One More Year Ch. 06

"Then I'll tell my mom that you're a friend who crashed here last night."

"Think she'll buy that?"

"Well, if she suspects anything, she'll suspect the same thing about Arthur and Marc, who really were just friends crashing here." I shrugged. "So at least my mom will think I'm a lot cooler than I actually am."

"You're cool." He laughed, and then settled back, yawning.

"I'm very cool." I said. "I've got like a million books and a marble chess set. That's cool, right?"

"Very cool." He agreed drowsily.

I didn't know if he'd gotten the joke or not, and he seemed very tired. So I just let the conversation drop, and lazily draped myself over him. His breathing slowed, and I could tell he'd fallen asleep. It would take me a bit longer -- it wasn't that late, and I wasn't drunk and fatigued like I'd been last time we'd fallen asleep next to each other. I got up and gathered the books he'd knocked off my bedside table, putting them in a neat stack on my desk.

On my way back to the bed, I paused -- just to look at him. His face was relaxed, with eyes closed and his hair all messed up, and the muscles of his upper body moved up and down as he took deep, steady breaths. I felt my stomach flutter just thinking about him. He was mine. He wanted me, of all people. It almost didn't seem real. I just stood there for a few minutes, basking in the feeling, before I decided that I should probably settle down for the night.

Grabbing a spare blanket from my closet, I climbed back onto the bed next to him and threw it over us. I lay down and cuddled into him, knowing it would take some time before I could drift off. My mind was still rushing around too much to just let me go to sleep. But until it did, I was content to just lay there, my ear pressed to his chest, listening to his heartbeat.