Damien could see that Jenni was in love with his best friend. Her eyes glimmered like a dove’s as Jared caressed her backside in the kitchen. An obvious signal to anyone looking. She seemed to appreciate it. Damien chuckled to himself as he sipped his mixed punch. The happy couple was a facade. He couldn’t resist clearing it. 

“How you got that leash around that thick neck of his, Jenni?” Damien teased.

She giggled sweetly, side-eyeing Jared to check if he also found it funny. 

“What leash?” Jared joked back. 

Shocked, she playfully smacked Jared on the arm.

“And what is that supposed to mean!?” Jenni squealed.

Jared made it too easy for him. 

“It means you have a stray dog, Jenni.” 

Damien took his punch and left her to follow the seeds.

Jenni and Jared’s living room was full of pajama-clad adults enjoying party games alongside silky R&B melodies. It was a hurricane party. Rain whipped against the windowpanes and tap-danced on the roof. Any concerns about possibly damaged properties disappeared somewhere between the drinking. Damien could not connect with their escapism; He did not believe himself to be a man who suppressed anything. He found a seat in a secluded, dimly lit corner of the bohemian-styled room. People sat on the carpet around a coffee table playing cards, some ate, and others passed around a blunt until it made its way to him.

Drawing the smoke in, the swaying bodies slowed before him. Their brown shades became a blended blur. All except for Jenni, who was clear as glass. She was innocent,  beautiful, and deeply undervalued. Damien watched Jenni tug her arm away from Jared in the distance.

Suddenly, he felt a stream of water slide down his forehead. He peered up. The droplet originated from a discolored spot on the ceiling — a leak. 

“Damien…” A woman whispered.

His socks were wet. Looking down, his feet sat in shallow water.

“Damien?” 

He jumped up, and Jenni was beside him, criss-cross seated on a cushion. Below, a solid, dry floor had returned. 

“You good?” She asked with concern. 

He did not know. He thought that it could have only been laced with LSD. Shaking the strangeness off, he refocused. The dove had followed him. “I think I’m just high as hell.” 

They sat in silence for a while; secrets lingering between them as they smoked.

“I have a question, and be honest.” Jenni exhaled. 

“Go ahead.” He knew what she’d ask.

Her voice shook. “Did he cheat on me?” 

“Maybe.” He answered factually. 

She hesitated before responding. “Maybe?”

“I wasn’t there the whole night.” He leaned back into the cushion, finally looking into her eyes. He held them tightly so she wouldn’t run.

“But you already know the truth, don’t you?” 

---

Jenni felt the house shake. She heard the howling wind and saw her windows rattle. Her home was unstable, and the storm was closing in. That realization alone caused her to instinctively reach for Jared as they mixed party drinks. He soothed her with a gentle yet firm rub on her backside. A silent language they shared amongst each other. One that said, “I’m right here. It’s okay.” Yet, something was off. She couldn’t place it, but the pit of her stomach churned with uneasiness.

“How’d you get that leash around that thick neck of his, Jenni?” 

It was Damien, their closest friend. His eyes were like foxes, sharp and intense, as if he were luring in prey.

She couldn’t look at him directly. She knew it’d lead to her death. 

So she giggled and looked up at Jared to respond instead. 

“What leash?” His cocky face chimed. 

Taken aback, Jenni smacked his arm. What was that? She thought. It felt as if buried bones had surfaced, like all the mulch of a garden bed had eroded in an instant.

“And what is that supposed to mean!?” Her mind went to the past; annoyingly empty arguments over text, faceless women, and jealousy searing her thoughts. 

“It means you have a stray dog, Jenni.” 

Damien left the kitchen easily, like an uncaring child who’d leave after they’d made a mess. 

“He was joking, baby.” Jared wrapped his arms around her; his body swallowing her into him. He smelled of liquor and regret, so she pushed him off. 

“Stray dog. What did he mean by that?” 

“It’s nothing! Why do you always have to assume it’s something?” His childish whining was enough to confirm it. 

Humiliation warmed her face more than anger. She stood there in the kitchen as everything around her became muted; the people, the music. The only thing she could hear was the whistling wind and the shuddering walls. The only thing she felt was her heartbeat. Jared spoke to her, but nothing came out. Then she noticed Damien and his gaze, awaiting her death.

---

“So, what are you going to do?” Damien’s eyes glided over Jenni’s full figure, admiring each roll and crevice, until they landed on her smooth lips. 

“I know what you’d want me to do.” She inhaled the smoke and eyed him knowingly. 

“Unlike Jared, I value loyalty.” Exhaling, she passed the blunt back to him. 

“You don’t owe it to him. He goes after what he wants, regardless of the consequences. You know this. ” 

They sat in silence again. Contemplating their relationship with Jared. 

“Are you even really his friend?” Jenni spat. 

Damien smiled to himself. “Yes, but my friend is a blind idiot.” 

“So you want to take advantage of that?”

“They say, you don’t see value until it’s gone.” 

Damien sat up, tilted his head on one arm, and peered back at Jenni, studying her. “Luckily, I have great vision.” 

