Page 17 of Overdue Feelings
“Alright. Y’all have a seat. Let me know when you’re leaving,” I said, turning back to the board to press in one final staple as a violent gust of wind slammed against the library windows hard enough to make the glass tremble.
“Oh my…” I gasped. I knew it had been raining outside, but it had only been a light shower. I glanced out the library window. The sky outside had gone black, and trees were shaking like they were about to uproot. The lights blinked once, twice, and then cut out completely.
“Uh… Ms. Delaney?” One of the boys called, his voice cracking. “That’s supposed to happen?”
“No,” I said quickly, moving toward my desk. “It’s not. Away from the windows. Now.” Just as I found the emergency flashlight, the tornado siren began to sound, followed by the red emergency lights.
“You got kids in here?” Ares’s voice cut through the darkness, and he appeared in his office doorway, flashing the light from his cell phone.
“Yeah, four.” I nodded, moving toward the door to grab the emergency protocol binder.
“Y’all heard her. Over to the wall,” he told the boys. “Now!”
“Creek!” The library door banged open again, and Zae burst inside, his chest rising hard under his Sweet Pea Athletics hoodie like he’d ran here. “We’re under a tornado warning. The window in the hallway shattered, and the automatic doors locked. We’re stuck here until the storm passes.” He stepped fully into the room. “You alright? The kids cool?”
“I’m fine,” I said, just as hail began pounding the windows.
“They need to stay low and away from the glass.” Ares moved past me, pulling a stack of emergency blankets from the nurse’s bag I didn’t see him holding. A crackle sounded overhead, then the intercom buzzed.
“Attention, Sweet Pea staff and students. Please begin immediate shelter-in-place procedures. A tornado warning is active. This is not a drill.” Principal Voss’s voice came through the intercom, and I froze. I’d heard her, but my body wouldn’t move. I’d been in countless storm warnings, but this one had my heart pounding.
“You’re alright,” Ares said low, just for me to hear. “You know what to do.” He gently placed his hand on my back. “Breathe.”
His hand lingered for a second before moving to my hand and pulling me to the other side of the library. I followed behind him, unsure of what to feel as he led me toward the reading nook with the kids. Even though more than a decade had passed and we were barely speaking, he still didn’t think twice about protecting me. It was still second nature to him, and I didn’t know how to process that.
We entered the reading nook, and I could feel Zae’s eyes on me before I even looked up. My eyes met his, and his gaze moved from me to Ares, to us hand in hand. I watched as his jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything. He just started dragging bean bags over, lining them up against the wall for the boys like it was nothing. I knew Zae well, but I couldn’t read him. I shrugged in his direction, letting him know it was innocent, before quickly dropping Ares’s hand.
“We should reinforce the corner,” was his response. “The way this wind is rocking, a tornado might actually touch down.”
“I’m on it,” Ares replied. He moved to help Zae place bean bags around the reading corner, while I guided the kids into the nook. We didn’t speak. We just moved in sync, like three partsof a well-oiled machine. The thunder outside provided the only sound in the room.
“Ms. Delaney, are we going to die?” Raylin asked, his voice cracking a bit. I looked around at the boys. They were all teenagers, but still just scared little kids. I crouched beside them to provide some comfort, even though my heart was pounding too.
“We’re okay, boys. We’re in the safest part of the school building.” I reassured them.
“How do you know?” one of the boys, J’Marcus, asked.
“Because we all got stuck here before,” I said. “Years ago, when we were all your age. A storm came just like this one, and this room held strong the whole time.”
“For real?” Raylin asked, glancing toward the window we could barely see out of.
“For real.” I nodded. “The three of us read books and played UNO till it passed. The lights came back on, and everything was fine.”
“You tell it so sweet,” Zae said sitting up. “But let’s not forget how you cheated in that Uno game.”
“I did not cheat!”
“You did.” Ares chimed in. “You just somehow managed to have a hand full of draw fours.”
“I didn’t deal. You did.” I shot back pointing at Ares. “If anybody was cheating it was you.”
“How I cheat and I’m the one that kept losing?” Ares laughed. “Y’all were ruthless.”
Zae chuckled, nudging my shoulder. “That’s because you talk too much trash for somebody with no wins.”
The kids cracked up, caught in the middle of our banter. I couldn’t stop watching Zae and Ares. Laughing, joking… like the past hadn’t broken us. Like the pain, the distance, the silence had finally loosened its grip. This was the first time we’dall talked. There was no bitterness. No unspoken blame. Just memories, just laughter.
“Can we play UNO?” Raylin asked mid-laugh. Ares unzipped the emergency backpack he had in his hand and pulled out a worn deck of UNO cards with a smirk on his face.
