“We’re out of milk, shortstuff.” Lia glanced up from the spaghetti noodles and noted the empty container in the trash. Her brother sighed and gave a sarcastically forlorn look at the box of Cap’n Crunch he had pulled out of the cabinet. “Alas, poor Cap’n. No eating you today.”

“Serves you right. We haven’t gotten to go grocery shopping in ages. That’s why tonight is actual homemade spaghetti.”

“And you are cooking it? Natch! Nicole and I will go for pizza!”

“Brian!” She flung a spoonful of noodles at him, their limp forms sailing across the room with plenty of time for him to duck, which he did. They splattered against the wall with a soft, wet sound, and clung there weakly. Just then, Brian’s other roomate Trinity came yawning from his room. Taking in their laughter, he glanced at the noodles sticking there like some form of edible spider.

“So they are done then!” Lia cleared her throat. She had such a crush on Trinity, and he knew it. Tall with long black hair, shoulder length that he always kept in a ponytail, and eyes of steel blue. He was to die for, and always had a different date on his arm, every time he went out with them to clubs. Brian hadn’t the slightest clue his little sister wanted the roomate, and kept trying to persuade her not to cook dinner.

“It’s not that you are bad, shorty, it’s just um…” But Trinity wouldn’t go for her, not in a million years. Not only was the garden variety girl, with long brown hair and hazel eyes, okay to look at, but definitely not a model, she was Brian’s little sister. True she just turned twenty-one a few weeks ago, but to Trinity, a solid twenty-five and a half, she must seem like jailbait.

“I don’t mind Lia’s cooking.” Trinity poked his head from out of the fridge, popping a diet soda, and taking a rough swallow. “But use meat sauce this time? I hate the vegetable sauce.” Brian snorted at this.

“You know Lia is a vegetarian. Using meat sauce would kill her. Be thankful she isn’t vegan! I don’t want to be eating grass and water every time she cooks dinner!” Her heart jumped a tad as the dark young man flashed her a playful grin.

“Just a little meat sauce? For me?” Oh darn him. She found herself nodding.

“This one time, you guys can have meat sauce. But I want to go grocery shopping! We need all kinds of stuff.” Brian sighed.

“Not tonight, Nicole and I were going to hit the movies before dinner. She’s been working so much we barely have time to go out anymore. Tomorrow?” Lia sighed, then nodded, and turned back to the bowl, draining the last of the water. Trinity finished the soda, and tossed it over his head like a basketball player.

“I’ll take her, Brian, if you want. You know, if you didn’t shop in bulk, you could go by yourself.” Lia blushed.

“I like to just go, be done with it, and be home, and not have to go every week or so.”

“I know, I know,” he chuckled. “That last bag of cereal lasted three months, though!”

“’Cause no one likes granola,” called out Brian darkly as he was leaving. “You take her, thanks Trin, I’ll be back later in time for the spaghetti of doom. Alright?”

“Have fun!” she yelled, and watched him get in his little blue Toyota and drive away. “He won’t- he hates my spaghetti!”

“Well, I like it…” said Trinity, snagging the noodles off the wall, and dropping them neatly into the garbage. “But not those. You wanna go now, or later?” She glanced at the clock. Six-thirty. Shouldn’t be that busy or anything.

“Yeah, now is good!” Grabbing his leather jacket, black of course-which made Lia squeal inwardly- he headed outside, waiting as she locked the door, and piled into his car. “Thanks by the way,” she said breathlessly, securing herself in her seatbelt. Trinity had a great car. Sleek and black, leather and darkness, it practically oozed through the lit city, the sound of its tires on wet pavement was even smooth sounding. They had been getting a lot of rain lately, the sky being nothing more than angry clouds and brilliant lightning. As she listened to the low radio, the electric streak brightened the road for miles, causing her to point delightedly.

“Look at that! Did you see?” He chuckled.

“No, I’m kinda driving, but I’m glad you like lightning. I love this weather.”

“Oh me too!” she smiled, then looked away, back to the window. “Are we going to Fredericks?”

“No, earlier today I saw their parking lot- packed full. I think they’ll be out of anything good. I was thinking Wal-Mart, the Supercenter.” She shrugged. It was the same, except that Wal-Mart sometimes had sales going on for longer than Fredericks, so maybe it was better.

“Whichever you like,” she laughed, and they drove. “I’m just glad to be out of the house!”

“Yeah, you have been in there a bit too long. Didn’t the desk job suit you?” She shrugged.

