Luke's Bedroom

“Ahh, my head hurts,” she sighed and closed her eyes, only half-listening to him. “Ahh, really, why am I a pest?” She tugged at his comforter and at his pillow, trying to make herself more comfortable. Her eyes snapped open at him when he said she was sick. “Rude,” she said as if he insulted her. “Hey, is that any way to treat your best friend?” Had he noticed she was out of sorts? And so quickly too?

Sheets fell over her and she wrapped herself in their warmth, rolling around the bed and wriggling like a worm. She was on her back now, somehow with her head at the foot of the bed so she was staring up at Luke upside down, shamelessly eyeing him from head to toes. Her lips cracked into a grin and she said, “LOVE the underwear,” with much enthusiasm, not at all joking. She stayed like this for a while before closing her eyes again, breathing in content, her nose filling with the scent of his room, of him. "You can come back to bed, I won’t bother you.”

“Oh my creators,” she spoke in an extremely exaggerated tone, clutching at her chest. “Straight through the heart!” She giggled at the cat’s weight and immediately brought her hands up to pet him, her fingers melting into the soft fur. Truffles rubbed his head against her tummy and purred and Misery smiled, mewling back at him.

“Eh, they were on discount. Now we know why. Say I should get you the matching socks for your birthday, then you’ll have the whole set,” she said. “They start screaming when your feet get too smelly.”

She shook her head and pushed herself up into a sitting position, Truffles sliding off her lap as she did so. “Oh would you quit it, I’m fine.” She could sleep it off, probably. She just hadn’t felt like being alone right now. “Would you listen? Stop pacing, you’re making me nauseous.” She caught the rim of his boxers as he moved past her and pulled at it to make him sit down.

She hadn’t meant to pull so hard and as the boxers slipped down, giving her a good look at Luke’s behind, she let go of the fabric as if burned. In the next moment she was half squished under muscle and skin, letting out a noise of protest just as Truffles was hissing his own, skipping over the sheets and away. She realized she had squeezed her eyes shut and curled in on herself, head down, arms wrapped around; well, no, she opened one eye to have a look at her arms, they were not close to her body as she first thought. She opened both eyes and there was Luke, his back pressing against her chest, her arms around his neck, his head tilted upwards. She couldn’t see much of his face in this position, but she was suddenly hyper-aware of him, the closeness; his breath on her cheek and the fullness of his lips. She couldn’t tell why, but she wanted very much to capture those lips with her own.

“Uh, hello,” she said in response, mind hazy and slow to react; body heavy and rigid as if her skin had been painted over in stone. Somewhere in the back of her reason she knew she shouldn’t, but it was like she could not recall the reasons why. Her hands moved upward to cup his cheeks; her mouth parted in anticipation and she moved her head down an inch, her eyes glazed over as if an enchantment had been placed over her.

Truffles mewled and in the back of her awareness she heard him, lifting her head up to look for him. He was seated on the pillows, licking his paw, tail moving from side to side. She looked down again and there was Luke and gently she moved her hands, cold fingers moving from his cheeks and down his neck, curling around his shoulders. She kept them there and slowly pushed him away from her. When she spoke again her words were once again painted in light and cheerful tones. “Good, now stay still for a second. Hey, since you’re up already, what should we do?”

It took him about two seconds to start moving around again which, really, what did she expect. She’d felt him tense under her fingers and wondered briefly if she’d done something she wasn’t supposed to. She caught a glance of it then, a reflection in the mirror, and her arms itched and she plopped back down onto the bed pretending she hadn’t seen a thing. It was something she was supposed to have known about, she thought, but somehow she didn’t or she forgot she wasn’t sure any more. There were memories she still sometimes missed and she wondered again if they had disappeared all together at the same point in time or if she had erased them herself at some other opportunity, filling the blanks rather with sunlight and laughter.

And oh, to think of sunlight filled her with such sadness. What a silly metaphor, then. “Oh,” she said, completely struck by the idea. “Oh, but I’ve never ridden a bicycle before?” It sounded a little like a question, like by now she might have tried it at least. But no, she’d only seen the silly thing once maybe twice in her life and what use did she have of it anyway? She hummed, smiling up at him, biting her lip a bit and trying not to think how gorgeous he looked with the glasses on. The whole thing was terribly exciting after all, she couldn’t allow for any distractions just then. “Do you have one then? Will you teach me how to do it?”