It's a Cold World Without You

It's a Cold World Without You 9

Hailey stood in the center of Ryan’s bedroom, surveying her surroundings. It was similar to hers in the sense that it lacked any form of personal belongings. There were no photos or awards, only two band posters lined the dark blue walls. There was a desk pushed into one corner and a double bed across from it. The bed was unmade with its black comforter pushed to the foot, showing the electric blue sheets that should be concealer beneath it. Papers were scatter across the desk and there was an open laptop on it too. There was a growing pile of clothes in one corner which made Hailey wonder what he kept in his closet. Yes, it was very similar to her room indeed, except her room was purple and had an attached bathroom.

Ryan watched Hailey as he lied down on his bed; she had a small smile on her face as she took in his room. Her eyes finally landed on his so he quirked a questioning eyebrow at her.  

“Your room reminds me of my own,” she explained as she came to lie with him on his bed.

Ryan looked around his room and compared it to his memory of her room. She was right, they were a lot alike. Kyle’s room looked like this too.

He chuckled as he agreed with her, and then asked what she wanted to do today.

She curled up beside him, “Sleep,” she mumbled.

Ryan pulled them both up, “Oh, no you don’t,” he chastised teasingly. “If you sleep now, you won’t sleep during the night.”

She pouted at him and he almost gave in but chose to stand his ground as he shook his head.

“Fine,” Hailey sighed, “What do you want to do?”

He pondered this for a minute before he gave up. “I don’t know, do you wanna watch a movie?”

Hailey agreed so they went down to the basement where there was a large screen TV and a huge leather couch sitting a few metres away from it. While Ryan set up the DVD, Hailey went to the kitchen and got them each a Coke.

“Do you mind if I have a smoke?” Ryan asked Hailey as she returned with the Cokes.

Hailey nodded her head making her blond hair bounce up and down even though it was straight. “Yea, can I bum a cig? Kyle used to get me cigarettes.”

“No problem,” he replied, and stuck a cigarette between his lips, lighting it and handed it to her.

Without hesitation she took a long drag before blowing the smoke out through her lips. Ryan watched the smoke curl around her head, giving her an eerie-looking halo.

Hailey closed her eyes and breathed on her cigarette again. “Damn, I hadn’t realized how much I missed these. I only used to smoke with Kyle.”

“Well, now you can only smoke with me,” Ryan said, grinning madly. He was really looking for any excuse to spend more time with her; she was everything he looked forward to in the mornings since his best friend died.

“Sure, sure,” she agreed with an easy smile as they finished smoking and sat down in the middle of the leather couch.

They watched Across the Universe because it was their favourite movie next to the X-Men, but that really has to be watched as a series.

Hailey snuggled closer to Ryan’s side to get comfortable, and Ryan put his arm around him because it felt natural. Hailey felt okay whenever she was close enough to Ryan, it was like the closer she got the better she felt.

Hours later, Ryan opened his eyes to see the DVD logo bouncing around on the screen of his TV. Huh, that’s weird; we were just watching a movie.  Something stirred against his side and he looked down to see Hailey still asleep. Her make-up was smeared but she still managed to look cute. No sooner then he thought it, did he mentally slap himself. She was his friend, they were both hurting from Kyle’s death, she was Kyle’s sister for God’s sake, it would be stupid to think about her like that.

“Come on, Hailey, wake up,” Ryan said quietly while gently shaking her.

She opened on eye to look at him, gave a very small shake of her head, and closed her eye again.

Ryan groaned, “So what? You’re gonna make me carry you?”

Hailey mumbled something along the lines of, “Well you’re the one who wants to go all the way upstairs.”

Sighing Ryan gathered the surprisingly light girl in his arms and began making his way to his bedroom. On the way there, he made himself a mental note to make Hailey start eating again because she was dangerously underweight by the feel of her.

He placed her down onto his bed and she sat up groggily. Hailey removed her grey V-neck and black skinny jeans, throwing them to the end of the bed. Climbing under the covers, she noticed Ryan stood unmoving at the side of the bed. “Coming, lover boy?” she asked teasingly.

That snapped Ryan out of his daze and he too stripped to his underwear and climbed into bed. Hailey pressed up against his side again and fell back to sleep.

Ryan wasn’t so lucky; he didn’t fall asleep for another few hours. He was too caught up in watching Hailey sleep, while still telling himself that he felt nothing besides friendliness towards the girl.