Breaking Electricity

I kept my stance in the car the whole way home. My arms were folded across my chest, I stared straight ahead and there was an angry pout on my face. I’m sure my breathing was heavy, and I’m sure I was scaring John out of his pants, but I wasn’t cool with this. I didn’t want some stranger in my house all summer, helping me with the stuff I like doing by myself and eating my food and using my bathroom. Though he was attractive, I still wasn’t happy with the idea. It would take some bribing from my father to get me to be alright with it, I was sure of that. And the other thing was that I already had one guy in the house. I didn’t need another one; I’m a girl and I have certain needs. John was going to ruin a lot of things. It also didn’t help that I wanted a summer all to myself with my horses that I loved more than life itself. While I was thinking about all this, I had somehow fallen asleep, despite the fact that I was completely livid at the moment.

“Annalise,” I heard a whisper in my ear and opened my eyes slowly. “We’re home, baby. Come on.” I sat up and saw that John had already stepped out of the old truck. I looked over at dad and glared at him, then slid my Vans back onto my feet. “Why don’t you go on to bed, honey? John, could you help me bring in some stuff from the bed of the truck?”

“Sure thing, Mr. Marshall,” John gave him warm smile while I sighed. I was at least thankful that I could get to bed.

“John, you’ll be staying in Annalise’s room until I can do some re-modeling on another room we have in the house.” My jaw clenched and my fists tightened. Not only was he sharing my room with me, he was about to take my brother’s room. My brother that moved out not a year ago, and he was already re-modeling it. “Is that alright, Anna?”

I pretended I didn’t hear him and kept walking up to the front porch, my arms folded across my chest again. I heard my father apologize to John for me, which caused me to be even angrier. It was like I didn’t have a right to be mad about what was happening.

The only thing I wanted to do was sleep and dream about a world where I didn’t have to share rooms with complete strangers. But of course I wouldn’t get that; not yet. I had to be bothered first.

“Do you mind if I take a shower?” John asked quietly as he scratched the back of his neck. I gave him a smug look, and then shrugged as I removed the comforter from my bed; it was way too hot to sleep under that heavy thing. “Alright, well. I’ll just be a few minutes. Thanks.”

I rolled my eyes and screamed into my pillow after I heard the shower turn on. Before I changed into my pajamas, I went into the kitchen and got myself a glass of water and made my way upstairs again. He was out of the shower now, but still doing things in the bathroom, so I changed quickly and turned the light off in my room before getting into my comfortable bed. I turned so my back was facing the bathroom door. The last thing I need was for him to be staring at me, causing more awkwardness.

The door squeaked open and I took in a deep breath. I heard him shuffling around and I knew he was trying to make as little noise as possible. At least his was considerate.

I wasn’t going to dwell and listen to John shuffle around. So I finally fell asleep, ready to wake up at five in the morning. And when I did, I woke up John, too.

“What?” He groaned, turning over. “Jeeze, it’s five in the morning.”

“Get up,” I sighed. “I don’t want you here, but the least you could do is help me out.”

I heard him sigh and sit up while I put my hair up in a ponytail, “Do you do this every morning?”

“Yeah. Usually its fun and I enjoy it, but now that you’re here, I might change my mind.”

He chuckled, “You’re charming.”

I threw some overalls at him and heard him mumble ‘ew’, causing me to chuckle. “Get used to it, you’re going to want them when you clean out the horses’ stalls.”