One of the disadvantages of living practically in the forest was that a power outage was basically guaranteed during a strong storm. Evan had been used to it for sixteen years, so he knew exactly the routine that followed. Unplug TV cables, pull back all curtains, light candles and flashlights.

"Did you find the flashlight?" His mother's voice came from behind. Evan stared in disbelief at the light coming from his hands but kept his resolution and bit his tongue. With the arrival of the new school year, he decided to try to improve his relationship with his parents. Or at least not make it worse.

“I wasn't looking. I have my phone," he replied, turning in her direction to show her the aforementioned device he was holding.

“You'll drain your battery unnecessarily." She shook her head at him disapprovingly. She knew her son and his need to be on the phone all the time. Evan, on the other hand, thought that using both the phone and the flashlight was even more pointless. Either way, he'd be playing on his phone, so he might as well shine with it.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Improving their relationship didn't mean he planned to improve his response style as well.

"You understand that when this happens, I will tell you that I said so?" He had no doubt about it. Just as he kept his answers, so did his mom. Some things just didn't change.

"But it won't happen," he assured her. He was determined to use his phone as little as possible until the storm passed. The only games he played on it were the offline ones, and the only reason he even had it in his hand was his chat with Kieran. Right now, Kieran was away with his parents for the weekend, so he didn't have as much time to text, but he still spoke to Evan whenever he could. They both knew that they had their last year at the same school ahead of them, but neither of them dared to talk about it. So, they tried to at least constantly talk about anything else.

"Find a flashlight just to be sure." He didn't argue and instead went towards the kitchen, where they had a drawer reserved for special situations like this one. It didn't take him long to find a flashlight under a ton of duct tape, a handy sewing kit, buttons, and matches. As he said, a drawer for special situations.

"Found it!" He didn't even have to raise his voice too much since the house without electronics was eerily quiet. When he was little and the electricity went out, he was always afraid to walk alone in a dark and quiet house. His mom always held his hand, and they counted different things together just to occupy his mind. Sometimes it was seconds before a lightning strike to know how far the storm was, other times steps between rooms in the house.

"Guess what I found!" His father sounded more than enthusiastic. Evan had no idea what could make him so happy, especially in this weather. So, he decided to find him, and his mom apparently had the same plan.

Watching his father sitting on the rug in the middle of the living room opening the top of a battered board game, that was probably as old as he was, gave Evan a flashback to his childhood. Storms, as scary as they could be, were Evan's favourite. The storms meant his parents didn't have to work and could play with him. He couldn't even count how many days and nights they spent over the game board, laughing and sometimes arguing. Competitiveness was one of the innate traits of his family after all.

"You can't be serious," his mom was the first to react. Despite her words, she sounded more amused than annoyed.

"The Bludds' game night, what do we think?" Evan's eyes fell on the box on the floor. He knew the game board almost by heart. And although the surface of the box was so worn that it was almost impossible to recognize the inscription or pictograms of a heart or a star, the game board was still in good condition. The square-shaped board consisted of an outer track and several minor loops each of which started and ended at a space on the outer track. Some of the money cards had been lost over the years and replaced with cardboard cards on which someone had written numbers with a given value, and where the original figures ended up, Evan had no idea. He couldn't even remember when they actually used them and not the coloured buttons.

“If I remember correctly, the last time you said you would never play it again.” Mom did not hesitate for a moment to remind him.

"That's only because you taught our son to cheat. With two cheaters in the game, I had no chance of winning," he immediately argued. Mom and son looked at each other and burst out laughing. They both knew very well that we weren't cheating. Only dad did not know how to lose.

"I think we have different memories. There must be some mistake,” Evan told him in a serious voice despite his laughter. His mom immediately picked up on his announcement and enriched it with her own comment.

“The only mistake was that I didn't hide the game well enough for your father not to find it.” Evan's father was a strong believer that children should learn to lose, and this was quite clearly reflected in the way he played board games. His wife, on the other hand, had different educational methods and after he accused her and their son of cheating and decided to stop talking to them until they confessed to it, she decided that he was the child who should have learned to lose but failed.

