Ways to Stay Hydrated When the Weather’s Not Cool

Written by Pineapple, Apple, and Raspberry in order of appearance | Content Warnings

For more of these characters, see our Picnics page!

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Part One

Well, this was it. Maria was finally moving in with Freddie. This morning, she’d finished dropping off furniture and clothes she was getting rid of at the donation box. Now, she was pulling up to the apartment. The trunk, back, and front seats were filled with whatever she was bringing to her new home. Freddie was supposed to be cleaning and moving everything so they’d be able to seamlessly incorporate her things into the space.

But when she finally parked and stepped out of the car, her thighs sticking to the fake leather seats, she was met with the unhappy picture of her boyfriend’s blacked out windows. He was somewhat notorious for being like… this… but in the middle of the summer?

Upon closer inspection, it was not just his curtains being drawn, as they usually were. He had hung some of his, quite frankly, ridiculous number of blankets in the windows to make it impossibly darker in his apartment.

Maria saw a familiar face as she walked up to the building and latched onto his arm. “Nick,” she said, voice low with mild panic, “what is going on. Please tell me there is an explanation for this and my boyfriend is not just being a psycho gremlin man.”

Nick glanced up at Fred’s place. It looked like he’d barricaded the windows to prepare for the apocalypse or something. “I mean, the power’s out,” Nick said, shifting the shopping bags in his hand, “but the gremlin part is probably still accurate.” 

She sighed, resigned to her fate, thanked Nick for the info, and went up the stairs to meet Freddie.

He was spread out on a towel on the table she’d honestly been hoping to get rid of. It was so dark it took a moment for her eyes to adjust before she could see he was shirtless, idly spritzing water up into the air with a translucent purple spray bottle so that it would fall back onto him.

He looked at her upside down without moving, looking like a horror movie.

“Freddie, babe, what is…”

“Power’s out,” he said, heaving a deep, burdened sigh.

To be honest, the temperature difference wasn’t that much different from outside. Or her car, because the a/c was out there, too.

Maria was beginning to regret moving in the middle of summer when the heat peaked at this time of day.

Fred peeled himself up off the table and put on his shirt. It stuck to him where the water hadn’t dried yet, and Maria was tempted to say something about just waiting to move the stuff out of her car. It was too hot anyway.

“I think everyone running the air conditioners full blast probably shorted out the electricity,” Freddie said. “Or something. I’m not too sure.”

“Of course.”

Freddie attempted a smile. “Should we get started?”

“Do we have to?”

He forced a laugh. It was dry and, well, at least Maria had water in her bag, she guessed. He went to hug her, but she pushed him off. The body heat would make this unbearable.

She led the way down to the car and unlocked it, gesturing widely to what she’d packed. “Have at it.”

Freddie looked at her, considering, and then somehow managed to pull the biggest thing—her dresser—out of the car.

“Be careful!” she scolded, reaching out to help him.

He situated it on his back. “I got it,” he said. “It’s blocking the sun for me.”

She watched him squat-walk back to the building and up the stairs. She grabbed a box of “MISC. THINGS—NOT FRAGILE” and followed him closely enough that she could catch the unwieldy, wooden thing her boyfriend insisted on carrying on his own if he ended up dropping it. He set it down and, on his way back down to get more from the car, picked up the dollar store water bottle to spray himself down again.

When Maria met him down there, Freddie spritzed her, like she was a plant, and handed her the bottle with a grin. Then he grabbed out the next thing and carried it back to the apartment.

Maria watched him go, too stunned to move. She didn’t want to admit that the bit of water from the sub-par spraying system felt a little bit good, but it did. She grabbed something else from the car and followed him up.

She was almost to the apartment when a familiar figure almost ran into Maria without even glancing up. Freddie grabbed the bags from her hands and took them back into the apartment.

“Hey, Lily,” Maria said, spraying water up into the air between them. “You okay?”

“Can anyone ever be okay?” Lily asked with a deep sigh.

The lack of a/c must really be hitting her hard. 

