Frozen Chapter 4
Written by: Marc Lime
Submitted on: 2009/01/07
Rating: 4.5/5 with 407 views

Steve woke up to the sound of the television. His leg was stiff for some reason. He looked down and saw a bag of water on the floor. He forgot about his accident at the party, and made an attempt to stand up. He tumbled face first onto the coffee table, spilling a half full glass of orange liquid onto the floor. After he pulled himself off the coffee table he limped into the kitchen and grabbed a fresh bottle of glowing green drink out of the fridge.

He looked at the clock and saw that it was 3:00 p.m. Nothing like a super charged energy drink, Steve thought to himself as he took a drink. He was glad he had the next two days off, especially having to deal with his new disability. He bent over for closer inspection of his ankle and noticed the swelling had gone down while he slept. The area was now black and blue from bruising.

He limped back to the room in which Brandy was sleeping and cleaned up the mess of he made a few minutes earlier. He noticed a drawing on the table. He didn't know where it came from. "Brandy must have drawn it while I was asleep," he thought. A strong feeling of déjà vu swept over Steve as he studied the simple drawing. He shuddered as he placed the sketch upside down on the table. He couldn't look at the drawing anymore; it was burning a hole in his brain.

As he looked at Brandy sleeping on the couch all he could think about was Tila. He stuck his hand into his back pocket and felt the business card with Tila's phone number on it. I have to see her again.

Unable to walk around because of his hurt ankle, Steve had no choice except to watch the television. After watching game shows for 2 hours, Brandy woke up.

"Good morning sunshine," Steve said to his half sleeping girlfriend.

"Ugh," she said as she stretched her arms high above her head. "Good morning to you too honey. Do you happen to have any coffee made?"

"Nope, been drinking energy drinks," Steve said, holding up his bottle of glowing green liquid.

"Mind if I use your coffee maker?" she asked him.

"Nope, coffee is in the freezer, and the coffee filters are in the cupboard above the microwave," he instructed her.

As Brandy was preparing coffee, Steve was plotting a way to get rid of her so he could call Tila. Fortunately, he did not have to lie to her again. When Brandy returned with steaming hot coffee, she asked him for a ride home because she had to do some laundry. Steve happily obliged.

You make this all go away! You make this all go away! I just want something! I just want something I can never have! Trent Reznor's voice screamed from Steve's car stereo speakers as his Honda Civic sped down the highway towards Brandy's house.

"Why are you driving so fast?" Brandy asked him.

"You know I like to drive fast baby," Steve said, exposing a sly grin.

"You just seem to have been rushing me ever since I asked you for a ride home. What's the hurry?" she asked him.

"I just want you to get your laundry done quickly as possible so I can see you again," was his reply.

"Awww you're so sweet," she said right before she kissed him on the cheek.

On the ride home from dropping Brandy off, Steve stopped at a gas station to grab some cigarettes and chocolate donuts.

"They say it's going to be a cold winter this year," said the Arabic clerk.

"Yeah it's winter, it's supposed to be cold," Steve said as he took his change.

Walking back to his car, he decided he needed to hear Tila's voice at that precise moment. As Steve sat in his parked car, he dialed her phone number on his cell phone. It rang four times and then an answering machine picked up. "Please leave a message," a computer automated voice message system told him.

"Maybe I dialed the wrong number," Steve thought to himself. He again entered Tila's numbers into his phone. After the second ring, he thought to himself, "I don't know why I'm calling back, I probably dialed it right the first time."

Steve was about to hang up after the third ring but heard the click of someone answering. "Hello?" a tired female voice asked.

"Tila?" Steve asked.

"Huh?"

"Hi, is this Tila?" Steve asked.

"No, this isn't Tila, who's this?"

"This is Steve, may I please speak with Tila?" he asked politely.

"Tila ain't here," the voice said rudely. Steve heard a click and realized the person had just hung up on him.

