Seth's Point of View
"The rain will be becoming more intense as the evening goes on. We urge everyone to stay inside and stay safe until this storm dies down," the middle-aged weather man on the TV says.
The doorbell rings and I turn the TV off, the colors fading to black instantly.
The first thing I notice when I open the door is that she's wearing his sweatshirt, just like she was last night. It makes me clench my jaw.
The second thing I notice is that she is drenched head to toe.
"What the fuck, Pey? Did you walk all the way here or something?"
"N-no, I just g-got out of my car. It's pouring c-cats and dogs," she shivers.
I yell upstairs, "Kelly, will you bring down a towel, a t-shirt, and some sweatpants?"
She comes to the landing outside of her bedroom to ask why, but when she sees Peyton she does what I asked.
"I d-don't want to ruin her clothes," Peyton says.
I roll my eyes, "Don't be retarded."
I set her on the couch and cover her with an old blanket, one that my mom wanted to throw away but my dad had some abnormal attachment to the ratty thing.
I watch her as she continues to shiver, even under the warm blanket.
"Do you still like your coffee with milk and a splenda?"
She gives me a small smile, "Some things never change."
"Don't move," I tell her as I head towards the kitchen.
I turn on the Keurig, and put the little container inside to make coffee.
As I start pouring the coffee I hear Kelly scurry down the steps. "You have to change, or you'll just stay frozen," Kelly tells her.
"Don't you dare look, Torres," she croaks over at me, as if I hadn't seen her in her bikini at the beach just a few days ago. It's unlikely I'd ever forget that, never mind after a couple of days.
I don't look, though. I'm not that much of a douche bag. I just sprinkle the packet of splenda into the coffee, and try not to wonder if she'd mind if Miles saw her change.
It doesn't work and soon the question is burned into my mind. Maybe he's already seen her in her underwear? No, Peyton's not the kind of girl to do that with some guy she's been dating a day. However, Miles can be pretty persuasive. Plus, Peyton has a hard time saying no to people.
Maybe for her birthday I could sign her up for martial arts. Would she take a martial arts class? No, probably not.
"She's done changing, you can come in." I shake the questions from my mind and hand Peyton her mug of coffee. I sit down on the floor, because she and Kelly are taking up the couch.
Peyton gives me an apologetic look, "I didn't know it would be that bad walking to the door."
Kelly says exactly what I'm thinking, "It's not your fault our weather is absolute shit."
I punch Kelly in the arm, "No swearing."
Kelly just frowns at me, and it's one of those moments where I'm weirded out by our extreme similarities.
"So, I left my binder in the car, because I knew it would get soaked. I can help you with your part of our project, though," Peyton says, looking more like herself. Then, the lights around us flicker on and off, and then turn off.
"Shit," I mumble.
"No swearing," Kelly says and punches the couch, missing my arm terribly in the darkness.
"Mom keeps some candles in the cabinet over there," I tell them and then stumble over to get them. First I grab the flashlight and hand it to Kelly and Peyton, who followed me clumsily into the kitchen. Then one by one I light four candles and place them on the kitchen counter.
"Well, it doesn't look like we'll be getting too much work down," Peyton says.
Kelly takes the flashlight and starts digging through the fridge pulling out random things like chips and cilantro.
I squint at her through the black, "What are you doing?"
"I'm making salsa!" For a second, I'm about to put her in a damn straight jacket, but then I remember something.
I remember the power going out when we were little kids. Kelly and I were terrified of the thunder from outside, so our parents lit these candles and blasted some old music. We all huddled around the kitchen grinning and making salsa until the power came back one.
"I remember that," I tell her, smiling. It's weird to think back to the times when mom and dad loved us more than their bank accounts.
I set my phone on the counter and turn it up. Kelly starts cutting mangoes and tomatoes into tiny pieces and tossing them together.
I grab Peyton's hand and we dance horribly around the kitchen, howling to an old Beatles song.
"All the lonely people! Where do they all come from?" I pull her close to me and the spin her around. Then I dip her in this awful maneuver and she's laughing really hard. Kelly is giggling at what terrible singers and dancers we are.
Then when Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones comes out we start pumping our fists into the air like maniacs, screeching at the top of our lungs. Kelly takes a break from the slicing and dances with us, and I know this one is one of her favorites.
Golden Slumbers, another Beatles song, plays and Kelly goes back to making her salsa. I wrap my arms around Peyton's waist, and she lays hers around my neck. We step in slow little circles around the counter.
She sings softly along, and I realize she has a nice voice when she's not acting like a psycho. Her long brown hair is all wet and messed up, flying around her face, and her skin is still ice cold. There are quite a few instances where she steps on my feet, but it was still nice. It was nice to be close to her again.
"Sleep, pretty darling. Do not cry, and I will sing you a lullaby," I sing softly as the song ends.
When the Turtle's song, Happy Together, starts up we stand jumping around again. We grab spatulas from the drawer and use them as microphones.
She sings, "Imagine how the world could be, so very fine. So happy together."
Then I sing, "I can't see me lovin' nobody but you for all my life." We keep singing our lame duet back and forth until the song ends and Kelly tells us to eat her salsa.
"Mmmm," Peyton moans.
I have to agree, it's a lot better than I expected. I raise an eyebrow, "Since when do you make such good salsa?"
She just shrugs and we stand around the counter silently, devouring the chips and salsa.
When we finish eating Kelly sets up the board for Sorry on the counter.
Peyton is close to winning when I knock her back to the start. It takes a while to persuade her to stop being a drama queen and keep playing, but we end up playing until the lights come on.
