A/N: SO SO SO sorry for the delay in posting this. I totally ran out of inspiration for the longest time. BUT thanks to a friend of mine I met here at college, I now have enough material to finish this chapter. So, HUGE thank you to A.J.S.! As always, I own nothing.
The next morning, I awoke to find myself in a pool of sweat. Ick. And it was only nine? I made up my mind right then and there that we were going swimming that day, Erik would come with us kicking and screaming if need be, and I wasn't taking no for an answer. He had a mask now, he had no excuse.
Besides. After last time, I don't think anyone was about to trust him.
Oh, I did, don't worry. I'm just saying...
That being said, we stuck through the heat and humidity until around four. How we managed, I couldn't tell you. Let's just say there was ice involved, and perhaps one or two more water fights, purely innocent...ish. Finally, after the remnants of the most recent water fight evaporated, we took off for the river, and surprisingly Erik made no protest. In fact, when we got there, he was the first to dive in, trousers, shirt, shoes, and all(he was considerate enough to leave the mask on his towel, however).
Surprisingly, the river was not as crowded as I would have expected. The parking lot was full, and yet only a handful of groups were actually swimming. Then again, this particular spot also served as a boat launch for canoes, kayaks, and the like. It was just as well, I supposed, and besides, it was too hot to dwell on this observance.
And so, moments later, I was in the water doing underwater handstands and swimming underwater. Finally cooled off for the moment, I stood up and looked around for Erik. Within seconds I was frowning. Glasses, Sarah. Don't forget your glasses! Muttering to myself, I slposhed out of the river and retrieved my glasses from my towel. Sight restored, I glanced around along the sandbar and quickly found Erik. At least, it HAD to be Erik. What I really saw was a massive sandcastle, and a pair of hands on the other side piling on more sand and water before sculpting it into a masterpiece. A few feet away, a little boy was sitting in front of his own creation, his mouth agape as he watched the artist in front of him. The shock soon turned into a frown as the little boy's castle seemed all the more like an anthill in comparison. And then I watched in helpless horror as the boy stood up and plowed through both castles, revealing Erik sitting on his knees, a handful of mud raised in the air and his mouth even more agape than the little boy's had been. I saw his fists clench before he threw the mud in the air, casting a glare at the laughing little boy.
All of a sudden, I felt very much cooled off. Just as he was beginning his verbal protest, I grabbed his arm and pulled him up to the van. Once inside, he continued his rant. Well, he was talking to no one, because I left him there to go get the others. After retrieving his mask, we all piled in and headed home.
Once we got home, I suddenly remembered something. "By the way, Hope, we're almost out of coffee again." The mere mention of the beverage caused Erik to perk up from his previous hunched over, sulking and muttering state, but Hope groaned and glared over at him. I would have glared as well, but the utter childlike face on him completely ruined that thought. And so, after drying off and changing, Hope was out the door again, this time Susan and David going with her. After the van pulled away, I turned to Erik. "Okay, Erik…I have email and Facebook to catch up on. If you'd like, you could watch TV…"
"Very well…" I showed him how to work the remote, and then went over to my computer. Within moments, I heard the channels being changed, and Erik muttering over the different programs. He apparently had the volume up at full volume and was now regretting it, because I heard a loud explosion followed by his voice shrieking like, dare I say, Carlotta? I turned around suppressing a giggle, and I saw him climb back over the back of the couch, his hair completely tousled. Giggling quietly, I turned back to the computer. A few minutes passed and I heard that he found a PBS special, showing an opera. Oh boy. I wondered if he-"Sarah!" Yup. I sighed and got off of the computer to join him. He didn't even look at me as I sat down next to him on the couch, his eyes were completely transfixed on the screen. I knew better than to talk or even breath during this, and so I sat back and watched him and the program. Besides. I had never seen an actual opera before.
After about half an hour, I heard him sniffle beside me. I turned to see a single tear falling down his face, another teardrop revealing itself at the bottom of his mask, and he took the mask off to wipe at it. At least I could understand why he was crying…after all, the leading lady had just passed away, her true love sobbing over her. I had to admit, the music was moving, and even though I didn't understand a word they were saying, I still had my own tears flowing. Just then, the screen changed to show a fundraising telethon room, and the announcer began talking. "Oh now that just ruins it." Erik scowled and plopped the mask back onto his face. He then turned off the TV and went into another room. I giggled a bit before going back to the computer. Within seconds, I could hear the keyboard being played loudly in my room, and I smiled.
