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“Cool.”

Chapter 5

Fuck. Fucker. Fuckity fuckwad.

-Aspen’s secret thoughts

Aspen

I was officially freezing.

Was it possible to get frostbite in less than an hour?

That’s how long the power had been out.

Drew’s prediction had come true.

He’d said that the power would go out, and it had.

I just wished I had been able to prepare for it.

Even now, I had two blankets on top of me, but if it got too much colder, I’d literally start crying.

The battery operated emergency clock/thermometer I’d pulled in from the garage read forty-nine degrees, and I was cursing myself for my stupidity.

I’d already had it set at sixty-two due to the fact that I could barely afford the bills as it was, and now it was reflecting how cold it was outside seeing as there hadn’t been much heat to begin with.

“Mother of pearl,” I whined. “This is the worst month ever!”

A knock sounded at my door, and I opened it to find my brother on the other side.

“What?” I snapped.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

“I need your help,” he said.

“With what?” I asked.

“I was called into a SWAT call, and I need you to watch my kids,” he explained.

“I can’t,” I told him. “I have no power.”

“They like playing with flashlights,” he shrugged.

“It’s too cold,” I reiterated. “It’s already forty-nine degrees in here. There’s no way I’ll be able to get your kids to stay under blankets.”

“Then start a fire,” he tried.

“I don’t have any wood,” I continued, a little peeved now.

He growled in frustration.

“It’s for ten minutes, at most,” he threw up his hands. “Just wrap them up, and they’ll be fine.”

Four hours later and he still wasn’t back.

I looked over at my brother’s babies.