“They hired someone else, so I figured I’d relax for a while, live on some savings for a month or two, then go back on the prowl.”

“Prowl,” he repeated and laughed lightly. “You should come with me and Brian when we go to the club on Friday. He always brings Nicole, so you could hang with her.”

“Yeah,” Lia laughed, “As if! You know Brian says I am a club-virgin so he won’t let me go to any. He thinks I will let guys spike my drink and get date raped.” Trinity burst into laughter.

“This isn’t L.A!” he looked over at her for a moment, smiling, “I think you’d notice if a guy reached over and messed with your drink. Besides that, all you have to do is not go alone anywhere, and don’t leave your drink alone, not even for half a second. I know for a fact whenever Nicole leaves the table, even if all of us were there, when she gets back, she orders a new drink, and let’s them take away the old one. Smart girl, that one.” Lia agreed. Her brother was lucky to have found her, and good for him, he knew it. She was leggy, but not high-maintenance, with coconut-brown hair and short blonde hair, but (gasp) with a brain as well! She had actually been the one to teach her stick-shift in Brian’s car, before Trinity offered to let her use his car for her license. Lia was behind, kind of. She ran away from home when her father decided to drown himself in liquor, and her mom refused to see it. She knew Brian was living in the city, so she had a friend drive her, and suddenly showed up on his doorstep when she was eighteen. She stayed with him and Nicole and some other girl until she left two years later and Trinity moved in. Brian was a bit hesitant about a guy moving in with them, mainly with his little sister, but after long talks, was relieved to find that Trinity didn’t even view her as a woman, just a little girl bunking with her brother. Lia flushed in indignation, even so long after this had taken place.

“What’s wrong?” Trinity touched her hand, shocking her out of thought. Before she could register his skin was touching hers, he had replaced it on the wheel, turning gently into the parking lot and letting the engine die. “We’re here, by the way. Are you tired? You looked you were falling asleep…” Getting out, she waved a hand, embarrassed as she always seemed to end up around him.

“No, no, I’m fine, really. Just watching the rain kinda put me in a trance.”

“Mmhmm…” he said, following her. “What’s first on the list?”

“You take fruits and veggies, I’ll take canned foods,” she laughed, ripping it in half. Since she didn’t have cell phone, even though he did, they agreed to meet up in half an hour at the entrance, since this store was so large and spread out, it would take them eternity to find each other without some sort of plan. He turned left and she turned right, already searching the shelves for deals.

Half an hour later, her cart rattling with nearly a hundred cans, she figured it was time to regroup. Just as she turned the cart around, thunder boomed with such intensity and strength, it made her jump, and made cans rattle on the shelves. Half a heartbeat later, every light went dead. Yells and shouts began rising in the store from people caught without any way to see. She herself was unable to see, and even though the situation was strangely frightening, she remained calm. She would not scream as some lady over in shoes was, and she didn’t want to try to move the cart in darkness, as someone else was trying to do at the back of the store. The sounds of collisions began to rise, and she hesitantly moved to the side, to find the edge of the aisle. Instead, she found warm body.

“Oi, careful,” the man laughed, “I might do that back.” Recoiling, her face burning unseen, she cleared her throat, noise sounding too loud.

“I’m so sorry, I was trying to get my bearings.”

“Want mine instead?” That was entirely improper, she thought to herself, but only moved a bit more away, knocking into her cart from behind. “Now don’t go running off, I’m just being friendly.” His voice sounded young, but not pleasant, more like he was enjoying some crude joke all by himself. That alone ticked her off, and made her wish more than ever, that she could see.

“Excuse me, but I really don’t want to be friendly,” she said, and felt around for the wall so she could leave. A hand grabbed her wrist.

“Well hey, don’t go off in the dark! That’s dangerous.” She twisted around and jerked to get her wrist free.

“Excuse ME, but I don’t recall saying it was all right to touch me!”

“I don’t recall asking for permission!” Suddenly a growl made them both freeze. It was an animal growl, like an angry dog.

“What was that?” she asked, eyes wide as if she could make them see. The hand let go suddenly, and the sound of running, wrestling, and other strange sounds met her ears. Her heart pounding, she moved faster, her hands brushing the uniform cans as she fled, and before she could stop herself, she had called out.

“Trinity?!”

“Hey, hey I’m here.” Another hand caught her wrist, but let go to catch her hand tightly. “Crazy this blackout, huh?” Recognizing his cologne, she forgot herself and rested her hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, Trinity, I’m so glad, some guy grabbed me, and I think there is a dog loose in here!” Then she raised her head, furrowing her eyebrows. “Wait, how did you find me? It’s pitch black in here.”

