To Be A Shelby

Chapter Six

THOMAS

He didn't expect to run into her at the Garrison. Seeing her twice that night was the longest interaction they've had ever. Most importantly, what surprised, and perhaps entertained him most, was how frank and unsparingly honest she was when she was drunk.

Falling asleep on the bar, Marie looked innocent. Thomas had noticed how she had a drunk blush on her cheeks and his fingers unconsciously brushed her cheeks gently. When she moved, he froze, as if he was caught in the act doing something he shouldn't be doing.

It was getting late, almost 10, so he decided it was best for her to stay at his place. Carefully, he carried her to his house and settled her on the bed. He jogged back to the Garrison to lock up and went back home.

He closed his eyes as he sat on a chair that he had dragged beside the bed. Suddenly, she stirred awake and sat up, her face now a few inches away from his. Tommy could see her perfectly, it was dark but the moonlight that slipped through the gaps of his window illuminated her face well enough for him to admire in excruciating silence.

"I should be sleeping there, you take the bed," she drunkenly grumbled as she attempted to get up.

"It's alright," he said but she didn't listen and stubbornly tried to pull him off the chair.

"I said you take the bed."

As if his primal instincts had taken over, he stood up and in one swift motion, grabbed both her wrists and pinned her down on the bed. Thomas felt her breath hitch as her legs trembled in between his own legs. The wide-eyed innocence on her face was what snapped him back to reality and he got off on top of her, sitting at the side of the bed with his elbows on his knees and palms covering his face.

"Face the wall," he said.

"I beg your pardon?" she replied, clearly nervous.

"If you insist I take the bed, I will. But I will not have you sleeping on a chair. Let's just agree to face opposite sides, alright?" Tommy took his coat off but left his thin shirt on.

"Th-that works for me," she agreed and scooched over facing the wall as agreed so Tommy could have enough space.

He carefully lie down on the bed, even flinching as his skin ever so slightly grazed hers.

"Uhmm, good night," she said, barely a whisper, but he heard her anyway. He kept quiet and lay there, eventually falling asleep.

***

Thomas woke up to an insistent knocking on the door. "Tommy, open up!" It was Ada, and he assumed Aunt Pol was with her because it seemed to be two eager nagging women knocking at his door.

It wasn't until the lock of the door clicked did he realize that Marie was asleep in his bed facing him, an arm draped across his chest. In a flash, the door opened and in his panick, he grabbed the blanket as quickly as he could to cover Marie as much as possible.

"Would it kill you to answer the fucking door?" Ada barged in first, her hands on her waist. He felt Marie move under the blanket and he saw Ada's eyes widen after seeing that he was hiding someone underneath.

"Don't say a thing," his words were directed to Marie which she seemed to understand because she stopped moving.

"What's going on, Thomas? You usually get up early," Aunt Pol came next.

"He's got a whore underneath that blanket is what's going on," Ada declared, attempting to pull the blanket but Thomas said, "Ada, whom I sleep with is hardly ever your business."

Ada looked tormented, she loved being in-the-know of things. In the end, she let it go fearing that Tommy would reprimand her even more. Aunt Pol then said, "We're looking for Marie, she hasn't come home yet."

"Have you sent her off somewhere Tommy?" Ada accused, narrowing her eyes at Tommy and whoever it was underneath the blanket.

"N-no, she went to buy something for breakfast. I told her she could use taking care of me as an excuse to decline should any of you ask her to do something," he explained as calmly as he possibly could.

"Oh, really? That's good to hear. Don't you think so as well, mysterty woman?" Aunt Pol teased.

"Could you please leave us be?" Thomas was beginning to think she'd stopped breathing.

"Alright then, keep your secrets. Off we go," Ada bid farewell, rolling her eyes at him and so did Aunt Pol.

When he was sure that they wete far enough from the door, he got up and locked it, then turned to face Marie who was still lying motionless under the blanket.

"The coast is clear, you can come out now," he announced.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know how I ended up facing you. Did I graze your wound?" she asked approaching him close enough to reach his shoulder.

"You don't have to check, it feels fine," Thomas said and she dropped it.

"What do you want to have for breakfast?" she asked instead.

"I don't eat breakfast," he replied shortly. "But you have to. Let me at least make you and omelette," Marie insisted.

She went to fold the sheets and fix the bed before heading to the kitchen to cook. He had no choice but to watch her prepare him another meal for the second time that morning. A peaceful feeling enveloped him which wasn't a normal occassion, he even recalls sleeping soundly without his usual episodes of nightmares.

"I'm feeling better now, I can report to the Garrison after I change the dressing on your wound," she said, facing away from him.

"You can but you won't. I'm teaching you to shoot, remember," he decided today was when he would do good on his promise to teach her how to defend herself.

"Where would we go to do that?" she asked, facing him. He was setting up the table.

"You're coming with John, Arthur and I," he simply said.