“In this heat?” Maria clarified. She sprayed directly over the poor girls head. “Who knows.”

“What do you think death is like?” Lily asked, looking up into Maria’s face. “Is it, like, one second you’re here and then BAM you’re not? Or do you feel it slowly, like when you start getting sleepy?”

“Honestly, girl, at this point, I just hope when it comes for me it’s cold.” Maria pulled the trigger, spritzing them both again. Lily seemed unphased.

“Lily!” Lena’s voice echoed through the hall.

“I have to go,” Lily said with another sigh.

Before Maria could say anything, Lily gave her a quick hug.

“I’m happy I knew you,” she said and ran off.

Freddie came back out of the apartment. “Everything okay?”

Maria shrugged. “Better once we’re out of the heat,” she said, rolling her eyes. She misted her boyfriend, and he followed her down to the car.

It was a few more trips, up and down, and then Maria was collapsing into the couch. Freddie, in lieu of touching her, sprayed her with the bottle. It was running low now. Freddie disappeared to close and lock her car, and then he was shutting the apartment door again.

“I think we’re done,” Freddie said, sitting down on the towel on his table. He gestured to the kitchen. “I put some water and some sports drinks in a cooler when the power first went out.”

Leave it to him to think ahead like that, Maria thought. It was tough to unstick herself from her favorite spot in the whole world, this spot on the couch, but she got up and grabbed a drink for herself. It felt weirdly reminiscent of the winter they were fighting and the power went out. She put her feet up on the table and cracked open the bottle, taking a long, cool drink.

“Is there anything else we need?” he asked, grabbing his own drink.

“Don’t think so,” Maria answered. She let out a sigh.

“Well, welcome to the apartment complex, Miss Williams.” Freddie smiled.

She leaned over and kissed him. He tasted like the artificial blue only sports drinks taste like. “Speaking of the apartment complex,” she said, “Lily was asking kind of weird earlier.”

“Weirder than usual?” He asked, affectionate.

“She asked me what I thought dying was like.”

He froze. (Which sounded nice, to be honest, but he was full on blue screening.)

“I didn’t really think anything about it but…” Maria cocked her head, finishing off her drink. “But it’s kind of weird, right?”

“I’m texting Lena,” he decided, fishing his phone out from his pocket.

Leave it to him to overreact over a little bit of suicidal ideation. It was probably fine. Probably.

“They’re on the roof,” he reported, standing up. “Let’s go.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “It’s dark now, anyway, it won’t be so bad up there,” he said. “Let’s take the cooler. Everyone’s probably dehydrated from today.”

He grabbed one handle, gesturing for Maria to take the other. She did, and she followed him up to the roof.

Welcome to the complex, indeed.

---

Part Two

Nick did not want to get out of the car—not in this heat. He turned the knob for the AC and watched the swinging little Christmas tree Holly had hung from the rearview mirror slow to a stop. “Christmas in July,” she’d said.

If only.

It was immediately too hot with the air off, so Nick grabbed the keys and shopping bags from the passenger seat before stepping outside.

The whole city was a furnace. He was in the middle of adding that to the list of reasons he never wanted to leave the apartments again when he felt a tug on his arm.

“Nick,” Maria said, sounding both curious and mildly concerned, “what is going on? Please tell me there is an explanation for this and my boyfriend is not just being a psycho gremlin man.”

Nick glanced up at Fred’s place. It looked like he’d barricaded the windows to prepare for the apocalypse or something. “I mean, the power’s out,” Nick said, shifting the bags in his hand, “but the gremlin part is probably still accurate.”

Maria sighed, trudging up the stairs to see for herself while Nick headed to his place at the other end of the hall.

He stepped through the door quickly, but it turned out he didn’t need to worry. The resident escapee lifted his head but didn’t move from his spot on the cool kitchen tile. Which was understandable given that the apartment was only mildly less hot than it was outside.

Humbug whined, a rolling ball of coal black fur as he flopped over for belly scratches. Nick set down the groceries to oblige him, and Humbug’s tail thumped merrily against the floor.

