El awoke with a start. The wind was howling and she could hear thunder. It didn't sound like it was raining yet though. She was cold. She had never felt so cold. Her sleeping bag wasn't doing a very good job of keeping her warm and she was shivering.
Mike heard her rustling about trying to get comfortable. He could also hear the wind. It sounded like they might be in for more than just a rainstorm. He checked his watch. It was 2:00 a.m.
"I'm so cold. I don't know if I'm going to make it." El grumbled. Mike turned on his flashlight and set it so that it was pointing at the ceiling of the tent and illuminating their immediate surroundings.
"I'm cold too. If it starts raining it's only going to get colder."
"Can I tell you something? I'm afraid of storms. Like, afraid." El said, her voice almost a whisper as she listened to the coming onslaught. Mike crawled out of the tent to rummage through his backpack.
"What are you doing?" El asked from inside the tent. She was sitting up with her sleeping bag wrapped around her.
"I'm looking for a jacket I packed."
El watched from the door of the tent. It had started raining. The wind was the scariest part though. El had never liked storms and being outside in one was not something she ever wanted to do. Mike glanced over at her and saw the fear written on her face.
"Hey, El? Why don't you work on zipping the bags together. Maybe we can stay warmer that way. I know it's not ideal but we still have a long way to go until morning and this storm is going to make it worse." He smiled sympathetically at her, really only wanting to give her something to do to take her mind off of the current weather situation.
She nodded and crawled back into the tent, moving the flashlight and unzipping both bags so she could work on zipping them together. She had just finished and was trying to get them back into place so they would both be able to get into them, or it, since it was one bag now, when thunder boomed and she heard Mike curse. There was a ripping sound and suddenly rain was hitting the roof of their small tent.
She crawled back out. The wind had pulled the upper tarp out of the ground on one side, being so forceful that it ripped it out, stakes and all. Mike was trying to grab the edge and pull it back down. He was already soaked but had caught the side that was flapping in the gusting wind and was trying to pull it down so he could hammer it back into place.
"Mike!" El called from where she stood.
"El, I've got it! Get back in the tent. There's lightning!"
She watched him struggle with the tarp but he was taking care of it. He had one stake firmly hammered back into the ground and was working on another one. At that moment there was a loud bang and a blinding flash of light. El heard the crashing sound before she realized what was happening. Lightning had struck a tree that was very near Mike and it was falling quickly toward his head. Mike looked up, frozen. He saw the tree speeding toward him and he knew he didn't have time to get out of the way. He braced himself.
But the tree didn't fall on him. He had closed his eyes (when had he done that?) and opened them to see the tree hovering in midair about five feet from his head. Then it moved away from him, landing on the ground out of their way completely. Mike looked around. El was standing beside the tent, her right arm outstretched. The look on her face was one of determined focus. Blood was trickling from her left nostril.
Mike was in shock. He had gotten the tarp back in place before the tree fell but now he couldn't move. He stared at her as cold rain swiftly fell onto his person.
"Mike, I'm sorry." She was crying even as she was moving toward him. He felt her put her arm around his shoulder and begin to pull him back into his tent. She was limping. He heard her sniffle and that broke him from his state of disbelief.
"El?" He could only look at her questioningly. They were under the tarp and out of the rain. Mike was wet from head to toe.
"Do you have some dry clothes you can put on? You said you brought extra shirts. Find one and change. You will get sick." El wasn't used to giving orders but she could tell Mike was shocked and someone had to make sure he took care of himself. He got a shirt and a pair of jogging pants out of his bag and started to change clothes. El gave him some privacy and went back into the smaller tent. She knew she was going to have to explain herself and she was already worried that she was about to lose her first and only friend.
A few minutes later Mike's head appeared in the doorway of the tent. He seemed tentative but the cold pushed him inside. He didn't say anything as he got into the sleeping bag. El saw that he was holding a fleece jacket.
"El, how did you do that? And please don't say you can't tell me. That tree was going to hit me and it just flew away. How did it do that?" His eyes didn't look accusatory. They looked wonderstruck. His words sounded soft, almost reverent.
El looked down at her hands. She rubbed them together, having been rained on herself while she was outside the tent. She was cold and was scared.
"I'm not a normal person, Mike. I can control it better now that I'm older but when I get highly emotional sometimes I still do things I don't mean to do. I've always been able to move things with my mind. I think my real parents must have been government test subjects or something because when I was little I spent a lot of time in a hospital but I wasn't sick. They would do tests on me and it was very scary and sometimes things would happen like the lights would go out or all of the electronics would get fried. It always happened when I was scared. I think this tattoo I have is because they were going to use me for something, or at least planned to someday. A lady that worked there snuck me out one day and I never went back. I was put into foster care when she was murdered. I had been hiding and they didn't find me. But later social services did find me and that started my stint of being shipped around from place to place. No one ever seemed to want me for long." Her teeth were chattering.
Mike scooted closer to her in the bag. He draped the jacket he had been holding over her shoulders.
