"Good Morning Los Angeles, don't forget your rain coats today because there is a storm coming! We will update you all day long. Radio 4 wishes you a nice day and here is Sandy with the breaking news." I turned off the radio, grabbed my umbrella (just in case the meteorologists are right once) and rushed out of the door. I wasn't late but I wanted to meet Lissa before class started. She arrived in the middle of the night and stayed at Christian's place overnight because it was closer to the airport than our dorm. I was so excited to finally see her again after all this time. We decided to meet at college. I ran down the long corridor and then I saw her. She was listening to music, lost in thoughts, her green eyes staring into the empty space. A pickly feeling started in my belly and I began to smile widly.

"Hey Lissa!", I shouted. She turned her head, saw me and also started smiling. She gave me a big bear hug. "I've missed you so much" she rejoiced.
"How was Europe? Did you paint the town red?" I asked eagerly. We started walking to our first class while she told me about all the fun she had in Paris, Rome and Berlin. It sounded like a different world to me. On our way we met Caroline and after a lot of hugging and kissing and 'welcome back' we took our seats. Glady, we still had some time until the teacher arrived.

"So what boy drama did I miss?" Lissa asked.

"Nothing really. I've been a good girl all holidays long!." I replied. Caroline gave me a knowing look.

"What's going on here? What are you not telling me!?" Lissa begged. Caroline apparently felt the need to speak in my position.

"Well, we have this new guy here, Adrian Ivashkov, he is a total heartthrob and Rose has to work with him for the history project. They spent the entire evening together yesterday -"

"- and nothing happened for God's sake!" I tried to interrupt.

"- and today they'll carry on. She's really into him, I can tell by the way she constantly complains about him." Caroline giggled.

"I do not!" I exclaimed. Lissa seemed to find this all very amusing.

"Oh you totally do sweetie." Caroline said. "Just admit it already, you like him, there's nothing wrong with it."

"He's not the complete arse I thought he would be. That's actually all I can say about him right now. I don't even know him okay!" With that I ended the conversation because I don't like talking about my feelings especially when I'm not even sure how I feel.

Later that day I was on my way to Adrian once again. I hope we can finish our presentation tonight. By now the rain was pouring and I was grateful that I took it with me although the only dry part was my head. The wind was blowing the rain everywhere so I looked like a wet sack when I arrived at Adrian's. I knocked and he almost immediately opened the door.

"Wow, what happened to you?" He sounded more amused than worried but whatever.

"I just assume that you haven't left your house all day or looked out of the window to see that the freaking apocalypse has started." I haven't seen him in any of my classes today so that might actually be true. I stepped in, took of my wet jacket and left it together with my umbrella next to the door.

When we arrived at his room he asked "Do you want to take off your clothes?".

"WHAT?" I called. He laughed and said "Your clothes are all wet. Do you want to change? I could give you some dry clothes of mine if you want." . That's what he meant. Great, Rose, you just acted like a complete idiot. If it goes on like this it will be a funny evening.

"Uhm, yes, that would be nice." I murmured. He walked over to his closet and picked a wide T-shirt and some sweatpants. He handed them over me and waited. He looked me in the eyes and a smirk spread on his face. After a few moments I understood why he was waiting.

"Oh no, that's not going to happen. Turn around." I ordered. He did as I told him so I could finally change into something comfortable and most importantly, something dry.

The hours passed while we finished our project and listened to the radio. When I looked out of the window all I could see was rain. A lot of rain.

"Not the weather we're used here right?" Adrian asked. Just in that moment we heard a loud thunder followed by a light bolt.

"- that were Imagine Dragons with Radioactive and here's Carly with the weather. How is it going Carly?
Well, Paul, one of the worst thunderstorms in the history of our city has almost reached the town. We highly suggest everyone to stay inside. Don't leave your house if it's not completely necessary!"

"No, not really. It's getting kinda scary actually. I hope I'll get home alive" I answered, my glance still directed at the garden which turned into a mess of mudd. I guess all the years of sunshine and perfectly fine weather turned me into a shrinking violet.

"Don't be silly, just stay here overnight. You can't go oustide, you've heard what they're saying." Adrian insisted. Spending the night with Adrian? Oh dear God, where is that supposed to end?

"That's really nice but I have to decline. I mean, I have to be at my dorm before, ugh, Lissa gets worried and, ugh, it's just not possible." Wow, my lying is so bad. But what should I've said instead? 'Sorry, I'm afraid that we'll end up ripping off our clothes and doing things with each other that I'll probably regret later on.' Surely not.

"Just call her and say you're staying here. She'll understand it, I'm sure." When I gave him an unsure look he added "It's no problem, really." So I took my phone and dialed her number. To my surprise the line was dead.

"I guess the storm already cut some telephone towers, I'm not coming through. But okay, you won. I stay here under one condition: If you touch me you are dead." No need to mention that I just want to save myself from a big mistake. He laughed and said "That's actually the first time a girl said that to me but I guess there's a first time for everything right?" he winked. Oh I wish he would stop with that, it's making me feel a range of mixed emotions.

Adrian excused himself because he wanted to get us something to drink. After a few minutes he came back with a bunch of different alcohol.

"You wanna get me drunk now because I don't fall for you charm?" I teased. That got me a little smile from him. "So you admit that my charm is hard to resist? But coming back to the first part of your question: No, I don't want to do that. I'm not that kind of guy. I just know that I won't survive this day if I don't get wasted tonight." Woah, where is this sudden change of tone coming from? He took the alcohol and takes the place next to me, under the window so we don't have to watch the world ending. "Bad day huh?" I asked.
"You could say so." He opened the wodka bottle and took a sip.
"May I ask what is going on?" I wasn't sure if I'd get an answer to this but it was worth a try.
"Uhm, well I have some problems with my dad. He's not the nice guy everyone things he is in college. I - I normally don't talk about this." His voice broke a bit
"That's okay. You don't have to if you don't want to. Is that the reason you weren't in any classes today?" He nodded.
Huh, who would've thought that he wasn't there because of personal problems and not because his hangover was so bad that he couldn't get of bed?

Just in that moment as I wanted to say something else the lights started flickering and then went off completely.
"Absolutely fucking fantastic." Adrian murmured.
"That's...not good. Do you know where your feeder pillar is? Maybe a wire went out" I worried.
"Rose, in all honesty, do I look like I have any idea where the feeder pillar is? I don't do the dirty work." I looked him in the eyes and smiled. In that moment I just wanted to make him feel good and less hurt but I didn't know what to say. Eventually I ended up with
"You're not that bad, Ivashkov. If I wouldn't know it any better I'd say you're one of the good guys."
"You'd be surprised, Hathaway." he said.
Before any of us could say something else we both fell asleep to the sound of the pourring rain.


Happy Holidays to all of you. I hope you're having a wonderful time!