“Don’t worry, Bugsy,” Nick cooed. “We’ll get you cooled off.”

Holly had been passed out on the couch when Nick arrived, but she had an eye cracked open now, smiling like he and Humbug were too cute for words. The “I told you so” was silently but lovingly implied.

What had Nick said before? He wasn’t really a pet person?

Yeah, within five minutes of meeting Humbug, he’d been ready to fill out the adoption forms himself.

He shook his head. Dog toys littered the room. Holly’s bonnet was tossed over the back of the couch from when she’d declared it too hot to nap in. A group picture from the pumpkin patch stuck to the fridge with a magnet. This was the most at home he’d ever felt in his life.

“Did you get the goods?” Holly asked sleepily.

They had given up on cooking. Neither of them wanted to be at the stove on a day like this, and after the power went out, it wasn’t an option anymore anyway.

Nick nodded toward the table. “I’ll walk Humbug and meet you on the roof?”

At the magic word, Humbug hopped up.

Holly laughed as he began herding Nick to the door. “Sounds good,” she said, peeling herself off the couch. “Have fun on your walk, Bumbum!” she trilled, and Humbug paused to tilt his head at the sound.

Nick ducked his chin, hoping to hide his snort as he buckled Humbug’s harness, but Holly caught it and crossed her arms.

“Shut up,” she huffed without bite.

“We actually love your singing, right, Bugs?”

Holly pulled a bag of chocolate covered pretzels from the groceries he’d bought. “These are mine now.”

“They already were. And I got you two bags.”

“You’re forgiven,” she said happily.

Nick laughed as he considered putting Humbug’s shoes on, but Humbug was definitely their dog. If he didn’t like something, they were gonna hear about it. He’d taken three fawn-legged steps in the booties the first time he’d worn them before throwing his head back and letting loose what must have been every dog swear he knew.

They’d been taking things a little more slowly after that, and there were lots of treats involved, but Nick figured they both deserved a break in this weather.

Once they reached the hot pavement, Nick hefted Humbug up and carried him the rest of the way to the grass. There was a little fenced in area, and Nick let Humbug loose to do his business while he leaned against the gate to wait.

Humbug grumbled as he went in, but he was just gonna have to suck it up. They’d go to the park tonight, when it was cooler. Because going to parks was a thing he did now. Although, he still drew the line at camping.

“Hi, Nick.”

Nick jumped two feet in the air as Lily slinked up beside him like a ghost.

She rested her cheek against the fence and stretched out a hand to pet Humbug, who’d rushed over to greet one of his favorite humans. “Do you think Humbug would like my stuffed animals?” she asked quietly.

He thought back to the massacre of cotton he and Holly had woken up to last month. Mr. Bunny had been mostly okay after Holly doctored it up with some needle and thread. A bit flatter, but… “They’d have a 50/50 chance of survival.”

Lily let out a forlorn sigh. “That’s probably more than I’ve got.”

“I—What?”

She gave Humbug one final scratch behind the ear.  Then her arms wound weakly around Nick’s waist. “Give this to Holly for me.”

“Sure…” He patted her back. “Carly invited us up to the roof, though, so you can just hug her then.”

“If I have enough time left.” She turned and headed back to her place.

The end of summer break must have been hitting her hard.

He and Humbug headed to the roof not long after that. There was already a tent set up when they got there, and Holly had brought up all the food, spread out on a picnic blanket in the shade along with Humbug’s toys and water dish. She stood barefoot in the bright yellow inflatable pool Nick had picked up for Humbug, a garden hose dangling from one hand while she waved with the other.

“Lily sent you a hug,” he said, pulling her close despite the heat. “Careful with that,” he added when he noticed the hose inching closer to his shirt.

“Careful with what?” Holly asked sweetly, but the hose was definitely still getting closer.

That is until the squeak of teeth on plastic caught their attention. Humbug left a trail of drool along the side of the pool as he took a test bite.

“Ah-ah-ah,” Holly said, and he leaned back obediently, licking his chops.

