Author's Note: Although this is a one-shot, it is not completed. I'm sure you're all aware how difficult it is for me to end a story (coughwhinyfianceewillneverbefinishedcough), so this actually being finished would be a miracle.
There's this cliché that goes on in romantic stories during a storm, you see? There'll be two people together, either romantically involved, secretly lusting after each other, unaware that they'll fall in love, or in denial of their love. A sudden bolt of jagged light will suddenly crash from earth to the heavens and back again in less than a second, followed by a vociferous thunder. The less dominant one usually grabs onto the other tightly, frightened for her or his safety. The more dominant one would pause and stare dumbfounded, then wrap their arms around the other, comforting. The first would calm down eventually. Romance would ensue.
This is not the case in this story.
Our two main characters are the sorts who are unaware of the infatuation buried deep within them. Yes, a storm is involved, and yes, someone is scared. However, there is no comforting one another; only frightened teenagers clinging to each other like madmen. How amusing, yes?
The beginning took place when two separate sperm cells at two parts of the world fertilized…no, that's too far.
The somewhat middle of their lives but beginning of the story takes place at a house. The one with the glasses' house, I believe. Yes, his name was Eric. Eric's parents had gone out for the evening, allowing Eric to have a friend over. This lead to an excruciating decision; which of his one friend would he pick? Hmm. He ended up choosing Craig, which was a very typical decision.
Craig arrived at exactly seven forty-seven in the evening. He prided himself on always being exactly on time. One would assume that the first things the two would engage in would be some sort of nerdy activity, like watching a science-fiction movie or discussing the theory of relativity or Freudian philosophy or something like that. However, this wasn't the case. Well, admittedly, this might've been the case had the electricity not have been suddenly turned off.
"What? That's weird. I didn't even see lightning," said one voice from the dark.
"Well, duh! Lightning isn't the only thing that causes power outages. It's winter, there are probably heavy winds outside."
"Oh, shut up," interrupted the first voice. The owner, Craig, didn't enjoy being showed up by his friend, no matter how close they were. He was embarrassed for forgetting such an obvious fact, but only the inflation of his voice was proof, as their surroundings were pitch black.
"Wait…what's that sound? Is that hail?"
The two stumbled around, careful to avoid obstacles. By the time they reached the flashlight in the kitchen draw, the score was: Inanimate Objects: 9, Nerds: 4. The flashlight shone brightly, it's bulb a warm yellow. Eric always made sure there were working batteries in it, God forbid the power going out and it being necessary to use it…like now.
They began to make their way towards the unknown noise. Eric was sure the noise was hail swerving unto the glass of the windows; Craig was sure it was just a heavy rain. The light being shone on the window did, quite frankly, nothing, but being closer to the window helped them hear the sound of the material against the window.
"It's going 'plop, plop,'" Craig said happily.
"So?" questioned Eric.
"Well, if it was hail, the sound would've been more of a pinging noise." Eric accepted this after a moment more of listening; indeed, the sound wasn't much like hail at all. Craig felt much better about himself now that he had re-established that their IQs were nearly the same. The feeling of contentment, however, was short-lived; a sudden flash of light jolted from the ground and up to the heavens and back down again faster than the human eye could understand, a warning of the thundering boom that followed.
The two engaged in something extremely masculine, that being shrieking and flailing, turning to each other just to stare, as if to say, "That was friggin' thunder!" even though it was already known, not to mention that neither of the nerds would say something like "friggin." Perhaps if they weren't so close, they would've realized that they were grabbing each other, freaked out, let go, and pretended nothing happened, and that neither of them were scared of the crashing noise that happened moments prior. They were close, though, so they kept hanging on until their shrieks reached an end due to their running out of breath.
Once they let go of each other, there was a strange sort of moment; you know, they looked into each other's eyes, and something mesmerized them, and before they knew it, their lips were touching, and—
That was a joke, of course. That's too abrupt, isn't it? Too abrupt! The truth is, if the two suddenly realized their feelings for each other, no matter how close they were, they'd not tell each other for a while. Such a thing was still marked as a taboo, and losing an only friend was not worth explaining silly fantasies.
And so these were the thoughts running through Eric's mind after they let go of each other, because the closeness had excited him in a way inaccessible to him before unless through women. But as stated before, he was not about to tell Craig, for fear of losing him. Of course, he didn't expect Craig to act that way; he was an open-minded person, which was one of his great traits. However, he was prepared for a worst-case scenario.