfast, for the first time something warms in my chest. Not just now I'm out of the snow, but because I'm somewhere I feel safe.
And I'm not sure I have felt that way for a long-ass time.