" Night had fallen, and I was in the kitchen making a yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwich when I heard the doorbell. I jumped and my heart gave a little kick. This was so a horror-movie scene--bad weather, and a girl cut off from the outside world.
Only killers didn’t usually ring the doorbell.
Still, I opened a drawer and took out the meat cleaver Mom used for cutting chicken. The doorbell rang again and kept ringing.
“All right already,” I muttered as I hurried down the hallway.
I hesitated when I saw a large shadowy form behind the etched-glass window of the door. I’d turned on the porch light, and whoever was there blocked most of it.
“Ashleigh!” The figure banged on the door and I nearly dropped the cleaver.
Josh. My beating heart should have returned to a normal speed, but it didn’t. I wasn’t ready to face him yet. I jerked open the door. “What?”
Covered in frost and snow, he edged past me. “Geez, it’s cold out there.”
“And you just brought the cold inside.” I shut the door. “What are you doing here?”
“My dad called and--what the hell is that?”
He pointed to the cleaver.
I angled my chin. “I was in the middle of cutting my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
“With a meat cleaver?”
“It’s quick and makes a perfectly straight cut.”
He grinned. “Yeah, right. You’ve obviously watched too many movies. Who’d you think I was? Freddy Krueger?”
“What are you doing here?” I repeated, not in the mood for his sarcasm or teasing. Plus I was feeling a little silly holding my weapon of choice. "
― Rachel Hawthorne , Snowed In