Darien paced back and forth in the living room while the rest were seated on the couch staring at his dark figure. This had been continuing for the past thirty minutes. Dark panels were shut tightly over the windows and the all of the exits were locked. Maybe it was fate. Maybe the stars didn't want Darien and her to be together. It's just like when your life is going the way you want it to, but you can't help thinking that this is too good to be true. She guessed that this was one of those times. Serena suddenly sighed. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples in circles.
"Darien, would you stop that? You're making me dizzy. And can anyone turn on the light switch over there?"
Serena's request was unheard as everyone Darien mumbled an apology and plopped down on the marble floor. He had been thinking for the past thirty minutes. He was trapped in a huge mansion with possibly the girl of his dreams. He grinned. Maybe this situation wasn't that bad. They have food, clothes, and a roof over their heads—not to mention a huge roof—, and most importantly, they were alone with absolutely no adult supervision. But he couldn't help but feel guilty about thinking that maybe this was better than going to that pointless school dance when everyone else was stressed out about it. He rose up after realizing that the feeling in his behind was leaving him.
"Does this mean I don't get to drive the Porsche?" All eyes focused on the direction that Andrew's voice came from. Mina blinked.
"Do we even have to answer that?"
Andrew, disheartened, lowered his eyes on the ground and sighed. "Right…"
"I can't believe I'm going to miss the dance of the year!" Mina sniffed, "All this waiting, picking the perfect dress, and for what? For nothing…and it's all my fault…" She sniffed some more and inhaled a shaky breath.
Serena patted her on the back sympathetically and tried to say some comforting words to her, but she realized that Mina was telling the truth. It really was Mina's fault, although it was just an accident.
"Mina, sweetie, don't worry about it, accidents happen all the time."
Mina looked at Serena's dark face through teary eyes and said shakily, "But I totally smashed up your security system! I'm so sorry, Rena!" She looked as if she was about to break down with sobs any minute.
"Don't worry about it, it's probably not even that hard to fix it anyways."
"Rena, are you sure everything's locked?" Mina asked with hope. She started to chew on her lip. She sat rigidly on the couch with her back straight and her hands fidgeting with the hem of her dress.
Darien butted in, "Every freakin' door in this whole, entire place is locked. Trust me. I've checked several times."
Andrew suddenly brightened up. "Maybe someone can try to fix the security panel!"
"Dude, you're suggesting the impossible. There's Pepsi all over that thing and almost every cord in it is fried." Andrew became discouraged again after listening to Darien.
At the word, "Pepsi," Mina grimaced and vowed that she would never drink soda ever again.
Darien shrugged and grinned inwardly. He felt his way toward the couch and sat down next to Serena. He lazily hung his arm around her shoulder. "We're just going to have to spend the night and possibly stay here until Sere's old man comes and unlocks everything." Suddenly, Serena stood up sharply, letting Darien's arm fall to his side. She slapped her hand onto her forehead.
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh, why the hell didn't we think of this before?!" All looked at her anxiously after locating her in the dark.
"What?" Darien asked, sort of disappointed that there was a possible solution to getting out of the house and also sort of guilty for being disappointed. Wait a second. Why was he feeling guilty about this anyway? These kinds of thoughts never bothered him before…
"We are such dumbasses!"
"What is it?" Andrew asked her.
"We can use the phone!" The other three just sat silently and thought of why they couldn't think of this before. Mina jumped up and squealed.
"We can go to the dance! Oh my gosh!" Meanwhile, Andrew was already heading over to what he thought was the direction of the car, as if it was calling out to him. Darien didn't say anything and stood silently. However, this went unnoticed by the group. Serena headed over to the phone, almost tripping over Mina in the process. She picked up the phone and dialed her dad's cell phone number. She held it up to her ears. She frowned.
Mina slowly felt her way to her. "So? Are you calling your dad?"
Serena hung up the phone and picked it up again. She put it up to her ears and froze.
"Oh shit."
"What's wrong, Rena?" Mina impatiently took the phone from Serena's hand and held it up to her ears. She looked confused. There was absolutely no sound. Then it clicked in her mind.
"Oh man, oh man, oh man, this is not happening! Why isn't the phone working?" Mina dejectedly put the phone back into place and slid down on the floor. Across the living room, Andrew did the same.
Darien called out in the darkness. "I'm really sorry, man. Uh…wherever you are…"
Serena looked at the phone incredulously, "I can't believe this!" She spaced out to think about something. She looked about her and noticed the darkness. She realized that she can barely make the stuff out in the room.
"Oh shit, did anyone try to turn on the light?" The four of them just stared at each other, blinking.
