Chapter Twenty-Four

Drunk.monkey: I got another chapter up! Yay!

Two things were making Kate nervous right now.

One of them was that her parents were supposed to be returning home tonight from New York. They'd be landing at 8:00 and returning home at around 9:00, maybe 9:15. Her dad would wonder why a man was in the house with his daughter and would probably say the most ludicrous thing that he could think of. Her mother, on the other hand, would – hopefully – be okay with it, since she could see it from a girl's point of view and all.

The second was that there was a possibility of a tornado coming through the area. Tornadoes didn't scare her if she saw pictures of them or footage on television, but if they were headed her way, she was known to be a scaredy cat.

But if there really was going to be severe weather in the evening like all the meteorologists were predicting, then her parents's flight would be delayed.

Which meant she had more time to worry about how her parents would react.

The sky was cloudy right now. The meteorologists said that the rain would start at noon, which was in just three hours time.

She prayed that there wouldn't be a tornado. She did not need to have a heart attack today.

Jack was hungry.

Melissa was still a terrible cook, that much hadn't changed. And he could only have his breakfast and lunch at Kate's house. Their snacks were never good – crackers and fruit? Who eats this? There had to be something good.

Jack spotted a pink circular container sitting on the counter. Was that food? He walked over and picked it up and opened it. He saw that there were the numbers one through twenty-eight on a white circle in the center, along with seven green candies and one pink one. All the other candies seemed to be gone.

Sweets, he thought, taking a green candy out of the container. He popped one in his mouth, then made a face. God, it was bloody horrible! Who ate this kind of food? What else did they have in the future that tasted awful?

Jack was desperate, though. He was hungry, and by God, he was a man! He wasn't going to starve himself!

He ate a few more candies until Kate walked into the kitchen, going right to the window. She looked blankly out it, seeing the rain starting to come down. She looked beautiful when she had a blank look on, free of all anger that she sometimes held towards him.

She turned around and then saw when he was eating the candy, her eyes got wide. "Jack...what are you eating?" she asked

"Candy," he said, shutting the container with a snap. "You can 'ave it. Bloody awful in my opinion."

"That's not candy, Jack," Kate replied. "That's medicine."

Jack frowned. "Medicine?"

"Yes. You ate my birth control medicine."

"That explains the taste," he said.

"You don't know what birth control is, do you?" she asked, leaning against the kitchen table.

"I know it's a medicine that tastes bad," he said.

"It's a medicine that prevents women from getting pregnant," she said, walking towards him and taking the container from him.

"Your room, then, three minutes," Jack said with a grin.

"You're disgusting," she said. "That's not why I take it! I take it because my period gives me horrible cramps and that medicine makes it go away. And now, thanks to you, I won't get it this month."

"Isn't that a good thing, though?"

"My parents are going to think Will knocked me up!" she whispered.

"Knocked you up? Will wouldn't hit ya, love."

"No, knocked up means that a girl got pregnant. So, thanks Jack. Thanks a whole lot."

"I could reimburse you," Jack said, putting a hand on her back and slowly sliding it downwards.

"How about you not and say that you didn't?" she said, putting her hand on his chest and stepping away. "I will need thirty dollars, though."

"Dollars?" he asked.

"Yeah, they're green paper rectangles. They're money. They're, like, your equivalent to pounds. A refill costs thirty of those, and I'll need those by tomorrow."

"Whores are gettin' pretty pricy these days," he said. "Guess ye're worth it. Sendin' dear William to the store for an hour, then?"

"You idiot, do you not understand? I'm not having sex with you! Not now, not ever!" she whispered, her green eyes wide.

"You keep telling yourself that, darlin', maybe one day you'll believe it."

Kate's jaw tensed up and looked at the container, then back at Jack. "When I make a promise, I keep it."

"I've heard no promise bein' made by you."

Kate didn't say another word.

By the time that Melissa and Jack were at home, it was raining heavily. The sky was as dark as night, even though it was but 5:30 in the evening. Melissa put her purse on the couch and listened to a recording on the answering machine saying that their flight was delayed because of severe weather in both New York and Minneapolis.

Melissa then flipped on the television and saw that there was a severe thunderstorm warning for Hennepin County.

"I don't get it," Jack said. "It's nothin' different than a hurricane. I've survived and so has me Pearl."

"I don't know if you know this, Jack," Melissa said, "but a tornado is a lot more deadly than a hurricane. They come suddenly and destroy homes."

"They haven't said anything about a tornado."

"Right." She took in a deep breath, then exhaled. "Sorry, I'm just nervous."

"Well, everythin'll be alright, love, savvy? No storms here!"

At that, there was a loud clap of thunder overheard. The lights flickered, then everything went dark.

"Jack..." Melissa said in a small voice. She hated storms and the dark. And now, there was a combination of the two. This is not what she wanted to come home to.

"Bugger," Jack said.

I'm sorry this so short. I know it's probably sub-par for me, but I promise you all will like the next one! Oh, and no blog entries because the power's out...haha...