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13
“We’re going to have to invest in electric blankets if this heat stays off much longer.” Shane is sitting on the floor in front of the TV alongside Dean, and they’re playing the same video game they were the first day I arrived, which now feels like a lifetime ago.
Niles is nowhere to be found, so I ask where he is.
“In the basement,” Shane says over his shoulder, too caught up in playing the game to look at me. “He’s tinkering with the furnace again.”
“Our boy fancies himself a handyman,” Dean adds. “Personally, I think the thing is shot. It looks like it’s from the fifties.”
“The house was built in ninety-two.” I can almost hear Shane’s eyes roll.
I don’t stick around to hear the rest. Instead, I decide that, rather than ask if they’d lied to me, I’ll see for myself.
I slip into my coat and shoes still beside the front door, and quietly let myself outside as to not draw attention to myself. The snow is deep, piled into mountains at either side of the steps where it’s been shoveled and cast aside. The driveway has a narrow path cleared starting at the bottom of the stairs and running the length of the drive to the road that lies ahead. My car is still parked where I left it, of course, streaks of snow remaining where one of the guys tried to clear it but the brush missed, creating crescent shapes across the hood, windshield, and roof.
I clutch my coat closer and huddle in as I take the steps slowly and then walk the length of the driveway. I don’t even reach the street before I can see clearly that it’s perfectly clear, and it appears it has been for a long time, as the black of the asphalt shows plainly and wet, what snow remaining reduced to a dirty slush.
My heels, which are terribly impractical in hindsight, slip dangerously as I march my way back toward the house.
“Where’d you go?” Niles asks the instant I step back inside. “It’s freezing out there.”
“Did you lie?” I throw the question out so fast, his expression is colored with confusion.
“What?”
“About the roads. Did you lie? Because they’re clear and my uncle is in Minnesota.” The reference isn’t something he could possibly understand, but I’m upset and the words are spewing forth unchecked.
Niles’ hands rise in front of him, palms out. “Slow down. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Shane and Dean appear behind him wearing matching concerned expressions.
“I think you do. Did you lie to me about the roads being closed? About the airport? Did you make me miss my family on purpose?”
Niles is starting to look just as upset as I feel, and I start to question myself, when Dean speaks up. “I think I can shed some light on this.”
I turn to him and so does Niles.
Shane approaches slowly, fearfully. “It was nasty outside, and I heard the newscaster talking about the possibility of closing everything, and you’d just gotten here. We’ve spent so many holidays alone…” He spreads his hands out before him. “I didn’t know you had anywhere to be. If I had…”
Anger flares hot and wild inside of me. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“I know it was selfish—”
“You’re damn right it was.” I’m fuming.
“Jesus Christ.” Niles closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
“I should have said something sooner,” Dean mutters.
My attention snaps to him. “What do you mean by that?”
He looks pained as he stares back at me. “I knew what was going on and I didn’t say anything. You were so sweet and I liked you a lot already. I wanted to spend more time with you, to see if there was a potential to build something.”
I’m glaring when I look to Niles. “And you? What was your role in all of this?”
The troubling thing is, he doesn’t say anything in his defense. He just continues to stand there looking distraught. Probably because they all got caught, I surmise.
“You can all go to hell,” I hiss. “And to think I was starting to think I really liked you guys. I guess that just goes to show I still have shit taste when it comes to men. I’ll see myself out.” I spin on my heel and yank the door open. “Merry fucking Christmas.” I leave the door standing wide open and I march my way back down the steps and to my car. I hope they freeze to death. It would serve them right.