"Damn what a bitch!" Steve said out loud as he drove out of the gas station parking lot. He slammed his cell phone onto the seat and cranked up the radio. As he passed the video store he thought it would be a good idea to rent a couple of DVD's. He turned around in a drug store parking lot and went back to the video store. After he paid for the handful of videos, he hopped on his good leg back to his car.

While he was climbing into his car he saw his cell phone blinking. He opened the phone and saw a missed call. He pulled Tila's phone number out of his pocket and realized it was her that called when he compared it to the number on the caller i.d. Excitedly, he dialed Tila's phone number.

I wonder what I should say to her, Steve asked himself. He wasn't able to ask her anything because no one answered the phone. "Damn!" Steve shouted. "This girl is hard to get a hold of." He turned the radio all the way up and continued on his journey home.

After Steve arrived at his house and got situated, he put one of the movies into his DVD player and began to watch it. The movie sucked him in and he did not move his eyes from the screen the entire time. The second movie was kind of boring and he had trouble focusing on it, but somehow he managed to watch the whole thing.

"I wonder if Brandy is almost done doing laundry yet," Steve asked himself. He put in the third movie and hoped it was better than the last one. It was a Jackie Chan movie and Steve always enjoyed his films. There was never much of a plot in his movies, but they were always action packed. Halfway through the movie, Steve heard his phone ring. He looked on the front of it and saw Tila's number.

Steve felt his blood pressure rise as he answered the phone, "Hello?"

"Hi," Tila responded. "This is Steve right?"

"Yeah, I'm glad you remembered my name," Steve said.

"Yeah I'm glad I did too, I was hoping you would call." Tila said.

"So what are you..." A beeping in his ear interrupted his voice. "Hold on a second, someone is beeping in," he told her.

He looked at his phone and saw Brandy's phone number on the screen. "Hello?" he asked after pushing the flash button.

"Hey babe," Brandy said cheerfully to Steve.

"Hey what's up honey? Can you make this quick? I have my mom on the other line," Steve told her.

"Oh sorry," Brandy said. "I was just wondering if you wanted to come over and watch some movies in a bit."

Steve answered, "I'm not really in the mood to watch movies right now, but even if I was I couldn't because I promised my mom I would go help her scrape the paint off the basement walls."

Brandy said in a disappointed tone, "Well give me a call after you're done doing that ok?"

"Yeah sure thing," he said right before he hit the flash button again.

"Still there?" Steve asked.

"Yeah I'm here, who was that?" asked Tila.

"Oh that was my mom," Steve lied. "So what are you up to?"

"I'm about to go out to eat with my aunt and uncle," she said depressingly. "My uncle isn't doing too good. His brother was in a car accident earlier this morning and now he is in a coma."

"Oh no!" Steve exclaimed. "I'm sorry to hear that. So do you want to go out somewhere after you're done eating?"

"I would but I'm kind of tired," Tila said apologetically. "How about tomorrow night? Drinks are on me."

Steve didn't like to drink very much but thought it would be fun to drink with Tila. "Sure," he answered. "What time should I call you?"

"Don't," answered Tila. "I'll call you."

There was a brief moment of silence before Steve heard, "I'll talk to you tomorrow then cutie." He heard a click in his ear as she hung up her phone.

"Well now I can go over Brandy's house and watch movies I suppose," Steve thought. He dialed Brandy's number and she picked up on the second ring.

"Hey baby," Brandy greeted.

"Hey sexy, my mom canceled out on me and said we are going to scrape the walls tomorrow night instead of tonight, so if you still want to watch those movies I can come over now," Steve said.

"Oh sorry Steve!" Brandy said. "Videl just called and asked if I could come over and I told her I would."

Steve replied, "Cool, mind if I roll with you? I wanted to talk to Bobby about getting some hockey tickets."

Brandy replied, "Actually, Videl asked me to come alone. It's a girl thing, you know? Besides, Bobby is out bowling with some of his friends, he won't be back until late."

"Oh ok," Steve said disappointedly.

"I tell you what," Brandy told him. "I'll stop by there with some food after I leave Videl's apartment and spend the night with you. But this time we are sleeping on the bed, not the couch!"

