Snow Lodge
Chapter 5
Brian opened his eyes and groaned loudly. It felt like two herds of elephants were stampeding through his head. Outside it was still dark and he could hear the wind howling and the snow still falling heavily. It was really blowing a blizzard out there. He didn't remember it being that bad. He closed his eyes again and sighed.
His eyes shot open as something popped into his head. He remembered being dumped in a cold shower. By AJ?! Brian sat up quickly in the bed and immediately regretted it as the fast movement made his head spin. He looked around the empty room. There was no sign of AJ now.
Maybe he had been imagining it? Maybe he was dreaming? Brian wasn't sure. He got up slowly and pulled some clothes on before heading to the main room, intent on getting something to drink.
He stopped suddenly as he reached the main room. It was clean. All the empty and broken bottles that had littered the floor were gone, and there was a huge fire in the fireplace, warming the chilly room.
"What the?" Brian spoke out loud.
"Morning sleepyhead…" AJ spoke as he came out of the kitchen, two mugs of coffee in his hand. "Or should I say Evening. You slept right through the day. I guess you were pretty tired huh?"
He handed Brian the coffee. Brian took it, still looking confused.
"What… What are you doin' here?"
"I came the other night. Remember?"
Brian shook his head.
AJ chuckled. "I'm not surprised, you were a little pickled when I found ya."
"No. I mean why are you here?"
"Looking for you."
Brian looked at him confusedly.
"How did you know where to find me?"
"I knew you'd come here."
"But how. I haven't been here in years. I coulda sold it…"
"You couldn't sell this place in a million years Rok."
"I could if I wanted to."
"But you don't want to. Do you." It was not a question. It was a statement.
Brian just looked at AJ, unwilling to give him an answer, but his silence was answer enough. AJ smiled gently at Brian.
"It doesn't matter anyway Bri. I came here to find you and I did. That's all that matters."
"But why?"
"We were all worried about you Bri. We couldn't get hold of you on your cell, at home or anything. At first we thought you and Leigh were just ignoring the phone while you…made up for lost time." AJ told him, slightly put off by the thought of Brian and Leighanne fucking. He missed the disgusted snort that came from Brian at that comment.
"But then, after 5 days, we still couldn't get a hold of you. Nick flew in to see what you were up to. He found Leighanne, and said that she was really evasive, like something was going on. He got all kinds of crazy ideas. You know his imagination. By the time he spoke to me he had all these conspiracy theories about how she'd killed you and buried you in the back yard, or had you taken away for government experiments." AJ chuckled and it brought a small smile from Brian.
"Anyway, he stuck around for a few days and he realised that you weren't anywhere around. He figured you had gone somewhere else. So we started looking. We checked all the teeny groups and lists first, since half the time they know where we are and what we're doing before we do. But that drew a blank, so you had to be somewhere quiet and out of the way. The others had all forgotten 'bout this place. But I hadn't. Somehow I knew you were here. So I told the guys I had a hunch, jumped in my truck and here I am. And here you are as well." AJ looked at Brian expectantly, waiting for his side of the story. Brian looked back at him, unsure where to begin.
AJ could see that Brian was hurting, but that he was not ready to talk, so he changed the subject.
"You hungry? Cos I'm starving. Let's get something to eat. Tell me what you want and I'll cook it. How's that?"
Brian smiled, relieved that AJ wasn't going to push him, before following AJ into the kitchen.
"I don't know Bone. Do I trust your cooking?"
AJ feigned a hurt look. "Hey. I'm a better cook than you are and you know it. C'mon, you can supervise if you want." Brian chuckled and followed him, suddenly glad that AJ was there.
