Snowed In

“Where did you say this generator was?”

Zayn looked back at Brenna, shining the flashlight directly at her face. She brought her hand to her eyes in an effort to block the light from blinding her any further.

“Well, I don’t know exactly where it is,” Brenna said, pushing the flashlight away with her free hand. “Derek told me about it once. I just know that it’s somewhere down here.”

His eyes tightened in a soft glare, while a smirk graced his lips. “You are just so helpful.”

Sighing, Brenna stepped past Zayn and around a few boxes. He followed closely behind her, shining the flashlight directly in front of her. Each of her steps was lit by the tiny light, but she could barely see in front of her face. She nearly ran into boxes more than a few times, eliciting several chuckles from Zayn.

Just when Brenna was about to give up, Zayn’s flashlight connected with the metal of the generator only a few feet in front of them.

“Well look at that, Daw,” Zayn said, giving her a pat on the back. That one small touch sent her body racing, and she nearly jumped forward. Noticing her movement, Zayn chuckled at her. “You alright?”
Brenna nodded her head as quickly as she could, so she wouldn’t seem suspicious. “Just startled me is all.”

Moving past her, Zayn stepped directly up to the generator to examine it. He didn’t know much – about the same as everyone else – but the group had assigned him the duty of getting the generator running. It was probably Zayn’s rugged look that gave everyone confidence in him. He looked like he knew how to work a generator. But he also looked like the type of guy who wouldn’t break a girls heart, but there he was, breaking Brenna’s heart over and over with each flash of his eyes.

Zayn’s fingers moved against the metal surface, as his eyes brushed over each of the gauges. His free hand rubbed the back of his head, while he passed the flashlight back to Brenna.

“Can you just shine that right here?”

Brenna directed the light to where he pointed and tried to hold it steady. For some reason, she couldn’t. When Zayn had handed her the flashlight, his fingers had grazed over hers and it sent her body racing again.

Her trembling caused her to lose her grip, sending the flashlight crashing to the floor. He was the reason she’d become so clumsy.

The light cracked when it collided with the floor and shut off immediately. The entire basement succumbed to the darkness, pushing Brenna’s body into a panic. Not a single ray of light cast around the room and there was nothing for her eyes to take hold of. There was only black.

“Don’t move,” Zayn said, his voice still directly in front of her.

Brenna nodded, before realizing he couldn’t see her and responding with a simple, “okay.”

Zayn’s hand reached back to her and connected with her shoulder. He held it there for a few seconds, before sliding it down to her wrist. She waited for him to joke with her about how clumsy she was, like he usually did, but the words never fell from his lips.

“I want you to stay behind me and I’ll try to find our way out of here.” Stepping around her, he used his hand to guide hers to his back. “Just hold onto me.”

Brenna tightened her hand in his sweater, pulling the fabric beneath her fingers. Even though her skin didn’t directly connect with his, the touch still set the tips of her fingers on fire. She wandered if it was how Elsie had felt every time she’d touched Zayn when they dated. There was no way she could have. If she did, she never would have broken up with him.

With his hands held out far in front of him, Zayn began shuffling his feet across the floor. Brenna heard the soft sound of his hands connecting with a box, and he turned slightly to the left. They kept up this movement – their feet shuffling, his hands connecting, his body shifting – for several minutes, but it still felt as though they were miles away from the entrance to the basement.

A loud thud sounded off to the left, startling Brenna so bad her body shot in the air. Her face pressed against Zayn’s back, as she trembled in fear. Her hands wrapped around Zayn’s waist, and she stayed like that for a few seconds until she realized what she’d done. She pulled quickly away, and was suddenly thankful for the darkness that made it impossible for Zayn to see the blush that crept along her cheeks.

“We’re almost there,” Zayn said, reaching behind him to clutch onto her hand. He moved hers back to his side, tugging at her arm until she was nearly pressed up against him again. She tried to stay as far back as she could, but her cheek just fell so naturally against his back that it was hard to keep herself from him.

Holding his other arm back to her, Zayn spoke again. “Give me your hand.”

Brenna placed the hand that wasn’t on his waist in the palm of his hand, and he guided it to his stomach. Even through his thick sweater, she could feel the deep curves of his abs beneath her fingers. The harder he pressed her hand against him, the more she felt him. Her body wanted to keep her hand there forever, but her mind wanted it to stop. She knew she’d never be able to get the thought of perfect body out of her head again.

Zayn kept one hand on hers, while the other was still held out in front of him. When his hand landed with a soft echo against the basement door, he let out a relieved sigh. The knob twisted beneath fingers, and as the door opened, light graced their eyes once again.

Pushing against him, Brenna raced through the door and back out into the soft light of the hallway. The fluorescent lights weren’t quite as nice as the sun, but they were better than nothing.

“Gosh, Bren,” Zayn said, letting out a soft laugh. “You’d think you’d been trapped down there for weeks.”

“I’m sure she’s just happy to be away from you.”

Louis’s voice called from the other side of the hallway, where his arms were wrapped around Elsie. Brenna saw Zayn shift next to her, as his body tensed. He got that way when he was jealous, something Brenna had noticed a long time ago. She wished she was ignorant to the fact, because then she wouldn’t have felt that pang of sadness run its course through her body, but she couldn’t help but know everything about Zayn.

Elsie tapped her hand against Louis’s stomach, as if to tell him to back down. A smile graced the beautiful girl’s lips, as she turned her gaze to Brenna. “What took you guys so long?”

“I dropped the flashlight,” Zayn said, before Brenna had a chance to answer. He didn’t need to take the blame for her, but he did. Most likely to get some sort of reaction out of Elsie. “But before I did, I had a chance to check out the generator. It’s low on gas, so we’re going to need to find some.”

Brenna let out a deep sigh, almost as loud as Elsie’s, as they both added another thing to their mental list of task that needed to get done.