Chapter One: White

There was something calming about the sound of rain falling down, hitting windows, bouncing off leaves. The wind shook the trees lightly and (y/n) stood at the window, observing it all. She tightly gripped a mug of warm tea in her hands, and gathered her blanket closer around her. The grayness of the world outside matched the dreariness of the inside of her home.

She'd just moved away from her parents for the first time, after dropping out of college to pursue her music and acting career. She never wished to go into medicine in the first place, but her mother had always wanted to her to take a career path with a promising outlook. But among all the different definitions of body parts and the different allergies and types of surgeries, she lost herself. So she packed up, and moved out to a little town in Iowa, just to find herself.

Her house was mostly bare, the living room holding only a couch, a coffee table, and an old TV that she never really watched. She was alone. She had been for the past few weeks, ever since she moved out. She'd gotten a few calls from her mother since leaving, and a few hellos from the mailman and the man who owned the nearest grocery store, but she mostly found company in the smell of old books and cups of warm beverages.

There wasn't any internet out here, wasn't much need for it. The folks around had everything they needed without turning to cat videos or social media.

(Y/n) missed other people. She missed having a best friend and talking to boys and fighting with her mother.

She set the mug down and went to lay on the couch. She checked her phone. No texts. Not a surprise.

:::

When she woke up, it was dark out, and the curtain to her glass door was still open. She hurriedly got up and shut it, resting her head on her hands as they gripped the curtain. The white curtain. In a white room. Filled with white furniture. White was such a lonely color. There was nothing remotely interesting about it, nothing you could do with it. You always had to be careful of making messes.

White.

A few tears fell and the white curtain had gray streaks down it.

There was a knock on the door. (Y/n) looked at the time. 9:23. She wiped her tears and went to peep out the window to the front door.

There were two men there. They didn't look threatening, more awkward than anything. She could make out a few features in the light of her porch lamp. They were both pale, one with black hair and one with brown hair.

She opened the door a crack. "Can I help you?"

"Our taxi broke down just up the road a little, and we don't get cell service out here, is there any way you could let us call for help?" The one with the black hair asked.

(Y/n) remained silent. She was not comfortable letting two strange men into her house in the middle of nowhere at this time of night.

Sensing her uneasiness, the one with brown hair said, "Or if you'd be more comfortable calling someone while we wait out here, that would be okay too."

(Y/n) opened the door. "You can come in," she said quietly. "I apologize for the state of my house. The living room is just around the corner, you can sit in there."

As they walked in, she noticed they towered over her, standing at least over six feet. Judging by the state of their clothes, they had broken down further than a little down the road. She hurried to the closet in her hallway and got them towels. She handed them to the men and offered them something to drink.

"Coffee," The one with black hair said. "Black."

"Tea," the brunette replied. "Milk and sugar, please."

(Y/n) went to heat up the Keurig and then retreated to her room, where she pulled some of her dad's old clothes out of a drawer. She brought them back to the men and told them where the bathroom was. Then, she made her way back to the kitchen and placed a normal coffee cup into the Keurig and pressed the largest setting.

There were footsteps behind her, and she turned around. The man with brown hair was standing there, rubbing his hair with the now soaked towel.

"That towel is soaked now, let me get you another one," She avoided eye contact and started to walk towards the closet again.

"No," he said. "It's alright. I'm done with it anyway. Where should I put it?"

"Oh, just leave it on the floor then."

He hesitated for a moment and dropped it on the floor, making sure to drop it on the tile, not the carpet. This was the first time (y/n) actually got a good look at him. He was very tall, almost a foot above her. His hair was still damp and curled loosely around his head. His eyes were dark and his skin pale, providing a perfect contrast. The two were British, that was easy to tell by their accents. She couldn't help but wonder what they were doing in Iowa.

