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Chapter 20
As I began to wake up that morning I became aware of the fact that I was propped up against something. When I had gone to sleep the night before I was lying on the floor. Slowly I opened my eyes and turned my head. I was lying against AJ! I saw Deb leaning against his other side, but I flipped out a little nonetheless.
I tried to jump up only to find that I was pinned down. As I was snapped back against AJ I saw that Brian had rolled over and was partially on top of my legs. AJ mumbled something as I hit him, but didn't wake up. I tried to push Brian off my legs, but it's very hard to move someone who weighs almost twice as much as you. I lay back against AJ resignedly to wait for someone else to wake up.
After about another ten minutes Brian began to stir. "Thank goodness!" I thought to myself. "My legs were beginning to go numb!"
"Bri? Brian!" I whispered.
"Hmmm…" he answered groggily. I smiled as his eyes fluttered open and focused. He smiled back. "Morning Lis," he greeted.
"Taking my offer on choosing your own nickname?" I asked.
"Yeah. You mind if I call you Lis?" he questioned.
"No, go right ahead. Just do me one favor first. Get off my legs! I can't feel them anymore!"
He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry………" his voice trailed. I thought he had finally realized that I was lying against AJ. "What happened to you?" he asked sitting up rather quickly.
"You mean why I'm lying against AJ?" I asked confused. "I don't even know. I was lying on the floor when I went to sleep."
"No, your head!"
"What about it? It's still attached to my body isn't it?"
"No! I mean yeah, but you have a huge egg on your head that's all bruised! How did you do that?"
"I do? It must be from when I hit my head on the pool table. AJ was tickling me and I tried to twist away," I explained sitting up slowly. I put my hand up to my head and felt the lump gingerly. "I really did a great job on myself this time," I said making a face.
"Why don't we put some ice on that?" Brian suggested, pulling me to my feet. "It sounds like the storm's over. Now we get to survey the damage."
We opened the door and stepped out into the hall. "CRUNCH!" Both Brian and I look down. There was shattered glass all over the floor. Good thing we still had our shoes on.
"Whoa!" I muttered.
"You can say that again," Brian said. "It looks like the front windows are no more." I looked out what used to be a window. Not much damage had been done. There were only broken windows and trees down as far as I could see on the street. Maybe the storm had sounded worse than it was.
The two of us picked our way across the glass to the kitchen. Brian handed me an ice pack from the freezer. I immediately put it on my head. It didn't hurt that much anymore, but I was hoping the swelling would go down.
"I should wake Deb and Stacie soon. We should go home and see if any damage was done to our apartment," I said to Brian. He just nodded. "Waking them up won't be an easy task," I continued. "Neither of them is a morning person."
"I'll help," said Brian giving me an evil grin. I wondered what he had in mind. "Let's just wait a little longer, and in the mean time we'll see if the power's back."
Brian led the way to the TV room where we plopped ourselves on the couch. He picked up the remote to the TV and hit the "power" button. The TV came on. Yeah! We had electricity! Now we didn't have to listen to Stacie and Nick whine when they got up!
After an hour of watching Saturday morning cartoons (of which we knew all the theme songs to), Brian said we should wake up the others. We crept back into the game room to find them all still asleep. "Wait here," Brian instructed as he left the room. "I have to get something. Don't wake them yet."
Five minutes later Brian returned. To my surprise he had a trumpet! I opened my mouth to say something and he put a finger to his lips. As he rose the trumpet to his mouth I realized what he was about to do. We grinned evilly at each other. 1,2,3, I signaled with my fingers.
On three Brian began playing taps fast and loud! I laughed as everyone was blasted out of his or her dreams. Nick jumped up so fast he knocked Stacie off the couch, Kevin rolled off the pile of blankets with a prominent thud, Howie just sat there with his eyes wide and mouth open, and Deb and AJ bumped their heads together. Once he was sure everyone was awake Brian stopped playing.
Brian and I burst out laughing as the others glared at us. Then they looked around and, seeing the funny side, began to laugh as well.
"Deb, Stace, we should go home. We have to find out if our apartment was damaged," I spoke up. Stacie, rubbing her butt, and Deb, rubbing her head, both rose grumbling about not wanting to leave yet. Stacie looked up at me and her jaw dropped. I guess the swelling hadn't gone down.
"What happened to you?" she asked. I had to tell the story over again to everyone.
"I'm sorry Shorty," AJ apologized again. "I wish you had told me you were hurt."
"Its OK, AJ. I didn't even know it myself," I said attempting to make him feel better.
"All of you make sure your shoes are on before you leave the room, 'cause the floor's covered with broken glass. We lost a couple of windows," Brian warned the group, interrupting AJ and I.
Stacie and Deb walked over to me. "Can we invite the guys over for breakfast?" Stacie asked Deb and I eagerly.
"Of course!" Deb and I both said.
Stacie turned to the guys. "All of you are invited over for breakfast, if you'd like to come." All of the guys readily accepted the invitation. The five of them went upstairs leaving Stacie playing Nick's N-64, and Deb and I attempting to play pool.
Half an hour later we were on our way to our apartment. We just weren't prepared
for what we'd see when we got there.
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