Listening was a privilege granted to Holly, who baked him delicious homemade treats, and not Nick, who’d nearly fallen over trying to stop him from chasing a squirrel—more than once.

Nick reached down to pet him despite the injustice. “Hopefully this one doesn’t pop the pool before everyone gets here.”

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Part Three

“Lena! Hurry uuuuuuuuuup!” Lily moaned, pounding on the bathroom door. “Carly won’t care if your makeup looks cute, but you’ll care if I wet my pants!”

“Oh my god, Lily,” Lena said, failing to stop her laugh as she swung open the door to see her younger sister bouncing from one foot to another. “I wasn’t even in there that long.”

Lily ignored her as she dashed inside, not even checking to make sure to not slam the door on Lena’s backside. Lena checked the time on her phone (okay, maybe she was really looking to see if she got any more texts, but she also glanced at the clock). She still had half an hour before her date with Carly. Maybe she would have time to straighten her hair, if Lily would let her take back the bathroom. Her fingers went to her shoulder-length waves (more like frizz in this weather).

A scream pierced through the bathroom door, and Lena dropped her phone. The ceiling lights flickered and died. 

“Lily?” Lena yelled, pounding on the door. “Are you okay in there?” She paused to listen. “Lily?”

“I’m fine,” a muffled voice whispered. “Just… got scared. What happened to the lights?”

Lena was pretty sure the scream came before the outage, and she hesitated. 

“I’m not sure… I can ask Carly,” she replied slowly. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Uh-huh.”

Lena picked up her phone from the carpet and saw a new message from Carly already.

Looks like the building lost power. Are you okay?

Another message appeared before she could reply.

I’ll see if i can fix it, but probably will have to rain check our date 😭

Lena sighed, but she couldn’t really complain. Especially since the air was already warming like a sauna in the minute the air conditioner stopped.

We’re okay. I understand. Let me know how I can help!!

Lena sent her reply and then wondered if she should have added a heart emoji. Did her message sound upset about the rain check? Maybe a heart would have softened it? Or, would that have been too much? Especially since she and Carly were taking things super slow, since Lena’s main focus had to be Lily.

As if on cue, the bathroom door swung open and Lily slowly shuffled out. Her eyes looked red, like she had been crying, but it was hard to tell with only the rays of sunlight that crept through the window.

“Are you okay?” Lena asked, pocketing her phone and putting her hands on Lily’s shoulders. “I know the power outage is scary, but Carly will have it fixed in no time.”

“I’m not scared,” Lily muttered, shrugging off Lena’s hands and sidestepping her. “I’m not a baby, you know.”

Lena’s mouth opened, but no words came out. 

“I’ll be back,” Lily said with a deep sigh. 

She was out the door before Lena could close her mouth again. 

Was Lily mad at her? Was it about Carly? 

Sure, Lily had been upset last fall when they had their first date, but then she seemed fine. More than fine really. She found out about U-Haul Lesbians and had been pushing for Carly to move in. 

Lena let out a deep sigh and retreated to the comfort of the sofa. Maybe Lily was just in one of her moods again. There was no way she had caused this power outage, but maybe her brain had been connecting strange dots again and just needed some time to cool off. Lena felt droplets of sweat drip down her neck. The ‘cooling off’ was definitely restricted to a metaphor until the power returned. 

–

Hours later, the power was no closer to making a comeback, and Lena was no closer to figuring out what was wrong with Lily. She thought maybe it was that she spent too much time with Carly and neglected Sister Time. But when she tracked Lily down and suggested a trip to the swimming pool, she seemed less than excited. 

“I can’t,” she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the sleeve of her shirt. “We should stay close to home today.”

“Why? Are you feeling okay?”

“Can you stop asking me that?” Lily huffed.

“Sorry.” Lena put her hands up in surrender. “You just seem off today. Is it the power outage? Is it Carly? Is it me?”

Lily gave a wobbly smile. 

“I’m glad you have Carly,” she said, her voice so sincere that Lena was starting to get seriously concerned. “Please don’t let her go.”