"I'm Dan, by the way," he chimed in, after noticing her staring at him. He had taken the time to look at her too. She was average height, with her (hair color) hair pulled up into a sloppy bun. There was a slight trace of makeup on her face, and her lips were naturally pink and very soft-looking. The nail polish on her fingers was chipped, and if she picked at it, it would probably be gone in a day or two. "We can't thank you enough for letting us come in. I'm sorry if we caused you any alarm. I can promise you, we're quite harmless. The most damage will cause is tripping and knocking something over."

(Y/n) smiled slightly at this. They hadn't hurt her, and some of the feeling of worry was starting to retreat. But who knew how long they were planning on staying, and as the night grew later, it brought new feelings of fear.

The black haired man came out and dropped his towel on top of Dan's. They were about the same height, but this one was even paler.

"I'm (y/n)," she avoided eye contact and turned to grab the cup of coffee out of the machine, and replaced the now empty coffee cup with a tea cup. The black haired man took the coffee and took a sip.

"I'm Phil," he said. "Thank you for the coffee. It was chilly out there."

"I'll get you two some blankets," (y/n) said. "Just sit on the couch and make yourselves at home. The TV is old but it works. I'm not sure what stations it has, but it's something to use as background noise." She grabbed some blankets from her room as she spoke and brought them back out to Dan and Phil. It hadn't even occurred to her that they were cold. But they had come in soaked to the bone, so it only made sense. It was only April, it was still cold out.

"So do you live here alone?" Phil asked, following her with his eyes as she set the blankets down on the coffee table and proceeded to pull herself a chair in from the kitchen.

"No!" Dan exclaimed. "You sit on the couch! I can sit in the chair." He got up and offered her his seat.

"Nonsense," she said. "You are my guests. Stay on the couch."

Dan sat back down, an awkward look in his eyes.

"It's just me out here," she replied to Phil. "Unless you count the mailman that comes by everyday." The Keurig beeped and she went to go get Dan's tea, adding the milk and sugar.

"Doesn't it get lonely?" He asked.

"Of course it does," she said as she lit a candle and cut out the kitchen light. "But I can't do much about it."

"Why are you all alone?" Dan asked.

"Dropped out of college. I came out here to find myself." She handed him his tea. "But tell me about you two."

"We're YouTubers," Phil told her.

"You're what?"

"YouTubers."

"What's that?"

"We make videos and put them on YouTube for a living."

"So are you like, famous?" (y/n) inquired.

"I guess you could say that," Dan cut in, chuckling. "You can probably tell we're from England."

"So what are you doing out in Iowa?" She raised an eyebrow.

"We're touring all the states meeting our fans. Our taxi was taking us to our hotel and it ran out of gas." Dan sipped his tea. "Or so the driver told us."

"I have a feeling he wasn't a real taxi driver and just abandoned us out here," Phil said, picking up one of the softest blankets and wrapping it around his shoulders.

"So you're stuck out here?" (Y/n) picked up a blanket as well, one of the less soft ones. "Dan, take a blanket."

"Unless you can get us a taxi tonight," Phil said. "We're sorry to put this on you."

"It's okay, I don't mind helping out," she smiled. "But you won't get a taxi out here this late. You might as well just stay the night. We'll see what we can do tomorrow."

"Are you really okay with us staying here?" Dan asked with a half smile.

"If you were crazy murderers, you probably would've killed me by now," she said. "And if you are crazy murderers, you know where I live so there's really no stopping it now."

The two laughed at this. It felt good to talk to people for a change.

"I'll set up a place to sleep in my room for you two and I'll take the couch," she said, getting up to make a makeshift bed on the floor of her room.

"I can take the couch," Dan offered. "We can just sleep out here."

"I'm not going to accept your kindnesses," (y/n) smiled softly. "You're my guests. I'm going to treat you as such."

They gave in and argued over who was getting the bed.

Phil won in the end.

In his celebration, he knocked over his coffee. A brown stain spread across the white carpet.

And suddenly, (y/n) felt that her white world was about to become a lot less white.