The Summit

Sleepover

Bzzzzzt! Bzzzt!

Finnley's phone was ringing.

"Hello?"

"I'm coming back, the road is already flooded." It was Griffin. Was he...scared?

"Be careful, the power just went out." A beep resounded from his phone and suddenly the screen went black. Shit. It must've been low after playing music for so long. He didn't let it charge more than halfway earlier because of what happened.

He paced around the entryway, intently watching the street in the direction that Griffin had left. Finn should've been grabbing candles, anything to help the house seem less eerie, but he wanted to make sure he had the door open for Griffin. It felt like hours. Maybe he hydroplaned? He couldn't call him. What if he was hurt? It would be his fault, he told him to leave. What if he caused him to wreck because he was too emotionally unstable and stubborn to just accept that he was friends with the kid? He didn't know what to do but watch the rain fall, startled each time the thunder crashed and the lightning flashed.

Suddenly, he could make out a car crawling down the street, the lights the only thing visible with how hard the rain was coming down. As it came closer, however, he recognized whose car it was and let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, grasping his chest where his heart pounded with concern.

Griffin got out of his car and ran to the door, Finn flinging it open long enough so that he could rush inside. He locked the door behind him, noticing a bag in his hand. He was soaked, but the bag was only damp. It seemed somewhat waterproof to the downpour.

"I always keep spare clothes when I go somewhere," Griffin explained, panting from the race to the door. Finn nodded and grimaced at the water dripping onto the floor.

"There's a bathroom over there, second door on the left." He pointed him in the direction of the bathroom, knowing he had to be uncomfortable and maybe even cold. Finn took this time to finally grab some candles, hunting down a lighter to light some in the living room. There already was one on the coffee table, but he added one of the same scents in hopes it would somehow make the room brighter. He placed a couple of others around the house but didn't light them.

Griffin returned wet clothes in hand. Finn took them and hung them up on the drying rack in the laundry room, hoping the power would eventually come on so that he could dry them. In the meantime, he knew he had card games and board games they could play if they wanted to. He didn't have his phone to occupy himself so both sounded like good options at this point.

"You wanna play a game?" He asked as he returned to Griffin, receiving a nod. With that, he lead him into the living room and dug out several board games and card games that they could choose from. Some of them were better with larger groups so naturally were out of the question. As he was grabbing each of them out, Griffin reached in beside him and pulled out a puzzle that had been uncovered. It was 1000 pieces and depicted an image of a field with a mountain range behind it.

"Oh, let's do this." His eyes lit up, not realizing the puzzle was even in there. He loved puzzles, but only ever played them on his phone because he always forgot to buy any. Finn nodded to the suggestion and crawled over to a large space on the hardwood floor, taking the box with him.

"Let's find all of the edge pieces first." And so they did, for a painstakingly long time. But the power was still gone so they continued onto the actual image, building from the edges. Finn managed to put together an entire corner, Griffin working on the other side slowly. It went on like this until they were about halfway through the puzzle. And then finally. Finally, the power came back on.

The power had been out for so long that his eyes had a hard time adjusting to how bright the lights were. He hoped nothing was damaged since he hadn't even thought about unplugging anything. He noticed the time on his smartwatch. It was two hours later, eight o'clock. Although the sun didn't go down until closer to nine, the sky was already dark from the storm.