13th of February (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter XVI

"Hey Karen, everything fine? You're the one that loves this movie, but you're not even watching, while usually you're belting out the lyrics to every song. Something bothering you?" James asked, pausing the movie.

It had been about 3 months since they first hung out at the park, and about 4 since James ran out of the cafe, leaving his coffee behind just to avoid talking to Karen and Layla.

Layla had met James too, and it was a mess to say the least. After gawking shamelessly at her idol for a few minutes, the aspiring writer bombarded her idol with questions, Karen repeatedly reminding a very flustered James that he could just tell the blonde to shut up if he wanted to and that it would be completely fine.

Making sure that her friend was back in her senses, Karen left for her short shift at her library. About an hour and a half later, Karen returned to the cafe only to see the pair more comfortable with each other, laughing about something. Karen smiled to herself, she had known this would happen, that was just something about Layla. The two seemed to have clicked real quick. The three had gotten a lot closer over the past months. It felt like they had known each other forever, though it had only been months.

Right now, Karen and James lay on the latter's couch, binging some favourite movies.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm good, just thinking." Karen replied. Humming in response, James glanced at her and, resuming the movie, reminded her "Well, Lay and I are here if you want to talk."

"Yeah, I know" she replied, pushing away her thoughts to enjoy the day with him. After some more time of Karen simply zoning out, James turned off the TV and turned to face her, pulling up his legs and making himself comfortable.

"Why'd you turn that off?"

"Because there's no point, it's boring without your commentary. Why won't you even look at my face for longer than a few seconds? Did I do something wrong?"

"Wha- No, James, don't worry about me, it's nothing you did." I just can't bear to look at that pain wracked, blood stained face again, but that's all I see when I look at you.

"Aha! So there is something. It's okay, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but just remember that I'm here."

"Yeah, thanks" Karen replied sincerely, looking into James' warm eyes which were now burner into her memory as the pair of eyes brimming over with pain.

Closing her eyes to massage her pounding temple, Karen leaned back onto the couch with a loud sigh. Suddenly, she found herself in a familiar warm embrace, face burried in the crook of James' neck, his hands soothingly running through her hair. Seeing that she was already struggling to keep her eyes open, James just told her to sleep, and sleep she did.

About half an hour after James had tucked Karen into his bed, James sat with his laptop and a cup of coffee at the dining table, finding himself in a random mood to work. After typing away for a few minutes, he leaned back in his chair, bringing the warm cup of bitter heaven to his lips.

Suddenly, a blood curling, hauntingly familiar scream startled him, making him drop his cup. He knew exactly why it was familiar, but didn't want to drown in those memories and thoughts. Now wasn't the time. James ran into his bedroom from where the screech was still echoing.

Immediately, James ran up to Karen, trying to calm her down. Grabbing her flailing hands and holding them tight in his, telling her over and over that it was only a nightmare. Karen still seemed dazed, sleep and confusion clouding her panicked eyes. Latching on to James in her half asleep state, she just stayed like that in his embrace, simply falling back onto the bed when she had calmed down.

Though a little surprised, James fell back with her, watching as she fell right back asleep. With hundreds of thoughts beginning to wreak havoc in his mind, James just lay there thinking, not knowing what else to do. Locking away most of them like he'd been doing for quite a while now, James decided that a nap sounded nice. Not like he had a choice though, now that he had a human sized koala cuddling him.

With a warm smile on his face, the man fell into a comfortable slumber.

__________________
Unedited.

Filler to show they've gotten closer :)

Very sloppy second half, and I'm sorry for that, Wattpad deleted this chapter instead of publishing it and I didn't wanna write it for like the 4th time, and I'd left it half way, and I wrote the end now, which is why it's like that.

Thanks for reading!
-Tristophobic