The Upside of Falling || Karlnap

16

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"Pleaseee." Nick whined, tugging on my sleeve like a little kid.

"Fine but shut the heck up." Me and Nick had woken up at ten pm and wanted to watch Netflix for a little, it was now one am and he wanted to make cookies.

"Yesss!" He cheered, lifting me up slightly by my hips and sliding out from under me. I followed him slowly into the kitchen and watched as he pulled the pack of frozen cookie dough out of the freezer. I sat down on the counter, watching him clumsily move around the kitchen.

Once he put the cookies in the oven he focused his attention back toward me. The only light in the room was coming from the oven, making half of his face glow, the other half was dark. He silently squeezed himself in between my legs and put his hands on the counter behind me, making his face hover just inches away from mine.

"You need to fix your fucking sleep schedule." I told him, running a hand through his hair.

"Mmm, no!" He said, kissing my forehead.

I giggled quietly. "What are you guys doing?" I heard a girl voice ask. I turned my neck around and saw Nick's thirteen year old sister, standing on the last stair step and staring at us. She had turned on the lights up at the top of the stairs.

Nick looked at me and I looked back at him. We both burst out laughing and I put my head on his shoulder, trying to contain myself. "What are you doing up?" Nick asked, his laugh clear in his voice.

"I'm talking to my friends."

"Go to bed." Nick commanded.

"What are you doing?" She asked, ignoring Nick.

"Talking."

"Why's the oven on?"

"I just made dinner."

"It's one am."

"Exactly, go for bed."

I heard her sigh and go back up the stairs not as quietly as she came down.

"Holy shit she scared me." I said, still laughing into Nick's shoulder.

"She scares me every damn day." I laughed even harder at this, tears forming in my eyes.

"I CAN STILL HEAR YOU TALKING!" She shouted.

"Ah shit now I can't tell you all my sexual jokes." Nick said, rubbing my back through my hoodie.

The oven made a ding noise and Nick broke away from me, pulling the cookies out of the oven. He put them on a plate without testing them or anything and started walking out of the kitchen. I slid off of the counter ungracefully and started following him. My boot made a thumping noise each time the plastic touched the ground.

I caught up to him as he was just getting into his bedroom. "What are you doing?"

"You don't want to eat them out there, do you?"

"No..?"

He handed me the plate of cookies and then went up to his wall and kicked it. "Nick?!" I whisper shouted. "Why'd you-." I cut myself off as the small panel opened up, just big enough for someone to crawl through.

Nick went through it and then I saw his hands pop out of the wall. "Give me."

I gave him the plate and tried crawling through the panel, it was harder and slower for me because of my boot but I somehow managed to get through. The inside of it was so cool, it was only big enough for maybe three or four people but there was a small tv against one side of the room and the other was filled with blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. "Woah." I said, looking up at the low ceilings. You would only be able to stand up halfway. "Why'd you never tell me you had this?"

"I did you just lost your memory."

I nodded at his good point. I made my way over to Nick in the pillow pile and I laid down so my head was resting on his thigh but my body was surrounded by pillows.

"This is nice." I stated, looking up at the ceiling again. Nick turned off the lights with a switch on the wall and then turned on the fairy lights that were strung all over the secret room. I looked up at Nick with wide eyes. "What the hell?" I asked. "Why is your room so cool?"

He giggled and searched for a remote to the tv. We almost watched the whole first season of Gilmore Girls, by the time I started falling asleep it was four am.

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