The Flood

"Lila! Are you coming?" Austin's mom came in my house. She looked stressed.

"Where?"

"The rainstorm has made several people's houses flood! They need people and shovels," she said. She ran into my mom's room and informed her of the situation. I grabbed my shoes and a coat and headed out the door after her.

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Several houses and hours later, I stood waist deep in freezing cold mud in my friend's room. Tears rolled down my face as I pulled all of her life's possessions out of the muck. I couldn't believe that this had happened.

"Lila, is there anything else?" Austin was here. Actually here. I shook my head and turned away to hide my tears.

"Lets go to Chelsie's room," I said. Austin led the way down the hall.

I stared at the walls. The line of mud was higher than my head. I looked away before my tears started again.

Austin and I worked side by side for hours, putting possessions in baskets, pulling out the dry wall, and finally sweeping up all the mud from the floors.

We headed home in the wee hours of the morning, completely exhausted, yet happy with the work we did.

"Bye Lila!" Austin said.

"Bye Austin," I said.

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I stood in the shower, fully clothed. Streams of murky water poured off of me, mixing with my tears.

The Johnson's house had flooded. Chelsie and McKenna are my friends. I couldn't believe what had happened. I let the warm water soak into my freezing bones. The water was waist high at one point and as cold as ice.

Even though I had spent literally all night working next to Austin, I had felt so far away from him. The conversations we once had, where we would talk for hours about nothing, had dried up, leaving awkwardness in its place.

I don't know how to fix this.