Snow & Screams

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling and it was almost dark, but Juniper could see the lights still on inside the house. He rubbed his arms and walked a little faster, knowing that Melissa was waiting for him inside.

His hands shook as he got out his keys. The music inside was loud enough for him to hear it clearly, which meant that Melissa was either cooking or dancing in the living room. Juniper loved both possibilities.

He heard the music pause and saw Melissa’s face through the living room window.

The door opened just as he got the right key out and Melissa pulled him inside, shivering at the gust of cold air that came in with him.

“How was it?” She asked excitedly.

“It was great. I haven’t seen Nana in so long.”

“I ordered a pizza just a couple minutes ago. Pepperoni and mushroom.”

He kissed her as he took off his coat. “I love you.”

“I know.”

He put his coat on the hook and realized just how warm it was inside. The thermostat had been set to 80 and Mel alone was hot enough.

She returned to the living room and unpaused the song she was listening to.

He left his things on the counter and grabbed a slice of pizza on his way to the living room to watch her dance to the K-pop song she had on.

Just as she finished dancing, the entire house went both dark and silent.

“What happened?” Melissa asked.

“Power outage,” Juniper sighed. “I hoped it wouldn’t happen.”

She shrugged. “We can work with it.”

“You have anything in mind?”

“Not really…”

“Then let’s camp inside.”

She smiled. “Where’s the tent?”

“In the spare room. I’ll grab the flashlights and sleeping bags.”

“I’ll grab the flashlights and sleeping bags,” Mel corrected him. “The garage light won’t turn on.”

“Oh, yeah,” Juniper realized. “Okay, I’ll get the tent.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “Go ahead.”

They went their separate ways, Mel through the garage door and Juniper into the hallway.

The spare bedroom was slowly becoming their storage room. Nobody had stayed over in so long, and they were always buying things they didn’t need. Juniper considered them lucky for that.

The tent was nestled at the bottom of the closet, under a couple of Mel’s dresses and a photo album of Juniper’s baby pictures his mom insisted he should have.

“June!” Mel shouted.

“Yeah?!”

“Where are the sleeping bags?”

“They should be in the linen closet!”

“Okay!”

Juniper dragged the tent out of the box and carried it into the living room, where Melissa had dropped more flashlights than he knew they owned.

In less than twenty minutes, their living room turned into a campsite; with their couch and TV stand moved aside to make room for the tent and campfire made of blankets and flashlights with orange tissue paper over the lights. They set up two lawn chairs and ate pizza together outside of the tent.

“We should’ve bought that heater,” Juniper said while Mel scrolled through her phone. “The battery powered one.”

“It would’ve been nice.”

They were both starting to get cold, which meant that the fun of their indoor camping trip would only last so long.

“Found it!”

Mel tossed her phone into the firepit and leaned back in her chair as the sound of a Walmart ad started playing at full volume.

“Not that,” she said.

“What is it?”

“You’ll see.”

After the ad came the sound of a fire crackling and Juniper relaxed in his chair. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine that they were really outside together. He was glad they weren’t, because Mel would’ve pelted him with snowballs by now.

“Juniper,” Melissa said, reaching her hand out.

“Hm?”

“Come here.”

He smiled at her. “Or what?”

“So you think you’re too good to hold my hand?”

“I think you don’t just want to hold my hand.”

“Just move your chair closer so I can hold your hand.”

He looked at her hand and then at her.

“I’m not gonna bite you,” she promised.

“You said that last time and I let my guard down.”

“Juneee, just hold my hand.”

Juniper slipped his hand into hers carefully and watched her.

“See? I’m not biting.”

“Yet.”

She sighed dramatically. “You’re not a very trusting individual and I’d like to help you unpack that.”

“Sure.”

“So, when did you start not trusting?”

“I have this girlfriend and we’ve been together for years, but sometimes she lures me in with all the cute things she does and then bites me.”

She sucked her teeth and shook her head. “That’s not a reason to be so distrustful. I’m sure that’s just a sign of her showing her love.”

“She doesn’t have to bite me to do it.”

Juniper noticed that as they talked, Melissa moved her seat closer across the carpeted floor.

“And what do—”

The sound of the Home Depot jingle cut her off.

“Excuse me,” she told the firepit, “I’m trying to have a therapy session.”

The ad went off and she turned to Juniper in character once again.

“And what do you do to show your girlfriend that you understand she loves you?”

He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “Breakfast in bed, date nights, anything she wants, fancy dinners, lots of movie nights at home, lunch and dinner, hikes, etcetera.”

“Those are all very nice things.”

Their chairs were touching now and Juniper knew that if she wanted to bite him, now was her chance.

“You’re a very sweet man, Mr. Pierlot.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Just as Mel lifted his hand to her mouth, the power came back on and the TV blasted a high-energy K-pop song from behind their tent.

The sudden noise and light all around them scared both of them out of their chairs.

Melissa was the first to recover, and she laughed at Juniper.

“I thought that scream came from me,” she guffawed.

“I was scared,” he admitted with his back on the floor.

She couldn’t stop laughing and Juniper wasn’t going to take this lying down. He pulled Mel down with him and put a hand on her side until she was just panting.

“June, that was hilarious.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but Juniper started tickling her mercilessly.

“Junie! Stop! Please!”

She kicked and tried to push him away, but she was too out of breath to really do anything. He kept tickling her until she was in hysterics and accepted her fate.

“June,” she gasped, rolling away as he stopped.

“Mel.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“But that was the girliest scream ever.”

Juniper rolled her back over and held himself above her.

“Go ahead,” she told him. “Tickle me all you want, but that won’t mean it wasn’t funny.”

He kissed her on the lips. “It was pretty funny.”

“See? You can’t tickle me because I was right, hypocrite.”