"Hi, Matt! Emily's not here right now, she's gone out with Sean."
That was Elizabeth, the younger sister of one of my good friends. The very pretty younger sister of one of my good friends. She'd finally fought with their crazily barking dog, Chloe, long enough to see who it was knocking at her door on that cloudy suburban Saturday. I remember thinking, the first time I met Liz, that there was no way someone that cute should even be allowed out of her room by her parents, let alone any farther.
Liz is the kind of little sister that all your guy friends would give their left nut to have a shot at, and that all your girl friends would give their left... well , their left anything to look like. Olive skin, black spirals of hair that bounce ever so slightly when she laughs, and a smile so contagious it should be kept in a jar away from mankind. You get the idea.
After a moment, it occurred to me I should stop gawking at her and say something.
"Oh, okay. Er... do you know when they're getting back?" I asked her.
"Actually, I don't, sorry. So long as they've got everything out of their systems by the time they get back, I don't care how long they're away," she replied, rolling her eyes.
Sean and Emily were somewhat of a sexual couple, you see. Anywhere, anytime, so long as they could find a reasonably dark or secluded place.
I smiled back at her. "Getting a little tired of walking in on the two of them, I'm guessing?"
"Let's just say that's not the kind of education I need to get from my sister."
As if they were replying to her point, the rain clouds that had been sitting menacingly across the sky chose that moment to open themselves up and start dumping the heavy load of water they'd been promising all day.
I cursed loudly, and my expression fell as the rain began beating steadily on the top of my head. As I looked up at the clouds, the sky was illuminated by a fork of lightning that cut across it, followed closely by a clap of thunder that shook the house. Liz screamed, causing me to whirl my head back around to look at her.
"Matt, I have a little confession," she told me, "I'm scared out my mind by storms."
"That might explain why you almost deafened me just now," I retorted with a slight grin.
"No, I'm serious. They really frighten me. And I'm all on my own here, because my mom and dad took David out shopping."
I was never much of a person to jump to conclusions, having suffered a good emotional plummet or two in the past for having done so. Maybe this one was as obvious as a large sledgehammer to the groin, but I was determined not to be misinterpreting it.
"Okay," I mumbled dumbly, hoping for a little confirmation of what I couldn't believe could possibly happen.
"Do you think you could come in and keep my company until they get back?" Liz asked, looking at me with a pair of puppy dog eyes so entrancing, I think I might have started drooling. That is, if I hadn't been opening and closing my mouth like a guppy as I tried to think of what to say. Taking my hesitation as a sign of doubt, she started to blush and stutter an explanation. "I mean, you don't have to, it's just that I really don't want to be by myself if the power goes out like it did the last time there was a storm, and I don't mind being alone with you, if that's what you're worried about, and I could call my mom's cell phone to check if it'd be okay, and..."
"I'd love to," I blurted out, possibly a seeming a little too quick after the previous hesitation. Somehow, she missed my eagerness, and gave a little squeal of delight and clapped her hands together, before shoving open the screen door and letting me come in.
I glared at Chloe, the family dog, as she raced around me, barking. For some reason, I am the only person Chloe barks at, all the while wagging her tail so furiously you have to be sure any fragile objects in the vicinity are firmly secured, preferably with duct tape and super glue. Everyone in Liz's family also know how much this bothers me, my not being much of a dog person, and so Liz quickly grabbed her by the collar and dragged her off to her cage. I was left, dripping ever so slightly from my unscheduled shower, to remove my shoes before stepping beyond the door mat.
After fiddling with my laces long enough to extract my feet, I wandered into their dining room to find Liz. As soon as did, Chloe, who had finally been convinced to stop barking, realized I wasn't as gone as she thought I was, and started up again.
"Go into the basement and stop tormenting the poor dog," Liz giggled at me, pushing me from the room. I mimicked her words with my hand, like a puppet, but opened the door to the basement and headed down there anyway. I lay down along the length of the couch, as I do every time I'm over there, and tried to figure out what mindless movie was playing on the TV. Liz came wandering down the stairs a moment later, cringing badly as another clap of thunder echoed around the room. I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring manner.
"What is there to be so worried about? It's just noise," I told her, hoping, for some weird reason, I could make her fear less with just my words. She didn't look all that convinced, but she smiled at the effort.
"It's not the thunder that's the problem. Not really anyway," she explained. "It's the stupid lightning. I've just always been worried about being hit by it. It's always like that whenever there's a storm like this. I know it's silly, and it's more likely I'll be hit by a car or something, but it's just really not something I'd like to happen to me." She reached the bottom of the stairs and rolled her eyes again as looked at my legs taking up half the couch. "Are you going to move or do I have to sit on you?"
"You're not going to catch me complaining about it," I half joked. "Although I guess my legs are probably not the most comfortable of places to sit." I gave an exaggerated sigh and slowly pulled my knees up, vacating the far end of the couch so she could sit down. "So, what is this crap that's playing?" I asked, jerking my head in direction of the TV.
"Some movie of Emily's. I was only watching it because I've seen all mine about a million times and there was nothing decent on the TV."