Darien saw a dark object on the floor. He picked it up and it was the remote control that Mina tripped over. He tried to turn the TV on, only to see the black screen. He checked the batteries in the remote and they were perfectly fine.
"Yup, the electricity's out."
"Maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe there's no electricity in the whole town…" suggested Serena, "that means it'll probably come back on in a few minutes. But why would the security system crashing affect the electricity?" She thought long and hard.
"Oh! I
have a cell phone! It's upstairs!" Everyone brightened up at the thought. They
discussed it and decided that Serena would go upstairs and retrieve her cell
phone and call her father. Serena blew on her hands and rubbed them together.
"Is anyone else a little chilly or is it just me?"
"Why, Sere? Need something to warm you up?" Serena glared into no where. She couldn't believe that he was trying to be a smartass when they had no heat! He was unbelievably incredible!
Darien could almost feel Serena's anger and said in an innocent voice, "What? I was just wondering if you wanted my jacket. Jeez, Sere, get your mind out of the gutter, you nasty girl."
Serena ignored the comment and turned to Mina. Serena had lived in much colder climates before, so this wasn't really a problem. Personally, she didn't mind a little cool air, but she saw that Mina was frantically rubbing her arms and legs trying to keep herself warm. Wearing a very small dress didn't really help the situation. Serena had found out that it got a little chilly in the night during this time of the year. She guessed that it was much colder in this house because of the absence of a warm breeze and also because of the fact that her house was too big and had ceilings too high to keep the heat in one place and low on the ground.
"Do you want a blanket? I'll go grab some since I'm going upstairs anyway."
Darien grinned, "Sure, babe."
Serena rolled her eyes. "Let me rephrase that. Do you want a blanket, Mina?"
"I'll go with you anyway." Serena narrowed her eyes. She had a feeling that he was up to something. She didn't know why she couldn't just trust Darien. Oh yeah, he's a major player.
Raye and her friends sat around a round table.
"Where the hell are they?" Raye fumed, tapping her foot impatiently against the floor. The blond-haired girl twirling her hair popped the pink bubble gum.
"You don't think they're at a hotel, do you?"
Raye snapped her head to glare at her, "Of course not." At this minute, Darien's friends all showed up, laughing and joking with each other.
"Man, Darien and Andrew must be having a hell
of a time with those blond babes," Kevin joked.
Chad gave him a high five and grinned, "Darien really is the MAN!"
"Shut the fuck up, you idiots!" Raye stood up angrily and stomped towards the ladies room with her friends following her.
Kevin stared at her retreating back. "What the fuck is up her ass?"
The rest of the guys just shrugged and continued to joke.
"Ah! Fuck, man!" Darien mumbled an apology as he accidentally stepped on Andrew's hand. Damn, he couldn't see anything. It was pitch black in here. He was going up the stairs with Serena, walking behind her. At that moment, Serena suddenly stopped after they finally came to the end of the staircase, causing Darien to bump into her and grabbed her on reflex. Serena, not being able to withstand his weight, fell on the floor with a squeak.
"Ugh," moaned Serena, her voice muffled.
"Are you okay?" Darien asked in alarm. Serena mumbled out her answer.
"Are you the king of idiots or something? Get off of me!" Darien blushed slightly and reluctantly stood up from her back. He was thankful for the darkness that hid his blush.
"So you admit I'm the king."
Serena rolled her eyes and dusted herself off. "Don't forget 'of idiots'."
"Come on, my room's around the corner." Serena started feeling the side of the wall to help her find her way.
Darien grinned, "Is that an invitation?"
She threw a dirty look in his direction, although she doubted he could see it. "It's an invitation to get some stuff from my room with me."
"So is that how kids are putting it these days?" Darien pretended to seem impressed, "Clever."
Serena rolled her eyes for the thousandth time this day. "Yes, Darien, you saw right through me. I want to get you in my room so we can do kinky stuff," she said in a monotonous voice.
Darien smiled, "I knew this whole lockdown thing was a plan to get me into bed."
"You wish."
"Now," Darien started, "how is it that you keep saying that I wish when it's really you that's wishing?"
"You have a really twisted sense of logic, you know that?"
"I've been told." Darien reached out and grabbed what he guessed was her shoulder.
Serena tensed, "What are you doing?"
"Leaning on you for guidance, what else? I'm not going to ravage you, you know."
Serena bit her lip to keep from having a nervous breakdown. She wished he would just take his hand away so she wouldn't feel like such an idiot. "W-well, can't you grab onto the wall or something?"
His grin never leaving his face, he replied, "Why would I do that when I like you better?"