"No, you're cold too. You wear it." El protested.
"El, you just saved my life. And you are freezing. Put it on."
She slipped her arms into the soft fabric. She did feel warmer almost immediately.
"Anyway, I try to hide it. I'm afraid of what might happen if people knew what I can do. Everyone already thinks of me as a freak. I don't want to prove them right. Please don't tell anyone, Mike. I understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore though."
"Why wouldn't I want to be your friend? You literally just saved my life. El, I promise you that I want to be your friend. And I don't break promises."
Thunder exploded loudly just then, causing El to shriek and scoot closer to Mike. It was involuntary but he didn't mind. He could still hear her teeth chattering. She was still shivering.
"I hate this." She had her legs pulled up as close to her as she could get them, making herself as small as possible. She crossed her arms over her knees and buried her head in them. Mike could hear her crying.
Come on, Mike. You can do this.
Mike hesitantly put his arm around her shoulders. He could feel her shaking. The wind was still screaming outside. He had never been in a hurricane but he imagined this was what one sounded like. He pulled her closer to him and added his other arm, holding her as they listened to the storm.
"I'm still so cold." El looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"Lie back." Mike said softly as he moved them down in the sleeping bag so he could pull it around both of them, only their heads sticking out of it. He pulled her against him.
"Is this okay? I can try to keep you warm." Mike asked, ready to move away if she wasn't comfortable with it.
"Yes. This is better already. Thank you." She sighed, one of those long sighs after a crying spell, and he could feel her start to relax a little.
Things had gotten heavy rather quickly. Mike could tell she was still a little worried about having shown him some of what she thought made her so weird. He was amazed by her though. He had actually been amazed by her before he knew what she could do but now he felt like it was his job to make sure she was protected from anyone who might try to harm her. Kids at school, the government, whomever. He wouldn't let it happen.
They were lying together still listening to the storm. The tarp had stayed in place but the rain and wind hadn't let up.
"So you're like a superhero?" Mike tried to lighten the mood.
"Hardly."
"Right. You're a Jedi." She giggled. Mike's heart skipped a beat. It was a melodious sound, her laugh.
El yawned again. Mike was lying on his back and she had rolled to her side so that his arm was around her and her head was on the side of his chest. Without thinking she moved her arm over his torso, essentially hugging him.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I got too comfortable." El pulled her arm back.
"It's okay. You can stay like that if you want. Try to go to sleep. I'll stay awake and if the storm gets worse I'll wake you up. I'll keep watch." He gently took her wrist and put her arm back over him. He felt her snuggle closer.
Mike did lie awake trying to keep watch but his eyelids grew heavy after a while and he fell asleep, El still semi-wrapped around him. It was still dark out when the storm picked up once again and thunder crashed, waking both of them with a jolt. El was beside herself.
"Mike, if something else crashes down I won't see it. I won't be able to stop it!" She was making herself sick with worry.
"That's not going to happen again. We'll be okay. Just a little longer and we can try to get help." They were both sitting up now, the bag still pulled close to them to try to stay warm. Again the thunder rumbled loudly, causing El to jump almost into Mike's lap. She was shaking again, though not from cold this time. Her fear was getting the best of her. Mike tried his best to comfort her but every time the wind would howl or the thunder echoed she would start trembling again. She had her head buried in the crook of his neck. She could feel his Adam's apple move when he swallowed and could feel the vibration of his voice as he tried to calm her down.
"El, look at me." Mike felt her lift her head and he looked into her eyes. "We're going to be okay. I promise." She still had tears in her eyes but he could see something else...hope maybe? She was still hanging on to him as tightly as she had been, having gripped him tighter every time the thunder came close. He kissed her head, and then rested his forehead on hers, trying to calm her more. She kissed his cheek. He kissed hers.
El suddenly felt hot, in a good way. Mike being so close to her was making her feel lightheaded and when he kissed her head she had kissed his cheek without thinking about it. He was right there in front of her and it made her feel nice inside when she did it. Then he kissed her cheek and her stomach did back flips. She was quickly forgetting about the storm outside, focusing more on the feelings that were storming through her body. His face was so close to hers. She nuzzled her nose into it. She was surprised when he did it back, causing a slight gasp to escape. Their lips were very close together now.
"El?"
"Yes?" She breathed, never moving her face away from where it was, her nose still nuzzling his cheek.
"Can I kiss you?"
"Yeah." Her breath caught in her throat, causing her to only be able to nod slightly and whisper softly. His head tilted slightly and she felt his lips on hers, her own working together with his as they kissed as though they had been doing it for years. Of course it was her first kiss but it felt natural, like she was supposed to kiss Mike. Like her lips were made to do that, with him. Maybe only with him. She felt hazy and unworried and happy, all feelings she was not used to feeling. When he moved his hand to her hair and she felt his nails scrape her head gently she felt the most amazing shiver move throughout her body. She had forgotten completely about the storm.
A/N: I think maybe two more chapters. Three at most. Thanks for reading!
