Q is for Quiver
The thunder clapping outside was becoming almost relaxing, therapeutic even, to Katie as she studied her floriology notes. Her eyes were closed in thought as she gnawed on the eraser at the end of her pencil. The lightning in the sky lit the room in an almost unearthly way. The storm had been going on for quite a while now. Katie was almost enjoying the boom, boom, clap! It helped her concentrate and think.
When a sharp knock on the door of her dorm rang throughout the room, Katie couldn't help but jump, accidentally streaking her pencil across the paper in front of her. "Crap," she mumbled under her breath before standing up from the chair and walking towards the door. She was slightly shocked when she looked through the peep hole and saw her boyfriend standing on the other side of the door. He looked worried and anxious. His eyes stared up at the ceiling nervously, as if he were afraid it might collapse on top of him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked as she opened up the door slowly. He smiled when he saw her, giving Katie butterflies in her stomach. Even if they'd been going out for a couple of months now, just the sight of that menacing smirk or his tussled hair could make her giggly and senseless.
"Hey," Travis greeted, his smile bright but slightly uneasy. "Can I come in? The hallway, it's kind of . . . dark."
"Um, yeah," she said, opening the door a bit wider for him to come in. As he stepped through the door way, she said, "Sorry 'bout that. The lighting's not usually this crappy but with the storm and all . . . " She trailed off and watched him as he apprehensively took his jacket off and walked around. "What are you doing here, again?" she questioned once more.
"Does a guy really need an excuse to come and see his girlfriend?" he asked, walking up in front of her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He knelt down and kissed her sweetly. As he lifted his head back up and opened his eyes, she stared at him, eyebrows raised in question. "Maybe," he said, "I was just jonesing for some tonsil hockey. Or maybe I wanted to . . . cuddle."
"First off," Katie started, a disgusted look on her face, "don't call it tonsil hockey. Makes you sound like a creeper. Second, we've never cuddled."
"Well maybe we can fix that tonight. Now, I have a big tonsil hockey tournament coming up, and I need to practice." He went down for another kiss, but she dodged it just in time.
"What did I just say?" she asked, her brown eyes glaring at him angrily.
"Not to say tonsil hockey."
Katie rolled her eyes. "Exactly. And what did you just do yet again?"
"Called it tonsil hockey."
"Really, Travis?" she exclaimed. "You just say it to piss me off, don't you?"
He nodded his head. "Yep." He went in for another kiss, but she pushed him away yet again.
"What if I said that I like when you called it that, that it turns me on? Would you still keep saying it then?" she asked.
"Oh most definitely! A hot and bothered you makes a hot and bothered me." Travis smirked at the glare she was sending him. "Now this really has been lovely, but can we please go back to the whole reason I came over here in the first place?" He bent down to capture her lips on his once more, but she twisted away just in time.
"You didn't come here just to make out with me." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"Maybe I did; maybe I didn't."
Katie continued to watch him, eyes squinted in concentration. "You're acting . . . suspicious."
"Suspicious?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah. Suspicious. You know, jittery, nervous, antsy-" Travis cut her off with a kiss. He made a whimpering sound in the back of his throat as she pushed him away. "Don't think you'll distract me that easily, my friend."
"It was worth a try," he said with a smirk. Without warning, Katie gasped and backed away from him. "What is it?" he asked, looking around with wide eyes.
"What did you do?" she exclaimed. "What did you steal? Oh my gods! Did you rob a bank? If you murdered someone, Travis, I swear to the gods I will beat your ass!"
He grabbed the sides of her face and forced her to look at him. "What are you talking about?"
Katie pushed his hands away. "I heard cop cars earlier!" she shouted. She started pacing the room, mumbling to herself. "Shit, shit, shit. I'm gonna have to be his Bonnie. He is my Clyde."
"I didn't steal anything," Travis said but she didn't hear him. She just kept pacing and muttering.
"Oh, my dad's gonna be so pissed."
"I haven't murdered anyone."
"We're gonna have to get rid of the body somewhere. That empty field near WalMart. That could work. Perfect place to hide a dead body."
"Katie!" he shouted loudly.
"What!" she yelled, turning around to face him on her heel. "If you haven't noticed, I'm planning our get-away here!"
"I haven't murdered anyone!"
The look of anger, sadness, and stress was automatically replaced with confusion and guilt. "You haven't?"
Luckily, he laughed at her disheveled state. "No. And I didn't rob a bank either. I haven't stolen anything today, actually. I'm a whole three days sober. Aren't you proud of me?"
She ignored his question, but asked one of her own. "If you didn't steal anything, then why are you acting so suspicious?"