"You could hide the game, but my winning skills remained the same. It's like riding a bike." Even with the lack of light, Evan could see his father puff out his chest proudly.

"We'll see about that." The wife joined her husband on the floor. "What are you waiting for? Lay out the board."

Evan didn't hesitate to join his parents. And even though he was determined not to argue with them, that still didn't mean he couldn't destroy his father in the game. After all, he had to show him that he was better than him even without cheating.

In the end, that strong storm brought with it not only a power outage but also a mutual peace in the family that they had not experienced for a long time.

…

When Evan woke up in the morning, he was delighted to find that the electricity was working again. Thanks to the rain, he had a great night's sleep, but waking up was even better knowing that he would be able to charge his phone and be in touch with his lover.

After all these months, he still didn't know how to address him. They were still in the pre-dating phase, but they acted like they were in a relationship. They knew practically everything about each other, but their conversations mostly took place at school or online. They rarely spent time together outside of school, even during the holidays, as Evan always had to come up with a reason to leave the house. Other people must have found their relationship strange. Fortunately, their friends were fully supportive and did their best to ensure that they had as much time as possible together. For example, Angie still accompanied him to their gas station.

Speaking of Angie, she apparently sensed that her best friend was already awake as she decided to call him.

“Guess what!” Those were the words that greeted him instead of a proper greeting. Not that he expected anything else. He and Angie barely greeted each other. Their conversations always started somewhere in the middle, sometimes with some gossip, other times by confessing their problems.

“What?” he decided to play along. Angie sounded a little too excited and that didn't happen often. More or less only when she came up with another way to insult him.

"I had another vision," she admitted.

“So you know who he is?" Old habits are hard to forget, so Evan automatically chose the hetero version.

"No, but I'm close. I saw our pack house,” she sounded more than thrilled. Evan, on the other hand, didn't know what to make of that. Of course, he was happy for his friend, but at the same time, he was sorry for what it meant. Angie was destined to stay in their pack.

"That's amazing, Ang. You think we can piece together all the clues and find him?" For the sake of his friend, he decided not to think too deeply about it now and show her support. No matter what happened, he always wanted the best for her. She deserved nothing less.

“Oh, please, girls could work for the FBI if they wanted to. Crime would actually be reduced to a minimum if teenage girls were involved in the investigation.” Evan just rolled his eyes at her comment.

"So that's a yes?" he asked her for confirmation.

"Didn't you listen to me?" Now she sounded annoyed for a change.

"Before I imagined cops as teenage girls or after?" he asked to tease her. There was a sigh from the other end of the phone and then silence. Evan checked the screen to make sure she hadn't hung up.

“Ang?”

"I'm here. Sometimes I'm so glad I have little siblings that I can settle down with a sentence, and then there's you. The goddess really tries my patience sometimes." Evan thought it was hypocritical of her since most of the time she provoked him.

“Well, someone has to spice up your life.” He didn't let her answer put him off and decided to add to it. They both knew they couldn't survive without the other. The fact that they were each other's only friends until they were in high school said it all.

"I'd rather have a different kind of spice if you know what I mean," she said in a suggestive tone. Evan pretended to gag. One thing they didn't talk about was their sex life. Not that any of them had any.

“Shut up! I'm sure you've done all kinds of disgusting things with Kieran. I'm just imagining them for now,” she protested.

"Believe it or not me and Kieran didn't even drop our pants," Evan admitted. It sounded strange for how long they had been together. They held hands and kissed, and after some time, they knew what the other looked like without a shirt, but that was all. All the hot scenes took place in Kieran's car, and they both agreed that it wasn't the best place for anything more.

"And I was afraid that I would have to protect your virginity. You can obviously handle it yourself." Evan didn't need to see her to know she had the biggest smile on her face. Finding out information with which she could tease him was the biggest win for her. Fortunately, she knew how to keep them to herself, so if by chance someone else found out about them, she was ready to defend her best friend to the last breath. Perfect friendship balance.

“Shut up!” Now it was his turn to drop these words into their conversation. As he said, balance.