~*~

The power had been out for about twenty minutes so far with no sign of it turning back on anytime soon; there was still nothing but white snow on the roads outside.

Jimmy and I had been talking for a bit, talking about some casual things and goofing off to pass the time.

"So," I started. "It's okay if you don't want to go into it, but what happened with dating Maddy?"

Yep, I went there. I was still curious.

Even in the darkness, I could sense how uncomfortable he was from the question. He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, it was confusing. Maddy was great and all, but it just wasn't working out."

"What happened? It was like you guys started dating out of nowhere."

He was pretty vague when he had first told me several weeks ago, but I needed more details.

"Well..." He paused. "I don't know. We'd been talking over Instagram as friends for a while, and we seemed to be getting along pretty well, so she suggested going on a date. I didn't feel totally into it, but I hadn't had a girlfriend in a while, so... I wanted to give her a chance, but I just wasn't feeling it."

"Fair enough." I paused for a moment. "Any other girl that you're 'feeling it for'?" I joked, using air-quotes with my fingers.

He laughed. "Yeah... that's another reason why I broke up with Maddy."

That caught me off guard. I don't know what response I was expecting, but I definitely wasn't expecting him to say that he was currently interested in another girl, which played a part in him breaking up with Maddy.

Now would be the perfect time for me to ask who the girl was, but I don't think that my heart could handle it right now if he said that it was anybody but me... so I didn't ask that. "That's cute."

There was a brief silence, but then Jimmy changed the subject to talking about his next video idea about launching stuff with cannons.

It was starting to get colder in the house without the heat on, so Jimmy went to go get some more blankets for us. When he came back, he had a huge stack of neatly folded blankets in his arms.

"Let's make a blanket fort!" I suggested.

His eyes lit up. "Let's do it."

We ended up making the blanket fort in Jimmy's room because there was a lot more space. The fort completely enveloped his bed, which meant that both of us were going to end up sleeping in his bed to keep warm if the power didn't turn back on for a while--yes, that was slightly intentional on my part.

We had some blankets left over, which we tossed on the bed; they'd be useful for when we actually decided to go to sleep.

Jimmy grinned. "This is the best blanket fort in the history of blanket forts."

"For sure," I agreed.

It was a nice blanket fort, and I had so much fun making it with him. We kept struggling while making it, since we could barely see what we were doing half the time in the darkness--the only light we had was from the flashlights on our phones.

We both climbed in through the entrance of the blanket fort and sat down on the bed, putting the last few blankets over ourselves.

I was still cold.

"I'm still freezing. Let me borrow your blankets, too," I said, laughing, as I grabbed Jimmy's blankets and slid underneath, so our legs were touching. The heat radiating from his body was like a human furnace. "Jeez, you're so warm. I need some of that heat."

He laughed. "Your feet are like icicles--get them away from me!"

"No, you're like a heater!"

~*~

We were just sitting in our blanket fort for a while, watching some videos on my phone to pass the time.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

We both looked at each other, surprised. It was the middle of a terrible snowstorm, the power was out, and it was around 9pm: who could possibly be at the door?

Jimmy hadn't looked at his phone in a while; when he did, he looked a little annoyed, even though he was smiling. "We have visitors."

He went downstairs, and when he came back up, Chandler, Garrett, and Jake were behind him.

"A blanket fort!" Chandler exclaimed, and he immediately went to dive head-first into the blanket fort.

"We definitely interrupted something," Jake observed, probably referring to the facial expressions of both Jimmy and me.

"Just watching some PewDiePie videos," Jimmy explained. "Where's Chris?"

"He's staying in with his wife," Chandler responded.

"How are the roads?" I wondered.

Jake shrugged. "Not great, but my car's great in the snow, and we figured we could just crash here tonight."

Garrett climbed into the fort next, and then Jake started to go in after him.

Jimmy laughed. "There's not going to be room left for me with the Viking in there."

Jake literally took up almost half the bed just from his legs alone.

Jake fake-pouted. "It's fine. We can get some of the tiny people to sit on my lap." Jake patted his lap, looking over at Chandler, Garrett, and me.

"I'll do it," Chandler said and started crawling over towards Jake. Chandler was thin, but he was tall, too, so it was definitely a sight to see with him sitting on Jake's lap. When he got comfortable, he jokingly said, "Santa!"

Jake deepened his voice, imitating Santa. "Chandler, you've been really annoying this year and terrible with challenges, so you're going to get poop for Christmas."

Chandler laughed. "Yay! Just what I wanted."

I started laughing, too. These guys were too much.

"There's plenty of room. Come join us," Chandler said to me.

I rolled my eyes, trying to hold back my laughter. "Alright."

I slid over to where Jake was and tried to sit on his lap, but I kept falling off because Chandler was taking up too much space.

Jimmy had joined us in the fort at this point. He was watching us and laughing, but I swear he looked a little annoyed, too, as he kept looking at Jake.

I sat down in the space on the bed right next to Jake and Chandler. "I'm good sitting here."

Suddenly, Chandler hopped off of Jake's lap. "I'm hungry," he said and went downstairs to the kitchen, presumably to eat some of Jimmy's food.

"Don't eat all my food!" Jimmy yelled after him.

"I didn't hear you!" Chandler said as he continued to walk away; he definitely heard him.

Garrett slid over to Jake and sat on his lap, taking the place where Chandler had been. "I felt left out," he joked.

I laughed. "Seems like your lap is popular."

The guys all burst out laughing, and I blushed.

After a while, Chandler returned carrying a can of soda and a huge box of fruit gushers, which I'm sure Jimmy only kept in the house because he knew that Chandler always raided his food cupboards.

"I feel so betrayed," Chandler said to Jake jokingly, shaking his head in mock-disappointment, since Garrett was still sitting on his lap.

"Come here, Chandler. It'll be okay," Jimmy said, patting his lap and laughing.

"Thanks, Jimmy."

~*~

The power came back on an hour later, so there was heat again--thank God.

Sadly, we had to destroy the fort, but it was fun while it lasted.

I ended up just sleeping in my guest bedroom--it was weird having my own room in someone else's house, even if it was only for the next 3 weeks.

Jake and Chandler took the other two guest bedrooms, and Garrett slept on the couch.

It was a little after 1am by the time that we all decided to go to bed, so I was lying in bed, mindlessly browsing through some posts on my phone. I was getting pretty sleepy.

Suddenly, I got a text from Jimmy.

Still awake?

Yep lol, I responded.

Can I come in for a sec lol

Sure

That's weird. I briefly wondered what he wanted, but I didn't have a long time to think about it because I heard a quiet knock at the door; a few seconds later, it opened.

Jimmy came into my room, grinning. To my surprise, he looked a little nervous. "Sorry, this is random, but I was just thinking--did you maybe want to go see the new Spiderman movie with me tomorrow? We could get some dinner after... if you want. We're filming a video tomorrow morning, but after that's done..." His voice drifted off.

I'm sure I looked very confused. I wasn't expecting him to ask that, so it took a few seconds for my brain to catch up.

Was he asking me on a date? He didn't say it was a date, but it sure sounded like a date, especially since he didn't invite the rest of the guys. However, I was also living with him right now, so maybe he was just trying to be a good host and get us to do stuff together.

He looked so freaking nervous, though: if it wasn't a date, he could've just texted me instead of walking over to the room, right?

I think I was taking too long to respond because Jimmy nervously scratched the back of his head. He looked like he was about to say something, but I stopped him before he spoke.

I smiled. "That sounds fun! I'm in."

~*~