"I'm not acting suspicious. I just wanted to come over and see you. Is there a problem with that?" he questioned, bringing her back into his arms.
"I guess not," she muttered against his lips, initiating the kiss this time. Katie grabbed his hand to lead him to her room. "You can watch TV while I finish studying real quick, 'kay?" she asked, opening up the door.
Travis opened up his mouth to complain, but was cut off as the lights of the dorm flickered off momentarily, leaving them in complete darkness for three whole seconds. He let out a small scream as the lights turned themselves back on.
"What?" she asked anxiously. "Are you all right?"
He took a deep breath, plastered a fake smile on to his face, and nodded his head. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded once more. "I'm fine. It just . . . surprised me."
She continued to stare at him skeptically before hesitantly nodding her head. "All right," she said, grabbing his hand once more and pulling him into her room.
Katie walked over to the TV and turned it on, handing Travis the remote. "Here. You can watch whatever you want. I just have two more chapters and then-" She was cut off with a groan. "What?" she asked irritably.
"Why do you have to study?" He made a disgusted face. "Just the word makes me want to puke."
Rolling her eyes, she said, "Well that's too bad. I have a test tomorrow and I-" He groaned once more. "What?"
"Tests are even worse than studying. I don't know how you go to college." Turning to the TV, he flipped through the channels aimlessly.
"I go to college so then I don't end up with a job at Taco Bell for the rest of my life."
"Hey!" he shouted. "I just got upgraded to a Taco Bell Pizza Hut combination house, thank you very much."
"Oooh. Fancy." Rolling her eyes, Katie went back to her studying.
"But seriously," he said, absently watching the small sponge on the TV screen dance around. "I don't know how you make it through college, or how you made it through high school. I barely made it through fourth grade." Travis chuckled. "I didn't make it through fourth grade."
"Wait," she exclaimed in shock, turning around in her chair to face him yet again. "Are you saying you never went to high school? Or junior high?"
"Nope."
She stared at him in shock. "And you didn't even make it through fourth grade?"
"Nope. As soon as I hit ten, Conner and I booked it out of Utah faster than you can say . . . a word. After we got to New York and to Camp, we never went back to school again." He nodded his head and smiled as if he was proud of the fact. Knowing him, he probably was.
"So you've never had a locker? Or carried your books from class to class? Or been to Prom? Or ditched?"
"Oh I ditched class. All the time."
"In fourth grade?" Katie asked incredulously.
"And third. And second. First, even."
"But it's elementary school!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "They don't even let you go to the bathroom by yourself!"
"Yeah but after recess when everyone would leave to go to their classes, Conner and I would just hide and as soon as no one else was there we'd just go and chill on the jungle gym."
"And you never got caught?" she asked.
"One time," Travis said. "But it was just by the janitor so it was cool. He gave us Coke and candy."
"Isn't that a little weird? Especially from the janitor. Janitors are always such creepers."
"Well yeah, but we were 8. We thought anyone with candy was cooler than Pokemon." She laughed and shook her head. "We were only slightly worried about our ass virginity."
Katie opened her mouth to reply, but was stopped when the lights flickered off and a loud gasp escaped Travis's lips. Seconds later, the lights turned themselves back on and all was well. Kind of.
Travis sat on the bed with his head in his lap, breathing heavily.
"Travis," Katie whispered hesitantly. "Are you okay?"
He lifted his head and looked around the room. Letting out a sigh of relief, he turned to her and said, "Yeah. I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Cuz-"
"I'm fine," he interrupted. "It's just . . . It gets me every time."
She gazed at him curiously. "Right," she said, nodding her head slightly and turning back around to her work. She chewed on her pencil in thought, but not about her notes. About her boyfriend.
What was up with him? He'd been so skittish and jumpy, especially when the lights went out. He screamed the first time. That's not normal. Not for Travis, at least. And then out in the hallway, he was complaining about how . . . dark it was. And when he came inside, he was looking around the room. That's completely normal except for the fact that he glanced at the ceiling, too. At the lights . . .
"I'll be right back," Katie mumbled, standing up from her chair and walking towards the door.
"Where're you going?" Travis asked, looking up at her from the bed.
"Just . . . to the bathroom. I'll be right back." She smiled at him innocently. As she walked through the door frame, she slid her hand up the wall to the light switch. Quickly and quietly she flicked it down, engulfing the room in darkness. She heard a sharp intake of breath come from her boyfriend and flipped the lights back on. Turning around to face him, she glared angrily. "You're scared of the dark!"
He scoffed and laughed without humor. "Psh! Me? Sc-Scared of the dark? Psh! Psh! . . . Psh!"
"So you're not afraid of the dark?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
"Of course not."