Serena turned on her irritated voice, "Fine, just don't try anything funny."
"Yes, m'am."
"Oh, and Darien?"
"Yes, m'am?"
"Don't say 'ravage'."
"Yes, m'am."
They slowly inched their way through the dark for what seemed like hours. Darien sighed and whined like a little boy.
"Are we there yet?"
Serena exhaled deeply and replied Darien for the fifth time. "Apparently not." Serena frowned and stopped walking.
"Hmm…that's weird…"
"Are we there yet?"
"We're supposed to be at my room by now…" Serena chewed on her bottom lip, ignoring Darien.
Darien stopped his childish antics. "Are you telling me that you got us lost in your own home?" He asked, unbelievingly. He took that as a "yes" when he was met with silence.
"What was that comment about me being the 'king of idiots'?"
"Shut up."
"Wonder what's taking them so long…" Mina and Andrew were curled up together on the sofa, trying to keep themselves warm with each other's body heat. Andrew had come out of his depressed state and realized what Darien had realized way before. This definitely proved to be an advantage. He grinned and scooted closer to Mina.
"Don't worry about them. Darien knows what he's doing," he said, smirking at the secret meaning underneath.
"Darien, you don't know what you're doing," stated Serena matter-of-factly. They were trying to go back the way they came from and start all over again. So far, they were not having very much success. This day was turning out to be the worst day of Serena's life. They were trapped in a house that not even Serena knew how to get around, with no electricity and no heat. The cell phone was their only hope and that was IF they could find it. Darien's voice interrupted her train of thought.
"Of course I know what I'm doing. And the scary thing is, is that I know this house as much as you do and you're the one living in it."
Serena blew her hair out of her face that was now adorning an annoyed expression. She wondered what brand this hairspray was, because she'd be damned if she got it again. "Would you just stop mentioning that? Besides, I just moved here and it's not like I have freaky eyes that can see in the dark, alright?"
"Well, I would have guessed that you'd have learned where the door to your room is by now." Darien was immensely enjoying riling her up like this. Now he finally had something to hold against her.
"I don't count how many doors I have to walk past to get to my room, 'cause that's just not normal! I just recognize it as the one with the white double doors, and if we happened to miss a door, it's your fault," Serena huffed.
Darien raised an eyebrow, amused by her logic. "Explain."
"If I missed a door, you should have told me about it, 'cause unless I was dreaming the whole, entire time, which I really wish I were, you were right behind me, mister!"
"So you admit that you dream about me."
Serena chose to ignore his comment. "Let's just go into a random room."
Darien smirked, "Are you suggesting something?"
"Well, duh." At this, Darien paused, shocked that his innocent Sere could think of such a thing, not that he didn't like it or anything…
"I was suggesting that we go into a random room and get some blankets before Mina gets sick or something." Damn. He knew it was too good to be true.
"Oh."
"Besides, we can come up for the cell phone later. Let's just make sure everyone's alright first." At the first dent in the wall that she felt, Serena stood up and grabbed the doorknob.
"Darien," she called out.
"What," Darien answered back.
"Let's go into this one." Serena opened the door and stepped in the room. She reached out with her right foot and tried to feel the floor in front of her. While she was doing this, Darien abruptly walked into the room, knocking her over. Unfortunately, it was too late for Darien to grab her before she fell. It was too dark for Darien to see. He crouched down on the floor immediately and called out her name.
"Ugh," Serena moaned, "I'm fine…"
Darien quickly crawled towards her voice. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Serena started to stand up, but she ended up sitting back down.
Darien reached for Serena, "What's wrong?"
"I think I twisted my ankle. Jeez, why the hell do I always get hurt?"
"Let me see."
Serena tried to lighten the mood with a joke, "Well, if you haven't noticed, it's completely black, so I don't think I can show you."
Darien quickly retorted with a serious voice. "You know what I mean." Serena rolled her eyes, but still stuck out her foot for Darien to feel.
"It's probably red right now. It'll get swollen soon enough."
Serena sighed. "Great." Suddenly she felt Darien's arms underneath her, lifting her up from the floor.
"Hey! What're you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" He walked slowly walked to the door.
"Where are we going? Put me down!" Serena resisted in vain, for Darien just grabbed onto her tighter.
"You can't walk. We're going to try to find a bathroom. That's where the medicine cabinet is, right?"
"Yeah, but…it's not that bad. I can still limp. Come on, you're going to get tired sooner or later, so just let me go," Serena pleaded.
Darien ceased walking. He leaned down close so that she could feel his breath and whispered into her ear.
"Why would I let you go when I finally caught you?"