“Luck I guess, I was trying to remember where canned foods was when the lights when off, and I just kept walking. Next thing I know, there you are calling for me.” Suddenly she realized she was still holding his hand. Should she drop it? What would he think if she kept holding onto it? Shouldn’t she, in case they got separated again? The question was taken care of for her, when the lights buzzed, then came on, flickering only slighty.

“Shoppers, we are terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but as you can see the power is back on, and the registers should be open for checkout within a few minutes, so if you would like to continue shopping, you are free to do so. Note to any would-be shoplifters, although our security camera’s went offline, let us assure you, our anti-theft sensors are now also online again. Thank you and have a nice night.” Trinity looked at Lia, and smiled roguishly.

“Ready for checkout?”

“More than you know,” she sighed, and hastily dropped his hand, flushing. Although she looked hard, she didn’t see any sign of either dog or weird man, and tried to shake the strange feeling that she was being watched.

As Trinity drove home, she noticed he was more silent than usual. Abruptly, he pulled into a small side street, usually overlooked whenever they went home, but this time she noticed it- all empty buildings, except for one on the end, which Trinity pulled in front of.

“What is this?” she asked, getting out slowly. In the rain is looked forbidding, the only lights coming from the second and third stories. It looked firm and sturdy, but somehow lost, and the only signs stuck in its tarped-up windows, showed the ace of spades and king of hearts, among other high valued cards. Trinity locked the car, looked around, and escorted her up to the door.

“Well, you might say it’s a friends house. I wanted to stop by and say hello.”

“He lives here?”

“They do, yeah.” She glanced at him warily.

“They?” As he knocked, he sighed wearily, as if contemplating a fate worse than death.

“This is called the House. Named because all who live here, well…are cards.” With that terrible pun, the door was unbolted, and several other locks apparently undone, and swung open to reveal a tall man roughly the age of Trinity, with short black hair and dark eyes. Aside from a pair of beach shorts, he wore nothing else, and displayed a rather fine view for Lia to gawk at.

“Trinity! What…are you doing here? We haven’t done anything.” Then his eyes went over Lia, and he smiled uncertainly. “Come on in.”

“Thanks Matthias.” Lia stepped inside, closely followed by Trinity, and followed the beach guy up the stairs, night invading here as well, at least until they got to the second floor. That’s when Matthias cleared his throat.

“Company Gideon.” Lia smiled as soon as they got up there. It was definitely a bachelor pad, right down to the giant sofa and big screen t.v. At least there weren’t clothes all over the place. Two big dogs, one white and one golden, were wrestling on the wooden floor, and stopped when she came in.

“Oh I love dogs!” Tails wagging, they flooded her, licking her face and wagging their tails ferociously. “What breed are they?”

“Idiots,” grinned the man on the couch, and stood, extending a hand to Trinity. “This is a surprise…I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Neither was I, but…how is everything?” The two men sank to the couch, and Lia studied Gideon discreetly as they chatted. She wasn’t sure what the House was, but it seemed to be a House for hot guys. Gideon was tall as well, and finely-muscled in a white undershirt. He seemed vaguely foreign, with clipped words, and short blonde hair that he nevertheless brushed back and forth as if it were longer.

“Really?” he said seriously, and Lia leaned in closer. Anything else he might have said was obliterated when the two dogs tackled her, forcing a laugh out of her as they became machines to gather attention from her.

“They haven’t had a date for months,” commented Matthias, shoving one of them away from his face. “Neither have I, interested?” Lia gaped. Seconds later a pillow smacked him from across the room, and Gideon shot him an amused glare.

“Shut up, Matthias. It’s rude to hit on ladies without even knowing their name!” Matthias sheepishly tossed it back, and held out a hand to Lia.

“Hi, I’m Matthias. Are you Trinity’s girlfriend?” On the couch, he burst into a fit of coughing, and threw the second pillow.

“Matthias!” Lia chuckled at this, and shook her head.

“He is my brother’s roommate. I actually live with them, and my name is Lia.” The two dogs started whining at this point, but Matthias ignored them with a grin.

“Nope, your fault.”

“What are their names?” she asked after a second, wondering when they were going to go . She needed to make dinner! Still, it was nice to hang out with a guy for a change, and even to be asked for a date!

“The blonde one is Quinn, the white one is Thaniel.”

