Sleep Magazine (Completed)

The Window: 1

Celia shot up in bed at the sound of a loud crash. She looked around the room frantically, squinting as her pupils took in the dim light coming in from the bathroom in the hallway. Her door was wide open and the small yellow space heater was turned on its side.

"Sorry!" A deep voice whispered out hesitantly, making Celia gasp as she turned her head sharply to the left. 

AJ was sitting on the floor by her bed, his back frozen against the wainscoting underneath her window. "Sorry," he repeated, his hands balled up in nervous fists in front of his chest. "I scared the cat."

Celia sat up straighter and leaned forward a bit toward AJ. She struggled to make out his face in the darkest corner of her room, but she knew it was him.

"How did you get into my room!" she exclaimed. She stretched her legs down off the high bed, landing her socked feet on the floor boards with a quiet creak, and shuffled over to her desk to turn on the vintage porcelain lamp.

"You tell me," AJ replied with a smirk that Celia could now see clearly under the shadows projected onto his face. "You're the witch."

She turned from AJ and walked around the end of her bed to the space heater on the other side, prompting him to shuffle to his feet, cursing under his breath as he stepped widely across the old floor behind her.

"I'll get it, I'll get it," he chided as he knelt down in front of Celia to flip the space heater back onto its legs. "Why is it so fucking cold in here?" he asked, still whispering.

"Why do you think?" Celia retorted shyly, tucking her chin back under the collar of her jacket and shoving her hands into the pockets.

In one motion, AJ moved from his position on the hardwood floor to sit at the edge of Celia's bed. She eyed him from head to toe, noticing that his feet stayed planted on the floor as he sat on the high mattress.

"Haven't been in here in a while," he whispered, running his hands up and down his thighs to warm them and smiling at Celia in a way that brightened her mood. She placed her hands on the desk behind her and leaned back.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?"

AJ looked up at her as his smile widened.

"There's some new shit in Brattleboro..." He paused to try and gauge Celia's face before he continued. "I thought you'd wanna come check it out with me?"

"Now?" she blurted out, a little surprised by his brazenness.

"Yeah, of course, what do you think I came here to read you a bedtime story?"

"What time is it?" she asked, ignoring his sarcasm.

"I don't know..." AJ patted his hands over the front pockets of his jeans and lifted his hips off the bed to check his back pockets before sitting back down. "...left my phone in the car."

Celia lunged forward onto the bed, brushing past him, and crawled up towards the pillows to search for her phone. AJ turned his upper body to follow her movement, confused as to what she was doing exactly, and found his vision aligned straight with her upturned backside as she shuffled her arms around under the pillows, fishing for wherever her phone had shifted beneath her during her sleep.

"Jesus, Celia," he called out as he whipped his head back to face her desk. He fixed his eyes on the tiny bouquets of blue and red flowers painted on the glowing lamp. Before he could finish counting all the bouquets, the lightbulb went out.

Celia chose to ignore his comment just as her fingers made contact with her phone, and she sat back on her knees as she unearthed it from the plush mass of bedding, and pressed the home button.

"It's only 12:15?" she announced, feeling a bit confused. She turned and looked back at AJ. "How long was I sleeping for?"

"How the fuck should I know?" His tone managed to sound more sweet than crass.

Celia felt a small flicker of excitement shoot through her stomach. "Okay—"

She hadn't been to Brattleboro with AJ since spring semester last year, and that outing did not end the way she had wanted it to, though she always liked his company regardless. She appreciated that he always carried the conversation well so that she didn't have to think ahead about what topics to bring up next—which was something that bothered her very much whenever she hung out with most other boys—and was sarcastic enough himself to not be offended by her trademark sarcasm that was often written off as bitchiness by other, less socially developed peers.

"Let me get dressed." She hopped down off the bed and started by unzipping her jacket and returning it to its home on the bedpost. 

AJ stood up, pretending to make himself busy while she changed, opting to study the clay figurines that lined the edge of her desk. Squinting down at the dark shapes, he finally made out that they were little cactuses; some quite small and some slightly bigger, all shaped to look like different varieties, he supposed, and painted with brightly colored flowers. He picked up one of the taller figurines to more closely inspect its hand-painted purple blossoms.

"My aunt sends those to me."

AJ turned to see Celia standing at her bureau, dressed in a flattering pair of jeans and a sheer black blouse. She folded at the waist to flip her head upside down and shook her fingers through her hair. "She lives in Arizona," she added as she straightened back up, angling her face in the mirror to brush some powder over her skin.

AJ set the figurine down but knocked a few others over in the process. He hastily stood them up and took a few seconds to arrange them neatly before he turned to see Celia, her head tilted back, squeezing eye drops into her eyes.

"You sleep with your contacts in?" he asked.

Celia dabbed the corners of her eyes and dug through her makeup bag, pulling out an eyelash curler. "I haven't taken them out in two months."

"What!"

She drew the curler away from her lashes and locked eyes with AJ in the mirror. "You take yours out?"

"Every night," he answered proudly.

Celia scoffed and shook her head slightly. "You're such a goody-goody."

AJ smirked. "I know." His smile broadened when he caught a glimpse of the little purple flowers embroidered along the sleeves of her blouse.

Celia tucked her phone and lip balm into her back pocket and, taking one more look at herself in the mirror, turned to AJ.

"Let's go." Her smile was wide as she bent down to shut off the space heater. AJ returned her grin and began walking toward the window before she grabbed his arm.

"No one's home, genius. We can go out the front door." And she pulled him out of her bedroom and down the stairs.