Timing Is Everything

Chapter 20

I wake up when someone gently brushes some hair out of my face and bright sunlight shines through my eyelids. I slowly open them to see the toned chest and tattoo of my boyfriend. I turn into him, wrapping an arm around his waist and my leg around his. He's super warm and smells like sweat and sandalwood.

"Good morning, beautiful." He mumbles.

"Good morning." I mumble into his chest. "I had the weirdest dream last night. I was singing 'The Game' at the concert and then a bunch of dinosaurs were suddenly attacking everyone."

"Wow, that is pretty strange."

"And then I woke up in the dream and you weren't there and for some reason I called Jay and started talking about our relationship and- WAIT." I sit up very quickly and look at him. "That wasn't a dream."

"Nope, you said there were dinosaurs." He says with wide eyes. "It has to have been a dream."

"No, that actually happened!" I exclaim. Alex sits up and rubs his eyes. "You asshole, where the hell were you?"

"Working."

"What took so long?" I ask.

"It just went longer than expected." He tells me, looking me in the eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me you had to bloody work at two am?"

"I didn't think you'd even notice I was gone and didn't want you to worry." I'm about to say something but he gives me a look and interrupts. "I'm sorry. Jay told me how scared you were and I promise that I'll tell you what's going on, even if I know you don't want to hear it." I look at him and study his face for a few seconds, debating whether to still be upset or not.

"Did you rehearse that?" I ask, studying my hands.

"Yeah, I even ran it by Jay." He laughs. I look back up at him and decide to turn on the guilt.

"Alex, I really thought that you were kidnapped or hurt or worse." I tell him with my best puppy-dog eyes.

"My love, I'm really sorry." He says softly, grabbing my hand. "But now you know how much I worry when you aren't with me."

"Yeah, I guess- hey! Why are your knuckles all red?" I ask, looking back at his face. His hair is kind of a mess and he looks guilty again.

"I almost got mugged on my way back from the meeting," He tells me. I look at him in disbelief. "But it wasn't the Downtownies, it was just a couple drunk guys looking for a fight."

"I can't even." I mumble to myself, letting go of his hand and crawling off the bed.

"Brooklyn." He says impatiently, but that makes me even more angry and I don't feel like fighting with him right now. I close the bathroom door and blast the music on my phone. In The End comes on and I snort a laugh before grabbing a tampon and a pad (yeah, I'm THAT heavy of a flow) and then turning on the shower.

Normally, I don't like showering in the morning but I feel kind of dirty and need time to think. Alex did really scare me last night and I panicked. Maybe I should check in with him more often so he doesn't worry like I just did. And I'm glad he said that he wouldn't do it again, only time will tell if he actually sticks to his word. But something bad, or should I say worse, could have happened and he didn't want me to know where he was or what he was doing. That kinda hurts. But now he knows and I just have to trust that he won't do it again.

I finish rinsing the hotel conditioner out of my hair (sad that I didn't bring my color saving hair stuff, I dye my hair this red color you know) and then climb out of the shower and put on jeans and a Disturbed hoodie Alex bought me last night (along with a Bad Wolves tank top and a Godsmack shirt). After I comb my hair and brush my teeth, I walk out of the bathroom humming along with Fall Into Sleep by Mudvayne and planning on walking over to my boyfriend and giving him a hug. I drop my phone on my foot though (classic Brooklyn) and bend over in agony at the exact same moment a large mass moves from beside me and the drywall next to where my head used to be bloody explodes.