"Yeah, sixty three channels and nothing to watch," I muttered, repeating the phrase my parents had chanted of American TV when we used to live in England. I gave another sigh and lifted my legs back up, before planting them across Liz's lap, wriggling slightly as I sunk my shoulder blades back into the couch. With the timing that always seems to happen just as life is getting to the good bits, the phone rang upstairs before she could say anything. She leapt back to her feet, my legs being dragged up with her and pulling me off the couch onto the floor. I landed on my side, with a resounding thud.
"Ouch," I said, rubbing my hip with an exaggerated expression of pain, just for the look of concern I knew it would bring out on Liz's face. She threw her hands up in mock exasperation, trying to decide if my pampering was more important than the phone. "Go on, go answer the damn thing," I told her with a grin. She scampered off up the stairs as I hauled myself up into a sitting position, turning my attention to the TV again. Julia Stiles face flashed across the screen briefly, tear stricken after reading her poem in what I finally recognized as "Ten Things I Hate About You." I hadn't enjoyed the movie all that much the first time, and figured I'd distracted Liz from enough of it that it wouldn't matter if I decided to watch something else. I grabbed the remote and started channel hopping, trying to find something that was worth my attention. The familiar beeping of a storm watch briefly caught my attention, so I stopped my hunt long enough to see what they had to say about the current downpour. As I expected, suburban Cook County was high on the list of places expecting a severe storm watch, with a somewhat smaller risk of flash floods. I hit the mute button, my interest in the screen already wavering. I could hear Liz's voice over the gentle drumming of the rain, although I couldn't make out the words.
I shut my eyes and put my head back on the couch, waiting for her to come back downstairs. Even though I had my eyes closed, the next flash of lightning still seemed to be beyond bright, and the crashing, roaring sound of the thunder that followed almost immediately had me slamming my hands over my ears faster than I'd known I could move them. As soon as it died down, I opened my eyes again, removed my hands from my ears and heard, once again, the sound of Liz's screams. I scrambled to my feet and went up the stairs practically on all fours, rushing into the kitchen where Liz was huddled into a ball by the wall, no longer screaming but whimpering slightly, the phone dangling by it's cord from the wall. I ran over to her, crouching down next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay, Liz, just relax, breathe deeply," I tried to make my voice sound calm as I clenched her shoulder, squeezing it gently. Her noises died down a little, and she lifted her chin up from her arms to look me in the eyes. In that moment, looking into her frightened little face, there was nothing I wanted more than to wrap my arms around her and protect her from any thunder or lightning that so much as thought about threatening her existence. "It's okay," I repeated, not letting go of her shoulder but reaching for the phone with the other hand, hearing the concerned voice coming from the ear piece.
"Hello?" I said, unsure of myself and trying to keep my voice steady.
"Matt?" I recognized the voice of Liz's mom.
"Yeah, it's me. I think the lightning struck something pretty close to the house, it's shaken up Liz pretty badly," I informed her, all the time not breaking my eye contact with the scared girl in front of me. "Um, I'm sorry if I shouldn't be here, it's just that..."
"It's okay. In fact, it's a good thing you're there, because the traffic from here is really bad, and the rain's still getting worse, so we're probably not going to make it back for a few hours. Is it okay if we ask you to keep an eye on Elizabeth until we get back? If you've got other stuff to do, that's okay, but it would really be great of you if you could."
"I'd be happy to, Mrs. Solomon," I told her, trying not to give away quite how happy I was to get to be with Liz, alone, even at their request. I passed the phone back to Liz, who had regained a little of her composure, and stood up to lean back on one the counters. After rounding off the conversation, she hung up and the phone and took a deep breath.
"Thank you so much for agreeing to stay here, Matt. You have no idea how much this means to me," she told me, the relief showing in her voice. I couldn't help but smile at her.
"It's really not even close to a problem. I didn't even have anything else to do anyway, and you'll never find me complaining about getting to spend time with a pretty girl like you." She rolled her eyes at me again, a smile coming to her own face for the first time since the lightning had struck.
"You're crazy, you know that?" she told me with a sigh. "I'm not pretty." I just stood there staring at her, not quite able to believe that the angel in front of me could possibly have said that. I smiled a little, then felt it turn into a cocky grin and poked her in the side. She squealed, and I took a step back raising my hands to block the return poke I had a feeling was coming. She chased me back down the basement, the two of us jabbing each other as we went, and giggling madly.
Me being the one going backwards, I didn't see the couch until I was falling over it already, grabbing Liz by the wrists in a hope of steadying myself, but to no avail. I found myself sprawling backwards, and taking Liz with me, the two of us ending up with me on my back, and her on top. The giggling stopped, now our noses were almost touching, both of our mouths slightly open, me staring into her eyes, her staring into mine.
The moment was stopped almost immediately as I realized the arm of the couch was right under my back, and actually causing a lot of pain.
"Argh," I groaned, pushing myself upwards, and lifting her off me with reluctance. "Remind me not to do that again," I said, half jokingly.
