Playing His Game

Chapter Ten | Hide Your Love

Ten:

I woke up shivering.

After blinking rapidly, my eyes focused and I saw I was lying on the couch alone, and the blanket that I fell asleep under was now on the floor. Memories of what happened last night slowly filtered through my mind, leaving me confused.

I stood up quickly, remembering that the girls were upstairs and probably wondering where I was.

"Audrey." A feminine voice stated from my left, making me jump back in surprise and hit my leg against the corner of the coffee table, hard.

Gasping from both surprise and pain, my hand flew to my chest, "Mrs. Blake!"

Lauren's mom smiled. "Please, call me Hilary."

I just smiled nervously, shifting my weight from foot to foot as I stared at where she was sitting in the arm chair, casually drinking a cup of coffee.

"Um..." Was all I managed to say, unsure of what she already saw. Where was Trent?

"What are you doing sleeping down here alone?"

She said this with a straight face but I had the strange feeling she knew more than she let on.

I played with my fingers nervously and said the closest thing to the truth I could, "I, uh, fell asleep in here last night."

"Hmm," She murmured, bringing her coffee cup to her mouth for another drink.

"Yeah, well I should probably get upstairs..." My voice trailed off.

"Trent left real early this morning. I had just gotten downstairs when I heard the door slam." She said randomly, stopping me in my tracks.

"Oh," was all I said.

It was weird that this was Lauren's mom because she looked like a poised model with her shiny blonde hair and blue eyes; she looked nothing like Lauren. Or Trent...

"Oh Audrey!" She laughed, "In all honesty, thank you for taking care of him last night."

My stomach dropped at her words. I turned to fully face her where she was still sitting relaxed in the recliner.

"What?" I said stupidly, pretending I misheard her.

She laughed again, not rudely but like I was truly amusing her. "I'm sure the whole neighborhood could hear my son crash drunkenly through the front door, so I definitely did."

I laughed nervously, "Yeah I figured he needed some food and stuff, It's no big deal."

She smiled again, "Well, either way, I appreciate it."

"Yeah, glad to help." I said, wanting this embarrassing conversation to end.

"Lord knows he wouldn't have accepted my help." She muttered under her breath so quietly I almost missed it.

I coughed, "Alright I'm gonna get back to Lauren and Carly."

She looked up as if just remembering my presence and gave me a faint smile. "Okay sweetie."

...

Luckily it was only 8:00 so the girls were still asleep snoring when I crept into the bedroom. Being as inconspicuous as possible, I lowered myself onto the small area of mattress left next to Carly.

I tried to fall back asleep, but it was useless. Why did Trent leave? And did he even remember all that happened last night? I guess there wasn't anything significant to remember, at least not for him... I spent the next hour and a half shifting restlessly with my thoughts until finally Lauren yawned, signaling that she was awake.