"Oh, okay. So you wouldn't mind if I went like this." Swiftly, she turned the lights back off but unlike last time, she didn't turn them back on.
"Katie," Travis said. His voice was tight and frightened.
"Yes?" she asked innocently.
"Turn the lights back on." She could hear his teeth gritted together as he talked.
"Why?"
"Because I said so!" The anxiety in his voice was so bad, Katie almost felt bad for him. Well maybe he shouldn't lie to her.
"I don't really think that's a good enough reason."
"Katie!"
"Yes?"
"Turn them on!"
"Why?"
"Because!"
"Because why?"
"Because I'm scared of the dark, all right!"
Katie turned the lights back on and Travis let out a sigh of relief. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, hurt in her voice.
"I couldn't tell you," Travis said, finally getting his breathing under control. "I couldn't tell anyone."
"Why not?"
"The only thing eighteen year old men should be scared are STD's. Not the dark."
"Did you just call yourself a man?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
He rolled his eyes and ignored her comment. "I shouldn't be afraid of the dark. I should be afraid of being rejected, or getting chosen for a quest or - You're laughing at me!" he exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at his girlfriend.
She tried to control the smile widening on her face but failed miserably. Walking over to the bed and sitting next to him, Katie said, "I'm not laughing at you, Travis. I'm laughing with you."
He stared at her, his eyes full of anger and embarrassment. "I'm not laughing."
She giggled. "Then you're right. I am laughing at you." He let out a sigh and turned away from her but she caught his face in her hands, making him look at her. "But not in that funny, embarrassing way."
"What are you talking about?" he asked, shaking his head slightly.
She sighed, trying to think of a way to explain. "You . . . You know those YouTube videos of like, cats playing the piano or dogs snowboarding? You know how they're so ridiculously cute that you can't really help but giggle?"
"I don't giggle."
Katie rolled her eyes before continuing. "Okay. You can't help but manly chuckle?"
He nodded his head. "Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?"
"You're like that!"
Travis's face was etched with utter confusion. "I'm a snowboarding dog?" he questioned, puzzlement visible in his voice.
"No, you idiot. You're so ridiculously cute, I can't help but laugh," she explained as if if was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Wait! So you find this . . . cute?"
"Adorable, actually," Katie said, twirling a curl of his hair around her middle finger. "This is the cutest thing I've ever even seen. You're like a little kid, or-or a puppy or-" She didn't get to finish her sentence when the lights of the room flickered off.
Travis shut his eyes tightly and bit his lip. He felt safer than before in Katie's arms but the dark was still there, surrounding them, suffocating them.
They both expected the lights to come back on within seconds back after a whole minute of darkness, Travis couldn't handle it. "Katie," he whispered urgently.
"Hmm?"
"They aren't turning back on. Why aren't they turning back on?" he asked. He didn't mean for his voice to sound harsh, but with the fear and the slight embarrassment it came out meaner than he meant.
"Chill," she said calmly. "You had to know it would go out eventually." When the lightning from outside momentarily lit the room in an almost ghostly way and Katie caught a glimpse of Travis's wide eyes full of dread and terror, she immediately felt horrible. She should make him feel comfortable and safe. As she went to stand up, his grab on her arms tightened.
"Where are you going?" he asked, his voice pleading.
"I'm just going to get some flashlights and a few candles. I'll be right back. I promise." She went to leave once more, but his grip was even tighter.
"You can't leave me here by myself." His voice changed into an urgent whisper as he hissed, "In the dark."
"I'll be right back," she said before finding his face in the darkness and kissing his lips chastely. "I promise."
He frowned and let go of her arms as she left for the door once more. Travis sat on the bed, his legs pressed up against his chest, breathing deeply. The lightning just made things worse. On one crack of electricity, he could've sworn he saw hairs growing in the corner of the room. On another strike of lightning, Travis believed he heard a scream come from far away. He closed his eyes, wanting it all to go away. But when he opened them back up, it was even worse. A dark shape stood in the door way. It was probably a murderer. Or a monster. Either way, he would die. It would use its giant ax to chop his head off and then eat all of his brains and then-
"I told you I'd come back," Katie said. The light from the flashlight she held below her chin made her face look ghostly and her smile evil. She tossed it over to him on the bed. He caught it before it smacked him in the face and watched as Katie ran the match across the edge of the box, praying that it would light. After engulfing the stick in flames, she smiled slightly and lit the three candles she had placed on her desk. Once she blew the fire out, she turned around to face him. "Better?" she asked.
Travis nodded, a small smile on his own lips. "Much."
"Good," Katie said. "Now I've only got, like, one chapter left and-"
"Ugh!" he groaned.