“Ummm… okay?” Lena’s brow furrowed. “Let’s get something to eat, yeah? Maybe some ice cream after? What kind of food do you want?”

“What would you have as your last meal?” Lily asked suddenly.

“What?”

“Theoretically,” Lily added quickly. “Like, if you might not be eating for a long time, what would you eat before that time?”

“Okay, now you’re scaring me.”

“Forget it,” Lily said with a frustrated sigh, like Lena just failed a test. “I bet Holly would have a good answer.”

She disappeared down the hall, and Lena shook her head. She pulled out her phone and opened her internet browser. 

Childhood depression.

Childhood mood swings.

She erased the word “childhood” and replaced it with “pre-teen.” Was Lily already considered a pre-teen? Lena couldn’t believe how fast time had flown. She felt her eyes water, remembering that Lily had already passed ten years old, the long-awaited double digit age. Lily was excited to be one step closer to adulthood, and all Lena could think about was how much she wished their mom was there to see Lily growing. 

Lena let herself back into the apartment, looking for a tissue to wipe her eyes. 

“You’re being ridiculous,” she told herself. 

Her little sister was acting strange, and here she was bumbling like an old lady about how time flew and kids grew up.

“I’m not a baby.” Lily’s words echoed in her head. 

Of course! That’s why Lily was upset. Lena had been treating her like she was still eight years old and convinced her wish had ruined Christmas. 

–

She waited until Lily came in.

“I’m just grabbing something,” Lily told her, moving towards the bedroom. 

“Can you sit here a sec?” Lena asked, patting the cushion next to her. “I have something important to say.”

“Can it wait?”

“It won’t take long,” Lena promised. 

Lily let out a sigh but relented, sinking into the sofa and crossing her arms.

“I just wanted to apologize,” Lena began. 

She had rehearsed her speech a dozen times at least, but the words still struggled to form. 

“I… I know I have been treating you like you’re just a little girl, and I understand that can be frustrating. I just want you to know that I know you’re growing up, and I’ll try doing better at remembering that.” She gave a smile. “You’ll still always be my little sister, though, so don’t expect too much, Munchkin.”

Lily’s lip quivered before she threw her face in her hands and began to wail. 

Shit. Lena had made it worse.

“Oh, Lily!” She pulled her little sister closer to her and wrapped her arms around her. “Shhh, I’m sorry.”

“N-n-n-no,” Lily sobbed, her muffled voice quivering through layers of snot and fabric. “Don’t be sorry. You’re the best. I just…” She sobbed even harder.

Lena rubbed Lily’s back, whispering soothing words and gently rocking her until Lily’s tears paused enough for her to look up.

“I just wish I could spend more time with you,” she whispered.

“We can!” Lena replied quickly. “Whatever you want to do.”

“But we can’t,” Lily said, wiping her face with the hem of her shirt. “I… I’m dying.”

“What?”

“There was so much blood. I don’t know how much longer I have, but I don’t think it’ll be that long since the blood won’t stop.”

“You’re bleeding?” Lena repeated, scanning Lily with her eyes. “Where?”

Lily glanced down and bit her lower lip. It clicked, and Lena’s hand flew to her mouth to stop the laugh from escaping. 

“Oh, Lily.” She shook her head. “You aren’t dying. You just got your period.”

It was Lily’s turn to look confused. 

“Wait, didn’t you have a school assembly about this already?” Lena asked. “I signed a permission slip for it last year.”

Lily blushed. 

“Was it the time they were showing girls a bunch of movies?” she asked slowly. “I… might not have heard all of it, but it’s not my fault! The library finally had the newest Dragon Kings book, and the teachers didn’t care if we weren’t looking at the screen and—”

“Okay, we’ll talk about that later,” Lena interrupted, standing up. “For now, let’s get you taken care of.”

–

Lena fired off a text to Carly while Lily was cleaning up in the bathroom.

Poor thing! Why don’t you both come up to the roof? I have a tent up, so it’s cooler than inside. And it sounds like you both could use a rest!

You’re the best, Lena replied, adding a few hearts after a moment’s hesitation.