Continues on for the piece I wrote for Flash Fiction Friday, which can be found here.
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When Brandon drew back from the kiss, Noah was staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Brandon immediately began to prepare an apology in his head, though he wasn’t quite sure how to apologize for the kiss–or if he even wanted to. Apologizing would be like lying, and he was a terrible liar.
“You kissed me.” Noah’s tone was flat, his eyes wide, pupils blown and voice shaking slightly.
“Yeah….” Brandon braced himself for what was coming. He’s gonna punch me, I know it, he thought.
“I….wow. I can’t believe you kissed me.” Noah’s tone was still flat, but his voice was no longer shaking, and his lips quirked with what Brandon hoped was a smile. Maybe even a smirk?
“I did.” Brandon straightened his posture and met Noah’s eyes. “Bad move?”
“No, definitely not.” Noah grinned, and Brandon blew out a breath of relief. “I just didn’t think you had it in you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Defensive probably wasn’t necessary in this situation, but Brandon still felt a bit nervous.
“It means that I’ve been waiting for you to kiss me for months now.”
“Dude! Then why didn’t you kiss me first?” Brandon asked, incredulously. He threw his hands up in the air.
“Because I didn’t know if you wanted me to or not,” Noah explained.
“He’s in love with you, you know,” Andrew says casually.
Noah’s head snaps up from his magazine. His eyebrows furrow together in confusion as he tries to process the information.
“Who?”
“Like you don’t know,” Andrew snorts, as he sits down on the heat-soaked deck beside Noah and tucks his legs under his body.
“I have no idea who you’re talking about, dude. A lot of people are in love with me.”
Andrew rolls his eyes.
“I’m talking about Brandon, you moron. Dude’s got it bad for you.”
“Nah.” Noah waves off the admission with his hand. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I?”
Noah ponders this for a bit, rotates the thought around in his head. He briefly contemplates asking Brandon straight up if it’s true, or if Andrew is just fucking with him as usual, but decides against it. Because what if. What if it is true? What if Brandon does have a crush on him?
What the hell would that mean for the team, and more importantly, their friendship?
title: Tornado Alley (working title) status: pre-writing genre: contemporary disaster fiction sub-genres: action, adventure themes: found family, action-adventure, enemies to love, strength, overcoming a monumental event, death, rebuilding, enemies-to-lovers, slow burn, angst, lgbtqia characters warnings: character death, strong language, blood, strong violence, more to be added later
synopsis: Tornado Alley is a story about a group of storm chasers who, after meeting in an online forum, decide to chase the biggest storm their town has had in decades, in hopes of going viral and getting famous because of it. But when the storm takes an unexpected, fatal, turn, the group finds themselves overwhelmed with the task of picking up the pieces of the aftermath and returning to a normal life.
As they’re talking, Rainer moves to the trunks against the wall and rifles through them until he’s pulling out canvas and rope, not even glancing back at Damien as his voice raises.
“Will you say something?” he snaps finally, his hand wrapped around the rope that held his hammock up. Leila’s eyes narrow on him, before her attention is pulled to the man that is walking across the berth. “I understand that you may not be completely comfortable here, but I have tried to be accommodating.”
Rainer is tying one end of the rope to the canvas as he walks, pulling it tight and testing it by yanking on them a few times before he throws the rope around the post above his hammock. When Damien realizes Leila’s eyes are elsewhere, his head snaps over, his hands finding his hips.
“What are you doing, Brute?”
“Fixing the problem.” Rainer responds cooly, not even looking over to them as he finishes tying up one side, leaning his full weight into the rope to make sure it won’t move. Then he crosses the new hammock perpendicular to his, working on the other end. “Lei, you can be my bunk mate.”
“No!” Damien responds, and it’s only then that her expression changes, a small smile pulling at her lips that she tries to hide behind her apple. When she crunches into it, Damien turns back to her, “You don’t want to bunk with Brute. He’s-”
He realizes she’s smiling and his chest swells with his frustrated breath before he’s throwing his hands up.
“Fine! Fine.” he lets out the breath slowly, then runs his hands over his hair before he holds out one for her. “At least let me assist you, Little Lei.”
She’s still smiling when she puts her hand in his, taking note of how gentle he moves as he holds down the edge of the hammock for her to climb out, how his thumb wraps over the back of her hand to steady her. When she’s safely on her feet, she gives him a small curtsy before he releases her hand.
“Thank you, Lord McAllister.” her voice is soft, a little hoarse, and he seems to relax ever so slightly as Rainer snorts at the nickname.
“Don’t flatter him.” the man finishes tying up her hammock, glancing over his shoulder, “He’s just a dirty pirate like the rest of us.”