“And what breed are they?” She scratched hard behind Quinn’s ear and watched his tongue loll in bliss.

“Wolf, actually.” He stood, and popped a shoulder, grinning when she made a face. “Sorry. This is guy-world. It’s odd to have a girl around.” She found this hard to believe. Two hot guys with two wolf dogs? Unless…she raised her eyebrows. Oh heck no. She was SO not going there. As if on cue, Trinity stood.

“I need to get Lia back, but think on it Gideon. Call me later and tell me what the House thinks.”

“Of course Trinity. Lia, it was a pleasure to meet you. Don’t be a stranger.” She smiled and thanked him for allowing her to pet his dogs, then squealed as Matthias suddenly picked her up with both arms in a hug and spun her around.

“Dear, dear Lia! Our fond connection shall not be broken!” As he passed, Trinity smacked the male across the back of the head.

“If I take home Brian’s sister smelling of male-flesh, he will castrate me.” Matthias gently let her down, and she flushed, unsure how to take this in stride. Gideon winked, but kept his distance.

“You are always welcome here, you too Trinity, but only if you bring this vision of loveliness with you.”

“I’ll remember that.” he joked, and headed down the stairs, Lia waving awkwardly as she followed. “Run far!”

“And fast!” they called back. Lia was definitely amused as she buckled her seatbelt.

“I would never have thought you would have friends that were…you know.” He stiffened in his seat, and she quickly tried to make amends, afraid that she had offended him. “You know um, not like I have a problem with um..homo…um…homosexuals.” Trinity stared at her for a long moment, then burst into laughter so suddenly, it scared her. He continued laughing for several minutes, finally winding down to hearty chuckles, wiping a tear or two away from his eyes.

“By all that is holy, why do you think the House is gay?” She shrugged slowly.

“So they aren’t? But Matthias said no girls ever come around, and he lives alone with Gideon…shirtless…” Trinity burst into new laughter.

“The House has…four occupants, but I guarantee they are not gay. No, no, no the only reason no girls go there is because it is purely a male place, they wouldn’t be able to stand a girl there. They like to scratch their butts and belch like any other guy.” Now she felt exceedingly stupid, but he shook his head, fighting off the urge to worsen it by laughing again. “That’s fine, Lia, anyone would have assumed the same thing. In fact, they will all be at the club on Friday. They are party…animals.” She considered.

“Brian would say no. You KNOW how he is.” Trinity smiled at her, a look which made her stomach flip silently, and winked.

“I’ll work on him. If you would escort me?” Holy wow. She found herself nodding, and managed to kick-start her brain into using speech as well.

“Sure! Of course! Yeah.” Desperate much? Not her.

---

“No.” Brian managed to utter behind a slice of pizza. To her annoyance, due to the movie theatre being shorted out from the lightning, he and Nicole had lived up to his desire and gotten a few pizza’s, now spread out across the living room table like decorative place settings. All of them contained meat save one, and that one was placed before her and her only. She didn’t eat it though, bitterly wondering when he would see she was old enough to take care of herself. “You don’t know these places. You could be gone and taken in one second, just poof, goodbye shorty.” Trinity snorted around a slice of heavenly pepperoni, practically dripping cheese as he handled it.

“C’mon Brian. I’ll watch her. You know I won’t let anything happen to her.” Her heart thumped, and to cover her flush, she got up to go get more soda. Nicole jumped up.

“I have some grape cans in the cupboard!” The two of them grabbed some napkins, and when the coast was clear, Nicole poked Lia.

“Don’t look so glum, girl! Even if Trinity fails, I won’t.” She waggled a can of grape soda at Lia triumphantly, but the girl only sighed.

“How can you be sure?” A loud snort met that question.

“Oh please. No man alive who loves his girlfriend, would say no. And especially, not to ME.” Lia smiled then, and grabbed more ice, heading back into the living room to start the weekday movie. Only twenty minutes into My Friend Flicka ( Nicole won this time), her brother paused it and sighed. Turning, he gave them a glum look.

“I have the whole freakin house against me, don’t I?” Nicole patted him gently.

“I’m afraid so sweety…” Another sigh came out of him, defeated.

“Fine.” Before Lia could squeal and hug him, he stopped her with a glare. “But you stick to Trinity, got it?” She nodded enthusiastically, and gave the roommate a beaming smile. “Females.” her brother muttered darkly, and hit play. Lia watched the movie with an air of nervous excitement. Across the screen, the muscled horse dashed across the land, tail flowing in the wind. That was her. That was Lia, free at last.