"All right, sounds good to me," Steve said. After he hung up, he started watching the rest of the movie. After the movie was over, Steve was extremely bored.

Wow, that was a waste of a day off, he thought to himself. He wondered how it had gotten so late. The days seemed to be shorter to Steve now than when he was a kid. Everything took longer when you were a kid, he said to himself. He wondered if time actually did speed up the longer you lived. What is time actually? he asked himself. Time is just numbers, just like everything else, and numbers can be manipulated.

Steve was starting to get a headache from the combination of too much thinking and from the acid eating holes in his brain the night before. He swallowed four aspirin and chased them down with his energy drink. He heard the sound of raindrops as they lightly fell onto his rooftop.

Great more rain, he thought as he looked out the window in a daze. After getting bored of looking outside into the darkness, he stretched out on the couch and took a nap.

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Brandy pushed the button for Videl and Bobby's apartment. BUZZZZZZZZZZ she heard. She waited for the return buzzing sound that reminded her of the noise ten thousand angry bees would make right before they sting someone to death. She wasn't actually sure what kind of noise ten thousand angry bees would make, but she could imagine. The thing that she hated about the buzz was that she never knew when the buzz was going to buzz. It would always come when she least expected it, just like it was about to. BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ she heard as the entire wood door vibrated from the buzzing. The buzz caused Brandy to jump, which caused her to bite her tongue. "Fuck that hurt!" she said as she pulled the still vibrating door open. "Goddamn buzzers always get the best of me!"

Brandy's mouth filled with the taste of iron as blood seeped out of her bite wound. "Gross!" she said after spitting out of the door onto the cement. She climbed the stairs and was greeted at the top by Videl.

"Hey Brandy!" Videl said as she brushed her long black curly hair out of her eyes. "Thanks for coming over."

"That's what friends are for," Brandy said with a smile on her face. She put her arm around Videl as they walked through the hallway into the apartment.

"Would you like anything to drink?" Videl asked Brandy as she shut and locked the door behind her.

"Yeah what do you have?" Brandy asked.

"Looks like all we have is oj, milk and water," Videl said after she scoped out the inside of the refrigerator.

"I'll take some orange juice please." Brandy requested.

Videl poured two glasses of orange juice and handed one to Brandy. "So what did you want to talk to me about, is everything ok?" Brandy asked Videl as they walked into the living room and sat on the sofa.

"Do you think I'm ready?" Videl asked with a scared look on her face

"Ready for what?" asked Brandy.

"A child" Videl cried. "Do you think I'm ready for a child?"

Brandy was not expecting the talk to be anything like this. "When did you find out?" She asked.

"This morning," she said through tears.

"How far along are you?" Brandy asked.

"I don't know yet, I made a doctor's appointment for Friday. I have been getting sick for a while now and I'm late. I took a pregnancy test a couple hours ago and it showed positive. I wasn't sure if it was accurate so, I tried again and the test showed positive."

Brandy tipped her glass of orange juice back and took a large swig. After she swallowed the juice, her tongue shot waves of electricity to her brain reminding her that she had bitten her tongue earlier. She set her glass of orange juice on the table and put her arm over Videl's shoulders. "So what are you going to do?"

"We decided to fly to Vegas next week and get married. Do you think I'm making the right choice?" Videl asked.

If anyone knew Videl, it was Brandy. After Brandy's mom died, she was forced to live with her Aunt a few miles away in the next city. Her first day of school she met Videl at the bus stop. They instantly became friends and had been close ever since.

"Is that the kind of wedding you want?" Brandy asked the weeping girl.

"I don't know," Videl said. "I've always wanted a big wedding, but neither of us really have the money. I figure going to Vegas will save a lot of time and hassle as well."

With a smiling face, Brandy replied, "Well if that is what you want to do then I support your decision."

"Thanks, you're a real friend," Videl said while wiping tears from her face.

They chatted for quite some time about baby names and plans of the future. As they were talking about college, Videl fell asleep in mid sentence. Brandy covered her with a quilt that was draped across the back of the couch, and quietly slid out of the apartment.