She felt it–that forbidden feeling reingited with a look. She yearned, instinctively. She was compelled to escape his gaze. Whether out of shame or self-restraint, she couldn’t tell. She quickly disappeared from his sight and down a hallway. 

---

Jenni laid across her bed, waiting. Yet, she did not know what she was waiting for. Everything was still in motion; the storm, the party, her feelings about Jared, Damien… It was all still passing through and wreaking havoc on her mind and body.

A knock at the door roused her from her thoughts.  

“What?” She called out, whipping the tears from her cheek.

“Can we talk?” The familiar voice whispered gently. 

“I don’t trust you. Or him. Why would I want to talk?” She snipped. 

“Because we both want the same thing.”

Outside the bedroom door, Damien waited for her reply. The party was reaching its peak with everyone in a haze, allowing him to silently sneak away. Down the hall, Damien spotted Jared amongst their spirited friends and acquaintances. He was as he’s always been: a lost kid seeking out love from wherever he could find it. Maybe Damien was the same. Maybe that’s why they were friends.

As he leaned against the door, a trickle of water slid down his cheek again. Above his head was another ceiling crack, a much larger one. The crevices extended down the hall ceiling and into the corners of the walls. 

A sudden liquid warmth wrapped around his pants and clung to him. Murky water instantly surrounded him in the hallway. Thigh-high water covered the hall and the living room of partygoers. No one panicked, no one seemed to even notice, except for him. Then the eyes appeared. He backed into the wall in fear of the smoky, feminine eyes that observed him. 

“Damien…” A voice echoed as if close to his ears. 

Damien struggled to turn the knob to Jenni’s door. The water around him rippled. “Jenni.” He exhaled. “Jenni!” 

“What you doin’, bro?”

Spinning around, Jared stood before him with a puzzled look. Damien searched the now visible floor –not a single sign of water. He patted himself down– crisp clothes. 

“This hallway was covered in water,” Damien murmured. 

“Sure…” Jared’s tone and subtle head shake implied enough. He was the only one seeing things.

“What’s up with that shit you said earlier?” Jared pressed. 

“I ain’t mean nothing by it.” Damien threw out nonchalantly, as his eyes remained fixated on the floor. 

“You told her,” Jared said matter-of-factly. 

“She asked. I just answered truthfully. Like I always do.” 

Jared hit the wall with a solid thump of his fist. Damien was unfazed, finally eyeing him. Jared rubbed his temples and held the wall to keep from stumbling. Finally, he dragged his hand over and down his face as if he were resetting. 

“A hookup ain’t shit.” He said casually. “She’ll forgive me.”

Jared turned his back to Damien. “ She wants us, not you, if you didn’t know. Even when it’s difficult, she still wants us. But I guess you’ll keep trying instead of looking for your own home. ” 

Jared’s shadow cast itself upon Damien in the hallway as he returned to the party. Emerging from the depths, a mixture of envy and empty loneliness engulfed Damien. They knew each other too well. 

The bedroom door finally creaked open.

“Hurry,” Jenni whispered as she eyed Jared with spite. 

---

The bedroom was comforted by shadows—a white streetlight shed upon the window, emitting a soft moonlight patch on the carpet. The slightly cracked window dampened the room with mist and the scent of fresh rainwater. In the shadows and mist, they heard each other. 

Jenni stood before the bed, still unsure. Then she sat on the edge of the bed looking for whatever stability she could find. 

“If we do this, it’ll give him sight.” She spoke almost to herself. 

Damien still hung onto the closed bedroom door. The murky waters and eyes still lingered. 

“I think your house is going to flood.” 

“What?” She came out of thought. 

“I’ve been seeing things,” Damien murmured. “I’ve seen water flooding the house, and I’ve heard a voice call my name.” 

She heard him slide down the door and onto the carpet. 

“I think it’s a premonition. ” He breathed.

The pittering rain and pounding thunder drowned out the party. Damien could hear Jenni slide down the bed and crawl across the carpet. 

He felt the warmth of her breath as well as the sprinkles of mist on his hands. 

She kept a palpable distance between them. 

“You seem scared, Damien.” She whispered. 

Damien tried to hide it.  Would he be swept away in their currents? Drowned? Forever adrift and spliced between the tides of exhaling and inhaling. His hands trembled until she took them and placed them in her warmth. A warmth a frozen man could not repel. 

Up close, his sharp eyes became as soft as a blade of grass. Jenni realized then that she was no longer afraid of this death. She saw now that it would not only kill, but revive her, like a wilted plant watered, or weathered home mended. Is rebirth not loyalty to life itself, she thought as she crossed over. 

“Damien…” She whispered. “Don’t be afraid.” 

She nuzzled his cheek with her nose, then kissed it softly. “Damien..,” she whispered again. Pulling him into her, they fell back onto the cold, damp carpet. Around them, the house shook and crumbled. They heard the howling wind rip the roof and the overflowing waters shatter the windows into a million shards. The storm had finally closed in and wrecked their home. And when the waters were drained, a dove, a fox, and a child emerged with the debris.