The rest of the evening consisted of nothing more than just sitting around either watching TV or reading. Lani was sprawled across CAP’s bed, lying on her stomach with her legs swinging freely, completely absorbed in a book she had taken off of his shelf. CAP sat at his desk on his laptop making no noise but the clicking of the keys and Chunji popped in every now and then to see how they were doing. Lani had taken time to defuse and was now back to her normal, sane self.

But that wasn’t the case down the hall. L.Joe paced back and forth in his room with his arms crossed across his chest. He walked from one side of the room to the other just impatiently waiting. She should come and apologize! He thought to himself, why is it taking her so long to say sorry?

These thoughts of his continued until he heard voices coming from down the hall. It sounded like Chunji, CAP and Lani, and L.Joe cracked the door to listen in. They were saying goodbye to Lani but seemed slightly worried. L.Joe ducked back in the room at the mention of his name and jumped onto his bed as if he had been there the whole time. As expected, Lani walked into the room to inform L.Joe that she was leaving, he had planned to just ignore her, but she suddenly got his attention when she stated that she would be walking home. L.Joe glanced at the time and realized it was almost 10pm.

“Let me walk you home,” he straight forwardly stated as he got off his bed and grabbed a light hoodie.

“Fine… but this doesn’t mean that I’m not mad at you anymore!” she made clear to him.

They both exited the bedroom and quietly walked through the living room to the door. L.Joe slipped on his shoes and tapped his foot as he impatiently waited for Lani to tie her laces before opening the door and striding out. They waited for the elevator to reach their floor and Lani could tell L.Joe was upset with her, but that didn’t matter, because she was just as stubborn as him and was still angry at him for behaving the way he did. They left the building and silently walked side by side in the cool wind, neither of them daring to start a conversation. The street was quiet and dark with only a few cars passing by. Lani looked up at the sky trying to avoid eye contact with L.Joe and noticed the stars weren’t visible. Hm, it’s really cloudy tonight, she thought as she continued staring up. As her eyes stayed on the clouds, she felt a light drop on her face. She touched it with her hand and wiped it off, but as she did so, she felt another drop. Lani looked down to see the sidewalk now covered in tiny dark spots and realized it was raining. It was just a drizzle, but Lani still cursed herself for not having something to cover her head. She shivered slightly and rubbed her palms on her arms for warmth. The rain started falling a little heavier and the night got cooler, but soon the cold shivers that were running down her back were replaced with a soft warmth. L.Joe placed his hoodie on Lani’s shoulders and pulled the hood up to shield her from the rain. Lani was touched at the gesture but still refused to look at him since his actions now in no way made up for his behavior earlier. Their venture to Lani’s apartment continued with neither of them willing to start a conversation and soon, they quickly, but silently arrived at their destination. Lani faced L.Joe to say thank you and good night, but when she turned towards him, she noticed his hair soaking wet and his clothes drenched from the rain. The sight made her heart sink and she felt horrible for being sheltered from the rain by L.Joe’s sweater as he walked with nothing but a t-shirt. She felt even worse for not saying thank you to him when he gave her the sweater. L.Joe said goodbye and turned away to leave, but Lani reached out and grabbed his wrist. He turned back towards her and looked at her questionably.

“Um,” she hesitated, “why don’t you come inside until the rain lets up?”

“I think it’d be best for me to just go back home,” he stated without meeting her eyes.

He’s still mad at me she thought. “At least let me give you an umbrella,” she offered knowing there was nothing she could say to convince him to stay.

Before L.Joe could reply, Lani walked into her building dragging L.Joe with her. They fell back into their game of silence and stood side by side not making a sound as they boarded the elevator. The red number at the top dinged 3 and the doors opened; Lani walked out and L.Joe couldn’t do anything but follow. The door unlocked when Lani turned the key and she walked in turning on the lights. L.Joe hesitantly walked in and stood in the entrance. Lani disappeared for a moment and returned holding a green umbrella in her hand. She handed it to L.Joe and he reluctantly took it from her; he didn’t want to over stay his welcome so he quickly said goodbye and headed out the door.

That night, instead of sleeping, Lani sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest thinking of the day’s events. Rain was still falling, heavily hitting the window of Lani’s bedroom and she couldn’t seem to get the picture of L.Joe drenched in rain water out of her head. She felt terribly guilty and knew she wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. The rain continued falling harder and the sky began to rumble; Lani got out of bed and brought herself to the kitchen to make a cup of hot chocolate. She returned to her room holding the mug securely with both hands as lightning lit up the room. Listening to the thunder storm brewing outside, Lani sipped her hot chocolate watching her room flash different shades of blue and purple, suddenly there was a loud boom and the light from her lamp vanished. Lani looked over to her clock to see it blank rather than big red numbers. She got out of her bed and ran to the light switch and flipped it on, but as she had predicted, there was no light. She opened her front door and looked down the hall to see that only the emergency lights were on. The whole building was having a power outage and due to the age of the building, it didn’t have a generator. Lani rushed back to her bed and wrapped herself in her blanket. Usually she didn’t mind the dark, but when she knew she wouldn’t be able to put on a light if necessary, she felt uneasy. Lani reached across her bed and grabbed her phone off the small side table. She began dialing a number but quickly deleted it off the screen and dialed another.