She looked at the clock as she was driving, Two a.m., she thought to herself. I should hit up Taco Bowl before they close, I'm pretty hungry. When she pulled into the parking lot, there were only two cars in drive thru. She was relieved that there wasn't a long line. As she sat watching raindrops running down her windshield, five cars pulled in behind her all in a row. "Made it just in time," she said out loud.

Things sure are going to change for Videl and Bobby after Videl has her baby, she thought. No more partying all night, getting wasted, and experimenting with drugs. But hey, at least it's not me. I don't know what I would do if Steve got me pregnant. My life would be over!

Brandy jumped as someone honked a horn behind her. "Oops!" she said out loud as she realized it was her turn to pull up to the speaker. She ordered two combo meals and a side of rice. After receiving her food she continued on to Steve's house. Her mid section rumbled intensely. "Ok ok just hold your horses," she said to her stomach. Her gut rumbled in reply, "I'm not waiting another minute, you better feed me now or I'm going to make you feel a load of pain."

"Fine fine!" Brandy said as she pulled a burrito out of one of the bags. She accidentally spilled a bag of salsa packets. She reached onto the floor and started scooping packets back into the bag and then felt her car elevate. "What the hell?" she said as she looked up and saw she was now driving up a curb towardss a tree. She tried to maneuver away from the tree and ran over a few bushes. She heard them scraping against her muffler as she trampled over them. Turning the wheel to the left, she drove back onto the road. "Wow that was a rush!" she said out loud as she felt her heart working overtime.

Brandy looked into her rearview mirror and saw flashing lights. "Shit, they are going to think I'm drunk," she muttered. The police officer gave her a Breathalyzer and let her go with a warning after she explained she was reaching for the hot sauce. Damn, I have to be more careful, she thought as she took a bite of her burrito.

She pulled into Steve's driveway and ran up to his porch trying to stay dry. The rain was coming down extremely hard now, flooding half of his front lawn. She banged on his door but received no answer. "Damnit, answer the door!" she yelled while beating on the door. She held the bags of food with her teeth and the drinks with her other hand as she searched for Steve's house key on her key chain.

"I have too many keys," she said to herself. She finally found the correct key after dropping her key chain into a puddle two times and let herself in. Steve was passed out on the couch with his mouth wide open. She got up in his face and yelled, "Wake up! I have food!"

Steve jumped awake from being startled out of his dreams. When he saw Brandy with food, a smile appeared on his face.

"Hey what did you get me?" he asked hungrily.

"I have some tacos and burritos. Which do you want?" she asked.

"They both sound good," he said. "Which do you want?"

"Don't matter to me," she said.

They decided to split them half and half minus the burrito Brandy already ate on the way over.

"What would life be like without Taco Bowl?" Steve wondered out loud.

"Pretty shitty," she laughed.

"Yeah I think they put something in the food to make us keep coming back," he said jokingly. "So what did Videl have to say?"

"She's pregnant," Brandy said quietly while munching on a taco.

"No shit!" Steve exclaimed. "She gonna keep it?"

Brandy answered, "Yeah, and they are talking about going to Los Vegas to get married soon."

"That's awesome!" he said excitedly. "Are we invited?"

"I'm sure they would be glad to have us but we are going to end up having to cover their shifts most likely." Brandy answered.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Steve said as his smile transformed into a frown. "It's going to be weird with them having a kid. That means no more rave parties for them. Maybe..."

Brandy waited for Steve to finish but he never did. "Maybe what?" she asked him.

"Nothing," he said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I forgot what I was going to say," Steve lied.

"Well what do you think about it Steve?" she asked.

"Think about what?" Steve questioned her.

"About them having a kid? I think it's so great! They have been together for years and they are so happy together. I hope me and you will be that happy still after three years" Brandy said. She then straddled herself on Steve's lap and started to kiss him. They kissed for several minutes on the couch until they moved into the bedroom where they eventually made love and fell asleep.

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