The peacefulness didn't last long, however. As the van pulled up, I went to the door to see if they needed any help. "We got Subway!" David called to me, and I nodded. I then turned my attention to Susan and Hope, who were coming up the ramp with the bags.
"You got the big thing of coffee, right?" Before Hope could answer, I was plowed over from behind. The door all but fell off its hinges as a black and white blur leaped over the railing, and in one motion he grabbed the can of coffee grounds from Hope, looking exactly like a desperate football player, and finally stopping on the van roof, ripping into the foil top. While he was busy repeating "coffee, coffee, coffee coffee" in a hyper operatic voice, Hope grinned at me and subtly showed me a second can of coffee grounds. I grinned back and nodded, and they hurried inside while I tried to get Erik back down off of the van.
He finally relented when he noticed the crowd of neighbors gathering to watch him.
I knew this because he plowed me over again as I was sheepishly making my way back into the privacy of the indoors. My face full of dirt and my back covered in a trail of coffee grounds, I glared at him as I sat down at the table to eat the now cold toasted ham and swiss sub sandwich. He innocently looked up at me from his own sandwich, and I couldn't help but notice that he was now sprinkling coffee grounds onto the contents of it. Unbelievable. While he was chomping into his creation, Hope quickly grabbed the almost empty container from him and managed to hide it before he even realized it was gone.
By the time supper was over, without needing to look outside the window, we could tell what all the heat and humidity had led to. The only reason why I didn't plow Erik over in revenge as I ran outside to run around in the downpour was the fact that with this particular rain came thunder. And lightening. And a power outage. Great. "NIGHT TIME SHARPENS HEIGHTENS EACH SENSATION! DARKNESS STIRS AND WAKES IMAGINATION! SILENTLY(yeah right) THE SENSES ABANDON THEIR DEFENSES…." Only a fictional Opera 'Ghost' from the 1800s would be HAPPY that we lost electricity. And I thoroughly blamed the coffee for the fact that he was utterly ruining that song. Oh no. I had to stop him and stop him NOW. Insert smirk.
"Oh Erik, you DO realize that without electricity, you can't play the keyboard…"
"!" Hands reached out through the darkness and grasped my shoulders. "MAKE IT COME BACK!" Grinning, I continued the song.
"Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world, leave all thoughts of the life you knew before…"
"Not funny, Mademoiselle. I need my music."
"Well you're just going to have to wait and think of something to do in the meantime." I heard him mutter something under his breath, his voice fading as he left the room.
Ever have one of those Amelia Bedelia moments when you wish you had been more specific? That moment came for me three hours later, when the power finally returned. Because, as I looked around the illuminated room, I saw a trail leading into the kitchen. A trail of coffee beans.
No, Sarah. Do not go into that kitchen. For sanity sake, just go upstairs and get some sleep. Do not-"!"
Coffee grounds. Coffee grounds everywhere on every single possible surface, including the wall. And to top it all off, the batch of chocolate cookies Susan and I had baked earlier in the week was nowhere in sight. What WAS in sight was a pair of legs dangling from the top of the fridge. Instead of glaring at him right away, however, I found myself looking up at the kitchen ceiling, where a couple dozen dents had formed, about the size of a certain Phantom's head.
I should have stopped to ponder how he could have possibly done all this without anyone hearing him. Oh wait. He's the Phantom. Of course. Only the Phantom could have a silent coffee sugar rush. Nope. Instead of asking myself that, I instead looked up at him. He had his hand in the cookie jar and his mouth full of cookies, the coffee pot sitting next to him, only a few drops left. But that wasn't the worst thing, oh no. It was what he was chanting in what was like words with hiccups. "Coffee coffee coffee coffee CHOCOLATE coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee COOKIES coffee coffee coffee coffee SUGAR…" While he was doing this, he was more or less bouncing as he sat, perfectly innocently oblivious to my growing wrath.
"Get. Down. Here. Now."
"Coffee coffee coffee coffee…"
"DOWN. HERE. NOW!"
"Chocolate cookies sugar coffee chocolate coffee cookies sugar…" THUD! He looked up at me from the floor, pouting. "Might I ask what that was for, Mademoiselle?"
"You wouldn't listen! So I pulled you by the leg off of the fridge!" I sang before walking over to the sink and grabbing the dishcloth. Throwing it to him, I forced a smile. "Happy clean up. I'm going to bed."
A/N: Next(and last…*sob*) chapter coming soon! Stay tuned, and as always, feedback is more than welcome!