"What?"
"You can't just leave me now with no TV. What am I supposed to do?"
"You can watch me. You said you like watching me do things. It is, and I quote, 'not stalkerish at all.'"
"It's not!" he exclaimed. "But I like watching you do hot things."
"Like?" Katie asked, writing something into a notebook.
"Like dancing, or walking, or talking, or brushing your teeth, and other sexy things as such."
"How is brushing my teeth sexy?" she questioned, turning around in her chair to stare at him.
"Well you're just moving your hand back and forth, and back and forth, and sometimes you go in circles. And with the foam of the toothpaste and the motions of the brush . . . oh! Goodness me." Travis smiled at her innocently.
"You disgust me," she said, turning back to her notes.
"Watching you study is so boring," he complained.
"Well do you want me to go get my toothbrush, make it a little more interesting?"
As she turned back to look at him, he thrust out his lower lip and widen his eyes. Patting the place next to where he lay on the bed, he mumbled a quiet, "Please."
She shook her head. "I'm busy."
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
"You know I don't like cherries."
Katie went to go back to her work when a long and whiny, "Pleeeaaassse," stopped her.
Rolling her eyes, she sighed. "Fine."
A small yet audible, "Yes!" came from Travis as he scooted close to the wall, giving her enough room.
After getting under the covers and lying down, she stared at him. "Happy?"
Travis smiled. "Very," he said beforing kissing her nose lightly. She couldn't help but smile after that. Their faces were mere inches away and Katie could feel the heat radiating off of his warm skin. After a few seconds of silence (well, if you count the thunder and pouring rain outside silence), Travis muttered, "So . . ."
"Why are you scared of the dark?" she asked hastily.
"Oh." He was slightly shocked by the sudden question, but nodded his head, ready to answer. "Well, it started, like, a month ago I think. It was in the middle of the night and I woke up and I had to take a piss so badly. Like, 'holy crap! I'm about to pee my pants' badly."
"I hate that," she complained.
"Isn't it just the worst?" Travis agreed. "Anyways, so I left the cabin with my flashlight and a jacket and that was that. But halfway to the bathrooms, it died."
"Your flashlight?"
"What else would die, Katie? Me?"
"I don't know! I was just clarifying the story, that's all!"
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Just, my flashlight died and I had to go pee so badly, I just decided I'd roll without one. I didn't need it. The bathrooms were only so far away. But then I got to the bathrooms and they were locked. So I went into the woods-"
"You peed in the woods?" she exclaimed.
"Well, yeah. Where else was I supposed to go?" He gave her that duh-you're-being-an-idiot look and she flashed back a don't-you-dare-call-me-an-idiot-again-unless-you-want-me-to-kick-you-repeatedly-in-the-balls look.
"People play capture the flag in there!"
"Yeah. So?"
"You disgust me."
"I think we've already established that, Katie. Now, will you please let me finish my story?" She rolled her eyes and waved her hand in a circle, motioning for him to continue. "So I was in the woods, taking care of my business, when suddenly I hear growls and howls that sounded really, really close and I didn't have a sword and my pants were around my ankles and then this bat comes out of nowhere and flys into my face which makes me jump back and then pee is flying everywhere. And then the bat made me land in a rose bush so then thorns were all up on my butt and from there on out, I've hated the dark."
Katie tried so very hard to keep the smile off of her face. Epic fail. "That's terrible," she said between laughs.
"You're laughing at me," he stated.
"No! Remember the whole 'so cute you can't help but laugh' thing?"
"That story can't possibly be cute."
She laughed once more. "You're right. I just thought it'd be mean to straight out say that I was laughing at you."
"You are now."
"I'm a terrible person."
"No, really?" Travis asked sarcastically.
"Why did . . . " She trailed off and yawned, her mouth opening widely. "Why did you really come over here?" she asked, her eyes watery from the yawn.
"Well," he started, pulling Katie over to his side. Her head fit under his chin perfectly as did her arms around his waist. He put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tiny form against him. "The power went out at the apartment and Conner went to some bar to pick up chicks so I was left alone in a dark, scary house, and I thought that coming over here to see you sounded much more fun than staring at a blank wall all night."
He felt her nod her head and yawn once more against his chest. "I agree," she said, her voice tired and worn out. Travis kissed the top of her head as he heard her breathing steady. He lay there and stared at the ceiling for quite some time, just thinking. Suddenly, he clicked off the flashlight in his hand and smiled.
There was no screaming and no Grudge in the corner. There was no monster or murderer ready to kill him.
The dark wasn't scary. Not when Katie was in his arms. With her in his arms, Travis wasn't afraid of anything.