Sleep Magazine (Completed)

The Energy: 4

Celia felt calm and energized all at once as she felt her breathing slow. She pressed her thumb down firmly against the inside of her opposite wrist and began counting the pulses in her head.

"Feel okay?" AJ asked as he looked down at the top of her head.

"My heart beat is so slow," she answered, sounding curious but not alarmed.

"Mine too." He gently separated Celia's hand from her wrist as he shifted her body so that she was sitting with her back flat against his chest once again. 

In this position she was now looking straight ahead at the three young women sitting across from her. Unlike the other twenty or so people in the room—who continued to converse with one another, lowly but lively, and occasionally went in pairs or small groups to smoke from the device in the center of the room—these three women did not converse or move much at all, as they leaned back against the wall and stared straight ahead at Celia and AJ.

Celia shifted her gaze from one woman to the next, to the next, all the while keeping a stoic expression on her face to mimic their stares. The woman sitting in the middle held the biggest impression over her. 

She was dressed in a fitted, black leather jacket and distressed jeans. Her face was sharp and angular, her cheekbones accentuated by thick curtain bangs that kissed the top of her darkly lined eyes, and in contrast to the two friends at her sides, she was not wearing shoes. 

Celia looked for a few seconds at the thick knitted socks that covered the woman's feet, then glanced back up to study her face. She realized that the woman had not been staring at her at all like she had thought, but rather she was staring just inches over Celia's head at AJ's face. Celia's brow furrowed into a frown as she began to study the woman more pensively. 

As she looked more closely at the woman's face—darkened by shadows and washed in the purplish tint of the colored room—she began to just barely register the smugness in her expression and felt a bit threatened by how confidently she continued to stare blankly in their direction, as if she were observing an art exhibit that she found both cumbersome and unimpressive.

Celia felt a mild static shock though her spine as AJ grazed his fingertips across the back of her neck, and she jolted slightly against his chest, causing him to whisper a brief apology into her ear as he brushed her hair aside to lay it over her opposite shoulder. 

Seemingly paying no attention to the three women watching them from across the room, AJ bent his head down to kiss Celia's neck, keeping his mouth pressed on her skin long enough to feel a few of her slow pulses beat against his lips. He continued this pattern for a minute or so as Celia watched the woman to the left turn and whisper something to the woman in the middle, who threw her head back and let out a snide laugh, then suddenly snapped her mouth shut when she locked eyes with Celia. 

Feeling antagonized, Celia licked her lips and angled her head back as she drew her hand up to palm the back of AJ's head and pulled him down closer to meet his mouth with hers, all the while maintaining eye contact with the woman. The dark-haired woman's smirk flattened into a line and Celia smiled widely in response. 

She held her smile for a few extra seconds, allowing AJ to hungrily kiss the corners of her mouth, as she darted one last sideways glance toward the three women who promptly stood to their feet in a huff to exit the room quickly, one behind the other. 

Now free of spectators, Celia laid her head back against AJ's chest to prompt him to continue on her neck as he had before. She inhaled a deep breath and sighed as she exhaled, suddenly feeling the warmest and most comfortable she had felt yet that night. As she rolled her head sideways to take note of anyone who had left or entered the room, an unexpected sight made Celia's eyes go wide.